Word: dollarization
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...knew how to make an entrance. Her dark hair cut in a severe pageboy, Ayn Rand would sweep into a room with a long black cape, a dollar-sign pin on her lapel and an ever present cigarette in an ivory holder. Melodramatic, yes, but Rand didn't have time to be subtle. She had millions of people to convert to objectivism, her philosophy of radical individualism, limited government and avoidance of altruism and religion. Her adoring followers--some called them a cult--revered her as the high priestess of laissez-faire capitalism until her death...
...inability of the Fed to raise rates along with the rest of the world is more bad news for the flagging dollar, and investors everywhere should pay attention. It now makes more sense to get out of the greenback and park money in higher-yielding currencies, since foreign-currency deposits will earn more in interest and could make additional foreign-exchange gains. Interest rates in Australia last week were raised a quarter point to 3.25%, and could go higher still. The unemployment rate Down Under recently fell to 5.7%, leading economists to expect another rate rise on Nov. 3. Meanwhile...
...Australian dollar jumped 2.6% vs. the greenback after the rate hike was announced. The U.S. dollar also continued to fall against the euro, which ended the week at $1.47, up 1.2% from before the Australian move. Like the Japanese yen, the dollar has effectively become a carry-trade currency. People borrow in the U.S. currency and use the proceeds to buy the Australian dollar, profiting from the interest rate differential and also the greenback's downward spiral. (See pictures of TIME's Wall Street covers...
...Chairman Ben Bernanke tried to talk up the dollar last week by declaring that the central bank would tighten monetary policy in order to avert inflation. But he also emphasized that the Fed is committed to keeping interest rates at near zero to help the battered economy. In the tug of war between those two antithetical positions, it's virtually certain that near-zero rates will win for the foreseeable future...
...Another winner is gold, which breached the $1,000 level in September as the dollar started to weaken and then hit three record highs after the Australian announcement, ending the week at $1,049. Gold is still regarded as a hedge against a weak dollar and also against inflation. No one is listening to Warren Buffett, who describes the metal as having no utility, something that gets dug out of the ground, melted down and then buried again in another hole guarded by people who are paid to do the job. "Anyone watching from Mars," says the Sage of Omaha...