|
|
|
Obama: Boosting economy best way to aid dollar Caren Bohan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House hopeful Barack Obama said on Tuesday the weakness in the U.S. dollar reflects the soft economy and large trade deficits, and the best way to strengthen the currency is to restore the economy's health. Obama, a Democrat, said that if he is elected president his policy on the dollar would focus on fixing woes such as the housing crisis that have had ripple effects on other areas of the economy, rather than on trying to manipulate the currency. "The dollar is both a problem by itself, but it's also a symptom of underlying problems," Obama told reporters on his campaign plane in response to a question.
(Article continues below) "I'm not somebody who thinks that we should spend a lot of time manipulating our monetary or fiscal policy simply to strengthen the dollar. What I want to do, though, is strengthen the economic fundamentals in such a way that the dollar, of its own accord, ends up being strong," he said. "I do think we should have a dollar policy." Currency policy is rarely a topic of discussion in U.S. presidential campaigns but the softness in the dollar, which has suffered a five-year slide, is contributing to higher costs for oil and other commodities that are priced globally in greenbacks. The dollar fell against the euro on Tuesday as U.S. housing starts in May plunged to the lowest level in more than 17 years. The weak housing report cast more doubt on the possibility that the Federal Reserve would boost interest rates to curb inflation. Higher interest rates can help the dollar by making fixed-income assets denominated in the currency more attractive to international investors, but can also dampen economic growth by raising the cost of borrowing. Obama said tackling problems such as the housing crisis will cause credit markets to function more smoothly.
|
|
|
| PRISON
PLANET.com Copyright © 2002-2008 Alex Jones
All rights reserved.
|
Yahoo! MyWeb
