[ARCADIA]

Define stabilized.

You need to have a currency that will hold within a given range. If the dollar is likely to hold at year 2000 less 10-20% over the next couple of years then you can begin to build a business case based on that assumption. If it simply goes into free fall you are in trouble. Each percentage of drop means that your US domestic demand can be significantly impacted, that banks and other creditors may become insolvent, that the political balance may shift against you, that other countries may further insulate themselves from US exports, and so on....

In some parts of Latin America it is not unusual to see wages, rents and pricing negotiated on a weekly/daily basis. That is not the kind of environment that would attract alot of investment. The usual result is capital flight to safer currencies.

[Havoc]

The usual result is capital flight to safer currencies.

And that happens immediately. The market is watched and played in realtime - investors don't wait 2 years to make a decision about whether something is really going south or not, they sell at the first sign and stay away till there is reason to believe it a wise move to reinvest if that point comes at all. It doesn't seem to matter what minute detail of this get's looked at under the microscope, it is all bad.

[Tennessean4Bush]

If the dollar is likely to hold at year 2000 less 10-20%...

Hmmm. Is your choice of 2000 arbitrary or purposeful? I mean, if purposeful it really isn't a good year to have an honest look at things as the dollar was by any reasonable standard at it's absolut inflated peak in 2000-2001 timeframe.