Dollar hits fresh record lows against euro

Slavko, US mortgage companies are at fault let me explain why. They (US mortgage companies) marketed the risky subprime mortgages as "safe investments". American banks sliced and bundled their subprime mortgages together into packages. Using complex computer models, and by geographically and otherwise diversifying the bundled mortgages, US banks convinced world-renowned & trusted American investment-rating agencies like Moody's and Standard & Poor's to give the mortgage securities higher valuations than regular subprimes would typically rate. It is public knowledge that these same ratings agencies were being paid by the very banks and lenders that were bundling and selling the subprime mortgages - a conflict of interest that produced misleading data for foreign investors. This is a con-job, foisting off our bad loans on the rest of the world! There will be a price to pay for this deception, the price is already being paid and it is our (US) fault!
Joe; for a supposed economic expert, you show a major lack of basic knowledge i.e. economics 101. The falling dollar is helping us ONLY IN THE SHORT TERM. It is boosting exports yes this is true. Problem with this is only a small part of our economy is export driven, 2/3 is consumer spending and with a weaker dollar our spending power diminishes every week. Another problem is that as the dollar becomes weaker foreign countries that hold our massive debt will start to dump their US treasures for stronger currencies (this is already happening), which will further erode our wealth, cause spiraling inflation and a possible collapse of our economic system. How about the loss of RESERVE STATUS for the Dollar, Oil, gold, all commodities being traded in Euros, would this be contributing to our being "mighty" in the long term? The declining dollar is a disaster for the US; in the long term, which is what we should be looking at instead of short-term small-pie gains. The short-sighted approach is how we got to this point; THE MIGHTY US IS NOT SO MIGHTY ANY MORE, and we only have ourselves to blame and economists like Joe who can't see beyond a year. Joe, you must work for the government because you spew the same propaganda. Good luck with your devaluing Dollars, I'll be putting my money in the Euro, so a few years from now let's see how much your worth is compared to me!

the macho cowboy is losing his economic clout by the day! No thanks to the subprime mortgage fiasco!

"lowe,

If a NATO country is unhappy or does not like the US it can get out at any time. It is not the old Warsow pact. Remember Hungary in 1956 when it tried to get out?
About that hate toward the US: yes I don't care a bit. It is thousand time better to be envied, to be hated because of the might and wealth of the US, my country than pitied once. I lived/studied in France and worked in Germany. I could have become citizen of any of those countries. I am so glad I never did. Coming to the US was my best move (I had few others).
(Joe, 24 November 2007 15:11)"

Well, if you admit to being arrogant enough not to care about other people's opinions, and if you are indeed representative of the US, then I rest my case. NO WONDER then that the people in these Nato countries detest the US enough to bash it in the forums!

You don't need pity? Okay, that's your call but don't profess to speak for your fellow citizens. Actually I do pity those Americans who lost their homes and investments when their houses were reposessed in the subprime fiasco. The banks took advantage of their ignorance about a huge jump in interest rates after a few honeymoon years. And I don't think anyone in the world would envy these people either however much Americans like yourselves apparently like to be envied.

If subprime is the thing that brought US economy down why are the same CEO`s of that industry named as ambassadors to a foreign countries.Instead of placing them in jails they are awarded jobs, and many americans feel trapped knowing that they have to buy cheap chinese goods to keep economy afloat.
Thanks to globalization they are tasting their own medicine now,as the rest off the world learned and took advantage of them .

"lowe,

I find you comment very funny.
It is very typical of an anti-american Serb you are.
You are guided by your anti-american emotions, what I can understand. We are the mightiest country and that bothers you a lot.
The euro/dollar exhange rate
at 10.38 AM New York time at Bloomberg was 1.4808 - 0.0046.
I could write pages about it but the main thing is this:
the weak dollar helps our export a lot and starts to hurt the EU. They wanted a stong euro and many anti-american Europeans wanted to see the economic collapse of the US through the dollar. They were very naive. I hope that the dollar will fall further and will hurt those Europeans, who wished our ruin. As long as we don't go to Europe the exchange rate does not matter. I am planning to go again in a year. This year I did not go.
In the mean time I would love to see a 2 for 1 exchange rate. We could see who would be hurt more.
As John Connely, the treasury secretery of Nixon once said: "The dollar is our currency but their (Europeans) problem".
(Joe, 23 November 2007 17:15) "

Joe,

well, I do find YOUR comments funny ..... AND inaccurate to a large extent.

