Letters to the Editor
gurdpath
Published Letters: 4 Editor's Choice: 2
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The conversion is the point
[Read the article: Iran's real secret weapon]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Mr. Leonard's dismissal of the oil-currency risk to the US indicates that he simply doesn't understand the issue. Yes, of course oil buyers can currently convert euros into dollars to buy oil if they wish, but that very conversion is partly what is currently supporting the dollar at a level to which it is not otherwise entitled. Once oil is sold in euros, China and Japan will have no incentive to do such euro-to-dollar conversion, and in fact will begin doing the opposite, i.e., converting some of their huge dollar holdings into euros, putting pressure on the dollar, raising US interest rates and putting the brakes on the US economy, which would damage the GOP's electoral chances in the 2006 and 2008 elections. The prospect of long-term dollar weakness would additionally prompt other central banks to sell their dollar holdings to avoid exchange losses, exacerbating the pressure on the dollar. That is what the Bush administration fears.
The most sensible counter-argument is that China and Japan would not do anything to damage the consumptive capacity of their biggest trading partner. Oddly, however, Mr. Leonard fails to mention this.
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It's the liquidity, stupid
[Read the article: Goldbugs on the march]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]We are in the midst of a massive increase in money being pumped into the system by the Fed in order to stave off a dollar collapse brought on by Bush's deficit spending, moves by large dollar holders such as China, Japan and Saudi Arabia to shift a portion of their forex holdings out of the dollar, and the threat that oil pricing will gradually shift from dollars to Euros. The Fed recently announced that they would stop disclosing M3, presumably in order to conceal this enormous increase in liquidity. This is why the economy is apparently going well and we're having a stock market rally. This state of affairs will go on until the 2008 election unless we have an Argentina-style meltdown first. Bush is trying to emulate Clinton by creating his own economic and stock market boom prior to the election, but this one is based on deficit spending and reckless monetary policy rather than on productivity gains or real prosperity. After 2008, there will be hell to pay.
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Christopher is the key
[Read the article: "Sopranos" wrap-up: "Is this all there is?"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I predict that (1) Christopher will finally kill Paulie (his actual desired target last night -- the screenwriter was just a temporary stand-in because Christopher didn't have the balls to go after Paulie), (2) fear of the consequences for himself and his family will be what causes him to finally turn stooge on Tony, and (3) Tony will then kill Christopher, perhaps using his brother-in-law (forgot his name) as the triggerman. The quasi-Oedipal Tony/Christopher dynamic is the closest to Tony's love/hate relationship to his own father, and it has to be resolved with the death of one or the other. It also presents the irony of Christopher turning into a rat after killing Adriana for the same thing.