Various places overseas refusing US dollar now.

[vhx]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080317/bs_nm/dollar_dc_1

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar's value is dropping so fast against the euro that small currency outlets in Amsterdam are turning away tourists seeking to sell their dollars for local money while on vacation in the Netherlands.

"Our dollar is worth maybe zero over here," said Mary Kelly, an American tourist from Indianapolis, Indiana, in front of the Anne Frank house. "It's hard to find a place to exchange. We have to go downtown, to the central station or post office."

Just an update on how the US dollar is fairing overseas. Anyways it got me thinking on various things I have heard.

People have said they have given up rights since Sept 11th for better security because of a terrorist disaster. What if it was a US dollar collapse, and it was an economic disaster? What would you be willing to give up to correct the economy?

It just seems after Sept 11th, most people gave their personal OK on pretty much everything related to terrorism. Various companies and other agencies did as well (Like Telecoms issues we are having now). Is it safe to say we would do the same thing in the case of an economic disaster?

Would you actually support a supposed "Amero"? Abolishing the Federal Reserve? Throwing more money at it? Or whatever idea the president (or others in power) thought would resolve the problem? I personally would like a long study of all the solutions and see which would be the best. Although, I hope (and assume) they wouldn't do anything half assed. What do you all think?

 

[senseamp]

Originally posted by: vhx
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080317/bs_nm/dollar_dc_1

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar's value is dropping so fast against the euro that small currency outlets in Amsterdam are turning away tourists seeking to sell their dollars for local money while on vacation in the Netherlands.

"Our dollar is worth maybe zero over here," said Mary Kelly, an American tourist from Indianapolis, Indiana, in front of the Anne Frank house. "It's hard to find a place to exchange. We have to go downtown, to the central station or post office."

Just an update on how the US dollar is fairing overseas. Anyways it got me thinking on various things I have heard.

People have said they have given up rights since Sept 11th for better security because of a terrorist disaster. What if it was a US dollar collapse, and it was an economic disaster? What would you be willing to give up to correct the economy?

It just seems after Sept 11th, most people gave their personal OK on pretty much everything related to terrorism. Various companies and other agencies did as well (Like Telecoms issues we are having now). Is it safe to say we would do the same thing in the case of an economic disaster?

Would you actually support a supposed "Amero"? Abolishing the Federal Reserve? Throwing more money at it? Or whatever idea the president (or others in power) thought would resolve the problem? I personally would like a long study of all the solutions and see which would be the best. Although, I hope (and assume) they wouldn't do anything half assed. What do you all think?

Orderly dollar decline is actually good and inevitable in a way because frankly we consume too much and produce too little to justify dollar's current value, but what we are having now is a complete dollar collapse. I was in Japan a month ago and dollar bought 107 yen, now it buys 96 yen. That is a huge decline in 1 month.

 

[NoStateofMind]

We are heading toward a Socialist form of government.

 

[babylon5]

USD decline reflects the role and power of USA in the world. Going down fast.

 

[trance247]

we can always invade another country, who knows the economy has been bad before

 

[Rainsford]

I personally spent the morning trading in my dollars for seashells down at the beach. :roll:

Seriously, you guys need to get a tighter grip on your horses. Economic downturns are not, you know, totally unprecedented...and if this is the first time the dollar has ever fallen against other currencies, I'd be remarkably surprised. The world didn't end the last 30 or 40 times this has happened, I don't expect it to end tomorrow either.

 

[babylon5]

Originally posted by: Rainsford
The world didn't end the last 30 or 40 times this has happened, I don't expect it to end tomorrow either.

No one here saids the "world is ending" either. We are talking about US Dollar

 

[SSSnail]

Originally posted by: babylon5

Originally posted by: Rainsford
The world didn't end the last 30 or 40 times this has happened, I don't expect it to end tomorrow either.

No one here saids the "world is ending" either. We are talking about US Dollar

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...id=52&threadid=2167644

 

[LEDominator]

Originally posted by: trance247
we can always invade another country, who knows the economy has been bad before

well, the upside to a falling dollar is it makes our products more competitive...

 

[mcmilljb]

We have been spending money like it's going out of style. The problem is... well, it's going out of style now. Right now, the government needs to get the subprime mortgage under control. Instead of giving every sucker 800 dollars, why not use the money to back mortgages? The feds and Fannie Mae can back the stuff no problem. Also some people are actually paying! Banks also need to be able to work out some bail outs, like cutting principal and interest rates. Until that mess is corrected, Wall Street is going to crap its pants everytime some has a writedown. Plus they need regulate some of these mortgage practices. I think there should standard forms, and people should have to read government approved material so they understand what's going on. After that is resolved, we can then work other problems.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: mcmilljb
We have been spending money like it's going out of style. The problem is... well, it's going out of style now. Right now, the government needs to get the subprime mortgage under control. Instead of giving every sucker 800 dollars, why not use the money to back mortgages? The feds and Fannie Mae can back the stuff no problem. Also some people are actually paying! Banks also need to be able to work out some bail outs, like cutting principal and interest rates. Until that mess is corrected, Wall Street is going to crap its pants everytime some has a writedown. Plus they need regulate some of these mortgage practices. I think there should standard forms, and people should have to read government approved material so they understand what's going on. After that is resolved, we can then work other problems.

