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Ouch-------this mornings currency exchange rates aren't very good for those traveling abroad---------$1.09 US to the Canadian Dollar------$1.46 US to the Euro----------$2.10 US to the GBP

yikes!

we have no plans to go anywhere until after I finish school.

Of course it sucks Lon look who is in the drivers seat! Click on www.youtube.com and type in President Bush blunders, thats a real eye opener.

sunny104;716952 wrote: yikes!

we have no plans to go anywhere until after I finish school.


Even without traveling abroad, our dollar will be buying less right here in this country as gasoline and food prices continue to climb.

some drunken bloke in a pub said he was going to invest in US dollars around April last year because he'd make a fortune buying while it was low at the time. Bet he's wondering what he drank that night.

Lon;716967 wrote: Even without traveling abroad, our dollar will be buying less right here in this country as gasoline and food prices continue to climb.


gas and food is expensive in most countries...

nothing we can do about that.

There is a fair bit of concern from the Canadian manufacturing industry about our surging dollar. Predictions of lay offs for workers and more investment in updated machinery to keep the product cheap enough for exports.

sunny104;716995 wrote: gas and food is expensive in most countries...I'm continually baffled at how cheap food is, and I know it's far cheaper still in the US. We use kilos for most weights, that's 2.2 pounds. Rice, dry pasta, oatmeal, bread, they're all under US$1 in the shop even at today's $2.10/£1 exchange rate, buying 1 kilo packs - it's cheaper still in bigger packs. I'm almost embarrassed at how cheap it is.

eta: I except gas - that broke £1 a litre today. That's $7.56 a US gallon.

spot;717000 wrote: I'm continually baffled at how cheap food is, and I know it's far cheaper still in the US. We use kilos for most weights, that's 2.2 pounds. Rice, dry pasta, oatmeal, bread, they're all under US$1 in the shop even at today's $2.10/£1 exchange rate, buying 1 kilo packs - it's cheaper still in bigger packs. I'm almost embarrassed at how cheap it is.

eta: I except gas - that broke £1 a litre today. That's $7.56 a US gallon.


I always think the gas thing sort of balances since your cars get double the mileage of ours.

jimbo;716968 wrote: the US dollar sucks







is that how you americans come into money :wah::wah:







sorry


No, it just sucks right out of our hands.

"The answer my friend..is blowin' in the wind."

Jones Jones;716991 wrote: are you kidding me dude? know what we pay for a dollar u.s.? eight of our currency ... know what we pay for a pound ... british? twelve of our currency!

only place we get a good deal is against the zimbabwe dollar ... one of ours = about 600,000 of theirs ... one u.s. dollar in Zim = 1,000,000.00 ... that's right ... one million of their dollars to one u.s dollar ... problem is if you are dumb enough to go there there only take u.s currency ...

Jj


Might I propose a business deal?

You buy as many GBP as you can and send it to me.

I'll convert it to USD and send it back

You convert it back to ZAR (or straight to GBP and we'll take another turn around the loop)

Even paying commission and at tourist rates we'd make a killing after cycling round a few times.

Thats why I only pay with Deutsche Marks.

The Newsweek host was gloating on tv today, said we should insist on getting our change in Canadian money when we shop over the border :p "Don't want that funny money..."

Sounds like you all understand the exchange rate. Interesting how some of us don't get it. For instance last week I wanted to buy or what was it called? a check of some sort to send to my son for his birthday. He lives in Canada. Noone at the bank could tell me if it would be better to send a cashiers check or money order. Noone knew about the best way to send money there, the cheapest way. I didn't want my son to have to spend any of his own money cashing it, nor did I want him to get less than the amount written to him on the check. I asked the bank people if they could factor in the exchange rate so I'd be sending him one hundred even, not less nor more. Do you think they could manage this? Why no. Neither could I, but I'd have expected a bank clerk to be able to do so. :-5

Erin

watermark;717137 wrote: Sounds like you all understand the exchange rate. Interesting how some of us don't get it. For instance last week I wanted to buy or what was it called? a check of some sort to send to my son for his birthday. He lives in Canada. Noone at the bank could tell me if it would be better to send a cashiers check or money order. Noone knew about the best way to send money there, the cheapest way. I didn't want my son to have to spend any of his own money cashing it, nor did I want him to get less than the amount written to him on the check. I asked the bank people if they could factor in the exchange rate so I'd be sending him one hundred even, not less nor more. Do you think they could manage this? Why no. Neither could I, but I'd have expected a bank clerk to be able to do so. :-5

Erin


Erin-----currency exchange rates change every few minutes by very small fractional increments. Typically, any bank, when they do a wire transfer for example, will check the rate at that moment, then ask if you will accept it. They should be able to come close to the $100, but it could be $101.01 or $99.98. This is the case from U.S. to Canada or vice versa.

Bryn Mawr;717086 wrote: Might I propose a business deal?

