The Euro may give Europe some degree of autonomy from the dollar but it is not a challenge to the dominance of the dollar (and is integrated into the dollar - eg European-US insitutional developments in private finance). That dominance is not simply something 'financial' but reflects the structural power of the American empire - something the European elite may not like but has absolutely no intention of challenging (witness how they became more flexible re Iraq as opposed to mounting and mobilizing any real opposition). The ECB is holding tough in large part to enforce American style restructuring within Europe (it may also require more of a consensus to act on reversing the dollar's fall). In any case, germany and France are compalining about the strong Euro, not revelling in it.
-- Original Message ----- From: "Dickens, Edwin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, January 31, 2005 12:16 PM Subject: Re: [PEN-L] Deficits, the Dollar, and IEDs > Sam Gindin wrote: > >>The related question is where will they put the dollars?....They can't put >>it in Europe - Europe is already freaked at the rising Euro and would >>surely eventually respond - which would frustrate the intent of the shift. > > > I don't get this. It seems to me that the euro was created precisely as > an > alternative to the dollar, to serve not only as a reserve currency but > also > as a transactions currency and a unit of account. "Europe" may be > freaked, > but what about the European Central Bank? It hasn't even begun to take > the > sort of actions (e.g., taken by the Bank of Japan) that would suggest that > the long-term strategy is not a euro to rival the dollar. > > Tom Dickens >
