Strong Dollar vs Weak Dollar?

I believe strongly in a strong dollar. A strong dollar benefits everyone who saves dollars, who is paid in dollars or who spends dollars. A weak dollar benefits holders of rival currencies, debtors and niche players. Arguably, debtors and most niche players might also benefit long-term from a strong dollar.

An example of a niche player is a Manhattan hotel who caters to Chinese tourists. If the Chinese devalue the yuan the hotel might see a sudden decline in guests. In my view they are being short-sighted. Their assets have held value, especially against the yuan. They also have a new potential market, holders of American dollars whose purchasing power has also held its ground.

Exporters can also be short-sighted. Devalue the home currency and foreigners suddenly see your product more attractively. That is because your product has lost value with the home currency devaluation. The exporter's assets and savings are devalued along with the native currency. The number guys sometimes overlook those details.

Larry Kudlow used to be on CNBC and he would tout King Dollar. Now CNBC is staffed by talking heads who whine about the evils of a strong dollar. Donald Trump complains about the Chinese "manipulating" their currency. Fox News will periodically voice similar complaints.

 I say, let them manipulate. If we can assist them in this endeavor, let us do so. I will admit a certain bias here. When I hear anyone sell the advantages of a weaker native currency I think FLIMFLAM! It is the trickery that is at the root of our country's economic decline.

The strong dollar people, few in number and small in influence, have not sold the merits of a stable currency to the public. Perhaps the most important question will go unasked by the millionaire pundits: "Mr. Candidate, do you prefer a strong dollar or a weak dollar?"

Introducing Lynnette And Rochelle

I THINK ROCHELLE IS KIND OF LIKE AN ED MCMAHON FIGURE

China Has Been Reading White House Email since 2010

China's cyber spies have accessed the private emails of "many" top Obama administration officials, according to a senior U.S. intelligence official and a top secret document obtained by NBC News, and have been doing so since at least April 2010. The email grab -- first codenamed "Dancing Panda" by U.S. officials, and then "Legion Amethyst" -- was detected in April 2010, according to a top secret NSA briefing from 2014. The intrusion into personal emails was still active at the time of the briefing and, according to the senior official, is still going on.

Cruz, Fiorina and Yes, Donald Trump Were Winners In Last Week's Debate.

An NBC/Survey Monkey weekend poll reveals that Ted Cruz and Carly Fiorina picked up substantial ground and Trump picked up a point (So much for Luntz's negative assessment). Ben Carson also did well. Christie lost two points and both Bush and Walker lost three.

All other candidates were unchanged or has a loss or gain equal to 1.

Frank Luntz Vs Donald Trump And/Or The World

It is sometimes surprising who generates animus. Pollsters, by the very nature of their work, would seem to be above the fray. Screaming at a pollster is like terrorizing an accountant or the guy who gets to decide if a bad hop results in a hit or an error. Then again, if the accountant is auditing your firm...

Penn and Teller had a sometimes amusing show on Showtime called "Bullshit". Some of their targets were deserving of their scorn but it sometimes seemed like they were in search of enemies. The "Numbers" episode aired May 29, 2006. It seemed strange at the time that they would so viciously attack Frank Luntz but I thought it was funny nonetheless. Here is a cleaned up version of the Luntz segment.



Fast forward to 2008 when Ron Paul is seeking the GOP nomination. I am not going to tell you all the reasons Sean Hannity and Fox News and The Republican establishment HATED Ron Paul and his supporters. But HATE they did. The Paulists believed, which much justification, that Fox News was trying to sabotage Ron Paul's campaign before it got off the ground.


Luntz appears at the 3:03 mark. An aside: I would later meet one of the men in this very group. He was a Romney supporter who liked to smoke cigars and observe political activity. He was respectful of the Ron Paul supporters and seemed to be a real affable guy.


Things heat up a few days before the primaries when Hannity and Luntz stumble out of a Manchester diner. The Paulists scream "Fuck you Frank" and "Fox News sucks" at the infidels. It might have been intimidating but I don't believe anyone actually threw a snowball. A few people tossed loose snow--yes there is a difference--and somehow the Fox Fat Cats survived the ordeal.

I posted another version of this before but that vid is long gone from Youtubopia. This one captures the essence of the event and the pervasive animosity well enough.


There are parallels with Ron Paul and Trump if only that they were/are both despised by the Republican establishment and the news media and targeted by Frank Luntz. But Trump is much more resilient than Ron Paul. Here is our man Frank shrouding the Trump Campaign twenty days ago.


Here the Dynamic Duo seem willing to acknowledge Trump's appeal. Leading the goat to slaughter?


Here Luntz shrouds the Trump Campaign a second time. I suspect Luntz has yet to deplete his pallet of burial cloths.


Note: I am fairly neutral about Donald Trump but I am amazed at how passionate people happen to be about the man and his campaign. This will not be our last Donald post.

Brief Reflections On So-Called Debate

I could not watch The Fox Event live but I watched the rerun with a few interruptions.

As previously stated, the fine minds at this blog have already come up with a superior format. It's tough being ahead of one's time but let's put that aside for now. Yes, 10 is too many but it's in the history books now.

Quick observations:

1. As I suspected, Trump will reveal himself over time. Yes, he is plain spoken and disdainful of the political class but he is also pro-abortion, pro-nationalized health care, pro-tax, anti-dollar...If he can get other candidates to stop sounding like consultants he will have contributed greatly to the discourse.

2. I never thought I would use the words wise and Huckabee in the same sentence. The governor put aside the Aw Shucks routine to remind us how far our culture has fallen. There is some gravitas I have not seen before.

3. I hate to dismiss Ben Carson as an amateur. I genuinely respect the man and he seems to grow in stature. This year's Herman Cain? I don't think so. I liked Herman but Carson is on a different plane. If not a contender, certainly a viable VP nominee.

4. Cruz might be dismissed by the likes of Larry Sabato but I am not writing him off just yet.

5. I don't think Jeb Bush really wants the job.

6. If Rubio can ever get the Gang of 8 gum off his shoe he might be a contender.

7. As much as I respect Rand Paul he comes across as catty. I side with him ideologically but in the exchange with Chris Christie I found myself being taken in by Christie's presentation. In an argument between a lawyer and a doctor, the lawyer usually wins.

8. Kasich looked polished.

9. Was Walker on the stage? If I was a betting man I would bet on Walker to win this race but somehow he seemed to get lost in the crowd. I later saw a snippet where he gave a good answer but he was almost the Invisible Man last night.

In Praise Of Lion Killers

It's not often that I link to NYT. Then again, they don't always feature clear-headed thinkers like Goodwell Nzou.

So sorry about Cecil.

 

Did Cecil live near your place in Zimbabwe?

 

Cecil who? I wondered. When I turned on the news and discovered that the messages were about a lion killed by an American dentist, the village boy inside me instinctively cheered: One lion fewer to menace families like mine.

 

My excitement was doused when I realized that the lion killer was being painted as the villain. I faced the starkest cultural contradiction I’d experienced during my five years studying in the United States.

Did all those Americans signing petitions understand that lions actually kill people? That all the talk about Cecil being “beloved” or a “local favorite” was media hype? Did Jimmy Kimmel choke up because Cecil was murdered or because he confused him with Simba from “The Lion King”?

 

Eulogy for Cecil continues here: