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The U.S. dollar’s value is dropping so fast against the euro that small currency outlets in Amsterdam are turning away tourists seeking to sell their dollars for local money while on vacation in the Netherlands.
“Our dollar is worth maybe zero over here,” said Mary Kelly, an American tourist from Indianapolis, Indiana, in front of the Anne Frank house. “It’s hard to find a place to exchange. We have to go downtown, to the central station or post office.”
That’s because the smaller currency exchanges — despite buy/sell spreads that make it easier for them to make money by exchanging small amounts of currency — don’t want to be caught holding dollars that could be worth less by the time they can sell them.
Been a long time since I travelled to Europe. I’d buy travelers cheques in euros before I headed out.
When I travel to Europe I just use my debit card in an ATM to get Euros.
Yep, Just use your ATM or Visa card and the $$translations take care of themselves.
Herbert Hoover and George Bush are going down in history as the most clueless presidents we have had in modern times.
Just looked on a currency site. The Euro is gaining on both the dollar and the pound.
I did.
when price was 96 yen to dollar.
now it is 99 yen so made almost 3% in few days.
I think it should be 105 yen soon, so will make a lot on rise.
Question, is it all bad news? We complain all the time about loosing jobs overseas, etc.
“A weak dollar can be good for the U.S. economy, because it makes American exports cheaper and, therefore, helps close the trade deficit.”…”A weak dollar is also good news for American manufacturers. Their products are now less expensive, so they can sell more. That’s why companies such as Boeing and Caterpillar like a weak dollar. It’s also why many economists like it: As these big U.S. manufacturers sell more, the U.S. trade deficit shrinks.”
http://tinyurl.com/33odf
#6–Ah Yea===true but very dumb. We don’t manufacture enough to offset the trade imbalance nor the dollar devaluation.
Tell me the story about how its good when your house burns down because you save money on heating oil.
““It’s hard to find a place to exchange. We have to go downtown, to the central station or post office.””
Maybe it’s hard for morons… Just go to an ATM and withdraw euros
#8, bobbo, how do you know we don’t have the capacity to manufacture enough? If the dollar continues to devalue, then at some time it becomes less expensive to manufacture here than overseas.
I have personally investigated manufacturing opportunities both here and in China, and for certain machined items it actually is less expensive to produce them here than having them made in China and shipped. For example, two shops using Haas CNC mills, one here in the US and one in China were tasked with making a particular part. The shop in China was cheaper by about $5.00, but by the time we factored in shipping, time in transit, storage, insuring the shipment, etc. it actually costs ~$2.00 more!
Our situation will improve with a weakened dollar. The existing shops here in the US are by and large working far under their capacity, with many using their machines for only 1 or 2 shifts.
So yes, we can live in a nice warm house. The vast trade deficit was the fire, and most couldn’t even see the smoke.
#9 – I don’t give investment advice.
#11 – but, for manufacturing? After more than a couple of decades at sourcing. Using CNC machines, I’d go to Germany. There are good reasons why they’re still the #1 exporting country.
Cripes, we’re babbling in the states about retraining unemployed steel workers as short order cooks. China and Germany both just fired up brand new steel mills.
#12 And there building a new steel mill in Arkansas USA. What’s your point?
well
I’ve been in the market for a few new lenses for my Camera. I’ll be going to San Francisco in 10 days… it’s getting cheaper by the hour!
pj
“Change dollars” ???
“Traveller’s cheques”
What millenium are you people living in. Please! No doubt you’re not using the ATM’s because you cant understand the language. I saw this in Uruguay this year and it was really pathetic. Some morons could not understand why there was a sign saying RedCaja instead of ATM. I overheard and say that it means “NetworkCash” in Spanish and that Automatic Teller Machine would be abreviated as MDA in Spanish, or whatever, but no one uses that. The guy from California said “well I’ve travelled all around and I always ask for ATM and they always know what I mean.” Idiot, where’s your traveller’s cheques, I’ll change them for you.
Well, the dollar got stronger by 2% against the pound, so it isn’t all bad
If you think this currency devaluation is bad wait until the foreigners stop buying our Treasure Bills. Then the crap will surely hit the rotary oscillator. You can’t run a war or a country on empty IOUs.
Oil is bought with Euros, not the US Dollar. Hence the run on Euros.
#18 – Really? What week did that change?
The problem with the “it makes US exports cheaper” theory is that almost everything made in the US today uses at least parts, raw materials, energy, or some-such that are made or aquired overseas. Thus, as the dollar weakens, the cost of much of what is needed to make such “USA made” items is going up, raising the price of the USA Made item itself.
