The Us Dollar

[MobileDesigner]

$1.02 in Japan will
- get you a coke
- a Mcd's burger

$2.60 in Japan will
- get you a pack of smokes

$7.39 in Japan will
- get you a combination lunch (main dish, rice/bread, salad, drink, desert)

$34 in Japan will
- pay to get your tooth filled


>>> Transporation ($0) is paid by your employer
>>> basic apartment in Tokyo (60sqm average) $695 excluding bills
>>> apartment deposit $2,782 (for a 60sqm average)

 

[3dGEEK]

But yes, at 2 x times the dollar, the British pound give UK-based buyers an advantage.

:yes:

:smilewinkgrin:

As a Canadian that gets paid in US$, it stinks!

-=DCG=-

...and for the GBP too when it comes to selling....:upset: :disappointed:

 

[peekaboo]

>>> basic apartment in Tokyo (60sqm average) $695(for a 60sqm average)

is this really true? sounds amazingly cheap (cheaper than one-bedroom apt. in us midwest).

whatever happened to that tag of tokyo being the most expensive city in the world?

 

[garyrcanuck]

The USA buys over 80% of our GNP. Perhaps they will buy elsewhere now that they are not getting the deal they received when our $ was pegged much lower. If this happens,we will eventually feel the pinch.

As stated above the majority of our forestry,manufacturing and other exports are hurting now.

It has been a proven fact in the past, that if the US economy slows, ours will also, infact the entire world is effected.

Stocks went up today thanks to the US lowering of interest rates.

Our high $ is a boom to the US border towns though, if you do not mind the 3+ hour wait through customs,

Personally I love the equal exchange, It seems that everything I purchase is from the US. But do miss the higher payments in US funds. Is there some way we can have our cake & eat it also:lol:

 

[whitebark]

Our high $ is a boom to the US border towns though, if you do not mind the 3+ hour wait through customs,

3 hours? Never! I drive across at 2am and never wait more than a minute or two... unless they want to hassle me. I can save almost $20 on a tank of gas going across the border.

The C$ jumped over .99 cents overnight as a result of the US Fed interest rate cut.

 

[A D]

Pretty soon I wll have to change membership fees to Canadian $

When I started was 1 US dollar was worth about $1.45 Canadian.

-=DCG=-

 

[tristanperry]

The £ used to only get around $1.90, now it's common to see it at over $2.00 (apart from the past few days due to our mini crisis..)

It's good for me in some ways as my website hosting and domain buying are cheaper, although I lose slightly on some advert money I get from my websites.

Although a slowing US economy is never a good sign, to be honest..

 

[DNP]

http://www.dailyfx.com/story/currency/eur_news/US_Dollar_Likely_to_Continue_1190231601580.html

 

[GAMEFINEST]

oh snapz..

 

[HomerJ]

gawnd nice post there. i am no economist, but the whole thing is a snowball rolling down the mountain if you ask me. Uncle Sam is in debt for trillions. as we discussed in another thread, the average american carries how much in debt or credit card debt?? If the government and its people are both in massive debt that to me is not the sign of a healthy economy, no matter how many bandaids the fed tries to cover it with.

In March 2006 the fed said it will no longer be gathering M3 data, hmmm.. Fed kills a key inflation gauge ... anyone remember this? probably not because it didn't even make headlines ...

 

[whitebark]

According to those con-artists at paypal:

From This Balance:
U.S. Dollar Balance
Amount:
$100.00 USD
Exchange Rate:
1 U.S. Dollar = 0.988750 Canadian Dollars
Gross Amount:
$98.87 CAD
Withdrawal Fee:
-$0.50 CAD
Amount to Bank Account:
$98.37 CAD

Was going to withdraw $1000 but it's just not worth it! Time to set up a personal US$ account and sit on it.

 

[GAMEFINEST]

Ill be laying low for a while..