I am not a Sern but I do grant you that I do not like the US.

Don't be naive, Joe. The US dollar is dropping like anything because of a downturn in the US economy brought about by your trigger happy credit overextension (simple economics: borrowing too much which you cannot repay later as epitomed by your current subprime market situation, and a relative drop in demand for US products worldwide due to what many have attributed to falling quality and high prices. So that you have no choice to devaluation of your currency AGAINST YOUR WILL -- Didn't your Fed just declared a couple a months back that you guys wanted a STRONG dollar????

You claim to be an American (I will take your word for it although I do have my doubts) and so you should know better than anyone else that your BOP deficit is also BY FAR the largest in the world. There is even a wry economic joke that communist China is financially sponsoring so-called democratic US with their record trade surpluses. Or maybe this joke (a fact actually!) is not palatable for Americans.

By the way, it not just the euro. For the first time in history the Canadian dollar has gone above par your greenback.

And neither I nor anyone else need to be a Serb or American or Eskimo to know basic economics! I do not need "anti-american emotions" as you put it to understand these, just plain economics as I said!

Canadian currency museum
http://www.currencymuseum.ca/eng/collection/index.php


Closing rate summary:
http://www.bankofcanada.ca/en/rates/can_us_close.html


All-time Low/High and look-up currency exchange rates in the past:
http://www.bankofcanada.ca/en/rates/can_us_lookup.html

Email alert:
http://www.bankofcanada.ca/en/messenger/index.html

Any Serb with a current securities license will probably not comment on this issue of subprime.

Subprime means exactly what it means: sub prime, below prime, it doesn’t say how far below prime the investment or rate is (ohhhh, how tricky with the wording), it just means below.

An example of what sub means is the sub-culture on Queen street in Toronto many years ago. Some people just had a piercing of the body in a weird place; whereas, some had piercing all over. To me they are all sub-culture whether they had the attitude for it or not; regardless of the degree, they are all subculture.

CBC did a very descriptive story on this U.S. subprime. It continues to be the foreign investors fault because wood in homes does decay and when it gets to a certain rate it accelerates even faster. They, the foreign investors, should have just looked at the age of the homes before purchasing these bundles of mortgages. If the homes are in good condition then the value of the home is the only issue, which is just a matter of time before the price goes up, if the city is well planned.

I too can go on in detail, but really they should have investigated more. Seems strange though doesn’t it? Why would they invest this much with such a highly leveraged risk? If they didn’t, do you think they would be able to get lucrative contracts with Americans and their government? For instance, look at the amount of steel contracts China receives from the U.S. Does it not make sense for the Chinese to purchase overpriced rusted and crushed junk yard automobiles from the U.S. and Canada for their empty freight ships going back to mainland China? This is how the U.S. and Canada are shipping their Kyoto CO2 emissions to China for the meltdown of recycled metal. Think its not environmentally nice of China? How many years was China ostracized and isolated? They sure must feel good being part of the world economic community.

The only reason I am participating in this thread is because Ana enrolled in a Belgrade economics school. I know, I know, her father, the economist, could have explained it to her. But he’s not courting his daughter, is he?

"Lowe I am aware of all that what you try to bring me as some kind of revelation. You must be a European or a Canadian. I debated with a lot of people of your kind on the forum of the French "Figaro" years ago until they closed that forum. Already 4 years ago most Europeans and Canadians predicted the imminent collapse of the US economy. They wished it so badly. I never encountered so much hate and envy, jealousy. They declared that they want to be the superpower of the world, the "number one" and to get there the US has to collapse. Are you one of those dreamers? It looks like. I don't know how old you are but you will have to wait very, very long.
(Joe, 24 November 2007 04:06)"

They may be wrong 4 years ago, but are you sure history always repeats itself entirely? Might also be worth soul searching why there is, in your very own words, "so much hate" for the US? The fact that people from your own Nato allied countries have "so much hate" for you must surely speak volumes right? Or are you really so arrogant that you are blind to that fact or just don't care?

