olivier in france Posted November 18, 2004 Posted November 18, 2004 T Bone!! count on me Red Sox fans are welcome here! i can host illigal aliens in my basement, the cops are so dumb around here the ETA has hidden anti aerial missiles in a nearby house for 20 years before they found it last month! GG PM me if you want i can talk for hours about the american currency policy and the disaster it is for America and the World in general Kelso Helmet , try to read something one day instead of watching Faux news 24 hours a day, you look like someone needing serious information about Europe. maybe you can come around here! my basement is big enough for two! and Bills fans are welcome too! and remember Fort Carillon !
GG Posted November 18, 2004 Posted November 18, 2004 GG PM me if you want i can talk for hours about the american currency policy and the disaster it is for America and the World in general 123839[/snapback] No need for PM. Newsflash, currency exchange rates are not set by the central banks. They are set by people trading the currencies. While the countries can steer the exchange tankers a bit, they don't control the total movement. If you think that the US is solely responsible for the dollar's weakness, you're sadly mistaken. There's no way the Fed & Treasury are going to bail out the EU's social state by actively raising the US$. Let the Chinese get off the US$ peg and fix your own economy first, then scream at the US.
KurtGodel77 Posted November 18, 2004 Posted November 18, 2004 One of the posters appears fixated on the fact that the skit was intended to be humorous. Basically, his argument was this (more or less): "it was funny, so it's okay. Lighten up." Well, jokes about blacks are intended to be funny too. Polish jokes were originated by those who wanted to throw the Polish people into contempt. Blonde jokes were originated by those who wanted to portray blondes as inferior, as a counter to Nazi propaganda. In each of these three cases, humor is being used to promote a view that is anything but humorous. If your mother, sister, or daughter told you she was planning on having casual sex with a celebrity, it would be anything but funny.
KurtGodel77 Posted November 18, 2004 Posted November 18, 2004 Someone else complained about the fact the U.S. currency is weak. I'm not sure what the strength of the dollar has to do with television executives abusing their power, but I'll address the issue anyway. The U.S. is running at a trade deficit, meaning the American people are collectively spending more than we are earning. This means other countries have to produce more than they consume, so the surplus can be shipped to us. Nobody will ship us a surplus out of the goodness of their hearts: they will insist on getting something in return. That something can be money we borrow now and promise to repay later, or it can be land, or stock in American companies. But it has to be something of value, something that is expected to produce money in the long-term. In other words, America's trade deficit today is gradually making us poorer. Trade deficits are supposed to erase themselves over time. The market mechanism for this is currency pricing: a trade deficit causes your currency to lose value. That makes it more expensive for your people to buy imported goods, while making your exports less expensive to people in other countries. A weak U.S. dollar is therefore a good thing, because it will help us get out of this trade deficit. In fact, the dollar should continue to weaken, until the U.S. balance of trade is neutral or positive.
KurtGodel77 Posted November 19, 2004 Posted November 19, 2004 Ok Kurt, you brought me back in baby. Your argument assumes that "moral decency" in America is set to your own standards. What I see as decent for public viewing and what you see as decent may be completely different (I have a good feeling this is true). The problem with this is that real art may be effected by "your" standards. The viewing of statue of David (the naked one I'm sure you're familiar with) could be banned for instance. Censorship is a slippery slope that leads to broad brush statements like the ones in your post. That is why America has what is called Freedom of Speech, to make sure the religious right wackos would never win the censorship war. But don't fret, you'll always have FoxNews. 122648[/snapback] You are basically demanding the right to spread moral indecency everywhere, without regard for the rights of those who don't want to be subjected to this kind of onslaught. If you go for instance to Las Vegas, you will be bombarded with sexual imagery no matter how strongly you try to avoid it. There are extremely suggestive billboards to be seen as you walk or drive down the road. If you look through the Yellow Pages, at some point you'll catch glimpses of the dozens and dozens of pages of scantily clad women that are in them. If you simply want to buy food, you'll wind up seeing sexually suggestive magazines at the check-out counter. None of this can possibly be considered art. It is mental conditioning, pure and simple. Astronauts noted they didn't think as much about sex while up in space, because they were away from all this junk. Others might want to avoid this mental conditioning themselves. To pretend the rights of these people are being respected--or even noticed--is completely laughable. The problem with this is that real art may be effected by "your" standards. In theory, it would be possible to create a television show with artistic merit. Nothing I've seen has led me to believe this is actually being done. The argument, after all, is about television, something that is being broadcast into people's homes. If someone chooses to go to an art store and purchase a replica of the statue of David, or if someone chooses to go to the movie store and rent a pornographic or artistically erotic video, it's not broadcasting. It's people deciding for themselves what standards of decency they choose to employ or not employ. The problem is when you demand that society in general adopt your standards of indecency. This is pretty much what's happened: people who lead normal lives are being subjected to a bunch of filth they didn't seek out and often don't want.
olivier in france Posted November 19, 2004 Posted November 19, 2004 No need for PM. Newsflash, currency exchange rates are not set by the central banks. They are set by people trading the currencies. While the countries can steer the exchange tankers a bit, they don't control the total movement. If you think that the US is solely responsible for the dollar's weakness, you're sadly mistaken. There's no way the Fed & Treasury are going to bail out the EU's social state by actively raising the US$. Let the Chinese get off the US$ peg and fix your own economy first, then scream at the US. 123860[/snapback] the european economies are doing OK GG, we don't have a trade deficit with a weak money, something that is very very worrying... Bush is paying his huge budget deficit with a weak dollar, it will not work forever, you' d better start selling us your cheap stuff or you will soon be a country sinking into poverty
GG Posted November 19, 2004 Posted November 19, 2004 the european economies are doing OK GG, we don't have a trade deficit with a weak money, something that is very very worrying... Bush is paying his huge budget deficit with a weak dollar, it will not work forever, you' d better start selling us your cheap stuff or you will soon be a country sinking into poverty 123978[/snapback] This is the best that you can respond with? The EU economies are not doing well. What is France's GDP growth? Germany? Care to compare the unemployment rates? There is absolutely no incentive for the US to be interventionist in the foreign exchange markets, because it is not solely the US problem. The US is perfectly happy having the world finance our economic recovery, and will act only when it presents a serious problem for the US. If the world currency traders are still happy buying US$, tell me why the US should be so gregarious to help out Europe, which has been knocking head over heels in helping us out in Mid East and other areas? Let Messrs. Shroeder & Chirac continue thinking that this administration is a bunch of idiots, while their constituencies suffer the arrogance.
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