Greenspan Says Euro Could Replace U.S. Dollar as Reserve Currency of Choice
September 17th, 2007Via: International Herald Tribune:
Former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said it is possible that the euro could replace the U.S. dollar as the reserve currency of choice.
According to an advance copy of an interview to be published in Thursday’s edition of the German magazine Stern, Greenspan said that the dollar is still slightly ahead in its use as a reserve currency, but added that “it doesn’t have all that much of an advantage” anymore.
The euro has been soaring against the U.S. currency in recent weeks, hitting all-time high of US$1.3927 last week as the dollar has fallen on turbulent market conditions stemming from the ongoing U.S. subprime crisis. The Fed meets this week and is expected to lower its benchmark interest rate from the current 5.25 percent.
Greenspan said that at the end of 2006, some 25 percent of all currency reserves held by central banks were held in euros, compared to 66 percent for the U.S. dollar.
In terms of being used as a payment for cross-border transactions, the euro is trailing the dollar only slightly with 39 percent to 43 percent.
I think most people with any sense understand that Greenspan’s economic policies while he was chairman of the Fed were very destructive, long-term.
Now he seems to be repudiating these same policies.
Greenspan’s recent writings and statements put me in mind of a man who was forced into the position of implementing absolutely destructive economic policies against his own judgment–and who has been highly pissed about it for these many years, and is at last free to say so.
Oh well, many other people do the same. If you are teaching school, you are a good little clone (wanting to keep your job)–until you leave the teaching profession. Once out of the profession, you can regurgitate bile all over the whole stinking mess, to your heart’s content.
Oh, the joys of not being somebody’s bitch!
Or, alternatively, of being somebody else’s bitch–the more usual case.
It was being predicted around the ‘net, two years ago and more, that the dollar would lose its reserve currency status.
It’s happening now–in “slow-mo”–though a rush for the exits seems inevitable at some point, making the dollar nearly worthless.
I hope everyone in the US feels confident about their bartering skills, because it’s about to be Zimbabwe.
Oh boy, another fiat paper reserve currency for us.
My gawd, I can’t believe I have sent to posts to this site in so many days re Greenspan.
ALAN – MONKEYS ALSO FLY OUT OF MY BUTT as far as you are concerned.
ALAN GREENSPAN IS A POX, a putz, a HAS BEEN.
SHUT UP ALREADY.
Sharon,
I’m a high school teacher, and I routinely tell my students that I think that conventional school is little more than a prison and that the “education” they are receiving is of dubious value at best. Of course I also tell my seniors that the main purpose of college is to turn them into debt-laden wage slaves who are too burdened by student loans to bitch about their shitty jobs.
As for Greenspan, I wonder if his recent statements are more a case of someone who really had no idea what he was doing at the time realizing how shitty a job he actually did. Now that it’s becoming obvious how disasterous his policies have been in the long run, he doesn’t want to be the goat (no offense to any real goats out there).
– Mike Lorenz
Mike, Greenspan’s simply working on his “legacy,” as all vain and corrupt people do. You can bet he got his and his family’s money and assets out of harm’s way a long time ago. He knew the score 40 years ago, but power is just sooooooo seductive:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul236.html
Yes, I’m quite sure Greenspan knew the score 40 years ago.
But if you want to remain Chairman of the Fed, you play ball. You perform the required dirty deeds and tell the required dirty lies. And, if you want to keep your job, you tell the lies confidently, smoothly, and convincingly:
The very essence of being “somebody’s bitch.”
I think we can all relate to that, right?