"Devaluing the dollar will make our goods and services cheaper [You are right about that part Bobert but only cheaper for foreingers paying with something other than dollars] and therefore take a bite out of our trade deficit" True but folks in the US will see higher prices cause it will take more of their dollars to buy the same stuff.

Like oil [gasoline]. oil is priced in dollars. The price of oil is an indicator of the value of the dollar. Same thing for gold.

If you were a farmer selling his wheat it would be worth more dollars because suddenly foreign people can buy it cheaper.

There is a whole industry called Forex where people like Boss Hogg Soros are buying and selling different currencies as they revalue and devalue. They can affect the values of the currencies and run a country's currency into the ground while they rake in billions.

average daily turnover in global foreign exchange markets is estimated at $3.98 trillion, as of April 2010

On Black Wednesday (September 16, 1992), Soros's fund sold short more than $10 billion worth of pounds sterling, profiting from the Bank of England's reluctance to either raise its interest rates to levels comparable to those of other European Exchange Rate Mechanism countries or to float its currency.

Finally, the Bank of England withdrew the currency from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, devaluing the pound sterling, and Soros earned an estimated US$ 1.1 billion in the process. He was dubbed "the man who broke the Bank of England." In 1997, the UK Treasury estimated the cost of Black Wednesday at £3.4 billion.

The Times of Monday, October 26, 1992, quoted Soros as saying: "Our total position by Black Wednesday had to be worth almost $10 billion. We planned to sell more than that. In fact, when Norman Lamont said just before the devaluation that he would borrow nearly $15 billion to defend sterling, we were amused because that was about how much we wanted to sell."

Stanley Druckenmiller, who traded under Soros, originally saw the weakness in the pound. "Soros' contribution was pushing him to take a gigantic position."

In 1997, during the Asian financial crisis, then Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad accused Soros of using the wealth under his control to punish ASEAN for welcoming Myanmar as a member. Soros has denied Mahathir's accusations. The nominal US dollar GDP of ASEAN fell by US$9.2 billion in 1997 and $218.2 billion (31.7%) in 1998.

What is needed to cure the trade deficit is to start making things in the US again and tell the Chinese, up yours.

But ya got people that would rather spend $20 for a Chinese drill than $50 for an American made one. They will talk about buying American made stuff and supporting the Unions but when nobody is lookin' they slip on down to the Harbor Freight tool store.