IMO the government has been spend as much money as it can like a drunk seaman on shore leave and frankly if they're going to continue to blow cash like a drug addict who just won the lottery, and we're all going to foot the bill for it later, maybe at least, pretty please, some of it can go to us instead. I don't havea mortgage that's going to turn into $55,000/month payment because I'm stupid, so at what point will the bailing out stop?

In regards to the first post, I read that a day or two ago and had the sense that if a person in Europe is not taking dollars, even at a terrible exchange, they are a moron. $1.59 US is needed for a Euro. These people won't even take $1.70? They are too lazy/stupid to go to the bank at the end of the day and then sell those US dollars back in for Euros so as to not turn away potential business?

 

[OS]

the short dollar trade is kind of crowded now, if a bank in europe or japan blows up, and this is probably likely, you will probably see a snap back.

 

[LegendKiller]

As an experiment, I had a coworker with a few euros on him, so we used the latest spot price (didn't want to screw him) and I bought the Euros. I went over to the local breakfast spot that we go to, handed over the Euros. I was then told they didn't take Euros and I should come back with something American. The guy was a little pissed at me until I brought out some dollars and explained the situation.

So the fact that somebody isn't taking dollars on the spot isn't hard to imagine. Often times the people get screwed by their local bank because the bid/ask spread gets a little wonky at less liquid places.

This isn't the end of the world.

 

[3chordcharlie]

The Canadian dollar has been for the same ride your dollar is taking now. It took it something like 35 years to go from 1:1 with the American dollar, back to that same value, and it bottomed out in the high 50cent range if I remember.

While it made visiting Disney a tough proposition, it also insulated the economy while we made major fiscal changes in terms of government debt and deficits.

I'm not saying the situation is 'the same' but the incredible panic is most likely unjustified.

 

[piasabird]

Maybe we should just convert our savings to Euros now.

 

[Nitemare]

try paying for anything in the US with Euro, Yen or Pesos...

This is why you usually exchange money at the airport or just use plastic. Stop being lazy

 

[RichardE]

Let us not also forget that following up on Legend Killers story. Currency exchange booths are businesses, they are in business to make money. As of right now with the dollar being able to lose 5-8 cents over a week or two against there main currency (the Euro) it does not seem that improbable that they will not want to make that gamble on the dollar at the momment. It doesn't make sense for them to give you whatever amound of euro's for your x amount of dollars when in all likelyhood that in 4 weeks there X amount of dollars they have been holdng onto (either on hand or in deposit) have now lost value. Until the dollar stablaizes this doesn't seem like it would be a profitable business gamble at all.

 

[3chordcharlie]

Originally posted by: RichardE
Let us not also forget that following up on Legend Killers story. Currency exchange booths are businesses, they are in business to make money. As of right now with the dollar being able to lose 5-8 cents over a week or two against there main currency (the Euro) it does not seem that improbable that they will not want to make that gamble on the dollar at the momment. It doesn't make sense for them to give you whatever amound of euro's for your x amount of dollars when in all likelyhood that in 4 weeks there X amount of dollars they have been holdng onto (either on hand or in deposit) have now lost value. Until the dollar stablaizes this doesn't seem like it would be a profitable business gamble at all.

If everyone thought the dollar was going to lose 4 cents a week from now, it would just happen now.

I agree though, a small currency exchange business with an owner less confident in the price of a dollar by the time he can get it to the bank and change it might be wary.

Then again, refusing a major currency would create other problems for such a business; I doubt they market themselves as an exchange only for some currencies, some of the time.

 

[GTaudiophile]

There is a falafel restaurant in Adam's Morgan in DC that now accepts Euros.

 

[NaughtyGeek]

Originally posted by: LegendKiller
As an experiment, I had a coworker with a few euros on him, so we used the latest spot price (didn't want to screw him) and I bought the Euros. I went over to the local breakfast spot that we go to, handed over the Euros. I was then told they didn't take Euros and I should come back with something American. The guy was a little pissed at me until I brought out some dollars and explained the situation.

So the fact that somebody isn't taking dollars on the spot isn't hard to imagine. Often times the people get screwed by their local bank because the bid/ask spread gets a little wonky at less liquid places.

This isn't the end of the world.

I fail to see how a cafe compares to a currency exchange. It's quite common for vendors not to accept foreign currency both here and abroad. I have never encountered a currency exchange that would not accept dollars and that includes in Holland. (Amsterdam FTMFW!)

On the other hand, I don't understand why everyone is so worried about the collapse of the dollar. The lower it goes, the more economically feasible it is to manufacture goods here rather than abroad. Therefore, if the lending industry can get it's shorts out of a bunch, perhaps we'll see a return to the US being a producing nation rather than just a consumer nation. More production = more jobs = stronger economy.

