Letters to the Editor
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Bush's Pursuits
Bush has persued a weak dollar policy and that hasn't really helped either.
Of course it hasn't helped. Our manufacturing base has been decimated after a 25 year assault from Washington and from poor Wall Street management. You can thank the Clintons for some of both - this was a bipartisan, public / private sector screw-up. We import virtually everything manufactured save some food and export almost nothing in return. A quick trip thru a shopping mall checking the "Made In" tags will demonstrate the truth of that. Or just watch all of the empty container ships floating away from the Port of Los Angeles.
All weakening the dollar does now - in the short term, anyhow - is drive up the cost of imported goods, imported food and imported energy. It's like feeding a hungry man after he's already dead from starvation.
It also doesn't help that China's currency is still largely pegged to the dollar, which means our exports aren't much more competitive there than they were a couple of years ago, and their exports still remain comparatively cheap.
It'll take years now for currency devaluation to bring the situation back into some kind of balance - even longer if our banking system continues its deregulation-fueled implosion and can no longer offer our manufacturing sector the capital it needs to expand and take advantage of our devalued currency.