Falling dollar.. Good or bad?

[wez]

The 10 trillion pales in comparison to financing government healthcare benefits as the baby boomers age.

It's gonna be pandemonium...

 

[ImWithStupid]

"Euros Accepted" signs pop up in New York City

NEW YORK (Reuters) - In the latest example that the U.S. dollar just ain't what it used to be, some shops in New York City have begun accepting euros and other foreign currency as payment for merchandise. ADVERTISEMENT

"We had decided that money is money and we'll take it and just do the exchange whenever we can with our bank," Robert Chu, owner of East Village Wines, told Reuters television.

The increasingly weak U.S. dollar, once considered the king among currencies, has brought waves of European tourists to New York with money to burn and looking to take advantage of hugely favorable exchange rates.

"Euros Accepted" signs pop up in New York City - Yahoo! News

 

[wez]

"Euros Accepted" signs pop up in New York City
NEW YORK (Reuters) - In the latest example that the U.S. dollar just ain't what it used to be, some shops in New York City have begun accepting euros and other foreign currency as payment for merchandise. ADVERTISEMENT

"We had decided that money is money and we'll take it and just do the exchange whenever we can with our bank," Robert Chu, owner of East Village Wines, told Reuters television.

The increasingly weak U.S. dollar, once considered the king among currencies, has brought waves of European tourists to New York with money to burn and looking to take advantage of hugely favorable exchange rates.

"Euros Accepted" signs pop up in New York City - Yahoo! News

I just saw that earlier... Wont be long before we're begging for aid from Somalia..

 

[hugo]

"Euros Accepted" signs pop up in New York City
NEW YORK (Reuters) - In the latest example that the U.S. dollar just ain't what it used to be, some shops in New York City have begun accepting euros and other foreign currency as payment for merchandise. ADVERTISEMENT

"We had decided that money is money and we'll take it and just do the exchange whenever we can with our bank," Robert Chu, owner of East Village Wines, told Reuters television.

The increasingly weak U.S. dollar, once considered the king among currencies, has brought waves of European tourists to New York with money to burn and looking to take advantage of hugely favorable exchange rates.

"Euros Accepted" signs pop up in New York City - Yahoo! News

Great news. More business coming to America.

 

[snafu]

"Euros Accepted" signs pop up in New York City
NEW YORK (Reuters) - In the latest example that the U.S. dollar just ain't what it used to be, some shops in New York City have begun accepting euros and other foreign currency as payment for merchandise. ADVERTISEMENT

"We had decided that money is money and we'll take it and just do the exchange whenever we can with our bank," Robert Chu, owner of East Village Wines, told Reuters television.

The increasingly weak U.S. dollar, once considered the king among currencies, has brought waves of European tourists to New York with money to burn and looking to take advantage of hugely favorable exchange rates.

"Euros Accepted" signs pop up in New York City - Yahoo! News

Good maybe it will boost our economy.

 

[wez]

Great news. More business coming to America.

Yeah, just like the Mexicans who vend on the streets who loved our money because their country was corrupt and the peso sucked...

If I wasn't a raging idiot, I woulda put everything I had in the euro back in 2000..

Next thing you know teach, I'll be hawking T shirts and key chains on the corner.. 2 for 5 euro's.. or 2 for 50$...

 

[Old Salt]

Good maybe it will boost our economy.

You mean they'd come all the way to the US to buy Chinese products?

 

[wez]

Cost of oil passes $100, sets a new record - Oil & energy - MSNBC.com

Think I'll buy me a bike soon.. pedal bike.

 

[wez]

I see the markets tanking today... and the dollar took another dump.

We suck..

 

[Old Salt]

I see the markets tanking today... and the dollar took another dump.
We suck..

But just think. If we actually still manufactured anything it would be easy to export.

 

[hugo]

I'm doing pretty good. Ain't gotta worry about Muslims raping my nieces. The dollar will be 10% higher against the euro in one year.

