Gee, Ben Bernanke does everything possible to devalue the dollar, including QE2 (which, as everyone knows, now stands for Quantitative Easing 2, not the ship once known for fast passage across the Atlantic), and what happens? European financial crises resurface, that's what. We not only have QE2; we have PIIGS, reborn. If we have to fit more countries in there, the acronym could be dangerous.
For example, if we added Turkey and Yemen to Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain, we could have PIIGSTY. (Sorry, Turkey and Yemen. Your finances may be fine, and it's nothing personal. I simply couldn't resist.)
The dollar devaluation would be good, in that it would make our exports more attractive. It's kind of the manufacturing version of the old chaos theory thesis — instead of a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil and causing a tornado in Texas, a dollar being devalued in the United States sells a Buick in China.
Things seem to have sold well over the all-important Thanksgiving weekend. Retail sales, according to Bloomberg reports, were up, and Internet sales increased substantially.
