How weak is the dollar?
 

How weak is the once might dollar?
Well when was the last time stores in New York accepted payment in euro notes and British pounds?

www.xe.com has current exchange rates.

But do those stores accept the Mexican Peso? That's when you know they are getting desperate.

Powell's or Portland, the world's best bookshop (and the only redeeming feature in America's most overrated small town), was taking pounds back in 2004, when sterling wasn't nearly as strong against the USD

Maybe accepting sterling isn't so much a commentary on the USD, as on the civilsed-ness of the business concerned.

Or perhaps we're more likely to buy books than the Oregonian natives?

Weak dollar is good for balance of payments....Trade deficit....

>>>>
Maybe accepting sterling isn't so much a commentary on the USD, as on the civilsed-ness of the business concerned.
>>>>

agreed, not a commentary on the $
but it has nothing to do with civilised-ness.

it's to:

-attract the business of overseas tourists...which is a hot market in NY city at the moment (despite all this talk about hysterical tourists afraid of US immigration agents). for some odd reason people tend to feel at home when they see that their currency is accepted by a business.

-make money on the built-in exchange fees that are always involved when businesses take foreign currency

-maybe to get in the press and be discussed on silly travel boards

Do they use dollars in the US? I always use credit cards.

BTW according to a report I just read on Bloomberg, the US dollar has erased all the losses it has suffered this year and has rallied back to $1.44 or thereabouts against the euro and $1.94 against sterling...of course as with everything, nobody knows if this is a trend or what...

Personally, I have gotten the feeling that we as travellers care a lot more about the low dollar than the US government itself...to them the weaker dollar is a good thing as it helps correct the trade deficits that are seen as the real drag on the economy (of course, the weak dollar is partly to blame for the spike in the price of oil)...now no economist am I but I also get the feeling that old time European beliefs are that a stronger currency is a mark of strength and their hope is to make the euro the world's reserve currency and a stronger euro helps them to do that despite the fact it might lead to greater inflation in euroland and is not necessarily all that good within the euro zone.

But who really knows.

from 1.47 down to 1.45 . Hoorah :D

Hang the new car. I am going to Prague and Munich despite it all.

Besides, we get a tax rebate. Let's see that $300 for seniors will buy me about €208. I can live it up in Prague.

xyz, I'm under the impression that the Euro goal is still parity 1:1 with the dollar. European exports are have become pricier in the US ther than those who come here to chop, it's not a great thing to them to see a low dollar. And though we spend the same # of dollars when we go to Europe, we're not spending the same # of Euros as we'd like, or did in the past.

Well, we use dollar bills to light our cigars...

Yeah, and we use them to stuff the cracks around the windows.

xyz: I totally agree. I don't think anyone worries about the weak dollar the way we US travelers to Europe do.

If you walked down the street in the USA holding up a €100 bill, with the words
EURO
EYPO

covered over, I wonder how many people could tell you what it was?

Assuming that you found a set of 10 people who knew or could guess what it was, how many of them could tell you its value in dollars within 10%?

Maybe 2 could?

And the other 8 would probably say, "oh is that one of those euro dollars?"

I don't worry about the other eight - I could tell you, and if the 100 Euro note is the prize for knowing, I hope I'll be the first to be asked!

Most of the other 8 would say.. "oh look at the cute little funny money"

ooh Flanneruk!
What, no one on here is defending Portland?
And Oregonians do read! (I live in AK by the way)

I'm not sure what acceptance of foreign currency by tourist attractions and shops has to do with the strength of that currency.

That fact that places accept dollars outside the US only means that they get enough customers who want to pay in dollars and are willing to pay a premium for the 'convenience' of not changing money.

If places in the US start to accept euros; all it means is that there are enough tourists from Euroland that are too lazy to change money (or use plastic) and don't mind paying over the odds for using euro cash.