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Suddenly, a whole lot of folks who needed some education in financial civics got it — fast and hard. The Euro is nothing more than a squishy currency convention between trading partners. It is NOT a reserve currency.

Price of Gold	in US$	in €
one year ago	$833.75	€571.10
today	$720.00	€562.59
difference	-13.64%	-1.49%

Investing in Euros is like investing in gold since the Euro performs like a gold-backed currency. The ECB's main objective is price stability. I guess it all depends on what you expect from a reserve currency.

However, a strong US$ certainly won't hurt Europe's exports.

If we didn’t have a recession coming on full force, you’d be spot-on. But a strong US$ right now won’t help Europe’s exports. Take a look at Germany’s economy - they’re rather frantic (for Germans), looking at the precipitous decline in auto exports to the US.

re: the Euro. You’re spot-on. The ECB is very unlike the Fed - the ECB is obsessed with price stability. They have no “second duty” to perform open market operations, etc. So this current crisis is really pushing the ECB well beyond their planned duties... and the uncertain and wobbly way the ECB is responding is showing people that Europe’s bankers don’t really understand what the Fed does in full.