"Doug Carter" wrote in message
. ..
paul kgyy wrote:
International oil is priced in dollars, so the crash in dollar values
(caused by US budget deficits)has reduced (or at least kept level with
recent crude price hikes) the cost of fuel for people who can pay with
Euros, Pounds, Yen, you name it.

That is really silly. I don't even think Paul Krugman could rationalize
that.

Any company that is involved in international financial flows of any volume
(i.e. 10s of millions plus) is going to be doing some pretty serious hedging
anyway. Basically, you want to completely wipe out currency fluctuations
since over time they are just as likely to hurt as to help (see the overly
strong US Dollar of the late 90s for example).

I used to work for a division of the German company Bertelsmann here in the
US and whenever money was moved across the ocean, it was done at an
"internal exchange rate" that was always way behind the rates you'd see on
CNBC.

We could also have a good argument over chicken and egg here. If the value
of the dollar goes down, and oil is priced in dollars, then it is
mathematically predictable that the price of oil will rise accordingly.
That's how commodities work.

I'm thoroughly ****ed off about the current US fiscal situation but IMHO
many people--not the least of them being Warren Buffett--are missing the
forest for the trees. Over the long term, Europe faces structural economic
challenges that make our own situation look positively carefree by
comparison. Their debt loads are worse than ours and their growth rates are
significantly lower. Not to mention their population is graying faster than
Florida's. IMHO what we're seeing right now is one part truth and one part
wishful thinking on the part of the anti-Bush, anti-US crowd. Corrections in
currency markets can come at frightening speeds and I suspect this one will
make a few unemotional investors very wealthy (c.f. Soros' bet against the
Bank of England) and leave a lot more crying into their Pellegrino (c.f.
Soros' bet on JF Kerry).

-cwk.