The dollar is reaching almost 4 shekels, which is a third more than it was worth two years ago. That was a time when everybody was talking about dollar hyperinflation caused by Obama's deficit spending. Everybody was wrong. How did it happen?
Simply, the Euro as a rival reserve currency is dead, because the Greek sovereign debt problem has not been solved but left festering all these long months. There seems to be no master plan to resolve the Euro crisis and no financial leadership to think out one. So everybody is leaving the Euro and buying U.S. government debt and investing in American companies, which for all defeatist talk of decadence, continue to be the most innovative and dynamic of all.
This last year I have tried to read non-American press using Google translator, and found an intellectual desert out there. Only in America there is an active debate on issues that interest me. I feel that Australia comes second as a focus of serious internet debate. That surprises me because I had a picture of Australia as the most boring suburban country of all, as described by Arthur Koestler, only enlivened by wife-swapping. In the end of this century, it may become a second America. What is to buy in Australia? Mining shares?
1 comment:
Yes, mining shares.
BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto Zinc, especially.
I go there often, there is more to their economy than just mining, but since it is international, it is easiest to understand.
That having been said, you need to take a view of China's growth prospects, on which the short-term prospects of the miners actually depend. Some investors are short-selling the miners as they are worried about China's growth slowing and an international collapse in confidence, etc, etc, blah blah.
As it happens, South Africa is a richer and a more interesting place, but politically more unstable. The ANC youth league keeps on talking about nationalization of the mines, etc, so investors are scared off by the prospect of King Julius I.
Take your pick.
Anon.
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