Experts: Dollar to likely keep falling to won

[unhappycamper]

So the Stars and Stripes was showing this article on their main page.



The article had been removed by the webmaster.

Being naturally curious, I googled http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=dollar+falling+won&btnG=Google+Search


Why the Dollar Is a 98-lb. Weakling
Thursday, Sep. 27, 2007
By JUSTIN FOX


Spend some time in the hotels, restaurants and even newsstands of Western Europe these days, and as an American you understand pretty quickly that you're poorer than you once were. To be precise, you're 40% poorer--to go by the dollar-euro exchange rate--than you were six years ago.

~snip~

But the very prosperity that Bretton Woods enabled was its undoing. As Germany and France returned to the ranks of major economic powers, and Japan began its climb to get there, the exchange rates set up after the war and adjusted only slightly afterward made no sense anymore. Attempts to update the system collapsed in 1971, and the world's major economies moved to freely floating currencies. The transition wasn't pretty: stock markets plummeted, banks failed, oil exporters jacked up prices and inflation raged--especially in the U.S.

These days, China and the other countries participating in what some have called Bretton Woods II export so much more to the U.S. than they import, they find themselves with hundreds of billions of dollars that they don't know what to do with. Up to now they've been content to recycle most of them by buying Treasury bills and other U.S. securities. The U.S. has enjoyed the low interest rates that have resulted, while China, the gulf states and Japan haven't wanted to face the consequence that by selling dollars, they would decrease the value of their remaining dollar holdings.

This is an arrangement that can't go on forever. It should unravel; that's the way of economic change and progress. But there's no plan in place to make it happen in an orderly fashion. The fear that the ensuing adjustment might be even more chaotic than in the 1970s probably explains most of the dollar's recent decline. It's not that we Americans have gotten a lot poorer. It's that we might be about to.


Rest of article at: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1666266,00.html

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Then there's this little gem:

http://mortaggefreshinformation.blogspot.com/2007/10/korean-won-benefits-from-falling-dollar.html

Korean Won Benefits from Falling Dollar

It seems the collapse of the USD is quickly spreading; the Korean Won has become the latest currency to cash in on the sagging Dollar. As with regard to other currencies that have risen against the Dollar, forex analysts are not attributing the Won's rise to strength in the Korean economy, but rather weakness in the US economy. It is also worth noting that previously, when the Won rose sharply against the Dollar, the Korean government moved quickly to intervene in forex markets in a vane attempt to protect the export-dependent Korean economy. However, as the Won inevitably continued to rise, the government incurred massive losses, essentially for naught. As a result, analysts expect the Korean government to remain on the sidelines this time around. The Korea Times reports:
"Other than verbal intervention, it will be difficult for the government to actually meddle in the market to help stop the won's appreciation."



uhc comment: As bad as things are in Iraq, our economy is worse. Our fucking congresscritters know how bad things are, and we continue to shitcan our dollars in the MIC and empire.

Do you think we'll hear about the USD/won in Faux Noise?

[midnight]

1. I was young during the 70's, but I remember what it did to family's.

Not very effective in helping to create a family life then or now.

[rpannier]

2. I work for the Korean Government and get paid in won

So, on a selfish note it makes me happy.
However, my pleasure is tempered by the misery it is/will bring to others.

[madrchsod]

3. the plant my daughter works at assembles

air pumps. 85% percent of the sub- assemblies are from asia or mexico. we could make them here but american labor is to expensive..at least that is what we are told. i worked at printing plant that had a contract from england. in england they paid 16 dollars per hour and here about 10 and now it`s 20 per hour for the job i was doing. it`s cheaper to produce stuff in america now but we still see jobs going to mexico and beyond. i guess it`s easier to hide behind the american flag than to stand beside her...