One more thing, don't profess to profile me and to know a lot about "my kind". About the only thing that you can be sure about me is that I am neither Serb nor American.

The U.S. dollar went from being worth $1.18 in exchange to the Canadian dollar, on February 2nd this year, to $0.92 on November 6th this month. That’s a $0.26 decrease in 9 months. It is currently at $0.98, which is good because Canadians were travelling across the border to purchase items in large numbers when it was at the $0.92 exchange rate. With this type of currency difference, the U.S. is receiving increased sales growth through mail order, even though Canadians have to pay courier and cross border brokerage fees, it continues to be less expensive to purchase U.S. products for Canadians. Some Canadians don’t have to cross the border to purchase U.S. product; for instance, the Canadian used car market is being dumped with cheap U.S. cars (speedometre in miles, rather than kilometres). The U.S. is a big market, and the world is a big customer, therefore, the U.S. continues to employee its people.

As for the “subprime mortgage fiasco” lowe mentioned, well, the finance companies review investments before they purchase them; therefore, the U.S. mortgage companies are not at fault for foreign companies not making prudent investment decisions. If there is any good from this part of financial history it’s that these foreign companies will have their investment rating altered by New York’s rating house.

The subprime trend was merely a Ponzi scheme where the first to get into the housing market were able to sell their houses at a nice profit since housing was going up at unrealistic and unsustainable rate. It was obvious this could not be sustained once the housing market stabilized. Those who got in at the end are now left holding the bag.

The Dot Com boom was essentially the same thing, where worthless internet swamp land was treated like Baseball trading cards and went up in value based on dubious perception rather than grounded in reality. That was not how Corporations were intended to function. It’s supposed to be all about dividends and protecting the investor from liability.

Joe, I’m happy you support the rich and elite getting more money, but this trend in the dollar really hurts the little people. Like many of the Diaspora here, I have no choice whether I want to visit the homeland or not, I have to. Personally, I’d love to invest money into Real Estate in the Balkans, but now is not a good time.

I also have a fondness for German automobiles and cool hi tech Japanese goods.

If having a weak currency is so desired, why did you move to the US instead of Canada or Mexico?

“Zoran in our stores here we pay in dollars and not in euros. So we don't feel the effects of the strong euro.”

Joe, you obviously have no sense or appreciation for quality.

I prefer French wines, Italian shoes, German appliances, Japanese technology etc etc. I do not like being “forced” to buy inferior American products as a result of some economists deciding its best for American corporations to export more easily. I like nice stuff and I have good taste. I want the freedom to choose for myself what products I wish to purchase. Clearly you are against “Free Trade” and are essentially a protectionist.

Besides, weak dollar = more expensive real estate market here in the US as well. It doesn’t take a Brain Surgeon to realize that.

It also makes us VERY vulnerable to economic attacks such as we experienced with Japan in the 80’s and 90’s when they were buying up all of California and Hawaii.

The ONLY thing propping up our economy at the moment is the Military and Industrial complex, they are benefiting greatly from the war. However, the economic benefits and growth from gearing the economy on a war footing is ALWAYS a short term boost and will start to drag us down very shortly.

“I am a naturalized proud US citizen.”

Joe you’ve always seemed awfully fond of telling people who disagree with the US government to leave the country or that they are anti-American. That in itself is inherently UnAmerican and undemocratic. My mother’s side came over to help build the James Town colony and fought in the American Revolution. The philosophy behind our founding father’s intentions in building this great country was dissent and opposition. In order to properly participate in a democracy one must be critical and suspicious of government. You seem to think that being a proud American requires being strictly pro-Capitalism, and that is simply NOT the case, regardless of what our Media tries to portray. I grew up in one of the most influential regions of the US, my family are all lawyers, judges, senators and even Admirals. I know how the system is setup and how it produces a permanent under class of uneducated worker bees. Economists like you complain when the unemployment rate is “too low”, about how its “bad” for the economy, yet all I see is people who can’t make their rent, who have no hope of ever buying their own home, or sending their children to a higher education.

lowe,

I find you comment very funny.
It is very typical of an anti-american Serb you are.
You are guided by your anti-american emotions, what I can understand. We are the mightiest country and that bothers you a lot.
The euro/dollar exhange rate
at 10.38 AM New York time at Bloomberg was 1.4808 - 0.0046.
I could write pages about it but the main thing is this:
the weak dollar helps our export a lot and starts to hurt the EU. They wanted a stong euro and many anti-american Europeans wanted to see the economic collapse of the US through the dollar. They were very naive. I hope that the dollar will fall further and will hurt those Europeans, who wished our ruin. As long as we don't go to Europe the exchange rate does not matter. I am planning to go again in a year. This year I did not go.
In the mean time I would love to see a 2 for 1 exchange rate. We could see who would be hurt more.
As John Connely, the treasury secretery of Nixon once said: "The dollar is our currency but their (Europeans) problem".

