The dollar struck a fresh all-time low against the euro as gold prices traded close to record highs a day after topping 1,000 dollars for the first time on US economic woes.
Oil prices fell on profit-taking after striking an historic peak of 111 dollars per barrel Thursday.
In later European trading the euro stood at 1.5566 dollars, down from 1.5624 late on Thursday in New York.
Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders said the problem was more about the dollar’s weakness, which has been driven by growing concerns that the US economy has lurched into recession.
I read the news, today, oh boy…
Thanks, Mr. Justin
#30 – You don’t have to stomp on my dreams like that 🙁
#11 “Everything us better here in the USA….
well a grammatically correct english phrase is not sentence is not one of them. Anyways, everyne knows that everything in the US is made in China.
#12
Actually the tax policies are not the issue. The issue is the spending policies that include the apparent lack of desire to pay down the debt or even balance the budget. You can’t blame that entirely on Bush. Congress is equally culpable.
#18
The rich are not the ones hurt most by inflation. That should be obvious. They simply move their money into currencies that are not deflating.
A weaker dollar means more foreign investment. I expect Americans will actually have to start learning another language or five pretty soon.
Oh and by the way, coinage in general sucks. The worst part of Europe is that they think coins are good a thing. Within a day, everyone sounds like Christmas sleigh.
Please stop referring to Europe as if it was one country. It isn’t.
#11.
I’m glad you feel that way. However, seeing as your economy is going down fast and hard, you are going to need the European countries real soon.
It’s sad that a lot of people in the US don’t know that a major change has happened in terms of how foreigners see you guys. A while ago the US was a cool place to go for a lot of reasons, but now the only reason to go there is to see if the freakshow really exists. Sorry, but that is the truth.
#18 – You’re descriptions are scarily reminisicnt of the late 70’s after Carter. We got the Reagan revolution thankfully. I hope you’re rioght about revolution. Hopefully we can get something like another Reagan. Better yet maybe Ventura will really run.
Bush has this stunning ability to accomplish EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE of what he claims to do.
He promised to make America strong.
Instead, HIS BONEHEADED FISCAL POLICIES have made America weaker than ever.
And the conservatives cheered him every step of the way. Americans will not forget this.
#34 what’s wrong with coins? Canadians love their loonies & twonies ($1 & $2 coins). Just another (small) example of how out of step the US is with the rest of the civilized world.
#38
Coins are bulky compared to bills. Hell, I’d much rather I was able to use plastic or a fob everywhere instead of cash but given a choice, bills are easier to carry and in larger denominations than coins. Obviously, I’m biased, but using bills is far better than having to use coins. So I’d chalk this up to the rest of the world not catching up to the US. :->
#39 coins last 30 years.. bills 18 months. And paper money cost more then the face value to make. Yup American efficiency for you.
I don’t accept that paper money is necessarily more expensive than its face value to make, but coinage definitely is. For example, it costs 9.5 cents to make a nickel (http://tinyurl.com/2r42kx).
If coinage is so great, why not use coins for all denominations? Why not create a 10, 20, 50 and 100 euro coins? We could all be like slots players and carrying buckets of change. Wouldn’t that be fun? Yup, European ingenuity for you.
“The Federal Reserve Banks pay the BEP only the cost of printing the notes (about 4¢ a note),”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve_Note
Cost of printing is only one factor, a coin stays in circulation far longer. Anyway the thing that’s really interesting is why Americans hate coins so much. I’ve noticed that Canadians and Europeans like their coins but Americans I’ve worked with in London and Canada seem to whinge endlessly about it.
I’ve noticed one or two interesting habits. When paying for something (like lunch) Americans tend to whip out a bill and always get change. Non-Americans will tend to pay the amount as close to possible with their change.
Also when I’m in the US and I buy something that costs $4.19 and I give them $5.20 they give me a double take like I’m trying to pull a fast one. In a couple cases they’ve even called their supervisors over.
It’s very odd. On the flip side most non-Americans whine about how boring American money is.
#43
If you mostly pay with bills, then you generally end up with only a dollar or two of change in your pocket. Most change is in other bills. My objective is to have as few coins in my pocket as possible. So, paying with coin and getting coin seems to defeat the purpose. I remember how pissed I was when I returned from my last European trip and the exchanger would only convert bills into dollars; they would not accept coin even though they were 2 euro coins.
When my European (and Australian) friends and clients come to America, the #1 thing they complain about is that the money is all the same size. I suspect the Europeans drink quite a bit more than Americans, because they all complain that when hammered they cannot differentiate the denominations money. There is only one good argument IMO for making the money different sizes and that is the blind. Other than that, I like that I can have a wallet that fits in my back pocket and holds all the bills I want to carry without having to do origami.
Why us AMERICANS have to do ALL the changing for all others