No prayers from me! I get paid in euros and like the way things have been going over the past year. I expect the euro to go down a bit, maybe up a bit, but no major changes.

Patience, friends. Just wait until we get a look at the fine print in the upcoming Federal budget proposal. Behind the smoke and mirros one will find no cause for rejoicing. Surprise! Surprise! Once again the White House and the Congress will demonstrate how little fiscal discipline this profligate nation has. Result: a continued fall in the U. S. dollar and a rise (over time) in the value of the Euro.

Marcy, very funny and clever!

Ira, go for broke. 5 stars!

ira and marcy are very funny people. . .

I agree with USNR - our elected officials in DC are "criminals".
M

This WAS a fun thread. Please, let's not start "politicizing". I hate that.
And by the way, this news is most uplifting (I'm going in May), and I had stopped checking the exchange rate. Now I'll start checking again!

As I expect my next overseas trip to be to the US I'm not sweating about the appreciation of the AU$ against the US$. However, while it's an ill wind that blows no good, it would be shortsighted of me to take much satisfaction from that. From the viewpoint of the world economy any likely cure could well be worse than the disease.

For the moment I'd like to feel more sympathy for American posters in their time of hardship, but selfishly I'm more focussed on the fact that right now it's costing AU$1.67 to a buy one miserable euro. Think about THAT.

Hi I really have my fingers crossed I'm paying in Canadian dollars, how do you like the sound of $1.61 per euro!!If anyone is up above please let it droop!(I just made a typo but this might be a Freudian slip so I will leave it as is)

I love to hear this kind of news.. I propose a toast..Perhaps we can eventually sing : happy days are here again..Alla Salute..

"Oysters" and xyz123, i was all smiles reading your posts. Oh well, we can hope, right? Heck l"the last time I saw in Paris" currency calculations were easy, as the USD to Euro rates was about 1 to 1!!
Sue, thanks for that comment! I s'pose there'll be all sorts of comments about it now.
There are numerous reasons for the oddities of world exchange rates, although I dn't pretend to understand them. Does anyone, really? That said, why do I panic when my credit card debt is a few thousand $$(how I "afford" to travel ) debt, but our country (USA) can be in billions of dollars of debt.? rally--that's not a poitcal comment--just way to express my bafflement

Heck, can't even type straight, how can i possibly figure out world currency ? Sorry about typos.

It may be useful to keep in mind that anyone who can accurately predict the course of one curreny realtice to another is a very wealthy individual. Or, to put it another way, few to none can, though a slightly larger number get lucky. That said, I would not count on a large shift, especially in favor of the dollar, in the six months.

Down another penny to $1.275...can parity be far away?

<<can parity be far away?>>

Maybe when Jenna Bush has a daughter seated at the big desk in the Oval Office...

What about Swiss Francs? I am afraid to check... Everybody at work tells me the country is so expensive, but when I ask for numbers they won't tell

>What about Swiss Francs?

Currently 1.22 CHF to the dollar, down from about 1.12 in December, but still not as good for the dollar as last May when it was 1.3.

Based on data for the last month, I predict parity between the USD and Euro by September.

Hmmmmmm. Should I have held off renting a car? I am being charged in USD. I've paid the deposit.

Naw... spend those dollars while they're low. Hate to have to spend so many of them when they were worth more, wouldn't you?

Actually, I do think I'm going to pre-pay a much bigger portion of the USD deposits on the car next time. No unfavorable exchange rates above the bank rate to consider, as there is when paying the remainder at the rental desk.

But Clifton, consider this:

Car Rental $644 = 496 E
Deposit 129 = 100
Owed 361 = 278

If the Euro drops to par, I still have to pay $361 instead of $278, a loss of over $80. If I had paid the full amount, I might lose as much as $144.

This is quite a considerable sum.

I shall have to worry about this.

Between Patrick and me, you all should be sitting pretty this summer. I'm selling my house and will be moving a large sum from pounds into dollars in the summer, so if my past history is correct, the dollar will soar on the exact day I transfer the money.

Actually, though, I realised that if the pound stays around at least $1.80, I will have cleared $10,000 in 2 years just from converting from US$ to GBP and back to US$.

>if the pound stays around at least $1.80, I will have cleared $10,000 in 2 years just from converting from US$ to GBP and back to US$.<

Good for you.

Back in the days when West Germany was divided into the British, French and US zones, my uncle would take his winnings from crap shooting with boys from the mid-West and convert US scrip to French or British, then to British or French and back to US.

He bought a house and a hacker's license when he got back to NYC.