I just checked out currency exchange rates, as I do from time to time...YIKES!

[marmar]

Per the XE web converter:

1 Great British Pound = $2.04
1 Euro = $1.37
$1 U.S. = $1.04 Canadian (I remember a couple of years ago when it was 1 US=1.35 CDN)


How long before the greenback is about as valuable as Monopoly money? :shrug:

[Warpy]

1. It's still a slow slide, actually

and would be great for the economy if we still manufactured much for export.

[tulsakatz]

2. I work for a car rental company.....

...and we also make international rentals so I frequently see the rate of exchange.

When I first started working (about 8 yrs ago) 1 British Pound was about $1.50 And when the Euro first came out it was almost equal to the dollar.

It is depressing.......

[Sal Minella]

3. I remember the Euro being eighty-some cents early on -- eom

[pitohui]

4. yes it is terrifying

if you ever wanted to see the world, the time to do it was...well...the time to do it was in the clinton era, but assuming you don't possess a time machine, better do it now, soon it won't be affordable for ordinary americans to visit europe

[marmar]

5. I did a lot of European travel from 2000 to last year and I'm glad I did...

And now Canada, which I live across the river from, is becoming much pricier.

[KAT119]

6. Europeans find it cheaper to fly to NYC do their shopping and fly

home than it is to shop in their own cities!

[CTyankee]

7. I'm finding some tours affordable. I am one of those making up for lost time

in European travel, altho I went to London, Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels many years ago with my mother. Now I only want Italy until I see enough of it to satisfy me. Some tours offered are in the $3,000 range for a couple of weeks. The big secret is, once you are there, you are there. I would take off and go exploring on my own if the program offered wasn't of interest to me that particular day and we were staying in the same hotel for awhile. I must say that you can get a wonderful feel for the country if you do that. Whenyou've had it with the umpteenth church to look at, just take off and find what you really want to see with a Fodor's guide.

My friend and I managed to find an affordable private guide in Rome and we visited most of the sites of paintings by Caravaggio (I had done an independent study of him in Grad School). We were footsore and tired after that day, but found a ristorante we could walk to from our hotel and relaxed over a 2 hour dinner!

[dsc]

8. I grew up fairly close to Canada and people used to go up to Canada

and buy rolls of Canadian quarters and pass them as American to make some money. You could make about $3.00 for every ten. Now it is basic parity.

[ClintonTyree]

9. Same here.....

U.S. hotels just over the border from Ontario used to advertise "Canadian money accepted at par" which used to be a HUGE savings before Bush took office. Now, I imagine we'll see hoteliers in Ontario advertising "American money accepted at par" before too long.

George Bush has single-handedly ruined the economy of this country, along with everything else. Without a doubt, THE WORST PRESIDENT EVER! :grr: