$1 USD = 100.20 yen

Uh oh....lowest rate since 1995.

I think it is a combination of things. The US dollar is going down in value, but at the same time I thought that Japan's economy is starting to pick back up from their last recession. I took a Japanese culture class in college a year ago and the teacher said that there was a minor recession back in the late 90's early 2000's.

As for the value of the US dollar of course it'll go up in value, nobody knows when. The US dollar needs to go down in order to increase again.

Celebrities who wish to be paid in a currency other than USD is only hurting it even more.

Whenever I turn on the local news channel these days, the top 3 headlines for the business section tends to be "$US at its lowest rate", "Oil prices hit record high" and "Value of gold soars", or something along these lines.

One way or another, the falling US dollar will eventually affect other countries, if not the whole world.

just watch, the dollar will be the new peso.

It has a lot to do with the trade deficit, that is, the U.S. imports more than it exports. Some economists think that it will eventually be self correcting, but so far, that has proved elusive. Truthfully, it isn't that big a deal unless foreigners lose faith in the dollar as a reliable currency. People invest in the U.S. government because well, what has less chance of collapsing than the entire U.S. financial system? Not a lot.

The low dollar has to do with the credit crisis in the US and the continuous fear of the US not being able to get enough oil (thus the high oil price)

Personally the Euro has already proven itself as a far more stable currency than the US Dollar. The end of the whole dollar plummit isn't even near I think. Being the country most dependant on oil makes it vulnerable and with the oil production at the maximum and the usage still increasing makes the price of a barrel only go up more. That with the lack of government stimulation of using alternate energy sources where possible only makes the crisis continue further.
Then you have the War on Terrorists program of bush which costs an insane amount of cash which results in the national debt to sky rocket to new records every day make the public keep their money on them instead of spending it.

with the current situation only going rukia92's post will become reality unless they really start changing there.

Economy isn't really my thing. Aside from the internet, cigarettes, and television, I don't really have much in the way of extra expenses. I do agree, however, with WhiteLion on the subject of the trade deficit and Hakker about the war on terrorism, the oil situation, etc. The truth is that the US government hasn't had a wise economic policy in quite a while. I do see the US dollar stabilizing, but not for a while. With the coming election, I hope that we'll be able to get someone into office with half the sense to focus on the economic problems on far more than a superficial level.

That's completely incorrect.

Oil prices are high because of increased demand for oil, especially from the developing China, while oil supplies stay about the same, since the OPEC countries decline to release more oil. Importing expensive oil contributes quite a bit to the trade deficit, but you analysis of the current economic system is too fixated on oil.



Because the dollar's decline isn't based on internal inflation, but rather, primarily on imports and exports, there are limits on what can happen. As the dollar gets weaker, the cost of imports goes up while the cost of exports goes down, thus, the trade deficit is unsustainable.

The Euro would be the currency most likely to supplant the dollar, if it came to that, but many of the European countries have stagnant economies due to years of entitlement based societies and inflexible economic policies prohibitive to growth. Of the two EU leaders, German has begun to move in the right direction, while France still lags behind. Faith in the dollar has more to do with faith in the economic consistency of the US compared to other countries than it does with fluctuating dollar strength. In fact, as the dollar goes lower, people might be more likely to invest in it because it is cheap now, and likely to go up again in the future.


While the Iraq War is expensive and something does need to be done about the deficit, people are not not spending money to hoard it. Right now, people aren't spending money because they don't have money to spend. Obviously, it starts at the top, but corporate losses equal pay cuts and job cuts, which leave the average person with less money to spend. The current economic woes have far more to do with the housing market and mortgage debts than they do with Iraq and oil.

I just wanted to say one thing. I like the Euro, it looks like it will be strong for a while, but it is a relatively new currency. Give it some time and see where it goes in the next ten years before people say it is a stable currency. The dollar has been around for a long time and never has really been hit hard sense the great depression, as far as I know. And right now isn’t nearly as bad as back then. If fuel-efficient cars, and fuel-efficiency in general, were the norm and people cut back on extravagant, out of country spending everything would be much better.

Not to mention that in order to increase the value of the dollar it needs gold to back it up.

We stopped using the gold standard during World War I.

Congrats, I was actually trying to see who would correct me. I know the US dollar isn't backed up by gold anymore, but unfortunately schools today still teach people that it still is *facepalm*. Therefore I will +rep you by tomorrow or so for pointing that out.

+ repped him.

The more you know!

"BECAUSE KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!" :) I know I'm not contributing anymore to this post but I couldn't help it. Tsujoi's last comment just flows right into mine :) Oh and When they stopped backing the US dollar with gold they backed it with silver for some time. But I think that stopped doing that some time in the past. Maybe in the 70's.

wow... for those who think hentai peeps only talk about anime and sex... well FACK OFF... we talk about important smarty things too!

One of the problems is that there was nothing, well that I'm aware of, backing US currency up until the Bush administration. When he was elected, he somehow managed to convince everyone that it would be a good idea to instate the blood-of-the-innocents standard. After the war on terrorism began and so many people who were, in fact innocent, started getting blown to pieces, the US dollar was fucked.

***For those without a sense of humor***
That was an unnecessary joke at the expense of the president.

Well the biggest problem we have is really an internal one in America. What is happeneing is the housing market has gone completly to crap. Banks are giving loans out to people who obviously cant pay them and its coming to bite them in the ass. Most people would think the main reason a country
s economy is suffering would be unemployment, but our's im pretty sure is in the 92%~95% range and thats where it should be. (100% would cause inflation of everything). So the banks need to get thier act together or else the number of people in debt and unpayable loans will continue to skyrocket.

So you're saying that owing over $1000 to my credit card company, not having a job, and not paying it off is affecting the dollar? Oh shi-.