 

[hugo]

But just think. If we actually still manufactured anything it would be easy to export.

Leading export nations

Germany $ 1,361,000,000,000 2007 est.

European Union $ 1,330,000,000,000 2005

China $ 1,221,000,000,000 2007 est.

United States $ 1,140,000,000,000 2007 est.

Japan $ 665,700,000,00

We export a **** of a lot we just import a **** of a lot more.

Milton Friedman:

The fallacy in this argument is the loose use of the terms "high" wage and "low" wage. What do high and low wages mean? American workers are paid in dollars; Japanese workers are paid in yen. How do we compare wages in dollars with wages in yen? How many yen equal a dollar? What determines the exchange rate?
Consider an extreme case. Suppose that, to begin with, 360 yen equal a dollar. At this exchange rate, the actual rate of exchange for many years, suppose that the Japanese can produce and sell everything for fewer dollars than we can in the United States--TV sets, automobiles, steel, and even soybeans, wheat, milk, and ice cream. If we had free international trade, we would try to buy all our goods from Japan. This would seem to be the extreme horror story of the kind depicted by the defenders of tariffs--we would be flooded with Japanese goods and could sell them nothing.

Before throwing up your hands in horror, carry the analysis one step further. How would we pay the Japanese? We would offer them dollar bills. What would they do with the dollar bills? We have assumed that at 360 yen to the dollar everything is cheaper in Japan, so there is nothing in the U.S. market that they would want to buy. If the Japanese exporters were willing to burn or bury the dollar bills, that would be wonderful for us. We would get all kinds of goods for green pieces of paper that we can produce in great abundance and very cheaply. We would have the most marvelous export industry conceivable.

Of course, the Japanese would not in fact sell us useful goods in order to get useless pieces of paper to bury or burn. Like us, they want to get something real in return for their work. If all goods were cheaper in Japan than in the United States at 360 yen to the dollar, the exporters would try to get rid of their dollars, would try to sell them for 360 yen to the dollar in order to buy the cheaper Japanese goods. But who would be willing to buy the dollars? What is true for the Japanese exporter is true for everyone in Japan. No one will be willing to give 360 yen in exchange for one dollar if 360 yen will buy more of everything in Japan than one dollar will buy in the United States. The exporters, on discovering that no one will buy their dollars at 360 yen, will offer to take fewer yen for a dollar. The price of the dollar in terms of the yen will go down--to 300 yen for a dollar or 250 yen or 200 yen. Put the other way around, it will take more and more dollars to buy a given number of Japanese yen. Japanese goods are priced in yen, so their price in dollars will go up. Conversely, U.S. goods are priced in dollars, so the more dollars the Japanese get for a given number of yen, the cheaper U.S. goods become to the Japanese in terms of yen.

The price of the dollar in terms of yen would fall, until, on the average, the dollar value of goods that the Japanese buy from the United States roughly equaled the dollar value of goods that the United States buys from Japan. At that price everybody who wanted to buy yen for dollars would find someone who was willing to sell him yen for dollars.

The actual situation is, of course, more complicated than this hypothetical example. Many nations, and not merely the United States and Japan, are engaged in trade, and the trade often takes roundabout directions. The Japanese may spend some of the dollars they earn in Brazil, the Brazilians in turn may spend those dollars in Germany, the Germans in the United States, and so on in endless complexity. However, the principle is the same. People, in whatever country, want dollars primarily to buy useful items, not to hoard, and there can be no balance of payments problem so long as the price of the dollar in terms of the yen or the deutsche mark or the franc is determined in a free market by voluntary transactions.

 

[Old Salt]

From reading that, I would say it's about five years old, or more, and last I heard Germany was part of the EU which means EU exports are probably double. Right now the US' biggest export seems to be jobs (and major construction equipment and military weapons systems). You say that the dollar will be back up 10% against the Euro in about a year - that's after it's fallen over 20%. But that's just my opinion.

