The Amero was never more than a fantasy, so it's not a matter of what Americans or anyone else will accept.
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British Pound predicted to reach parity with Euro Q1 2009.
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Yeah...I know a few people who were completely convinced that by the end of this decade, the US, Canada and Mexico would all switch to the Amero, and form a North American Union, not unlike the EU where borders were more relaxed or non-existant and the governments worked closely together on just about everything, and that perhaps by the end of the next decade, we might all just merge into one big country. There's never been any substantial proof that the Amero was ever even considered by anyone high up enough in government to have any influence on the matter. It's just some conspiracy theory pushed out by the same Lou Dobbs worshipping xenophobic conspiracy theorists who also think 9/11 was done by the government.
Anyways, on an unrelated note, I know absolutely nothing about foreign currency exchange. I do know that I'm going over to London and Berlin in February and want to get the most for my dollar. Will this be a good thing for me? Or should I go to the bank ASAP and exchange a few hundred dollars for some Pounds and Euros before they get more expensive? Or perhaps there's the 3rd option of don't worry about it and just have a good time?
Given this is the first real financial crisis that the Euro has faced, I think it's going to be interesting to see how it copes.
Anyways, on an unrelated note, I know absolutely nothing about foreign currency exchange. I do know that I'm going over to London and Berlin in February and want to get the most for my dollar. Will this be a good thing for me? Or should I go to the bank ASAP and exchange a few hundred dollars for some Pounds and Euros before they get more expensive? Or perhaps there's the 3rd option of don't worry about it and just have a good time?
Nobody really knows. Hope that helps.
If I had to guess, the US economy was the first to be hit by this slump and so may be the first to show signs of recovery. If that scenario plays out, then the dollar may strengthen some over the coming year. The other argument for this scenario is that Britain and the EU will probably be forced to lower interest rates further to reach some sort of parity with the US (where the Prime Rate now stands at 1%). Lower interest rates tend to devalue currencies.
We're planning a trip to Britain in June and are faced with the same dilemma. Some of our reservations will be made this month so for better or worse the current exchange rate will be locked in for a few days of our stay. Probably the best advice is to hedge your bets if possible.
Nobody really knows. Hope that helps.
If I had to guess, the US economy was the first to be hit by this slump and so may be the first to show signs of recovery. If that scenario plays out, then the dollar may strengthen some over the coming year. The other argument for this scenario is that Britain and the EU will probably be forced to lower interest rates further to reach some sort of parity with the US (where the Prime Rate now stands at 1%). Lower interest rates tend to devalue currencies.
We're planning a trip to Britain in June and are faced with the same dilemma. Some of our reservations will be made this month so for better or worse the current exchange rate will be locked in for a few days of our stay. Probably the best advice is to hedge your bets if possible.
Thanks
The hotel thing was what was annoying me too. I booked at a Holiday Inn in both London and Berlin and took the option of paying for the entire stay in advance. This was back in October I think, and the dollar's value has certainly increased since then, so I might've screwed myself a little bit. OTOH, you get a cheaper rate by paying in advance so it's probably all a wash in the end.
Ditto for my British Airways flight between London and Berlin. I think I would've saved a good chunk of change booking it now as opposed to a few months ago. Oh well, nothing I can do about it. With my luck, the dollar's value would've plummeted if I waited
On the flights, I will probably wait a month or two -- with the price of fuel dropping the cost of airline tickets should too. And you often see good rates for booking 4-6 months in advance on international flights.
Good points. I suppose you could never really be certain. I booked these flights when gas was at $4/gal and didn't seem to stop going up, so I thought it would be a good idea to book before fuel went up even more. Oh well....FWIW, I just checked BA and the same flight still costs what I paid...£72.
Read somewhere that the reason for GBP sterlings parity with the Euro is that here in the UK we have cut interest rates more quickly and sharply than the European Central Bank. When the ECB starts to cut rates early next year should see a correction and GBP sterling recover. A good time to stock up on GBP sterling if you live in a Eurozone country (and have any spare cash !).
Wonder if the Apple store in Belfast is attracting lots of visitors from the Irish Republic ?