Slavko,

You are absolutely right on the subprime. It is nice to read the comment of somebody, who understand the laws and functioning of the economy. It is complex and fascinating.
Good luck to Ana. You will have interesting discussions among yourself.

Zoran, Matthew, Slavko, Lowe,

I appreciated your interesting comments about the dollar, a very dear subject for me. I wished I could respond more in detail but I had a busy day in a brokerage on this Black Friday, when most people were out shopping...if there would be no tomorrow. I am a naturalized proud US citizen. I apologize for my English (it is my 4th language). I am not a broker. I am working in the software part of the company. Matthew I sympathize with you and with your real estate plans. Now you just have to wait a while. I invested in European real estate years ago when the dollar was much stronger. So I don't have all my eggs in one basket.
Zoran in our stores here we pay in dollars and not in euros. So we don't feel the effects of the strong euro. Our buying power (from our income) is so much superior to that of the Europeans. Maybe you heard about the Woodbury Shopping Center in Orange County, New York State. Thousands of shoppers fly over from Europe on a daily basis and take the 35 miles bus ride from New York just to shop there and return home. Already years ago, when the dollar was much stronger they could buy there twice cheapper than at home. You would say "wait...inflation will quick in". Not in the current economic environment.
And if the Chinease or others dump the dollar? This is not a one way street. If they would do that than (converted) for every dollar they would get back a value of 30, 40 or 50 cents in their currency. Who would get hurt?
Also in the economy there are self-correcting mechanisms. If the economy goes real bad (generally for a short time) than the well-known buying orgy of the Americans get restrained. That helps restrain the imports and improves the trade balance. This happened few times in the last 30-40 years.
Lowe I am aware of all that what you try to bring me as some kind of revelation. You must be a European or a Canadian. I debated with a lot of people of your kind on the forum of the French "Figaro" years ago until they closed that forum. Already 4 years ago most Europeans and Canadians predicted the imminent collapse of the US economy. They wished it so badly. I never encountered so much hate and envy, jealousy. They declared that they want to be the superpower of the world, the "number one" and to get there the US has to collapse. Are you one of those dreamers? It looks like. I don't know how old you are but you will have to wait very, very long.

the macho cowboy is losing his economic clout by the day! No thanks to the subprime mortgage fiasco!
(lowe, 23 November 2007 10:44)

I honestly think that the USD losing power will in the long run help America. First thing we need to do is find a new energy source that doesn't rely on MidEast so that we can move forward. After that, economy will come stronger than ever.

KS,

I fully agree with you. The USD losing foreign buying power will help us on the long run. It is temporary. In the mean time it has to weaken more to come back stronger later. My long term wish is a strong dollar.
And yes we have to find new energy sources. That will change the whole picture.

lowe,

If a NATO country is unhappy or does not like the US it can get out at any time. It is not the old Warsow pact. Remember Hungary in 1956 when it tried to get out?
About that hate toward the US: yes I don't care a bit. It is thousand time better to be envied, to be hated because of the might and wealth of the US, my country than pitied once. I lived/studied in France and worked in Germany. I could have become citizen of any of those countries. I am so glad I never did. Coming to the US was my best move (I had few others).

