Fatso right on two things.
Rates and Ireland. I mean if Germany could be reunited, there is not actual reason why South Ireland (didn’t know there was such a thing or had forgotten) is in the Euro while North Ireland is not. I mean, redheads, make up your mind. You either like blondes or you don’t. Sorry for the WASP jokes.
Fatso says “American rates ought to be the lowest in the world”. Presumably he means interest rates and not the rates of pledging allegiance to the President. America is or was the country of Bretton Woods where the globe decided to adopt it as the international currency. If you think through it logically and how people develop relationships, that is what trade truly is — transactional relationships — then it ought to be done between countries at their own pace and in their own currencies. If there is an imbalance then the countries ought to figure out how to cure or rectify that imbalance. What happens now, benefits only one country: the country that has the biggest trade surplus in dollars. And it isn’t America. Say for example, a country like Sweden wanted to trade with Ethiopia, sort of like the Vikings want to trade with the Nubian Empire. They ought to be able to figure out what the Vikings can sell and buy and what the Nubians can sell and buy and do it with their own currencies. That would imply that the Vikings and Nubians would have to create accounts for each other where they say, ok I have the 1000 nubes and I can buy other Nubian stuff with it. And the Nubians can say okay I have 1100 vikes and I can buy some Viking stuff with it.
Instead what happens is something rather indecent. They both use a third country’s currency and then use the surplus from that currency to trade with yet more countries. It may be convenient but it is certainly incestuous or something worse. Like using my dick to fuck your wife, if I were to be sophisticated about it. Got you there translators. You’ll need to explain to your boss the etymology of “sophisticated”.
Am I still talking about Fatso, the USD and interest rates? Of course I am. Just to be clear, American interest rates ought to be decided by a rate setting institution like the US Treasury. Instead what is allowed to happen is that the Federal Reserve sets nominal interest rates and the market decides the curvature. Then the Fed through various programs can trim the curvature, like a physical trainer at a gym training a client to work on her glutes cause he likes their shape a certain way: tight and uptight. Not to be left out from the action, The US Treasury too recently decided to join the gym as a trainer. Both these institutions are now working on curvature: one on the long end, the other on the whole body. The market participants make bets on how the curvature will turn out to be. It is absurd for adult institutions to run American rate policy this way. I try to make it as entertaining as possible, simply because I’ve decided to renounce serious language. Perhaps it will upset the right set of eyes and they may decide to do something rash.
