Dollar has biggest weekly loss ever - how can it stop?

Oldman answered 10 months ago …

Actually, the countries that currently have some of the best "balance of trade" are in the category considered emerging markets, with commodities sought by China and developed nations. I don't agree with MNSL, above...the U,S. dollar has been weakened by excessive debt and borrowing by the Fed and private citizens over the past 20 years. The increase in M3 (total funds) far outpaced productivity. I expect the purchasing power of the dollar for U.S. citizens to decline, especially for daily necessities: food, gasoline;infrastructural repairs; clean water and other civic support.

Let me add a small critique of an area where I have a generation's experience: Education--

The educational system is a shambles, with a focus on testing, but an absence of appropriate feedback to the individual learners... students aren't informed what level of test items they didn't perform well on: was it recall, discrimination, integration, evaluation, across the topics tested. So, the principal may have some idea of how student X compares with student Y, but none of them have a clue as to what type of exercise or work is required to improve performancefor a particular student. And this goes from kindergarten through graduate schools ... item analyses are performed by test designers to validate the test, but qualitative feedback/training is absent. Then schools are rated, and teachers paid or punished by a vague system.

So, statistically, it appears as though socioeconomic and family involvement have overweighted values for educational success. Let me tell you, picking up a hot handle, getting urine in your shoe or dust in your eye, gives you immediate feedback ...and you learn! Not some vague peer ranking system many days, digestive periods and sleep cycles since the anxiety-ridden test began.

Yeah, I know they practice and take tutoring/test-taking skills courses ... but if you're reading without comprehension, coloring the text (or copying it to an e-mail) isn't putting the concept in your head, and without an appropiate - and immediate challenge - how can you tell if you've mastered the idea?

It's also a mistake to expect all to perform at some level/age; some may need a year or two or time off, before they can reach the next step ... that's the nature of the heterogeneity of humanity. Some are slower to swim, but excel at catching or running; some 7 -yr old's can master the violin ... others can barely complete a sentence. With computerized assessment and training, a lot of skills (simulations) can be evaluated. 25 years ago, it was extremely expensive, but today, with a WII or xbox360, one can do this kind of evaluation in a non threatening way, vs fill in the ovals on a Scantron answer sheet.

Finally, asking students to tell you what they've learned (in a course or a day's work) is not nearly as illuminating as asking them to Show what they've learned.