I think that has something to do with it, but isn't the whole reason.
The US has been cutting interest rates just as aggressively as the UK, yet the pound has performed nearly as poorly against the dollar as it has the euro.
These economic tests old fish face (Gordon Brown) was talking about seem to be here, if the pound gets any worse i think we will have a stronger case for going into the Euro.
There has already been speculation about ministers secretly talking about joining up in the very near future. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/dec/02/foreign-policy-euro No smoke without fire.... (Smoke machines don't count as its dry ice)
Also with the Euro / GBP at or near parity it's easier to change.
There has already been speculation about ministers secretly talking about joining up in the very near future. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/dec/02/foreign-policy-euro No smoke without fire.... (Smoke machines don't count as its dry ice)
Also with the Euro / GBP at or near parity it's easier to change.
I always wanted the euro. Now that I'm older and somewhat wiser, I still think it's a good idea for our import/export industry now that it's near parity, and it means I won't have to change money for holidays.
Question is, with the pound falling near to 50% against the Euro since mid 2007, do you think that the Euro countries want the Brits joining? The Germans are pretty tired of supporting some of the more lackluster Euro founders, they are welcoming to the Eastern nations because along with the Euro comes new markets for them...but what does the UK have to offer?
For the UK, well, part of the reason the pound is falling is that the world is starting to wonder what the UK actually does? US makes war and consumes, Japan makes cars, China makes crap, Australia makes raw materials, Germany makes complex machines, Scandinavia makes wood....what is driving the UK economy? It was house prices and finance...not so good for the pound then.
The pound is about all thats left of a once great empire, if they let that go then the nation will finally catch up with reality. Could be the most positive thing to happen to the UK, a rebirth as a Euro nation, but its not nice medicine to take.
I'm buying the pound, I'm sure the UK does something useful for the rest of the world...the world just needs to find out what it is and then balance shall be restored. Something good for the empire no doubt
Question is, with the pound falling near to 50% against the Euro since mid 2007, do you think that the Euro countries want the Brits joining? The Germans are pretty tired of supporting some of the more lackluster Euro founders, they are welcoming to the Eastern nations because along with the Euro comes new markets for them...but what does the UK have to offer?
For the UK, well, part of the reason the pound is falling is that the world is starting to wonder what the UK actually does? US makes war and consumes, Japan makes cars, China makes crap, Australia makes raw materials, Germany makes complex machines, Scandinavia makes wood....what is driving the UK economy? It was house prices and finance...not so good for the pound then.
The pound is about all thats left of a once great empire, if they let that go then the nation will finally catch up with reality. Could be the most positive thing to happen to the UK, a rebirth as a Euro nation, but its not nice medicine to take.
I'm buying the pound, I'm sure the UK does something useful for the rest of the world...the world just needs to find out what it is and then balance shall be restored. Something good for the empire no doubt
Are you kidding? the UK is the second largest economy in the EU (Behing Germany) it would actually relieve some pressure of Germany supporting the rest of the EU (I'm looking at you Ireland and Spain.... sponges!
)The UK puts THE most money into the EU and gets some of the least back!!!
And as for what we do, well sir look at your US dollars, more are traded in London than anywhere else. We are the financial powerhouse of the world, look at most of the major banks in the world (Barclays, HSBC, RBS, BOSHBOS, Lloyds)
And to ask what do we do? thats a bit rich, when the US are so protectionist about awarding contracts to their own people, you killed off our steel industry, moaned when we (BaE Systems) won contracts with your military. Look at the Eurofighter Typhoon and how well that's being received with foreign contracts (granted it's a Europe Wide effort) look at Rolls Royce making a hellova lot of Aeroplane engines and ship engines for markets around the world. Satellites in space, a lot of those are built in the UK. Parts of Airbus,
The whole point was to achieve parity, its part of the economic rescue package by the Government, by cutting interest rates foreign investments in our currency and banks was reduced and the currency weakened, hence we have achieved parity with the euro, now we can keep our workforce employed during the recession because it will be cheaper to manufacture here than in the rest of europe during the recession, and when it all ends our currency will return to its normal place again with the increase in interest rates to prevent deflation.
