The Dollar Continues to Drop
Hostel Trends and News
Excerpt:
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.
[...]
That's because the smaller currency exchanges -- despite buy/sell spreads that make it easier for them to make money by exchanging small amounts of currency -- don't want to be caught holding dollars that could be worth less by the time they can sell them.
Xe.com says 1 euro is $1.57 now...
- Comments
16 years
I guess the positive side is that I'll be an instant millionaire...
:confused:
16 years
That´s a "B" there, not an "M".
A "Billion" in German means a Trillion in English.
People were actually going shopping with wheelbarrows full of Banknotes. Those notes were so worthless that there was only print ink on one side - to save money.
The hyperinflation in Germany in the twenties was a deliberate act. They just printed money to pay back the WWI debts. Which sounds vaguely similar to the American situation right now.
16 years
That´s a "B" there, not an "M".
A "Billion" in German means a Trillion in English.
(I missed that the first time... It's 1am here)
Great... I will be able to pay off the national debt with money that I pull out of an ATM...
16 years
Great... I will be able to pay off the national debt with money that I pull out of an ATM...
Exactly that was the plan in 1923. Except the French didn´t want worthless money, so they occupied the Rhineland instead.
The Chinese will soon realize they sit on a pile of worthless dollar bonds. They´ll be pissed off. I wonder if they would rather have Alaska or California then! :D
From Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Inflation-1923.jpg
"A German woman feeding a stove with currency notes, which burn longer than the amount of firewood they can buy."
16 years
Crazy photo. Embedded it here:
Image © AdsD der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, used under CC license
16 years
Cheers. I tried, but the image tags didn´t work. I got a message like "file format incopatible" or summat. WTF, it´s a jpg?
Those were crazy times indeed. People lost all their savings, which paved the way for Hitler. This experience explains why West Germany´s Bundesbank always did everything to keep devaluation down near zero, regardless of cost. Currency devaluation (that´s what the Fed does now) can boost the economy in short terms (hey, it´s election year!) but some day you´ll always pay the price. It´s a slippery slope.
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