The Incredible Shrinking Dollar

The Dollar Has Become the World's Toilet Paper. Howof us ignorant enough to be concerned. According to
Come No One is Worried?economists quoted in every article I've seen about the
Okay. I am not the world's authority on anything but mydecline of the dollar, none of us should be concerned
1966 Mustang. But there are those moments when thebecause the decline simply means that the goods
back of my neck tingles, and I know I'm picking up aproduced here at home are now cheaper to
bad signal on something. Sort of like what those wildEuropeans, about 40% cheaper in fact. That means
animals must have felt. You know, the ones thatEuropean and other foreigners can now Buy
headed for high ground days before the Tsunami hitAmerican. That will translate into our factories and
and killed 250,000 people. The scientists were tiptoeingcompanies selling more to the overseas crowd. And
among the dead bodies when it hit them that theythat will mean more income for our employers who will
hadn't seen any dead animals among the muddybe able to pay us more because they will have make
bodies of dead humans. Who knew how those wildmore. The only "losers", the experts say, will be those
animals knew it. But whatever they felt, they listened toAmericans who want to vacation in Europe. Our dollar
it. Hard.won't go very far, so we won't be able to buy as
Here's what I'm feeling now. Today, the dollar, the USmuch French wine or German autos. Sounds good,
greenback, the piece of paper I work an outrageousright? But then there's that feeling at the back of my
number of hours each week for is in trouble. I readneck. Something is very wrong with this picture.
with alarm the articles reporting for the past six yearsAmerican buying power, which is what the greenback
that the dollar has slid way way down, from the dayrepresents, is shrinking, unless the Europeans and other
when the "Euro" debuted in 2000 to today, it wentforeigners buy enough of our cheap goods (what are
from a starting line of equality with the euro to today,we China?) to offset the value of our in currency. If
when one Euro gets you $1.40. So, the greenback hasthe factory I work for sells just a few more cars to
been in a race with the Euro and now, the euro isEurope, it won't make enough to offset the shrinking
worth 40% more. Not swell.buck. Who is keeping track for working, middle class
We're fast running out of countries to feel superior to.families? I remember not too long ago hearing
During the week of October 8, the US dollar fell to 97politicians say "a strong dollar is American policy". So
cents versus the Canadian dollar. I love my Canadianwho is letting this free fall happen? Who's in charge?
brothers but if I can't make them feel badly that theirThink of Zimbabwe. Used to be called Rhodesia. It's
summers are colder than my winters and my dollar isgot a currency that is so devalued, so worthless, that if
bigger than their dollar, then what's the point of living? Isomeone pays you at 9:00 in the morning, by noon,
traveled to Montreal in June of this year and the USyou need another cash injection just to come out
dollar was worth 1.08 Canadian dollars. That's not aseven. Runaway inflation. As a currency goes into the
good as in 1998 when I visited Montreal prior to this tripToilet, workers don't want to be paid in that currency.
and the greenback was worth 1.30 Canadian --thoseThey want to be paid in some of the "good stuff".
were the real good ol' days. Still, this past summer, 1.08Would you rather be paid in a currency that's stable.
Canadian to my buck still afforded me a bit ofOr want that's losing value worldwide. See what I
swagger. Now it's worth 97 cents. That's a loss of 11mean. There's that nagging feeling at the back of my
cents in less than 4 months.neck again.
The "experts" in economics react with a "tut, tut" to all