Matthew,

One moment you complain that you can not afford to buy real estate in the Balkans than minutes later you play the snob, who has to buy foreign products because the quality of US products is not at your level. Well if you can not afford them please don't play the snob. I have a nice BMW, several real estate holdings in Europe and here in the US but I am not a snob. I live in a very exclusive gated community. I know here an old man who is from an old famous family. He himself did not accomplish too much in his life, lives in a small house but he is very snobish. I find it ridiculous and funny.

lowe,

I find you comment very funny.
It is very typical of an anti-american Serb you are.
You are guided by your anti-american emotions, what I can understand. We are the mightiest country and that bothers you a lot.
The euro/dollar exhange rate
at 10.38 AM New York time at Bloomberg was 1.4808 - 0.0046.
I could write pages about it but the main thing is this:
the weak dollar helps our export a lot and starts to hurt the EU. They wanted a stong euro and many anti-american Europeans wanted to see the economic collapse of the US through the dollar. They were very naive. I hope that the dollar will fall further and will hurt those Europeans, who wished our ruin. As long as we don't go to Europe the exchange rate does not matter. I am planning to go again in a year. This year I did not go.
In the mean time I would love to see a 2 for 1 exchange rate. We could see who would be hurt more.
As John Connely, the treasury secretery of Nixon once said: "The dollar is our currency but their (Europeans) problem".

the macho cowboy is losing his economic clout by the day! No thanks to the subprime mortgage fiasco!

If subprime is the thing that brought US economy down why are the same CEO`s of that industry named as ambassadors to a foreign countries.Instead of placing them in jails they are awarded jobs, and many americans feel trapped knowing that they have to buy cheap chinese goods to keep economy afloat.
Thanks to globalization they are tasting their own medicine now,as the rest off the world learned and took advantage of them .

The U.S. dollar went from being worth $1.18 in exchange to the Canadian dollar, on February 2nd this year, to $0.92 on November 6th this month. That’s a $0.26 decrease in 9 months. It is currently at $0.98, which is good because Canadians were travelling across the border to purchase items in large numbers when it was at the $0.92 exchange rate. With this type of currency difference, the U.S. is receiving increased sales growth through mail order, even though Canadians have to pay courier and cross border brokerage fees, it continues to be less expensive to purchase U.S. products for Canadians. Some Canadians don’t have to cross the border to purchase U.S. product; for instance, the Canadian used car market is being dumped with cheap U.S. cars (speedometre in miles, rather than kilometres). The U.S. is a big market, and the world is a big customer, therefore, the U.S. continues to employee its people.

As for the “subprime mortgage fiasco” lowe mentioned, well, the finance companies review investments before they purchase them; therefore, the U.S. mortgage companies are not at fault for foreign companies not making prudent investment decisions. If there is any good from this part of financial history it’s that these foreign companies will have their investment rating altered by New York’s rating house.

Slavko, US mortgage companies are at fault let me explain why. They (US mortgage companies) marketed the risky subprime mortgages as "safe investments". American banks sliced and bundled their subprime mortgages together into packages. Using complex computer models, and by geographically and otherwise diversifying the bundled mortgages, US banks convinced world-renowned & trusted American investment-rating agencies like Moody's and Standard & Poor's to give the mortgage securities higher valuations than regular subprimes would typically rate. It is public knowledge that these same ratings agencies were being paid by the very banks and lenders that were bundling and selling the subprime mortgages - a conflict of interest that produced misleading data for foreign investors. This is a con-job, foisting off our bad loans on the rest of the world! There will be a price to pay for this deception, the price is already being paid and it is our (US) fault!
Joe; for a supposed economic expert, you show a major lack of basic knowledge i.e. economics 101. The falling dollar is helping us ONLY IN THE SHORT TERM. It is boosting exports yes this is true. Problem with this is only a small part of our economy is export driven, 2/3 is consumer spending and with a weaker dollar our spending power diminishes every week. Another problem is that as the dollar becomes weaker foreign countries that hold our massive debt will start to dump their US treasures for stronger currencies (this is already happening), which will further erode our wealth, cause spiraling inflation and a possible collapse of our economic system. How about the loss of RESERVE STATUS for the Dollar, Oil, gold, all commodities being traded in Euros, would this be contributing to our being "mighty" in the long term? The declining dollar is a disaster for the US; in the long term, which is what we should be looking at instead of short-term small-pie gains. The short-sighted approach is how we got to this point; THE MIGHTY US IS NOT SO MIGHTY ANY MORE, and we only have ourselves to blame and economists like Joe who can't see beyond a year. Joe, you must work for the government because you spew the same propaganda. Good luck with your devaluing Dollars, I'll be putting my money in the Euro, so a few years from now let's see how much your worth is compared to me!

