Dollar Debate Misses at G8, but Criticism is still there

Thursday, July 9, 2009

So the Dollar was spared yesterday, spared by a seemingly minor situation in an obscure city in an insignificant province of a very relevant state. The Uighur uprising in China took the debate about the value of the dollar as a global reserve unit off the table at the G8 (due to the fact the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, was forced to leave the summit), however it did not stop the show of concern that America’s counterparts in the G8 had.

Germany, one of the US’s staunchest supporters during the Bush years, have chilled that relationship and have become more openly critical of the Obama administration. In the past, when the German government had a problem with the US’s policies, you read about it weeks after it had been sorted out, George W. Bush had a great relationship with the German Chancellor Merkel, and it showed.

It is ironic. Obama’s social philosophy is more aligned with the German’s and much of Western Europe for that matter, Bush was far to the right of where Europe was. However, we are seeing a spate of discontent from the Western European leaders at the Obama policies – and this is most evident in the words and silence of Germany.

Long-time Forex traders know this to be true as in the past, we did not see the spikes we do today in the Dollar, after a European leader gives a speech, today it is routine.

In the absence of the BRIC debate on a global reserve currency, Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, filled in nicely and spoke of how the focus of many nations vital to the economic stability of the world has been on reliving mistakes of years past.

By assuming the policies of stimulating the economy through a broad array of spending programs, a tactic that was employed and failed in 1933, the rising debt has been ignored and has grown in such a manner, that the entire world is now under threat of jeopardy in more profound manner.

Merkel’s concerns are valid and Forex online traders need to keep this in mind when dealing in the Dollar. As we have seen, the Japanese Yen has been profiting nicely from the return of safe-haven flows where it usually took a secondary role to the Dollar in this capacity.

The Dollar is volatile, more than ever before, because traders as well as the long-term investors are unsure of which way to go. Sentiment keeps us in the Dollar, but reality forces us to look away.

I believe the next three months are vital to determining which way the pendulum will swing for the Dollar – and it starts with the criticism of a European leader that an American policy is too liberal. Go figure.

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