If you are of the mind that the American economy can't falter much worse than it already has, does that make a case for investing in the dollar right now? I would tend to think so. A weak dollar that has been mercilessly pinned against the floor for so long looks mighty appealing to me right now. The big questions are, how long shall this domestic economic sluggishness continue and what, if anything, are the growing industrial economies willing to do about it? If the undeniable rule of buy low and sell high applies to the dollar as with any other investment, someone is going to start scooping these greenbacks up in large chunks as their value bottoms out.

The World Bank suggests that oil prices shall decline to the middle 70's this year, giving a needed reprieve to currencies the world over. They also envision upwards of 3% economic growth globally for 2008 and history shows that growing economies have always hungered for American consumer dollars. Couple these factors with the reality that phantom value is finally being painfully peeled away from the American economic landscape and you have a recipe for a return to real economic growth here at home.

I've pointed offshore for the past two quarters when discussing my perspective on safety in short term investment, yet one cannot deny that we're still fairly strong here at home. Let no one claim that the dollar has met its doom. I'm expecting some very heartening economic news as we go through Q2 '08, and I might suggest being poised to grasp a dollar that could rebound remarkably then.

Where are those three people who still think that Ben Bernanke has any idea what he's doing? I'd really like to talk to them. Can't they tell when a professional is taking random shots in the dark? Can't they tell when they're being led by a blind man?

Let me ask you this: if you were having trouble with your car and your mechanic tried the same repair six times but still didn't fix it, would you go to him a seventh time for the same repair or would you try another solution?

It's really not all that difficult to figure out when someone is leading you down the garden path, and it's even less difficult to know when someone is just guessing at solutions. In this case I don't think that Ben Bernanke is doing either. I truly believe that the man is completely mired in 1950s-style economic thinking and, bless his heart, the poor fellow doesn't realize that the world has changed around him.

There's much speculation today about the possibility of yet another interest rate reduction by the Federal Reserve. Some people indicate they think another rate cut would be a good thing. Pardon me while I ask: Are they nuts?

The dollar is already devalued to the point that our trading partners are getting edgy about their export values, and you can forget about foreign investors sticking their money into American companies to help spur development. Low level municipal bond issues could soon become a thing of the past, and that concept of placing money into conventional savings accounts? Yeah okay, I'll get right on that.

Jim Cramer sings a gloom and doom song about 7 million home owners becoming renters, and declares that the nation will be required to swallow $500 billion in losses. He alludes to a wholesale crumbling of major banks. I see no mention in his blog about possible alternate solutions to the trouble that sloppy bankers have caused themselves. Personally, I don't think that ruining the dollar with yet another round of artificially created economic stimulation based on cheap credit is a good long-term solution for our country, although it might allow some of those sloppy bankers another breather before they have to face the music. The thinking that cheap bank credit will help the economy by infusing borrowed money into the stock market and loosening up spending habits is nothing short of a sucker's bet.

Will an interest rate cut by the Fed on Tuesday cause the housing market to change gears? Can a quarter point or even a half point reduction in the base interest rate reinvigorate an economy that's been limping along for the last three quarters? Would our nation's bankers have reason to smile if their cost to borrow declined just a bit?

Don't make me laugh.

At the risk of causing my photo to be placed on a milk carton, I'm going on record as stating my opinion that we need another half point increase in the cost of borrowing in order to gain some manner of control over our current liquidity crisis. This nation's economy is going through something similar to the flight of a flak riddled B52 bomber, on fire with three engines shut down. Yeah, it'll still fly but it's not real graceful and it looks like hell from ground level.

Perhaps keeping interest rates high and tight will place temporary restrictions on overall growth but we need to get a handle on debt and we need to rethink our strategy for maintaining our national economic health. Additionally, when interest rates climb a bit, savings rates climb also as do the activities of foreign investors. Besides, who's calling the current interest rates unacceptable? When I bought my first home, interest rates for a 30-year, fixed-rate home mortgage were running at about 12 percent.