The subprime trend was merely a Ponzi scheme where the first to get into the housing market were able to sell their houses at a nice profit since housing was going up at unrealistic and unsustainable rate. It was obvious this could not be sustained once the housing market stabilized. Those who got in at the end are now left holding the bag.

The Dot Com boom was essentially the same thing, where worthless internet swamp land was treated like Baseball trading cards and went up in value based on dubious perception rather than grounded in reality. That was not how Corporations were intended to function. It’s supposed to be all about dividends and protecting the investor from liability.

Joe, I’m happy you support the rich and elite getting more money, but this trend in the dollar really hurts the little people. Like many of the Diaspora here, I have no choice whether I want to visit the homeland or not, I have to. Personally, I’d love to invest money into Real Estate in the Balkans, but now is not a good time.

I also have a fondness for German automobiles and cool hi tech Japanese goods.

If having a weak currency is so desired, why did you move to the US instead of Canada or Mexico?

"lowe,

I find you comment very funny.
It is very typical of an anti-american Serb you are.
You are guided by your anti-american emotions, what I can understand. We are the mightiest country and that bothers you a lot.
The euro/dollar exhange rate
at 10.38 AM New York time at Bloomberg was 1.4808 - 0.0046.
I could write pages about it but the main thing is this:
the weak dollar helps our export a lot and starts to hurt the EU. They wanted a stong euro and many anti-american Europeans wanted to see the economic collapse of the US through the dollar. They were very naive. I hope that the dollar will fall further and will hurt those Europeans, who wished our ruin. As long as we don't go to Europe the exchange rate does not matter. I am planning to go again in a year. This year I did not go.
In the mean time I would love to see a 2 for 1 exchange rate. We could see who would be hurt more.
As John Connely, the treasury secretery of Nixon once said: "The dollar is our currency but their (Europeans) problem".
(Joe, 23 November 2007 17:15) "

Joe,

well, I do find YOUR comments funny ..... AND inaccurate to a large extent.

I am not a Sern but I do grant you that I do not like the US.

Don't be naive, Joe. The US dollar is dropping like anything because of a downturn in the US economy brought about by your trigger happy credit overextension (simple economics: borrowing too much which you cannot repay later as epitomed by your current subprime market situation, and a relative drop in demand for US products worldwide due to what many have attributed to falling quality and high prices. So that you have no choice to devaluation of your currency AGAINST YOUR WILL -- Didn't your Fed just declared a couple a months back that you guys wanted a STRONG dollar????

You claim to be an American (I will take your word for it although I do have my doubts) and so you should know better than anyone else that your BOP deficit is also BY FAR the largest in the world. There is even a wry economic joke that communist China is financially sponsoring so-called democratic US with their record trade surpluses. Or maybe this joke (a fact actually!) is not palatable for Americans.

By the way, it not just the euro. For the first time in history the Canadian dollar has gone above par your greenback.

And neither I nor anyone else need to be a Serb or American or Eskimo to know basic economics! I do not need "anti-american emotions" as you put it to understand these, just plain economics as I said!

Zoran, Matthew, Slavko, Lowe,

I appreciated your interesting comments about the dollar, a very dear subject for me. I wished I could respond more in detail but I had a busy day in a brokerage on this Black Friday, when most people were out shopping...if there would be no tomorrow. I am a naturalized proud US citizen. I apologize for my English (it is my 4th language). I am not a broker. I am working in the software part of the company. Matthew I sympathize with you and with your real estate plans. Now you just have to wait a while. I invested in European real estate years ago when the dollar was much stronger. So I don't have all my eggs in one basket.
Zoran in our stores here we pay in dollars and not in euros. So we don't feel the effects of the strong euro. Our buying power (from our income) is so much superior to that of the Europeans. Maybe you heard about the Woodbury Shopping Center in Orange County, New York State. Thousands of shoppers fly over from Europe on a daily basis and take the 35 miles bus ride from New York just to shop there and return home. Already years ago, when the dollar was much stronger they could buy there twice cheapper than at home. You would say "wait...inflation will quick in". Not in the current economic environment.
And if the Chinease or others dump the dollar? This is not a one way street. If they would do that than (converted) for every dollar they would get back a value of 30, 40 or 50 cents in their currency. Who would get hurt?
Also in the economy there are self-correcting mechanisms. If the economy goes real bad (generally for a short time) than the well-known buying orgy of the Americans get restrained. That helps restrain the imports and improves the trade balance. This happened few times in the last 30-40 years.
Lowe I am aware of all that what you try to bring me as some kind of revelation. You must be a European or a Canadian. I debated with a lot of people of your kind on the forum of the French "Figaro" years ago until they closed that forum. Already 4 years ago most Europeans and Canadians predicted the imminent collapse of the US economy. They wished it so badly. I never encountered so much hate and envy, jealousy. They declared that they want to be the superpower of the world, the "number one" and to get there the US has to collapse. Are you one of those dreamers? It looks like. I don't know how old you are but you will have to wait very, very long.

