Dollar at record low against euro

[Up2Late]

Source: BBC News

Wednesday, 12 September 2007, 06:44 GMT 07:44 UK

Dollar at record low against euro

The US dollar has fallen to a record low against the euro as investors bet that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates to help the economy.

The US dollar dropped to $1.388 per euro, passing the previous record of $1.3852 that was set on 24 July. Many analysts are predicting that the Fed will cut interest rates next week as it looks to reassure markets and consumers amid a global credit crunch.

The dollar has weakened against the euro for six sessions in a row. "The market's main focus remains on US economic fundamentals," said Tomohiro Iwata of Goldman Sachs.

He added that investors would be debating whether the Fed would cut rates by a quarter or a half of a percentage point, and what comments they might make following any move....

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6990570.stm

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"...At the heart of the dollar's decline have been problems in the US housing market, caused by the Fed increasing interest rates in order to slow accelerating inflation...."

No, "...at the heart of the dollar's decline..." is not "...the US housing market...," That's just the latest excuse. It's the total lack of confidence in our so-called "president" George W. Bush. The Dollar has been steadily losing value since November 2000. The the U.S. Dollar will begin recovering as soon as he's gone.

[aquart]

1. But tourism still sucks because we've made air travel hell.

[maseman]

13. Air travel

Air travel is hell because of the airlines, not the government. I travel everyweek and fly about 3 out of 4 weeks per month. Going through security is not a big deal and is necessary. Even international flight is not bad with US customs.

The airlines are a train wreck. They schedule way too many flights and one bad spot with weather sends a huge ripple effect through the entire system. If an airline crew is late because they are on a delayed flight it screws their flight on time then. Connecting flights get missed, other flights get booked up on those that missed their connections, those flights are delayed due to baggage coming in after it should, etc.

And don't even get me started on the garbage ATC system we have.

[Hieronymus]

2. Well, I won't be going to Europe any time soon.

[comtec]

3. You should

it's quite nice over here, and soon before the Dollar drops even more. My in laws are betting it's going to hit 1.50 by next year, and at this rate I can't see how they're wrong. My Father in law runs a reasonably successful business, so I trust his instincts on this. The Dollar may never recover back to parity with the €uro, like it's never made parity with the pound sterling. This is a real bummer for me as I have a bunch of money in my pay pal account that is rapidly becoming worthless outside the US.

So yeah you should, Visit Europe while you can still afford to BUY anything!

[Hieronymus]

10. I have been several times and love it. Where are you?

[comtec]

11. I'm in The Netherlands

I won't say that I love it here (I don't) but compared to the alternative right now, it's not a bad place to be.
The reality of life here does NOT match the hype, i'm very sorry to say. But it's still reasonably protective of
worker's rights (unless you are a temp worker, then you're on your own) and there is gov. subsidized health care.
That is you have to pay for it, but the prices are set by the gov. If you don't make enough, they will chip in so
that you can pay for the lowest level. The difference is long term support (my wife has diabetes), if you are young
and healthy you don't have to worry about it right now. But if you have something chronic, etc, it's best to pony
up for the higher level.

The buying power of the old guilder was equal to a dollar in most every day things (ah I remember when diesel was
a gil for a liter, now it's a euro+)the buying power of the Euro is what the dollar WAS in the late 90's. AND tax
is already figured into all prices, which is dead useful. So when I bought my Wii (don't laugh) it was 249 e, no
extra tax, because it was already rolled into the price.

It helps even more when you are buying food and counting pennies (6% tax on food, 19% sales) you can scrape up exactly what you'll need, and not worry about being under. Sadly I don't really know which country to recommend to immigrate to. The UK is a police state in all but name (cameras every where, no pretense of privacy even) and The Netherlands is very Xenophobic right now. The problem being is these are two major employment/business centers for Europe. Ireland isn't bad, They are growing like mad, and probably don't mind hiring yanks if they need them/can justify them to the EU (VERY protective of foreign/cheap labor here)

Anyway good luck, I miss California, but I don't know how well I could survive there right now.

[trusty elf]

4. Well, given dubya's fecal policy....

what else can we expect?

[Bozita]

8. Great pic! ... Thanks.

Just sent it to a Repiglicon on my email list.

[0007]

5. The best kept secret is to start buying Mexican Pesos!

1 Mexican peso = 0.089772 U.S. dollars

[Maggie_May]

6. The whole problem is

we can't wait till he is gone. With feds being bulled by Wall Street to lower rates the dollar will drop more. The dollar soon won't be worth the paper it is printed on. And yes you are right there is no confidence in our economy and its starting to show in other markets. And yes you are right George W. Bush needs to go and go now.

[Eurobabe]

7. It's going to be a long recovery process for the USD

It won't change overnight because we elect a new president. The massive debt that asshat has allowed the US to accumulate, plus this horrible weak dollar policy, the economic issues (housing & loss of jobs).

My bet is that the currency takes years to recover, if ever.

[roamer65]

9. It won't ever recover.

The Roman denarius never did either. I see parallels with ancient Rome right now.

[Javaman]

12. so Betthefarm benekie is going to cut rates, huh?

boy that will do wonders for inflation.

weeee, I love living in a fiat economy.