 

[domainah]

Ill be laying low for a while..

laying low is probably the best strategy..because in most cases, once a currency starts moving in a direction in a significant manner it will continue to do so for a while until there is a big reversal, and by for a while I mean years, and since there is no reversal in sight...

 

[Gerry]

laying low is probably the best strategy..because in most cases, once a currency starts moving in a direction in a significant manner it will continue to do so for a while until there is a big reversal, and by for a while I mean years, and since there is no reversal in sight...

Spectacular Alan Greenspan interview on 60 Minutes the other night. Not painting a rosy picture.

Then listened to an interview with a real estate broker who has been doing business in Miami for 37 years. So he knows this market and the trends. Interesting and incredible. Mind you, I am recanting some of the story so this is not meant to mean doom and gloom.

He lives on Key Biscayne Island. Sells real estate in and around the Miami area. Anything on Key Biscayne was an easy $1.5-$2 mil just as a starting point. Now 17 homes for sale on his street. No buyers, none showing. Some have even dropped to $750K to $1.25 mil. Buyers in over their heads can not hang on too long. And most certainly will not be able to ride this out.

Driving in downtown Miami on the beach front, he counted 75 high rise cranes and high rise buildings going up. There is currently a flood of available office space, living space, condos, and penthouses on the market. Prices have been dropped to pre-2000 levels to try to move some of this property.

But his greatest concern was this. It used to be no sooner had a building got to the finishing point that the crane was going up somewhere else. He has not seen that recently. What he is seeing is cranes that are idle and construction projects that are idle.

Banks can take some hits with foreclosures and loan defaults. But as he put it, banks can only take so many contractors and developers walking away from a $450 million note. He suspects there are three such defaults already. Any one single bank absorbing such a hit would spell disaster in many instances. Several institutions experiencing the same would have a huge impact. Naturally all of this is public record and real estate brokers know where to look.

He sees no turnaround anytime soon. He believes that even if the housing market would turn around by the end of the year, although it won't, that it would take perhaps 6 years to rebuild consumer confidence and bring housing prices back to what they were selling for today.

Keep in mind, we are talking about just one hot market in the country.

Oddly enough, I read this same scenario on another site a couple of weeks ago.

 

[Poohnix]

Since most of my business, both revenue and cost, is in USD, it evens itself out a bit, but not completely. And "living money" is getting less, since that has to be transferred to my own currency. Not nice at all.
I just hope that the USD doesn't plunge completely, as of now it's dropped about 6% since the beginning of the year, compared to the Swedish crown we use here.
Compared to early 2006 the drop is over 17%, but it's about the same as early 2005. (It peaked early 2006, after that it's been going down stadily.)
All in all, I feel it, but it's not a disaster. Yet.

/G

 

[Gerry]

I just opened up a letter from American Express that came in the mail.

I had forgotten that on our last trip to Europe (fall 2005) we purchase a preload American Express travel card. We were going to use this for emergencies as it was similar to American Express traveler's cheques...safe, secure, flexible. We purchased 500 euros.

The letter stated that by a certain date in October, 2007 they were no longer going to issue or honor these cards and advised us to use or cash in any unused portion by then.

I'd say I could get a good return on that remaining balance now.

AmEx must be losing their butt on slackers like me. Could have been a great hedge fund had I been able to plan this far in advance.

 

[GAMEFINEST]

The US dollar going down while the gas prices creeping up...

 

[Gerry]

The US dollar going down while the gas prices creeping up...

Will most likely hit $100 a barrel by the end of October just in time for Winter, if not sooner. I think at 82 today.

 

[FuseFX]

Here the situation is ..
3 months back 1 USD = 46 Rs
Now 1 USD = 40 Rs.

So things which we import have become cheaper for us like petro , gold , silver , foreign travel.

Things we exported have become less profitable and profit margins have gone down 10% on currency account. IT companies, textile , handicraft and like...

My revenue went down 10% cause of weeker $ .

I am in the very same boat -- so it's killing me too! =( Doh!

 

[HomerJ]

Fears of dollar collapse as Saudis take fright