the macho cowboy is losing his economic clout by the day! No thanks to the subprime mortgage fiasco!
(lowe, 23 November 2007 10:44)

I honestly think that the USD losing power will in the long run help America. First thing we need to do is find a new energy source that doesn't rely on MidEast so that we can move forward. After that, economy will come stronger than ever.

Canadian currency museum
http://www.currencymuseum.ca/eng/collection/index.php


Closing rate summary:
http://www.bankofcanada.ca/en/rates/can_us_close.html


All-time Low/High and look-up currency exchange rates in the past:
http://www.bankofcanada.ca/en/rates/can_us_lookup.html

Email alert:
http://www.bankofcanada.ca/en/messenger/index.html

Any Serb with a current securities license will probably not comment on this issue of subprime.

Subprime means exactly what it means: sub prime, below prime, it doesn’t say how far below prime the investment or rate is (ohhhh, how tricky with the wording), it just means below.

An example of what sub means is the sub-culture on Queen street in Toronto many years ago. Some people just had a piercing of the body in a weird place; whereas, some had piercing all over. To me they are all sub-culture whether they had the attitude for it or not; regardless of the degree, they are all subculture.

CBC did a very descriptive story on this U.S. subprime. It continues to be the foreign investors fault because wood in homes does decay and when it gets to a certain rate it accelerates even faster. They, the foreign investors, should have just looked at the age of the homes before purchasing these bundles of mortgages. If the homes are in good condition then the value of the home is the only issue, which is just a matter of time before the price goes up, if the city is well planned.

I too can go on in detail, but really they should have investigated more. Seems strange though doesn’t it? Why would they invest this much with such a highly leveraged risk? If they didn’t, do you think they would be able to get lucrative contracts with Americans and their government? For instance, look at the amount of steel contracts China receives from the U.S. Does it not make sense for the Chinese to purchase overpriced rusted and crushed junk yard automobiles from the U.S. and Canada for their empty freight ships going back to mainland China? This is how the U.S. and Canada are shipping their Kyoto CO2 emissions to China for the meltdown of recycled metal. Think its not environmentally nice of China? How many years was China ostracized and isolated? They sure must feel good being part of the world economic community.

The only reason I am participating in this thread is because Ana enrolled in a Belgrade economics school. I know, I know, her father, the economist, could have explained it to her. But he’s not courting his daughter, is he?

"Lowe I am aware of all that what you try to bring me as some kind of revelation. You must be a European or a Canadian. I debated with a lot of people of your kind on the forum of the French "Figaro" years ago until they closed that forum. Already 4 years ago most Europeans and Canadians predicted the imminent collapse of the US economy. They wished it so badly. I never encountered so much hate and envy, jealousy. They declared that they want to be the superpower of the world, the "number one" and to get there the US has to collapse. Are you one of those dreamers? It looks like. I don't know how old you are but you will have to wait very, very long.
(Joe, 24 November 2007 04:06)"

They may be wrong 4 years ago, but are you sure history always repeats itself entirely? Might also be worth soul searching why there is, in your very own words, "so much hate" for the US? The fact that people from your own Nato allied countries have "so much hate" for you must surely speak volumes right? Or are you really so arrogant that you are blind to that fact or just don't care?

One more thing, don't profess to profile me and to know a lot about "my kind". About the only thing that you can be sure about me is that I am neither Serb nor American.

