Many articles have been written recently about the state of American influence abroad. The President is said to have gotten little in his recent G20 trip to Asia and the Chinese are deaf to our currency admonitions. According to pundits, America’s influence in the world hasn’t been so low in years. Many disagree- their argument is that a country that can borrow almost unlimited amounts of money at essentially zero interest rates is still the world power they always were. But stamp dealers have a simpler philatelic measure to gauge America’s standing in the world. We call it the USSGO ratio(US Stamps Going Overseas). The theory is simple-foreign buyers increase their purchases of United States stamps when they perceive that America is strong and its economy is poised for greater growth. And the index has just reached a new high. Scores of new buyers from Asia, Europe and South America have spent lots of new money buying US stamps in our sales in recent weeks. Admittedly, this is unscientific and the sample is small (and the peer review is solely anecdotal). But the logic is sound. Collectors buy stamps that they think will go up in value and Foreign buyers often have faith in our economy even before we do. It has happened several times before. Our opinion is that the economy is humming much better than the current numbers indicate and that by early next year the recovery should have touched many more Americans than it has today.
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