The American dollar takes a fall.

[hoverfly]

For many years now I have noticed many things about this round of economic growth that put a big question mark in my mind, how!?! Well now we know, but now after the boom went bust we have the falling of the dollar, actually the dollar falling have been going for some time now how has that affected others around the world? Discuss.

[Dr. Shoe]

The falling dollar owes much to the fact that some countries are now trading oil in Euros, which incidently, is what Saddam Hussein was threatening to do before the invasion.

[Amanda]

Well, I've noticed that it's cheaper than chips to go shopping or on vacation in the US now. I wonder how long it will be until the US changes over to Euros?

[Marcus]

I wonder how long it will be until the US changes over to Euros?

Lol, it would be kinda... comic...

[HeelD]

The weaker dollar has made it great for us when we visit the US. We get to shop and eat for a lot less than we would in the UK. Let me just say...it's made shoe shopping quite a less painful experience for myself. It's the opposite for US citizens coming over here though!

[Britana]

*Begin tounge-in-cheek patriotism* America on Euros - rofl rofl rofl. We are far to stubborn and ignorant to ever go there! Certainly you know what's good for the rest of the world is not good for US! *End that rant* More seriously, much of my business comes from outside the US. When the dollar falls, I get a lot more work since my customers/clients can buy more of my time for less of their currency. When the dollar rises, there's usually strong economics in the US that benefit investment. So, I win both sides of that! On my most recent trip to Europe, I did wonder how everyone there can afford to live though! Looking forward to seeing you all here in heels! Brit.

[Dr. Shoe]

I can't see the US adopting Euros, I mean we're not going to do anytime soon so why should the Americans! LOL On a more serious note, I can see Euros eventually replacing the Dollar as the standard currency against which all others are compared.

[Firefox]

The Dollar is going to take a further hit against sterling because of the drop in interest rate, but it's likely we'll have to drop the UK rate to lessen possible recession, so it's only a temporary situation I'd agree the Euro is likely to take over as the most important world currency. It now has a much broader international and financial base behind it. If Britain ever joined the Euro, that would be another nail in the coffin for the dollar.

[Amanda]

I think the US Euro should have the queens head printed on it.

[Pumps]

I think the US Euro should have the queens head printed on it.

Which Queen ?

[Dr. Shoe]

Elton John probably!

[BoyLegs]

The falling dollar owes much to the fact that some countries are now trading oil in Euros, which incidently, is what Saddam Hussein was threatening to do before the invasion.

Actually kind of the other way 'round, but still on track.

The dollar has been the world currency not only for oil trading, but also for world finance. That means that we Yanks pay interest on our debt in dollars. So if we print more dollars (technically, increase the money supply through open market operations), then we get to pay our interest in cheaper dollars. Neat trick, no? Bet you wish your country could do that!

However, the rest of the world isn't stupid. They know that we have printed our way out of every debt going back to the Civil War. The US government, irrespective of what party is in power, fears the replacement of the dollar with the euro as the world currency, which would mean that the dollar would lose its privileged position and the US government would be accountable to the rest of the world for its inflationary policies. Over the past 15 years, the Federal Reserve has walked a careful tightrope in setting expectations of the balance it would strike between fighting inflation and stimulating the domestic economy. The dollar is much more likely to be used as a creative financing tool of a government than is the euro.

Similarly, if you run an oil-producing nation, and you raise prices, the price-based inflation you provoke will lead you to be paid in cheaper dollars. There will be some of these pressures on the euro, but it appears that the German central bank will act to mitigate them, and it will be the politicians' problem to deal with the contraction that will result. So why wouldn't you want to price your oil in Euros? Iran also is threatening to do this. Saudi Arabia uses the implied threat as a policy lever to extract what it wants from the US. But the dollar isn't falling because of the threat of its replacement as a world currency; the threat of replacing the dollar as a world currency is arising because everyone knows our government will manage the dollar for its own purposes.

