Re: Euro Rates Slashed

[Dennis R Redmond <dredmond@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 8 Dec 1998, Alan G. Isaac wrote:

> (as normal parlance suggests they should). As far as I
> know, no one seriously uses exchange rate based
> comparisons any more.

For short-term income comparisons, that might make sense. But I'm talking
about the long-term total productive wealth of an economy, which is a very
different thing. Exchange rates do matter; they're where national
economies are hooked up to the machinery of global investment, savings and
accumulation. Since the US is going deep into hock on other people's
savings, of course it's income standards, for now, may look better; but
when the interest payments on its $2 trillion -- er, make that 1.9
trillion euros -- of foreign debt come due, things could get ugly. None of
this, of course, has anything to do with the quality of an economy, e.g.
social equity or ecological sanity.

-- Dennis