Just checked xe.com and the dollar has reached the lowest ever! This is out of control.

$1.55915 right now, which is as close to $1.56 as makes no difference.

Oddly, Trichet was reduced to saying things on Tuesday which the FT interpreted as meaning he wanted to see the Euro weaken. Since he's been the arch-guardian of the "My job's laid down in EU law as keeping inflation at bay, and I'm not supposed to worry about declining competitiveness" mantra, it's surprising the markets didn't get bearish on the euro.

Probably want to see soimething firmer than an FT interpretation of a pretty Delphic utterance.

Hi T,

>..the dollar has reached the lowest ever! This is out of control.

Would you like to go back to fixed exchange rates when the GBP was $2.50?

Europeans probably see this as a problem caused by American policies, not necessarily something for them to have to try to address.

Parity will soon be there with the Swiss Franc and the Australian Dollar...can the Japanese Yen be far behind?

The dollar has lost nearly 10 percent against the yen in the past couple of months. Is this also Europes fault?

Just heard on the radio....

USD has dipped below 100¥...as I said, can parity be far behind.....

Only 313 days till that moron is out of the White House then maybe this national disaster will end.

Well, many Europeans are aghast at that amount of attention paid towards Mr. Spitzer as opposed to Bush's Iraq war.

I tried to explain to someone here that Mr. Spitzer can be legally attended to while America's hands are tied in regards to Bush.

He just mumbled something about hypocritical puritan Americans.

I tried to tell him not all Americans are like that but he replied, "Yeah. Just the ones we read about."

Just a response to Ira, who said: Would you like to go back to fixed exchange rates when the GBP was $2.50?

Back when the GBP was $2.50, I stayed at B&B's in the UK for 15 GBP per night! Now most things in Britain cost the same in GBP as they do in the US in $. I don't really understand how this comparison can be made.

The declining value of the dollar can actually make US goods more competitive, so I wouldn't be so quick to label it a 'national disaster'. It may stink for those who want to travel to Europe, but I think our economic policy should be driven by something other than concern about a few Fodorites having to pay more for their holiday in Spain. Now, if this continues for an extended period, then there is the risk that it could lead to inflation, which would be a problem, but until then I don't think it should be a pressing concern for policy-makers.

How about we put this all in perspective?

- From the official launch of the Euro on 1/1/99 until today, the USD to EUR fx rate has ranged from a low of 0.6489 to a high of 1.2078.
- The mean rate during that period is 0.9087 and the mode is 0.8648.
- The high rate is 33% higher than the mean, 40% higher than the median, and 41% higher than the rate at 1/1/99.
- The low rate is 29% lower than the mean, 25% lower than the median, and 24% lower than the rate at 1/1/99.

Of course, the Euro has rebounded since its doldrums of 2000-2002. Astonishingly, the EU did not collapse during this time, and life basically went on. Eventually, the pendulum swung the other way, much as we should expect it to do.

Given that the current low is no farther from the reasonable baselines than the highs were, why are so many convinced that this is some sort of national crisis? Why would one not expect the dollar to rebound, much as the Euro did?

My suggestion is for everyone to save the money on blood pressure medication, quit worrying about it, and just vacation somewhere that is more affordable in the near-term.

Some posters really know how to make a traveler feel bad ...

Yesterday someone quoted some third-rate scribbler about the horrors of Florence, a city I plan to visit in six weeks.

Recently, some Fodorites have been giving us a superfluous blow-by-blow about the falling dollar. (If you have a pulse and imminent plans to go to Europe, you already know that the buck is in a free fall.)

I don’t expect posters to be Pollyannas, but do we really need this kind of pessimism? I get enough of that crap from the idiot media. I thought this forum was supposed to celebrate, encourage, and help facilitate travel.

And I'm sure this will elicit the expected sophomoric response that the exchange rate was only 1.49 a few weeks ago, so the change is only a few percentage points, requiring you an additional savings of $0.25 per hour to pay for the increase.

When the fed lowers in a few weeks, the Euro will cross 1.60 on its way to 1.75.

"He just mumbled something about hypocritical puritan Americans.

I tried to tell him not all Americans are like that but he replied, 'Yeah. Just the ones we read about.' "

More correctly, the ones he CHOOSES to read about. As has been shown here on Fodors Lounge many times, once somebody settles on a stereotype of a group, nation, culture, whatever, they tend to focus only on news reports, op-ed columns, sniggering YouTube clips and the like reinforcing that stereotype.

Um, inflation has hit and it is being attributed, at least partly, to the fall of the dollar.

Oil is going up as dollar is going up. Look up the daily prices and exchange rates.

Higher oil prices ripple to price increases in other products and commodities, including food, since we're transporting it and using energy to produce it.

Every public official around the world supports a strong dollar, including US officials. But actions speak louder than words.

Obviously, we all share a love for travel. However, I am certain there is a vast array of political preferences and sophistication amongst the many who contribute to these discussions. This is a simple plea to keep politics out of this forum. Please remember that whatever your viewpoint is it is likely that you are offending about half of us (Americans) each time you post...

<i>He just mumbled something about hypocritical puritan Americans.</i>

This says more about his poor understanding of the meaning of 'hypocritical' than anything else. I know I have never hired a prostitute. I'm pretty confident when I say that the vast majority of Americans have never hired a prostitute. It is not hypocritical at all for someone who believes that prostitution is exploitative to ask that a public official does not directly encourage such activity.

Indeed, I thought he should resign, not because he hired a prostitute, but because of his own hypocrisy. The whole premise of his campaign was about 'law and order' and cleaning up corruption. Hiring prostitutes, using the names of boosters to book rooms fails on both counts.