[Dr. Shoe]

Indeed and that is a problem with a "onesize fits all" monetary policy. Whilst it provides other countries with a much more stable benchmark for a trading currency it does little to help the states withing the financial mechanism. The US has been built as a federation from the ground up so to speak so the individual states have grown and developed in parallel, same language, same customs and to a large extent the same legal system since 1776. In Europe however this is not true. Until about 1900, if you went just as far as the Netherlands you would find yourself in a land so strange that that country has become a prefix for strangeness (we seem to have picked on the Dutch in this respect). Therefore we as a continent have all developed our own cultures and custome which makes monetary harmony difficult. This is good news for Europe's trading partners because they have a much less volatile currency to deal with. Who wants to do a multi-billion dollar deal for a consignment of goods just to see the dollar slump? With Euros it is just as likely to rise as it is to fall and if it does the movement will be comparatively small. You will find soon that foriedn producers like the Chinese for example will either be agreeing prices in their own currencies or in Euros making dollars an irrelevance. Even market traders in Jerusalem are starting to accept Euros now when it was just Shekels, Dollars or Sterling before.

[Britana]

The dollar shall rule forever - can do THIS with a Euro!

http://www.giladorigami.com/P_High_Heel_Yamaguchi.JPG

[Britana]

Boo to no hot linking. Here it is - I hope!

[Ilikespikes]

Yes, the good old USA really sucks; please send transportation for the illegal douche bags that are here and let them go back to the shit hole of a country they came from...

[hoverfly]

Oy!! that not so political corect now is it?

Any way don't worry about it to much, many are going back do to new illegal immigration rules with business and the weak economy as well of the weak dolor.

Yes, the good old USA really sucks; please send transportation for the illegal douche bags that are here and let them go back to the shit hole of a country they came from...

[BoyLegs]

Yes, the good old USA really sucks; please send transportation for the illegal douche bags that are here and let them go back to the shit hole of a country they came from...

If the people coming to this country illegally were blond and blue-eyed, the citizenry would have no problem whatsoever with their presence here among.

[Ilikespikes]

...what part of illegal don't people get? Calling an illegal alien an "undocumented worker" is like calling a drug dealer an "unlicensed pharmacist". If you're stealing from the citizens of the US (taxpayers) we do have a problem with you wether blond, brunette, redhead, light skinned, dark skinned, or anything in between...

[Dr. Shoe]

A lot of illegals don't actually sponge off the state. When I lived in Arizona I was technically an illegal but my father (who wasn't and has a green card) was earning more than enough to keep us... I guess you're referring to people who are invited in by unscrupulous bosses to work in sweat shops at $2.50 per hour...

[Ilikespikes]

...no, I'm referring to the ones who get free medical, section 8 subsidized housing, food stamps, earned income credit (even though they don't pay income taxes), bilingual printed matter, their children get free school breakfast and lunch, bilingual teachers and books, they get relief from high energy bills, if they are or become aged, blind or cripple they qualify for SSI (and never put a damn penny into it), and once they qualify for SSI they can get Medicaid too. They usually have fake ID's, don't have a valid license, don't worry about paying insurance either! Add up all the benefits (even if they're slave labor as you imply) they are making $30 to $40 an hour. I personally don't want to buy the world a Coke and live in perfect harmony or sit around a campfire and sing goom-by-yah either. If you do, go ahead, it's your (country's) funeral...

[Dr. Shoe]

...no, I'm referring to the ones who get free medical, section 8 subsidized housing, food stamps, earned income credit (even though they don't pay income taxes), bilingual printed matter, their children get free school breakfast and lunch, bilingual teachers and books, they get relief from high energy bills, if they are or become aged, blind or cripple they qualify for SSI (and never put a damn penny into it), and once they qualify for SSI they can get Medicaid too. They usually have fake ID's, don't have a valid license, don't worry about paying insurance either! Add up all the benefits (even if they're slave labor as you imply) they are making $30 to $40 an hour.

I personally don't want to buy the world a Coke and live in perfect harmony or sit around a campfire and sing goom-by-yah either. If you do, go ahead, it's your (country's) funeral...

Well unless your country has completely screwed up, they don't. ECONOMIC MIGRANTS get these things but illegals don't - at least that's the way it is in the UK...

[hoverfly]

UImmigration issues really don't play directly to the falling of the dollar, U.S. Governments failure to pass and enforce immigration laws before 9/11 that the issue, so do me a favor stay with the topic please.

[Guy N. Heels]

Now for the shocker! There is no such thing as a dollar! It is a total figment of the Federal Reserve's imagination and has been foisted upon both the US and the world for as long as the Federal Reserve has been in control of America's money supply. It is backed by nothing. Therefore, it is worth whatever the Federal Reserve says it is worth and if you don't like that you can take your dollars to any American bank where they will be replaced with more "funny money" that looks exactly like what you turned in. Ain't it great?

[BoyLegs]

Now for the shocker!

