Buddy, can you spare a dollar? [US currency crisis]

The Belfast Telegraph ^ | 12/10/2004 | Rupert Cornwell

[reloader]

Whose keeping their eye on George Soros?. Any chance his prints are on this mess?.

[Grampa Dave]

Before a decade or so ago, they were in the closet. Now many of them are out of the closet. Others have token wives for cover like a former NJ governor.

When the search is done in Yahoo re the writer and Gay, and we get a long history of pushing the Gay agenda. We have identified another GIM*.

Cornwall hates GW and anyone who is a Christian. A review of his articles show that.

[SierraWasp]

Good grab, Grampa!!! (while they play grabass with each other and the truth!)

[Grampa Dave]

These spinning lying hate filled GIMs are incapable of writing or speaking the truth.

[wu_trax]

you can't say anything against the article itself, so you attack the person who wrote it?

[Grampa Dave]

No problem.

The GIMS in America and around the world have started the Cold Civil War II. They deserve to be outed for what they are.

[Old Professer]

Think back to late 1984 when the dollar was intentionally devalued against the mark, with adequate notice that a clever trader could have made a killing.

[sauropod]

read later

[NeoCaveman]

But their discomfort hides a paradox. This December, the American visitor to Europe finds himself paying $4 for a cup of coffee or metro fare that would cost $1 at home. His familiar $40 meal will cost $100, and the hotel room that runs at $60 in the typical Midwestern city of Edwardsville, Illinois, say, costs five times as much in London or Manchester. If only he had stayed at home.

So in Euros Europeans are currently paying:
$3.00 for a cup of coffee
$3.00 for metro fare
$75 for the meal (the one that is $40 in the states)
And 3.5 times as much for the European hotel.

WOW your price level is wacky, if the author is to be believed.

[FBD]

>"The US is so darned big...and we have so many beautiful National and State parks....we do not NEED a reason to leave the good ole US of A."<



Exactly!
We have parking lots bigger than some countries in Europe.
It takes us longer to find our cars than it does to tour Europe

[monday]

Bush's spending spree is going to cause the dollar to lose value here too eventually. I suppose Bush is hoping it won't kick in until he is out of office and then everyone will blame it on his successor. Or maybe he just doesn't care?

One thing is for sure, inflation and interest rates are headed up. Lock in your mortgage rates now.

[FBD]

what's the inflation rate in the EU?

I understand the uneployment rate is around 8.8%, correct?

[<1/1,000,000th%]

You are correct.

I blame it on the lack of coffee this morning.

[wu_trax]

what's the inflation rate in the EU?

in the euro-zone its slightly above 2% (2.2-2.3% i think), but its varies from country to country (in germany it was 1.6%)

I'm not sure about the average unemployment rate, but you could be right. we have 10.8% here, others have less.

if we could just have that damn wall back we could easily reduce it by 2-3 points. if we could have our money back, probably even more. and if we then could lock up every crazy commie in the east and shoot them if they try to leave we'd probably have full employment :(

[Centurion2000]

WOW your price level is wacky, if the author is to be believed.

They do pay more for a lot of goods than we do.

[nkycincinnatikid]

Big whoop the dollar has lost about 20% against the Euro since its introduction 5 years ago. This while financeing a global war on terror with little world assistance. If a cup of coffe costs.00 in Berlin it's just because Starbucks is setting the price. 4* and 5* Hotel rooms in major western Eoropean cities have always been exorbitant. And just try to find a "dollar store" or any real discount store in western europe. The Governments there mandate profit margins, VAT taxes are hidden, and the government/unions even set a retailers opening hours. Europe may be terribly expensive for the American tourist, but it is for the European as well.

[wu_trax]

as i understand it, you don't have a VAT (= value-added tax = sales tax), at least in most states. that alone makes prices 15-25% higher, depending on where you are in Europe.

i don't know about the rest, but 2 - 2.50€ for a big cup of coffee sounds normal to me, at least for bigger cities.

[Ciexyz]

we do not NEED a reason to leave the good ole US of A

Unless we want to zip up into Canada or take a jaunt into Mexico. You don't need a passport to visit our neighbors, which is the only place I'd want to go...except for the Caribean. Even in Martinique, you don't need a passport.

[Brit_Guy]

"WOW your price level is wacky, if the author is to be believed."

Well, we have fondly reffered to our prices here as 'rip off Britain' for quite some time. Though it has been noticible in the last couple of years that the gap has narrowed - it is only now with the tumbling dollar that we really notice the difference again! For me the big difference is I used to look at the States and see wage parity, but that your prices were much cheaper meaning the US had a vastly, vastly better quality of life. Now though I look (I work for a multinational) and note that my US colleagues of the same grade earn far less than me when converted - so even with the cheaper prices the lifestyle difference narrows. Of course, I should probably be worried as if the market works my job will be outsourced! And of course, my tax burdern is much heavier. That said, the draw to spend a few more years in the States for financial reasons isn't quite what it was. However, in the meantime - let the party continue. New York Shops... here I come!

[NeoCaveman]

However, in the meantime - let the party continue. New York Shops... here I come!

This is why the weak dollar doesn't bug me. Come and shop, it's great for the American economy.