Bill Gates Dumps Dollar for Euro

[Ugnmoose]

Not a good sign. I would think that Gates has some pretty good information.

http://www.sebimeyer.com/?p=1229

“I’m short the dollar,” Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corp., told Charlie Rose in an interview late yesterday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “The ol’ dollar, it’s gonna go down.”

Gates’s concern that widening U.S. budget and trade deficits are undermining the dollar was echoed in Davos by policymakers including European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

[Vincardog]

1. Duh, is anyone surprised?

[koopie57]

4. yes, bush* n/t

[McKenzie]

2. That is significant and possibly a sign of things to come

Seriously, no dollar hegemony then bye bye US as the deficit becomes unsustainable.

Odd timing...

[Ugnmoose]

3. I think old Bill knows the shit is about to hit the fan

It would not surprise me if Bushco in revenge used a scorched earth strategy.

[hang a left]

11. Yes, isn't the timing funny.

Not ha ha funny.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

5. Microsoft to be subjected to a campaign of

shock and awe for threatening U.S. peace, freedom and democracy.

[converted_democrat]

6. I'd bet you are correct in your assesment..n/t

[Nihil]

21. Oh dear ...

That's just bumped Seattle higher in the list of candidates for the
next "terrorist outrage" ... shame, I quite liked the place ...

[MazeRat7]

7. To each his own.. I would not be shorting the dollar for the long term.

I think its about as low as its going to go relative to the euro and yen. Maybe a few more down ticks, but nothing significant.

MZr7

[daa]

14. I sure hope you are not putting your money

where your mouth is.

[MazeRat7]

19. Actually, I do daily. And it has served me well....

But thanks for asking. *grin.

MZr7

[daa]

24. I'll have your dollars soon.

[swag]

39. The dollar has gone up, not down, since Gates made public his

famous bet, in January, not yesterday as the post implies.

The post, and the linked blogger's original post are wrong.

[converted_democrat]

8. I am really beginning to worry about what the economy is going to look

like in the coming year.

[area51]

9. Bill Gates takes a dump

Well, he's been dumping American workers for Indians & others (offshoring) for some time now.

[ElectroPrincess]

10. Yes, those "filthy rich" Americans are sure PATRIOTIC

by dumping dollars for euros and outsourcing their entire work force. Add a little Post Office Box in the Cayman Islands, you got yer-self a TRUE AMERICAN PATRIOT. :sarcasm:

We should make these horse's asses become Chinese Citizens (Deny re-entry into the USA) since they are doing nothing more than enriching themselves and the TRUE COMMUNISTS (Red China).

[Theres-a]

25. Oh, but he donates to sooooo many charities

They're tax deductible,but hey,it's better than nothing.I'd love to see those bastards forced to become chinese citizens.Would serve 'em right.Greedy pigs.

[theplutsnw]

29. For what it is worth

from someone close to Microsoft, they have not off-shored their headquarters and they treat their employees very well. Great bennies, lots of time off, free beverages, reasonably priced (and good I might add) lunch service, on-site day-care, etc. They have a HUGE main campus plus several smaller ones in the area as well as many private companies that they outsource to. Microsoft is not perfect and Bill still has lots of money even though he gives a lot of it away. But he is one of the better rich American men. We seems to have that kind of culture here, Costco, Starbucks etc, all treat their employees well. I hope this is not true, and I certainly hope Seattle does not become a "terra-ist target".

PS, FWIW Bill Gates Sr. is a HUGE advocate for an state wide income tax and preaches the importance of the rich man giving back to his community by paying taxes, because without the commons and the public infrastructure, the rich man would be no where.

[Marr]

12. Here's that "trickle down" spirit at work, eh?

"Fuck you all very much- and thanks for the cash. Bye now".

[Deja Q]

13. The filthyfucker offshores and now decides the $ ain't good enough for him

Yeah, this is BAD news.

[Bigmack]

15. How do I buy Euros without....

... taking a beating on the exchange rate at my bank?

[info being]

31. make an investment in index funds based on foriegn companies

The valuations of the companies will be adjusted for the dollar...so your investment in dollars will increase to make up for the decrease in exchange rate value.

Also, Gold is a good investment that should protect you from a devaluation. I'm heavily into GLD.

[mom cat]

37. Can you actually own gold or just pieces of paper that say that someone

somewhere has your gold?

