$1.20? That's still close to losing a quarter for every dollar traded in on a Euro. I remember the good old days when everyone wanted the U.S. dollar. Even at $1.20 it is still is too costly to travel overseas.
It's not really the level of exchange that's important in addressing the question of whether the euro is a failure. The issue is whether it's done what it was supposed to do, which is envigorate the European economy. It did not. In fact, it appears to be holding the European economy back. The reason it did not work is that in order to assure that the money supply grew at a homogenious rate, they established a long list of regulations, covering everything from what a member nation could charge in taxes, to the amount of debt they could incur, etc. Those kinds of regulations are not only impossible to enforce, but even if they were enforceable, they would end up killing local economic initiative, leading to slow or negative economic growth. That's what they've got now.
Still too expensive to travel to Europe, still too expensive for American billionaires to buy yachts, but really convenient for Europeans to buy - oh, let's just number them, shall we:
1. MRI equipment from GE.
2. CAT scan equipment from GE/Phillips.
3. Computers by Hewlett-Packard/Compaq/Apple.
4. Radiology equipment from GE/Xerox.
5. Film from Eastman Kodak.
6. Excimer lasers by AutoSummit.
7. Dialysis machines by Baxter.
8. Breast implants by Dow Corning.
9. Prosthetics by Mentor.
10. Stents by Boston Scientific.
11. Gloves/masks/catheters by US Surgical.
ad infinitum. These are things that the Europeans cannot live without, that they must buy from us, the ones that they so passionately despise. For elevators, yes, there's certainly Seimens, but what good does an elevator do in a hospital that has nothing? If even the lightbulbs are by GE and the wash machines by Whirlpool, is it really such a bad thing that the dollar is so low? Huh! Suddenly the doofus George Bush doesn't look so dumb, does he? Thank goodness we have a dimwit cowboy in office.
When the Euro was aoriginally put on the market it was priced a 1.17, so getting down there is actuallya pretty big deal. Clinton overvalued the dollar via fed rates so the Euro went way under parity. It might not be a good thing right now for the Euro to go below 1.10 or so.