 

[timesjoke]

From reading that, I would say it's about five years old, or more, and last I heard Germany was part of the EU which means EU exports are probably double. Right now the US' biggest export seems to be jobs (and major construction equipment and military weapons systems). You say that the dollar will be back up 10% against the Euro in about a year - that's after it's fallen over 20%. But that's just my opinion.

I have to agree. I cannot imagine America doing well in the long run when most of our jobs are based on the service industry.

 

[hugo]

From reading that, I would say it's about five years old, or more, and last I heard Germany was part of the EU which means EU exports are probably double. Right now the US' biggest export seems to be jobs (and major construction equipment and military weapons systems). You say that the dollar will be back up 10% against the Euro in about a year - that's after it's fallen over 20%. But that's just my opinion.

Ya caint read too well.

 

[Old Salt]

Ya caint read too well.

shur cain. Just caint rite so gud. (If you don't understand what I've written)

 

[hugo]

The fact is a weaker dollar is good for US jobs,; Economics 101. The fact is service sector jobs include attorney, physician and accountant. The income stagnation of the last generation is primarily due to corporations battling rising healthcare costs due to government interference in healthcare. Employees are receiving more of their wages in the form of health insurance, lowering the dollar wage. Japan has been running trade surpluses since WWII, their economy has been in the tubes for a generation as they are forced to compete against low ***** labor. The US economy smartly moved to the service sector.

Germany's unemployment rate is over 8%.

 

[Old Salt]

The fact is a weaker dollar is good for US jobs,; Economics 101.

I think it is good for the US economy as a whole in the short term. It is definitely good for both manufacturing jobs left in the US.

The fact is service sector jobs include attorney, physician and accountant.

Those are the highest paid in the service sector. Unfortunately, the majority are low paying, dead-end jobs. (Unless you own the service company.)

The income stagnation of the last generation is primarily due to corporations battling rising healthcare costs due to government interference in healthcare. Employees are receiving more of their wages in the form of health insurance, lowering the dollar wage.

Health care has become expensive because of burgeoning costs such as ridiculously high malpractice insurance caused by punitive jury awards. As a major cost, providing health insurance to the worker actually extends the workers' power of his wages - it's one major cost he won't have to worry about.

Japan has been running trade surpluses since WWII, their economy has been in the tubes for a generation as they are forced to compete against low ***** labor.

All countries have had to compete against cheap Chinese labor, not just the Japanese.

The US economy smartly moved to the service sector.

Your opinion. But there has to be blue collar jobs for the service industry to service.

Germany's unemployment rate is over 8%.

Can't argue with fact. These are all strictly my opinion.

 

[hugo]

Don't get me wrong we got serious problems in the mid and long term from pension and senior healthcare obligations. The fact is those problems are even bigger for Europe, Japan and China. There are three possible solutions, or realistically a combination of the three, to overcome future massive deficits 1) tax increases 2) benefit cuts 3) expanded immigration. Europe already is crowded and their pool of immigrants come from a group with a nasty tendency to strap bombs to their chests and detonate them in crowded market places.

 

[Old Salt]

One thing about the pension/senior care problems - they will eventually become more manageable and go away, as long as population growth is slowing and old people are dying. Sounds cruel, I know, but I'm soon to becomme one of those seniors.

There are three possible solutions, or realistically a combination of the three, to overcome future massive deficits 1) tax increases 2) benefit cuts 3) expanded immigration.

I think the system can remain viable with a combination - small tax increases and small phased benefit cuts and raising retirement age, while using controlled expanded immigration. Use of work visas is the way to go (IMO). They are already in existance for the more high-tech workers so why not expand it to the agricultural sector? Allow more workers to come in legally (they will pay taxes) and hammer the illegals. I have absolutely no heartburn with giving visas to some of the illegals already here, on a case basis and as needed. (That last comment oughta get me in trouble but you notice I said some, not all.)