There is no such thing as a dollar! It is a total figment of the Federal Reserve's imagination and has been foisted upon both the US and the world for as long as the Federal Reserve has been in control of America's money supply. It is backed by nothing. Therefore, it is worth whatever the Federal Reserve says it is worth and if you don't like that you can take your dollars to any American bank where they will be replaced with more "funny money" that looks exactly like what you turned in.

Ain't it great?

Well, we tried having currency backed in gold a hundred years ago. When we got situations like this, a big line forms to redeem currency for gold, the central bank sees the gold shooting out of the vault and revokes the promise to redeem. Thus the currency degenerates to fiat money in the end.

Actually, the dollar is not technically worth what the Fed says it is. It is worth what other people will give you for it. If no one believed in the dollar, you wouldn't be able to trade with it at all, regardless of what the Fed says. If you don't like what the Fed says, your recourse is to not accept dollars, which is what the oil-producing nations are proposing to do.

A story: During the German 1923 hyperinflation, a guy was standing on line with his goods to purchase and his wheelbarrow full of marks. While he was waiting to get to the register, the store repriced all the goods (stores would reprice at least once a day at this time) and he now needed to have more money. So he figured, "no one is going to steal all this money; it's worthless." He left the wheelbarrow full of money at the store and ran home to get more. When he returned, he found out how right he was: the money was in a heap on the floor and the wheelbarrow was gone.

[JNR]

Now for the shocker!

There is no such thing as a dollar! It is a total figment of the Federal Reserve's imagination and has been foisted upon both the US and the world for as long as the Federal Reserve has been in control of America's money supply. It is backed by nothing. Therefore, it is worth whatever the Federal Reserve says it is worth and if you don't like that you can take your dollars to any American bank where they will be replaced with more "funny money" that looks exactly like what you turned in.

Ain't it great?

Yes, but other than mining your own gold, what can you do about it. We're all trapped and, as the old saying goes, none of us are ever going to get our of this world alive," So, I guess we'll all have to live at the whims of those in charge of such things.

[sendra45]

Okay everybody, whilst this thread lends its self to the kinds of posts already made, can we please keep it on topic, relevant and polite without slagging each others countries off? The subject will affect us all, not just those of you that live in the US, please try to keep things polite. Thanks, Nigel (in Moderator mode)

[hoverfly]

Yes the dollar is based on Faith, however an economy really dictates how strong it is.

[Dr. Shoe]

Well, we tried having currency backed in gold a hundred years ago. When we got situations like this, a big line forms to redeem currency for gold, the central bank sees the gold shooting out of the vault and revokes the promise to redeem. Thus the currency degenerates to fiat money in the end.

Actually, the dollar is not technically worth what the Fed says it is. It is worth what other people will give you for it. If no one believed in the dollar, you wouldn't be able to trade with it at all, regardless of what the Fed says. If you don't like what the Fed says, your recourse is to not accept dollars, which is what the oil-producing nations are proposing to do.

A story: During the German 1923 hyperinflation, a guy was standing on line with his goods to purchase and his wheelbarrow full of marks. While he was waiting to get to the register, the store repriced all the goods (stores would reprice at least once a day at this time) and he now needed to have more money. So he figured, "no one is going to steal all this money; it's worthless." He left the wheelbarrow full of money at the store and ran home to get more. When he returned, he found out how right he was: the money was in a heap on the floor and the wheelbarrow was gone.

Actually, that's an urban myth. There were no recorded instances of anyone ever carrying marks around in wheelbarrows. This arises from a Nazi party propaganda poster showing a line of people doing just that.

As far as Dollar value goes it is worthless, but so is EVERYTHING! You can only sell goods for a price that people are prepared to pay for them, supply and demand. If everybody on the planet worked for free then you wouldn't have to pay for anything because 100% of what goods cost is labour... All prices are relative, there was a time when here in the UK you could fill your car up with fuel for a pound but in those days a weekly wage was £10-15, on other words a tenth of your salary. Now it will cost you around £60 with an average salary of about £400 (15%). Is it that petrol's gone up faster than wages or is that wages have gone up slower than petrol? Economists say that only Mars Bars are constant so everything should be compared to Mars Bars. Cheese for example has gone up but potatoes have gone down...

[Guy N. Heels]

Yes the dollar is based on Faith, however an economy really dictates how strong it is.

"Daktaris? You a wanta pay me in republica credits? That'sa no good. I gotta have something more real!" - Watto to Quigon when he was trying to purchase parts for his spaceship.