Euro soars to $1.60 against U.S. dollar, a new record high

[onehandle]

Source: AFP

LONDON (AFP) - The European single currency leapt to a record high above 1.60 dollars here on Tuesday as investor fears grew over the state of the US economy and its financial services sector, dealers said.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080715/bs_afp/forexeuroperecord

[rfranklin]

1. Thank you , Bush Crime Family!

You have lead us bravely into third world status. Thank you!

[hack89]

4. Mixed blessing

good time to be an exporter - your goods are cheaper overseas. This is also devastating to European companies wanting to sell in America.

[davekriss]

14. Good time to be a Euro-rich European, too

Last time the Republicans decimated the dollar was during the Reagan-Bush years after rusting out our industrial belt with early Reagan dollar strength. It was the James Baker-arranged then-secret Plaza Accord where the central bankers of the G8 (or whatever the number was then) agreed to sell US dollars until it fell to an arranged trading range. I recall our currency falling to around 89 yen to the dollar. The net result was a fire sale of U.S. assets and its corresponding degree of loss of U.S. economic sovereignty. At the start of the first Reagan administration, the U.S. owned 3.7 times more of the rest of the world than the rest of the world owned of us; by the end of the second administration the rest of the world owned 0.4 times more of us than we of then. A sea change (and evidence of the hollowness of the "Reagen Prosperity"). It enabled the further rise in power of the financial elites across the globe, elites that now show little allegiance to any nation state. I can only imagine what the ownership ratios look like now.

Economist Robert Heilbroner wrote a slim-book in 1976 called "The Decline of Business Civilization". In it, he predicted the rise of "corporate feudalism", where multi-nationals have more power than the democratic institutions of nation states. He was prescient, for sure.

[comtec]

2. old news

the euro actually hit 1.60 several weeks ago, then recessed to 1.53 for a day, and it's been creeping back up since.
Actually the Euro hit 1.61 and change for the better part of a day.

to be macabre, i'm waiting for the dow to dip below 11,000 the "psychological barrier".
Does any one remember when breaking ABOVE 10,000 was "the unbreakable psychological barrier"?
I knew it then, that the dow was growing too fast and was not reflecting reality.
I hate being right about the bad things!

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

12. The Dow just dropped below 11K..... at this morning's open. nt

[comtec]

13. I see that (ticker in firefox)

I'm... kind of surprised and horrified too really.
I hope this wake up people that we can not continue with un-regulated capitalism anymore... that some things MUST be regulated or full on run by the government.
The government might be slow, but it works!

[tabasco]

3. Just like everything else AWOL has touched

the dollar has turned to shit.

[Kip Humphrey]

5. The value of the DOW in 2008 euro equivalent dollars: 6,909.49

2000: 1 euro = .97 dollar
2008: 1 euro = 1.60 dollar

DOW 2008 (14-JUL-08 close): 11,055.19
DOW 2008 in 2000 euro equivalent dollars: 11,397.10
DOW 2008 in 2008 euro equivalent dollars: 6,909.49

Assumption: nominal inflation is approximately equivalent between euro and dollar.

The health of the US economy is worse than we think.

[harmonicon]

11. that's a very good way to describe it

Investors aren't dumb. I think if the price of oil were expressed in the same terms, it wouldn't seem as expensive now as it seems to be to Americans. Heaven forbid someone in the media actually put 2 and 2 together like you just did and let the people know how horribly our economy has truly been routed by the crooks in power.

[high density]

6. Our manufacturing industries must be booming on all of those exports

Oh, no?

[percussivemadness]

16. ah yes....The U.S. trade deficit narrowed in May as exports climbed to all-time highs.

The U.S. trade deficit narrowed in May as exports — including industrial supplies and consumer goods —

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=5355333

Also, VW have announced a plant in Tennessee and Mississippi is getting a new Toyota plant to build its new Prius

http://www.motorauthority.com/cars/toyota/report-toyotas-new-mississippi-plant-to-build-prius/

[a la izquierda]

7. It's even declining against the peso.

10.78 last July 15 to 10.28 today. It's not much of a decline, but declining against the peso almost never happens. Last year, my rent in Guadalajara would have cost me $512. This year, it's going to cost me $534. The rent in pesos hasn't increased, but the exchange rate has.

[WriteDown]

8. This trend is a necessary correction...

Our trade deficit is ginormous due to our addiction to cheap, Chinese goods. This will help to correct that imbalance. Makes internationsl travel tough though.

[14thColony]

9. Makes living in Europe...

...but still getting paid in Dollars really tough...yippee...

[harmonicon]

10. god, do you get paid in dollars?

I moved to the UK last year and get paid in pounds. At first I thought that I was going to be rich (ok, by my stands - I'm really poor, in fact), but didn't really expect things to be so expensive over here. It does mean that apart from an insanely expensive $1,500 plane ticket to go back to the US this summer, I won't be worrying about how much money I spend while I'm over there - everything is 1/2 the price!

[14thColony]

15. Yes

I live in the UK too. I allegedly get a floating cost-of-living adjustment to compensate, but nonetheless I've seen a steady deterioration in buying power.

[truthisfreedom]

17. Yahoo! I export, so this is great for me. Sorry for anyone who is getting screwn [sic] by this.

Bush: "We're strong dollar people!"

[1776Forever]

18. Video on U.S. having Amero made up ready to take over U.S. Dollars months ago......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hiPrsc9g98

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd-ZqYvj9b8&feature=related

..................

Europe has the Euro. Are you ready for The Amero?

http://www.wisebread.com/europe-has-the-euro-are-you-ready-for-the-amero

Posted April 4, 2007 - 09:47 by Paul Michael

Hold onto your hats. (Or should that be dollars?) The Amero is coming. I’ve heard a lot of talk over the last few years about a new currency called the Amero that will replace dollars and pesos.

I thought at first it was just conjecture and gossip, but the more I have researched it, the more I believe it is not only real…but coming soon. And as a writer who has your best monetary interests at heart, I feel you need to know at least a little about this.

A North American Union (NAU) with a common currency is not a new idea. Herbert G. Grubel, a senior fellow of the Fraser Institute, came out with a book entitled “The Case for the Amero” in September of 1999. But the mass media has largely ignored it, with both the supporters and critics of the plan being relegated to obscure talk radio and Internet sites (hopefully, this one doesn’t fall into the latter).

However, since 1999 a case has been building for the new currency, and some believe the current administration is setting the stage for the introduction of the Amero very soon, as soon as 2010 some believe. The lack of serious intervention on illegal immigration coupled with the continued devaluation of the dollar and its weakness in the world economy is in fact the perfect place to set the foundation for a new currency. Or so I’ve been told by various economists with far more smarts than myself.

............

Middle Class - Try Middle Ages - We are going to just be a memory in the history books!

:scared:

[fascisthunter]

19. due to conservative economics=fail