On Fri, Nov 19, 2010 at 4:38 PM, Marv Gandall <marvgand at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 2010-11-19, at 10:44 AM, Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> >> MG: So it's an easy issue for the Republicans. They've historically
> represented creditors rather than debtors as the strong dollar party.
> >
> > Hmm. The petty bourgeoisie, many of whom are debtors, are reliably
> Republican. The National Association of Manufacturers, also mostly
> Republican, is a leader of the weak dollar lobby. How many times did Robert
> Rubin say that a strong dollar was in the interests of the U.S.? Most of
> Wall Street - aside from the right-wing hard money nuts in the Jim Grant
> circle - supports QE2.
>
> Sure, these distinctions can be overdrawn, and the big bourgeoisie and
> small propertyholders are represented in both parties.
>
> But, as John Gulick has already noted, Wall Street supports QE2 mainly
> because it's hoping falling bond yields will give a fillip to the stock and
> bond markets, and my impression is that the self-employed professionals and
> small businessmen/women who form the backbone of the Republican base are
> mostly providing services to local markets and are not producing
> manufactured goods for export. They would see QE as another example of
> federal profligacy and, if anything, worry about the higher costs for fuel
> and other imports resulting a falling dollar.
>
> Industrialists in steel and other manufacturing sectors who are feeling the
> pressure from China and elsewhere are also reliably Republican, but in
> lobbying for tariff protection and a weaker dollar on Capitol Hill, they -
> together with their unions - get a more sympathetic hearing from Democrats.
> It seems to me NAM speaks for these struggling exporters. But it doesn't
> speak for Walmart, Apple, Caterpillar, Exxon, Dupont, Boeing, Coca Cola, GE,
> Ford and other leading American multinationals with highly profitable
> overseas operations who have benefited from a stronger dollar and have
> opposed Congressional legislation by Schumer and other Democrats to engage
> in a currency war with China.
>
>
>
>
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