Winners and Losers as the US Dollar Sinks

[mandy]

Many within the United States might not have noticed the trend yet, but the rest of the world has: the US dollar is in serious decline. Americans have long made fun of their friends North of the border, but today the Canadian dollar buys $1.02 US dollars making it worth more than the Greenback. It wasn’t that long ago that the US Dollar was at parity with the Euro (December 02), but today it buys 70 Euro cents.Even the Australian Dollar is nearing parity, buying 90cents USD vs 55c in December 2002.

It’s not all doom and gloom however, and there are winners along with losers as the dollar declines...

full article: http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/14/the...nd-losers/

[mandy]

A related article:

There is no doubt that the dollar seems to be heading in one direction: down. Though I have faith in the long-term prospects for the dollar, it's very important to be aware of the dynamics of a falling currency. Because the United States is an international economic powerhouse, the implications of a falling dollar are multifaceted and leave our leaders with some difficult alternatives as to how to create and apply a "fix."

The good news is that there are positive effects to a falling dollar. With a cheap dollar, foreigners can buy U.S. goods at a substantial "discount." Take the euro, for example. This currency is now worth about US$1.50 to the U.S. dollar. If the euro were at par to the dollar, our goods, services and real estate would cost the same for a European as they would for an American.

However, now that the euro is worth about 50 percent more than the dollar, its purchasing power has therefore increased a similar percentage. For example, if a European wanted to purchase some New York real estate that is for sale at $1 million, he could purchase that for about 685,000 euros. As the euro increases in value in relation to the dollar, American goods and services become proportionately cheaper...

full article: http://ecommercetimes.com/story/The-Doll...60760.html