KS,

I fully agree with you. The USD losing foreign buying power will help us on the long run. It is temporary. In the mean time it has to weaken more to come back stronger later. My long term wish is a strong dollar.
And yes we have to find new energy sources. That will change the whole picture.

Slavko,

You are absolutely right on the subprime. It is nice to read the comment of somebody, who understand the laws and functioning of the economy. It is complex and fascinating.
Good luck to Ana. You will have interesting discussions among yourself.

lowe,

If a NATO country is unhappy or does not like the US it can get out at any time. It is not the old Warsow pact. Remember Hungary in 1956 when it tried to get out?
About that hate toward the US: yes I don't care a bit. It is thousand time better to be envied, to be hated because of the might and wealth of the US, my country than pitied once. I lived/studied in France and worked in Germany. I could have become citizen of any of those countries. I am so glad I never did. Coming to the US was my best move (I had few others).

"lowe,

If a NATO country is unhappy or does not like the US it can get out at any time. It is not the old Warsow pact. Remember Hungary in 1956 when it tried to get out?
About that hate toward the US: yes I don't care a bit. It is thousand time better to be envied, to be hated because of the might and wealth of the US, my country than pitied once. I lived/studied in France and worked in Germany. I could have become citizen of any of those countries. I am so glad I never did. Coming to the US was my best move (I had few others).
(Joe, 24 November 2007 15:11)"

Well, if you admit to being arrogant enough not to care about other people's opinions, and if you are indeed representative of the US, then I rest my case. NO WONDER then that the people in these Nato countries detest the US enough to bash it in the forums!

You don't need pity? Okay, that's your call but don't profess to speak for your fellow citizens. Actually I do pity those Americans who lost their homes and investments when their houses were reposessed in the subprime fiasco. The banks took advantage of their ignorance about a huge jump in interest rates after a few honeymoon years. And I don't think anyone in the world would envy these people either however much Americans like yourselves apparently like to be envied.

“Zoran in our stores here we pay in dollars and not in euros. So we don't feel the effects of the strong euro.”

Joe, you obviously have no sense or appreciation for quality.

I prefer French wines, Italian shoes, German appliances, Japanese technology etc etc. I do not like being “forced” to buy inferior American products as a result of some economists deciding its best for American corporations to export more easily. I like nice stuff and I have good taste. I want the freedom to choose for myself what products I wish to purchase. Clearly you are against “Free Trade” and are essentially a protectionist.

Besides, weak dollar = more expensive real estate market here in the US as well. It doesn’t take a Brain Surgeon to realize that.

It also makes us VERY vulnerable to economic attacks such as we experienced with Japan in the 80’s and 90’s when they were buying up all of California and Hawaii.

The ONLY thing propping up our economy at the moment is the Military and Industrial complex, they are benefiting greatly from the war. However, the economic benefits and growth from gearing the economy on a war footing is ALWAYS a short term boost and will start to drag us down very shortly.

“I am a naturalized proud US citizen.”

Joe you’ve always seemed awfully fond of telling people who disagree with the US government to leave the country or that they are anti-American. That in itself is inherently UnAmerican and undemocratic. My mother’s side came over to help build the James Town colony and fought in the American Revolution. The philosophy behind our founding father’s intentions in building this great country was dissent and opposition. In order to properly participate in a democracy one must be critical and suspicious of government. You seem to think that being a proud American requires being strictly pro-Capitalism, and that is simply NOT the case, regardless of what our Media tries to portray. I grew up in one of the most influential regions of the US, my family are all lawyers, judges, senators and even Admirals. I know how the system is setup and how it produces a permanent under class of uneducated worker bees. Economists like you complain when the unemployment rate is “too low”, about how its “bad” for the economy, yet all I see is people who can’t make their rent, who have no hope of ever buying their own home, or sending their children to a higher education.

Matthew,

One moment you complain that you can not afford to buy real estate in the Balkans than minutes later you play the snob, who has to buy foreign products because the quality of US products is not at your level. Well if you can not afford them please don't play the snob. I have a nice BMW, several real estate holdings in Europe and here in the US but I am not a snob. I live in a very exclusive gated community. I know here an old man who is from an old famous family. He himself did not accomplish too much in his life, lives in a small house but he is very snobish. I find it ridiculous and funny.