U.S. Business Economic Forecast Summary 2005

U.S. Business Economic Forecast Summary 2005:
Interest Rates, Oil, Gold and Inflation All Rise Together
By Benjamin Train
Online Consultancy Network

Gold is a highly controlled investment vehicle aligned with U.S. investment Currency, however its value or price, is also tied to inflation. We will see 2005 as the year of oil, Gold and inflation. Defense sector business investments will also outpace inflation.

2005 will be a year of moderate growth for the U.S. based, small business sector. Massive public and private debt, coupled with massive national broad-based unemployment, and high costs, will undermine many in the small business sector.

Business priorities for 2005, will remain governed by: streamlined business processes, mergers, buyouts, layoffs, measurable productivity, customer service pressures, moderate return on capital investments, and a highly skilled workforce with the agility to adapt to opportunities presented in business.

Outsourced business processes, manufacturing, and IT job functions, coupled with intensified collaboration with; offshore suppliers, and strategic business advisors, will be the norm for most of this year. Increased energy and fuel costs will be evident most of this year.

During the fourth quarter of 2005, we will see marked increases in both inflation and unemployment. The first half of 2005 would be a good time to cut costs and build cash reserves.

Dollar's Steep Decline Adding to U.S. Tensions Abroad.

Dollar Under Fire from All Sides
Reuters - Thursday March 10, 2005 11:37 am ET
By Jamie McGeever and Nick Olivari

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The dollar extended its slide against most currencies on Thursday on concerns over global central bank reserve diversification, a widening U.S. trade deficit and this week's dive in bond.

Having slumped to multi-month lows against its major counterparts on Wednesday, the dollar suffered another blow on Thursday after Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told parliament that, generally speaking, diversity in foreign exchange reserves was a good thing...

Read the entire article at Yahoo! Finance News:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=580&e=1&u=/nm/20050310/bs_nm/markets_forex_dc

Economist: China Loses Faith in Dollar
Associated Press
Wednesday January 26, 2005 4:37 pm ET
By Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press Writer
China Has Lost Faith in Stability of U.S. Dollar, Top Chinese Economist Says at World Forum

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) -- China has lost faith in the stability of the U.S. dollar and its first priority is to broaden the exchange rate for its currency from the dollar to a more flexible basket of currencies, a top Chinese economist said Wednesday at the World Economic Forum.

At a standing-room only session focusing on the world's fastest-growing economy, Fan Gang, director of the National Economic Research Institute at the China Reform Foundation, said the issue for China isn't whether to devalue the yuan but "to limit it from the U.S. dollar."

Read the entire article at Yahoo! Finance News:
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/050126/world_forum_china_5.html

U.S. Faces More Tensions Abroad as Dollar Slides
By DAVID E. SANGER
Published: January 25, 2005
This article was reported by David E. Sanger, Mark Landler and Keith Bradsher and written by Mr. Sanger., New York Times

WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 - After a first term in which terrorism and war dominated President Bush's foreign policy agenda, his allies in Europe and Asia suspect that his next confrontation with the world could take on a very different cast: a potential currency crisis, in which a steep plunge in the value of the dollar touches off economic waves around the world.

Read the entire article at the New York Times:
Dollar's Steep Slide Adding to Tensions U.S. Faces Abroad.