[rockymountaindem]

43. Now is not a good time

The Euro is going down and the USD is going up. The Euro has taken a beating since the failure of the European Constitution a few months ago.

OTOH, the weak Dollar policy being pursued by the Bush administration will probably forstall any major Dollar gains, so maybe is the time to buy while the Euro is low.

*Warning* This free advice is worth exactly what you paid for it.

[longship]

16. If OPEC switches, and China switches, and...

Oooopsie daisy....

Well, I work for a Canadian company. Maybe they'll pay me in Canadian dollars.

[Deja Q]

18. Well, if they care about money then they will. It's just business.

Nothing personal, of course.

[DemInDistress]

20. Iran will be accepting Euros for oil come January.

Saddam dumped the dollar in 2000 and look where it got him,also Hugo
Chavez halted trading oil for dollars and he was almost dead !!This
Bush Crime Family wont tolerate dumping the dollar.....

[YapiYapo]

23. Iran oil bourse = March 2006 not january (NT)

[Egalitariat]

17. Bah! The first rule of shorting is to spread the word

and hope a bunch of sheep follow you, thus making your investment pay off.

It's an activity he can engage in w/o worrying about insider trading rules.

If he'd have done it 24 months ago, he'd have made a bundle. He's probably a day late, and (here it comes) a dollar short.

[swag]

40. You're right. If he did make his bet in January, when he actually

made this statement, he has lost himself some money between then and now - the dollar has actually strengthened substantially against the Euro.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

22. Is the devalued dollar one of the reasons for high oil prices?

In that case, Bush might bear some of the responsibility, to the extent that his fiscal and trade policies have contributed to the dollar's decline. I keep hearing conservative spin that the price of gas is not Bush's fault.

[swag]

41. The dollar has actually gone up against the Euro, not down,

since Gates made this statement last January (not yesterday).

The value of the dollar has a big impact on the price of imports, but the the dollar has gotten stronger, not weaker since Gates proclaimed that he was "shorting" it.

[girl gone mad]

26. This is nothing new. Gates has said he is short on the dollar...

for quite some time now.

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aO.Rl7JwFWy8&refer=news_index

[swag]

42. Bingo. This is nothing new at all, because the linked blogger's post

was based on precisely the quote you linked. Gates said this last January, not this week, as the linked blogger falsely implied. And the dollar has gone up, not down, to Gates' detriment.

[K8-EEE]

27. Honestly I Don't Think It's Unpatriotic

to not bet on the dollar or US economy when we see that Bush is just totally gutting and destroying it.

I've been thinking of ways to move my money out of harm's way. I wish I could have faith in our economy but I think it would be blind faith, when you look at the policies of GWB and the results of same.

[ultraist]

28. Didn't George Sorros say something similiar? n/t

[Lasher]

30. Here's a similar message string

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5112198

[ultraist]

32. Thanks! n/t

[stevietheman]

33. And herein lies Bush's unspoken rationale for attacking Iran...

Iran will be starting its new oil bourse (stock market) next year, and they will begin trading in euros instead of dollars. And this will cause further slippage of the dollar.

[AntiFascist]

35. and there you have it, one of the main reasons we are in the ME nt

[swag]

34. That Bill Gates quote to Charlie Rose is from January.

I'm curious as to whether Bill is going shorter on the dollar. Google News doesn't pop anything up.

His January bet, though rational, hasn't served him too well so far.

On edit: The dollar was at $1.3038/euro when Gates made his January 28, 2005 announcement at Davos. It's now at $1.1992/euro. In other words, the dollar has gotten quite a bit stronger. So if Gates' bet has been constant, he has lost a bit of money.

As US interest rates rise, the dollar is seen as a "higher yield" currency, and foreign bond investors who seek yield will need to buy dollars to buy US bonds. That's one thing that's firming up the dollar these days, massive global imbalances notwithstanding.

[indepat]

36. A weaker dollar, economy, stock market, and job market make us stronger

and so much safer.

[swag]

38. How funny. The blogger deleted a comment that corrected mistakes.

Not only did Bill Gates say those thing on January 28, 2005 (not October 18, 2005), but the dollar has gone up, not down, since this blogger's allegedly prescient forecast.

Who is this blogger? This person leaving that very mistaken post up on her/his site, while deleting corrective comments, is shredding her/his credibility.

This doesn't belong on the "greatest" page. Not by a damn site.