http://www.prudentbear.com/archive_comm_article.asp?category=Guest+Commentary&content_idx=37375American Bye
November 2, 2004
Harry Chernoff is an independent economist in Great Falls, VA
(with apologies to Don McLean)
A long, long time ago…
I can still remember
How the dollar used to make me smile.
And I knew if I had my chance
I’d sell the currency of France
And, maybe, I’d be happy for awhile.
But all our spending made me shiver
With every T-bill we’d deliver.
Bad news on the doorstep;
I couldn’t take one more step.
I can’t remember if I cried
When I heard our politicians lied
But something touched me deep inside
The day the dollar died.
Chorus:
So bye-bye, dollar assets good-bye
Sold my Chevy at the levee
‘cause my pension ran dry.
Them good old boys were drinkin’ sake to try
Singin’ this’ll be the day that it died
This’ll be the day that it died.
Did you write Whitehouse.gov
Or have you a Yen to fall in love
If Japan will tell you so?
Now, do you believe in oil ‘n coal
Can China fill our import hole
And can we teach them how to grow real slow?
Well I know the country’s fit and trim
‘Cause the jobs are in the Pacific Rim.
We all knew savers lose
Man, I dug not having to choose.
We were living off the almighty buck
We got their goods and they were stuck
But I knew we were out of luck
The day the dollar died.
I started singin’
Chorus:
Now for ten years we were sure we owned
All the stocks and bonds and mortgage loans
But that’s not how it’s gonna be.
When we’ve spent it all like kings and queens
On clothes we bought from the Philippines
The Asians pick the reserve currency.
Oh, and while the king was looking down,
Their central bankers came to town.
Our stocks and bonds were spurned
Those dollars were returned.
And while unions filled their books with Marx
The President said drill in parks
Our thermostats froze in the dark
The day the dollar died.
We were singin’
Chorus:
.
Helter skelter in a summer swelter
The equity’s gone from your leveraged shelter
Fannie and Freddie are falling fast.
Crash, they landed, but in a new class
Full faith and credit have long since passed
With Congress, in denial, out of gas.
Now the Wal-Mart there has cheap perfume
With imports filling every room.
We all got up to dance
Oh, but we never got the chance.
The consumers tried to take the field
The central banks refused to yield
Do you recall what was revealed
The day the dollar died?
We started singin’
Chorus:
Oh, and there we were all in one place
Our credit rating in disgrace
With no time left to start again.
So come on: Al be nimble, Al be quick!
Al, cut rates by 50 ticks
‘cause credit is the debtor’s only friend.
Oh, and as I watched him on the stage
My hands were clenched in fists of rage
No congressman in hell
Could buy what he would sell.
And as the rates climbed high into the night
To stem the U.S. asset flight
The IMF said, “Yes, that’s right”
The day the dollar died
They were singin’
Chorus:
I met a girl who sang the blues
And I asked her if we still could choose
But she just smiled and turned away.
I went down to the Medicare store
Where we’d spent our dollars years before
But the man there said those dollars wouldn’t pay.
And in the streets the children screamed
The seniors cried and the workers steamed
But not a word was spoken
The commitments all were broken.
And the three men I admire most:
Faber, Rogers, and Bill Gross
Were at the forex trading post
The day the dollar died.
And they were singin’
Chorus:
They were singin’
Bye-bye, dollar assets good-bye
Sold my Chevy at the levee
‘cause my pension ran dry.
Them good old boys were drinkin’ sake to try
Singin’ this’ll be the day that it died.
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