Monday, November 05, 2007
It may be time to buy the United States dollar
I admit that I am no more able to predict the direction of the currency markets than your average dartboard, but it does seem to me that this news may indicate that the United States dollar has hit a near-term bottom.
Gisele Bundchen wants to remain the world's richest model and is insisting that she be paid in almost any currency but the U.S. dollar.
It is a cliché that taxi drivers talk about stock tips at the top of the market. Well, when supermodels start declaring that American cash is trash it just might be time to buy!
12 Comments:
By 
Who Struck John, at
Mon Nov 05, 10:38:00 PM:
One supermodel does not a taxi driver make. Now, when your taxi driver talks about putting his money in a Canadian bank account, _then_ you buy US dollars.
By 
, at
Tue Nov 06, 12:44:00 AM:
The big time conperacy gainst america by the sinster CFR and UN to replace the dollar with the AMERO and create the NORTH AMERICAN UNION the evil imperial scum-bags
By Purple Avenger, at
Tue Nov 06, 01:05:00 AM:
If she thinks the dollar is bad, wait till she gets a gig in Zimbabwe.
By , at
Tue Nov 06, 02:06:00 AM:
Unfortunately, she is making a good deal more money than me (and you, for that matter), and it's those darn moneymakers who are getting out of their dollar positions.
Those of us who are working our schlub jobs at minimum wage certainly hope that she's not a harbinger.
By Brian H, at
Tue Nov 06, 07:08:00 AM:
Mel;
you schlubber! You may well get to keep your job and get a raise because the cheap dollar is making exports sell like hotcakes (thereby getting you more work ...get it?)
By SR, at
Tue Nov 06, 10:14:00 AM:
Unfortunately, it is also making oil increasingly expensive. As long as dollars and euros are freely exchangeable with each other, only economically illiterate suprmodels who have poor financial advisors won't be able to work out a contract for services that pays an equivalent amount regardless of the currency.
By Viking Kaj, at
Tue Nov 06, 11:01:00 AM:
Yawn. Buffet has been hedging against the dollar for several years now by buying stocks in foreign companies, yet another good reason to own Berkshire Hathaway. I also think he had a strong position in Petro-China, although he has been dumping some.
By the way, the poster above does not completely get it when it comes to the price of oil and the dollar. Although the price of oil is rising, the weakness of the dollar is only part of the reason. Actually, keeping oil denominated in dollars removes the risk of currency fluctuations, which could further exacerbate the situation. We would be in real trouble if Chavez is succesful in getting oil priced in Euros or a market basket of currencies as he has been suggesting.
BTW, if we could get the average fleet mileage of American cars to 26 mpg we could reduce our oil imports to almost zero. I would posit that this is a much more important goal from a national security perspective than continued involvement in Iraq. Think about this the next time you see a some soccer mom tooling around in a Ford Expedition all by herself with the US flag sticker on the back.
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Tue Nov 06, 01:13:00 PM:
Re: Gisele Bundchen
Publicity stunt. Nothing more. Obviously it worked.
By Caveat B, at
Tue Nov 06, 03:28:00 PM:
Don't take your eye off interest rates. If the U.S. rates continue to fall, then the dollar will continue to weaken.
But we might be done with Fed cuts, so we could be close to the bottom.
By , at
Tue Nov 06, 04:51:00 PM:
Close to the bottom?
Gisele Bundchen? :)
There could be a whole new "bottom" if the big banks reveal that they have a lot of "unserviceable" debt. This could look like the Japanese economy circa 1990-the present(?) if so. The decade of the living dead, financially speaking.
JP Morgan Chase inherited a lot of 'funny paper' (i.e., derivatives) from Bank One (previous merger of Bank One and Chase Manhatten). And Citicorp, who knows?
Chickens,meet roost. Or maybe not. I have 20 or 30 Euros on my dresser at home, which is about the extent of my currency speculation.
-David
By Andrew X, at
Wed Nov 07, 12:03:00 PM:
I have to think that what she does is entirely ideological, not economic. I'm out of my depth in finance here, but what does it matter if she gets paid in Nigerian quatloos? Whatever she is paid can be converted to Euros or whatever in 24 hours. Thus even supermodel whith a calculator can do the transaction rate math from the beginning. Or, more likely, say, "Hans, how many (quatloos) should I be getting here to make X Euros?
Gosh, that's difficult. Well, maybe for her.
By , at
Wed Nov 07, 12:48:00 PM:
Idealogical indeed. You don't like Bush, fine, but shut the fuck up about it. We unwashed schlubbers don;t need you to tell us who to like. That goes for you too Clooney. Fuckwit.
Perhaps her financial advisor should buy her a currency swap that locks in a exchange rate for her dollar earnings for a specific time period. Duh. Unless all he does is go to the ATM for her when she needs money. Thats real financial advice!
Making economic decisions based on non-economic reasons - such as taxes or political ideology is a sub-par way to manage assets. Period. Been proven many tiimes over. Go ask Green Fund investors. Go ask buyers of Cuban debt. The best returning stock in the Dow 30 over the last 40 years is ..... Phillips Morris. Smoke 'em if ya got them. Bitches.
