James R. Thompson, Executive Editor
Cracks in the relative stability of the past decade are evident everywhere. Russia and China are talking about denominating petroleum purchases in something other than the U.S. dollar. The euro is in trouble because of various member countries' debt problems. The U.S. dollar's long-term dominance in trade is in trouble because of the enormous U.S. debt. China keeps dancing around letting their currency float. OPEC is talking about denominating oil sales in a basket of currencies.
For the international trade in pulp and paper, all this portends problems. For companies heavily involved in international trade, their entire executive staffs might spend a disproportionate amount of time focused on this subject. Their balance sheets might not reflect real operational results as they are heavily laden with exchange rate footnotes.
Currency will be the topic of the year, manifest in many different ways.
Currency will be the topic of the year, manifest in many different ways.