Sorry for not updating in a while. Moving and Graduation had me super busy. I think I did all right on all of my
finals. So far I know I earned an A in at least one class. It was nice taking finals for once. I went into everyone
of my finals with an A in all my classes. So, if I didn't know something it was no big deal.
So now I'm back in Stockton. Nothing much new here as I can tell. I had a nice Graduation party last Sunday. A lot
of good friends showed up. Even my good friend Jason who I rarely get to see. I'm looking forward to this summer I'm going to have plenty to do. Although, to be honest,
I have been bumming it this week. Between what I have to do and being busy all of May, I took a personal week. I start my new Job on Monday, its going to be great to get me through the
summer and for saving to go to Sussex.
The only thing going on in the news off the top of my head that is new I would care to comment on is deflation.
I've been seeing news reports explaining to the working class why its bad for them when prices fall. The pundits
argue that the decrease in value of goods causes a lowered demand for labor as producers are forced to cut labor
as prices decline. WRONG! When prices fall consumption goes up, that stimulates the economy and creates jobs etc.
So why would pundits want you to believe them??? (Likewise American workers are told to believe that inflation that cuts their wages by
lessening the value of their wages is good for them...)
Hmm, a few reasons... First, when there is deflation it lessens the
value of the loans the working class owes to the rich. Second, all the savings in Dollars the rich have become devalued.
This doesn't effect the working class who have no savings and live paycheck to paycheck. Third, it is bad for travel because
it means Americans traveling abroad must pay more to travel i.e. the rich.
The funny thing is there is a real dichotomy at the top
between the political and monetary power in America at the moment. On the one hand you have the Rich who desperately want to see a
strong dollar for the above reasons. On the other hand you have Bush who doesn't want to fill daddies shoes and lose the 04' election
when the economy tanks. So, he is allowing the dollar to be weakened for two reasons. One, because the cheaper the Dollar
is the cheaper American goods will be to foreign markets i.e. increasing demand which spurs the economy. At the same time as American
goods become cheaper this means competing foreign goods become more expensive which lowers demand for their products.
This has caused a situation where Major governments are selling their currency and buying Dollars. Which is supposed to raise the
value of the dollar and lower the value of their own currency. The problem is every country in the world uses the dollar for their
currency reserves to fight off speculation so they need a strong dollar. However, the US government holds a trump in all of this because
they don't have to sell dollars to make them weaker they can just print more... An especially helpful thing to do with a massive trade
deficit, and huge endless war to fight. So while Bush says he backs a "strong dollar" policy, he's doing the opposite.
The First link is short piece written by a Nun on what matters in today in America. It is quite powerfully written.
MM ~ GAOG
NEWS