You buy as many GBP as you can and send it to me.

I'll convert it to USD and send it back

You convert it back to ZAR (or straight to GBP and we'll take another turn around the loop)

Even paying commission and at tourist rates we'd make a killing after cycling round a few times.


I have for sale Scottish pound notes £2 GBP each or $5 US each. PM me if you're interested.

gmc;717318 wrote: I have for sale Scottish pound notes £2 GBP each or $5 US each. PM me if you're interested.
If they come with a gallon of gasoline, I'm in.

YZGI;717338 wrote: If they come with a gallon of gasoline, I'm in.


Actually that wouldn't even get you half a shrunken US gallon. It just topped £1 a litre over here although it's been over that up north for some time.

As an aside - well, not really an aside given that it's about public perception of the dollar's value and the critic in this instance is someone well accustomed to its use but we might at least call it unconventional criticism - Jay-Z's latest video Blue Magic shows him carrying a briefcase of 500 euro notes rather than the more traditional bling symbol of yesteryear. A potent sign of the times.

The OECD reports that the US now has the highest disparity of wealth between low and high earners of all its member countries except, for some reason, Hungary. Their current national ranking for the entire US middle class has now dropped to 15th. It's all a matter of the priorities assigned by government at the end of the day, some just stink more than others.

Lon;716945 wrote: Ouch-------this mornings currency exchange rates aren't very good for those traveling abroad---------$1.09 US to the Canadian Dollar------$1.46 US to the Euro----------$2.10 US to the GBP


Another step closer to that dream snowboarding holiday over in the U.S.A.

Its great for us going on holiday to America though, or buying stuff online from the states, you get a lot of dollar for your Euro nowadays, but currencies fluctuate over time, so I am enjoying it while it lasts as the Dollar is probably undervalued now and will rise somewhat against the Euro and the Pound Sterling in 2008, though it depends how the current institutional financial problems play out on both sides of the atlantic. The Northern Rock crisis in Britain is actual pretty serious, amazingly Brown has really messed that one up, and the Sub-Prime thing is affecting the US, Europe, and Britain (and the rest of the G7). Of course for the U.S. the costs of the war are horrendous, and thats not doing the American economy or people any favours, the war debt is another reason why the dollar is weaker than usual right now. Something to think about.

Funnily enough this is the lead story in the U.K.'s rather good "Independent" Newspaper.

The dollar's decline: from symbol of hegemony to shunned currency

By Andy McSmith

Published: 17 November 2007



The decline of the dollar, symbol of US global hegemony for the best part of a century, may have become so entrenched that some experts now fear it is irreversible.

After months of huge and sustained turmoil on the money markets, lack of confidence in the world's totemic currency has become so widespread that an increasing number of international traders are transferring their wealth to stronger currencies such as the euro, which recently hit its highest level against the dollar.

"An American businessman over here who is given the choice would take anything but the dollar," David Buik of Cantor Index said yesterday. "I would want to be paid in yen, and if not yen then the euro or sterling."

Matthew Osborne, of Armstrong International, added: "The majority would say sterling. There are a few dealers in the City who may take the view that they'll take dollars now, while they're cheap, and hold on to them for 12 months.

"But the problem is so serious that there are people who in July or August might have been thinking, 'I'm paid in dollars, how annoying' for whom it's now a question of, 'Do you have a job; do you have a bonus?' "

The collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market in the US, which is fuelling the dollar unrest, has already brought down one British bank, Northern Rock, and has forced others to declare vast losses. Yesterday, just as it appeared that the dollar might have finally reached its floor, there was another warning that the sub-prime crisis is going to get worse. The US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, warned an international business summit in South Africa: "The sub-prime market, parts of it will get worse before it gets better." Huge numbers of US homeowners are still cushioned by introductory interest rates set when they took out loans in 2005 or 2006, he said. When these introductory offers run out, their interest payments will increase, setting off another wave of defaulting and repossessions. And the dollar is enduring its rockiest spell in recent memory.

Kenneth Froot, a Harvard university professor and former consultant to the US Federal Reserve, warned yesterday: "Part of the depreciation [of the dollar] is permanent. There is no doubt that the dollar must sink against periphery currencies to reflect their increase in competitiveness and productivity."

Professor Riordan Roett, of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, told Bloomberg News: "There is a loss of confidence in the dollar and the US. It may only reflect the widespread dismay with the Bush administration, but it is obvious that the next administration, of either party, will have a steep uphill struggle." As well as reaching its lowest level against the euro, which has been trading at more than $1.47, the dollar has also fallen to its lowest level against the Canadian dollar since 1950, sterling since 1981, and the Swiss franc since 1995.

More on this article.

Dollar Difficulties Continue.

Its plight (the Dollar) was made still worse by a jarring signal from China that it was switching to other currencies. Cheng Siwei, vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, told a conference in Beijing: "We will favour stronger currencies over weaker ones, and will readjust accordingly."

