US dollar still strong inspite of recession: Obama

Washington, Mar 23: Defending his Treasury secretary, Timothy F Geithner, President Barack Obama has said that the global economic recession has not made the US dollar as weak as is being made out to be. But he warned that excessive borrowing and high deficits could weaken the Treasury Bill demand.

In an interview with '60 Minutes' on CBS, Obama said that he is yet to take a firm position on the bill, and was not alarmed about whether the bill would be seen as constitutional or not.

"I think that, as a general proposition, you don't want to be passing laws that are just targeting a handful of individuals. I think you certainly don't want to use the tax code to punish people," the New York Times quoted the President , as saying.

He added: "I think you've got a pretty egregious situation here that people are understandably upset about. And so let's see if there are ways of doing this that are both legal, that are constitutional, that uphold our basic principles of fairness, but don't hamper us from getting the banking system back on track."

"The dollar is still strong because people are still buying Treasury bills. They still think that's the safest investment out there," Obama said.

ANI