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Collapse of Western Economy -Read The Signs |
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Part 1
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Part 2
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The American National Debt has continued to increase an average of |
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Part 3
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Part 4
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Part 5
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TIME Europe's dream of promoting the euro as a competitor to the U.S. dollar may get a boost from SADDAM HUSSEIN. Iraq says that from now on, it wants payments for its oil in euros, despite the fact that the battered European currency unit, which used to be worth quite a bit more than $1, has dropped to about 82[cents]. Iraq says it will no longer accept dollars for oil because it does not want to deal "in the currency of the enemy." The switch to euros would cost the U.N. a small fortune in accounting-paperwork changes. It would also reduce the interest earnings and reparations payments that Iraq is making for damage it caused during the Gulf War, a shortfall the Iraqis would have to make up. The move hurts Iraq, the U.N. and the countries receiving reparations. So why is Saddam doing it? Diplomatic sources say switching to the euro will favor European suppliers over U.S. ones in competing for Iraqi contracts, and the p.r. boost that Baghdad would probably get in Europe would be another plus.
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Part 6
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Bloomberg News Jim Rogers, the chairman of Beeland Interests, said he is shifting all his assets out of the dollar and buying Chinese yuan because the U.S. Federal Reserve Board has eroded the value of the U.S. currency. "I'm in the process of - I hope in the next few months - getting all of my assets out of U.S. dollars," said Rogers, 65, who correctly predicted the commodities rally in 1999. "I'm that pessimistic about what's happening in the U.S." Rogers, delivering a presentation Tuesday at an investors' meeting organized by ABN Amro Markets in Amsterdam, said he expects the yuan to quadruple in the next decade and that he is holding on to commodities like platinum, gold, silver and palladium. The dollar has dropped against all the 16 most actively traded currencies except the Mexican peso this year as slowing growth and the first interest-rate reduction since 2003 last month dimmed the allure of dollar-denominated assets. Since the Fed lowered U.S. interest rates Sept. 18, the first cut in four years, the dollar has fallen 2.8 percent against the euro and touched a record low Tuesday. Gold rose to a 27-year high and platinum jumped to a record. Source: |