Euro at 1.601 USD

The last time I showed this graphic the Euro was worth $1.5968 and it is now worth 1.601 USD.


h/t to Atrios
--the BB

Let's hope Europeans buy our goods and visit our shores

Euro hits new all-time high of $1.5968 after soft US economic data

That's the headline today at Thomson fx hub.

h/t to Atrios

Graph courtesy of x-rates.com

--the BB

We don't want your stinking money

We were once so smug that people wanted our dollars. Well, the chickens of Republican fiscal policies (not the theoretical ones, the actually practiced ones) are coming home to roost.

John Aravosis at Americablog directed my attention to this sad (for Yanks) news from Reuters:

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar's value is dropping so fast against the euro that small currency outlets in Amsterdam are turning away tourists seeking to sell their dollars for local money while on vacation in the Netherlands.

...

That's because the smaller currency exchanges -- despite buy/sell spreads that make it easier for them to make money by exchanging small amounts of currency -- don't want to be caught holding dollars that could be worth less by the time they can sell them.

John comments:

It's frightfully embarrassing. And it so encapsulates what the Republicans have done to our country over the past 8 years. The almighty dollar is now no better than a third world currency you've never even heard of.

--the BB

The consequences of Republican economic policies

Hoffmania drew my attention to this tidbit from Bloomberg (following Bush's speech to The Economic Club of New York):

The U.S. currency also plunged to below one Swiss franc for the first time as traders speculated the Fed will slash interest rates a full percentage point next week to keep a credit-market crisis from triggering a recession. As the dollar slumped, gold reached a record above $1,000 an ounce.

The Tibetan protests against China as the Beijing Olympics draw near should make everyone anxious. If the Chinese, who own vast portions of our ever-increasing national debt, call that debt in, where do you think that leaves us?

Exactly.

More tax cuts during time of war, anyone?

How about bailing out the lenders (screw the folks who have mortgages, they aren't wealthy enough to buy politicians)?

You didn't really need health care did you?

OK, then, back to privatizing everything so the corporations (and their principal officers) can get obscenely rich on the backs of the workers.

Good times!

Update:
Check out Paul Krugman's less-than-encouraging comments about the mess we're in.
--the BB