 

[LegendKiller]

Originally posted by: NaughtyGeek

Originally posted by: LegendKiller
As an experiment, I had a coworker with a few euros on him, so we used the latest spot price (didn't want to screw him) and I bought the Euros. I went over to the local breakfast spot that we go to, handed over the Euros. I was then told they didn't take Euros and I should come back with something American. The guy was a little pissed at me until I brought out some dollars and explained the situation.

So the fact that somebody isn't taking dollars on the spot isn't hard to imagine. Often times the people get screwed by their local bank because the bid/ask spread gets a little wonky at less liquid places.

This isn't the end of the world.

I fail to see how a cafe compares to a currency exchange. It's quite common for vendors not to accept foreign currency both here and abroad. I have never encountered a currency exchange that would not accept dollars and that includes in Holland. (Amsterdam FTMFW!)

On the other hand, I don't understand why everyone is so worried about the collapse of the dollar. The lower it goes, the more economically feasible it is to manufacture goods here rather than abroad. Therefore, if the lending industry can get it's shorts out of a bunch, perhaps we'll see a return to the US being a producing nation rather than just a consumer nation. More production = more jobs = stronger economy.

What places are these? Are they local shops not taking the dollar? are they local currency exchange places? Do you usually find local currency exchange places? I haven't seen very many in NYC myself? This story made it sound like it was small places.

If you are a small, single proprietor, and you had an illiquid business that depended on shitty exchange rates with small/med banks at local kiosks, it can become very unprofitable to take any currency that has a little volatility built into it and the dollar is certainly volitile these days.

I see this as a non event.

 

[walkur]

They are mostly small currency exchange places that are spread out across the city.

The The large exchange places (Banks/Postal offices/GWK) will never stop exchanging dollars (unless you're talking about Zimbabwean(sp?) dollars)

 

[JS80]

Originally posted by: vhx
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080317/bs_nm/dollar_dc_1

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar's value is dropping so fast against the euro that small currency outlets in Amsterdam are turning away tourists seeking to sell their dollars for local money while on vacation in the Netherlands.

"Our dollar is worth maybe zero over here," said Mary Kelly, an American tourist from Indianapolis, Indiana, in front of the Anne Frank house. "It's hard to find a place to exchange. We have to go downtown, to the central station or post office."

Just an update on how the US dollar is fairing overseas. Anyways it got me thinking on various things I have heard.

People have said they have given up rights since Sept 11th for better security because of a terrorist disaster. What if it was a US dollar collapse, and it was an economic disaster? What would you be willing to give up to correct the economy?

It just seems after Sept 11th, most people gave their personal OK on pretty much everything related to terrorism. Various companies and other agencies did as well (Like Telecoms issues we are having now). Is it safe to say we would do the same thing in the case of an economic disaster?

Would you actually support a supposed "Amero"? Abolishing the Federal Reserve? Throwing more money at it? Or whatever idea the president (or others in power) thought would resolve the problem? I personally would like a long study of all the solutions and see which would be the best. Although, I hope (and assume) they wouldn't do anything half assed. What do you all think?

Falling dollar might be the Godsend to the economy IMO. Fortune 500 US companies do a lot of business abroad which means their earnings are higher. Plus it makes US goods cheaper and we're not doing it artificially like China. Plus it has zero affect at home.

So what rights have you given up since Sept 11? What right did you have on Sept 10 that you don't today?

 

[Lt 486]

Originally posted by: JS80

Originally posted by: vhx
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080317/bs_nm/dollar_dc_1

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar's value is dropping so fast against the euro that small currency outlets in Amsterdam are turning away tourists seeking to sell their dollars for local money while on vacation in the Netherlands.

"Our dollar is worth maybe zero over here," said Mary Kelly, an American tourist from Indianapolis, Indiana, in front of the Anne Frank house. "It's hard to find a place to exchange. We have to go downtown, to the central station or post office."

Just an update on how the US dollar is fairing overseas. Anyways it got me thinking on various things I have heard.

People have said they have given up rights since Sept 11th for better security because of a terrorist disaster. What if it was a US dollar collapse, and it was an economic disaster? What would you be willing to give up to correct the economy?

It just seems after Sept 11th, most people gave their personal OK on pretty much everything related to terrorism. Various companies and other agencies did as well (Like Telecoms issues we are having now). Is it safe to say we would do the same thing in the case of an economic disaster?

Would you actually support a supposed "Amero"? Abolishing the Federal Reserve? Throwing more money at it? Or whatever idea the president (or others in power) thought would resolve the problem? I personally would like a long study of all the solutions and see which would be the best. Although, I hope (and assume) they wouldn't do anything half assed. What do you all think?

Falling dollar might be the Godsend to the economy IMO. Fortune 500 US companies do a lot of business abroad which means their earnings are higher. Plus it makes US goods cheaper and we're not doing it artificially like China. Plus it has zero affect at home.

So what rights have you given up since Sept 11? What right did you have on Sept 10 that you don't today?

Exactly. Falling dollar also leads to much higher gasoline and food prices which is extremely beneficial for average american.