The warning was reinforced by a Chinese central bank vice-director, Xu Jian, who said the dollar was "losing its status as the world currency".

China has stockpiled £700bn worth of foreign currency, and has only to decide to slow its accumulation of dollars to weaken the currency further. Last month, in a humiliating turn of events, the central bank in Iraq, four years after the United States invaded, stated that it wished to diversify reserves from a reliance on dollars.

Korea's central bank has urged shipbuilders to issue invoices in the local currency and take precautions against the weakened dollar, and three of the world's big oil exporters, Iran, Venezuela, and Russia, are demanding payment in euros rather than dollars. Iran insisted that Japan should make all its payments for oil in yen, rather than dollars.

Warren Buffet, who is reputedly the richest man in the world, was asked on the US network CNBC last month what he thought was the best currency in the world to own now. He answered: "Not the US dollar."

The Wall Street Journal ran an online poll asking people which currency, they would prefer to be paid in. The euro came top, ahead of sterling, with others such as the Canadian dollar, yen and Swiss franc trailing far behind. One respondent wrote: "Being an expat in Europe with a European employment contract, I am paid in euros, and happy to get paid in euros, and shop in the US, just as long as the cycle lasts through my retirement, so I can pick up pension in Europe and retire in the US."

The Federal Reserve has cut interest rates twice since September to revive the US economy, but the cuts – combined with the possibility that more were on the way – made the dollar less attractive to investors. Yesterday, it recovered slightly when one Federal Reserve banker, Randall Kroszner, dampened speculation about further interest rate cuts, saying that rates were low enough to get the economy through a "rough patch".

Problems with the greenback, combined with cheap air fares, have encouraged more Britons to go shopping across the Atlantic. British tourists spent £785m in New York last year, the city's marketing and tourism organisation said yesterday. There were 1,169,000 visitors to New York from the UK in 2006, with 54 per cent going for four to seven nights and 31 per cent staying for two to three nights. They spent an average of £112 a day. The average age of the UK visitor is 40.

Christopher Heywood, director of tourism PR for NYC & Company, said he expected the dollar crisis to attract yet more British shoppers. "The savvy traveller who's coming here for the shopping can really get a bargain. They're coming with one suitcase and leaving with two or three," he said.

"We have people coming over here even for weekend trips to shop for the famous brand names. People are coming for the department stores that everyone around the world knows, but also for the boutique stores out of the centre of Manhattan, anything from Madison Avenue and Fifth Avenue to Bleecker Street in the West Village and SoHo."

Lon;717164 wrote: Erin-----currency exchange rates change every few minutes by very small fractional increments. Typically, any bank, when they do a wire transfer for example, will check the rate at that moment, then ask if you will accept it. They should be able to come close to the $100, but it could be $101.01 or $99.98. This is the case from U.S. to Canada or vice versa.


I wanted to thank you for responding, Lon. What I was trying to get at was the clerk couldn't tell me how to best send dollars to my son in canada, so that I would bare the cost when cashing it, not him. I think he said he got 90.00 dollars for the 100 I sent. I don't remember if he said there was a charge for cashing it.

I wanted to know the difference between sending it money order versus cashiers check or travelers check, or if there was a better way, such as directly depositing the money in his account in C. Noone knew the cheapest way. I would have gladly written the money order for ten bucks more if I could have covered the expenses that way. Turns out a money order is handled exactly like a personal check, that's what I was told later on. So instead of going into the bank and standing in line I could've just as easily taken my checkbook out at home. :-5 Maybe next year I'll just do that.

don't need to reply I just wanted to let you know I read what you wrote

Erin

I've heard numerous times that WWIII will be fought economically. With troops being sent out to fight war as we know it, I think not enough attention has been paid to the war that is actually well underway.

China is a big player in the war no one is looking at right now.

If that's war I'm all in favour of it. An end to those civilian casualty lists with lots of trailing zeros is high on my list of desirable outcomes.

koan;721463 wrote: I've heard numerous times that WWIII will be fought economically. With troops being sent out to fight war as we know it, I think not enough attention has been paid to the war that is actually well underway.

China is a big player in the war no one is looking at right now.


There is enough attention being paid but unfortunately not enough to those who think it a stupid idea. There's a famous quote from someone along the lines of warfare is economics by other means. Couldn't find the quote but thought these rather apposite

Mao Tse-tung

Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed.

Mao Tse-tung 1893-1976: lecture, 1938, in Selected Works (1965)


Field Marshal Montgomery

Rule 1, on page 1 of the book of war, is: 'Do not march on Moscow'... is: 'Do not go fighting with your land armies in China.'

Field Marshal Montgomery 1887-1976: speech, House of Lords, 30 May 1962


Simone Weil

What a country calls its vital economic interests are not the things which enable its citizens to live, but the things which enable it to make war.

Simone Weil 1909-43: W. H. Auden A Certain World (1971)