#19. The UAE went Euro, some time around January.
I think that Iran when Euro not to long ago (last month?). If Saudi Arabia and Venezuela peg their oil to the Euro things will get bad fast. If I remember correctly a lot of Americas imported oil comes from Venezuela.
A weak currency is beneficial to the economy… yeah… if you are some third world country, with laughably low paying jobs, high unemployment and no infrastructure or social services.
If devaluing money is so great, then Germany in the 1930’s should have been a roaring success.
And not only is our money being devalued, but our credit worthiness is highly suspect, net worth is dropping precipitously, job creation has consisted almost exclusively of low paying service sector jobs, national manufacturing is waaaaaaaaay down compared to 20 years ago.
Under the Bush administration, (maybe we should call it Republican rule) the average job growth has been about 4.25%, which is the lowest since WW2. No administration has created less jobs than the Bush / Republican administration. Net income when adjusted for inflation has dropped by over $1200 per capita. Personal and national debt has TRIPLED in just eight years.
The new slogan for the government under Republican rule should be “Impeachable Incomptence”. There is not ONE single area where the Republicans have shown any success under their rule. None. Zero. Nothing.
So what do they do to make things right… they bail out Bear-Stearns for $30 Billion of your tax-payer dollars… the same Bear-Stearns that gave 2.1 Billion dollars out in bonuses in 2006. Why are Republicans not screaming bloody murder over this? Where are the inquiries, criminal charges, calls for accountability.
Or they give $150 Billion in tax rebates, expecting people to buy more goods that are not produced in America. Brilliant. Instead of investing in American jobs, they give out free money to appease the idiotic masses.
So far this month… $260 Billion to bail out completely unaccountable rich bankers… but not once extra cent to invest in America itself, Republicans asking for cutbacks in services and infrastructure instead. 30 Billion over 5 years to add medical care to several million children… nooooo… that might hurt insurance companies.
Republicans: what you have done to this country is nothing sort of disgusting, and the way that you stick to your ‘dogma’ when presented with reality is much closer to mental illness than you realize. Leave your dogma behind for a while and start to hold those that YOU elected to office accountable for once. “Be men” for a change.
This all reminds me of watching Silicon Spin back in the days of ZDTV/TechTV, with Dvorak’s guests telling him he was crazy to insist that the fundamentals still applied.
“No, it’s the NEW ECONOMY” they would insist, implying that the insanity could (and no doubt would) continue on an upward spiral forever. Then we found out that pyramid schemes don’t last forever — if you don’t actually make any money, you will eventually go broke. (Who knew? Not these guys.)
Now the decades of policies that weaken our economic standing are leaving us in a situation in which all the short-term strategies for buoying the economy are all played out and the ‘chickens are coming home to roost’ as the old saying goes.
I don’t care whether it’s the New Economy or whatever term is in favor these days, in the end, the fundamentals matter and your profligacy will come back and bite you in the ass.
The nuts who started squawking about buying gold when it hit $400 are starting to look a lot more perspicacious these days….
#23 – YOU ARE 100% RIGHT!!!!
#23
$260 Billion! Welfare for the rich. Makes you sick.
this situation tells the Americans that there is always a price to pay when you meddle in affairs of other countries. There is always a price to pay for policing the world.
#27
Policing ???
If only…
Pretty soon the prime rate will drop to negative numbers and they will be paying us to borrow money.
>tongue in cheek
When supermodels, rap “artists” and a tech writer are pontificating about the weak US dollar, I take that as a shoeshine boy moment.
You might be interested in this: Collapse of the American dollar in as little as 24 hours:
http://tinyurl.com/326dpu
“The American Economy appears to be deteriorating. I assume that the Bush administration will take steps to tackle the present problems, but the country as a whole seems to be extremely nonchalant about the so-called twin deficits: budget and trade.
The U.S. inflation situation might well become an even more chronic phenomenon. Economic growth without inflation is ideal, whereas endless inflation might well bring the dollar’s value to the level of trash. This, in turn will make European and Japanese assets trash since sizable asset of both are in U.S. dollars.
Both the Europeans and the Japanese cannot sit idly by, ignoring or overlooking the trend in the American economy.”
– “The Japan That Can Say No” by Akio Morita, Chairman of Sony, 1989
To repeat: When supermodels, rap “artists” and a tech writer are pontificating about the weak US dollar, that’s a shoeshine boy moment.