Some scary stuff about the dollar

[chicheebee]

this could be a real problem for me, as i'm a british online poker pro, so spend in pounds (which are strong) but earn in dollars (which are weak and weakening), and also have quite a bit of money on poker sites in dollars (not loads by high stakes players' standards, but enough that a collapse would be painful for me). how likley to people think a collapse (or just a fairly dramatic decline over the next few years) is? there are sites where you can play in pounds, instead - do people think this is a sensible precaution to take?

[ikestoys]

could this be why absolute (which is a canadian company) can do the 9% interest for elite accounts?

[solids]

Suzzer,

Your friend sounds like a real pessimist.

[suzzer99]

Yes he is. He got fired from Amazon while the stock was blowing up. A lot of customer service reps he worked with went on to be worth $millions in options (couldn't quite cash out that much, but still a nice $500k or so). I think this left a bit of a bitter taste in his mouth.

But he was right about the dotcom thing, even from the beginning when everyone was still drinking the koolaid. Those were fun times to be on The Motley Fool message boards.

[ahnuld]

People have ben talking about this in finance for the last 6 months. Dont think a collapse will happen, but the dollar is certisnly likely to go lower still. If you are american, it doesnt really matter much as long as most of your costs are in USD. The real issue is for people like me who make all their income in american dollars and all our expenses are in canadian dollars.

[Victor]

fwiw, i know someone who is likewise convinced the apocalypse is comming. to the point hes putting like 40k into gold.

[suzzer99]

So what if you think it's going to happen? What's the best investment - foreign stocks, bonds, US stocks, money market? (Basically I'm listing off the options in my 401k, sadly gold and a plasma TV are not options.)

[tolbiny]

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So what if you think it's going to happen? What's the best investment - foreign stocks, bonds, US stocks, money market? (Basically I'm listing off the options in my 401k, sadly gold and a plasma TV are not options.)

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US purchasing power decreases- Chinese purchasing power should increase once they stop pegging their currency to the US dollar, companies which have trading rights in China are a good bet in my view.

[BAK]

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So what if you think it's going to happen? What's the best investment - foreign stocks, bonds, US stocks, money market? (Basically I'm listing off the options in my 401k, sadly gold and a plasma TV are not options.)

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My hubby is on the same wavelength as your friend. He did find a gold fund he could invest in with his self-directed 401K (its ticker symbol is GLD). He has been reading a book called "The Coming Economic Callapse: How you can Thrive When Oil is $200 a Barrel" by Stephen Leeb.

[Borodog]

[ QUOTE ]
People have ben talking about this in finance for the last 6 months. Dont think a collapse will happen, but the dollar is certisnly likely to go lower still. If you are american, it doesnt really matter much as long as most of your costs are in USD. The real issue is for people like me who make all their income in american dollars and all our expenses are in canadian dollars.

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When the dollar is very weak internationally, the best place to unload weak dollars is inside the US. This will cause a lot of foreign held USD to come back within the borders, which is going to cause massive inflation when the [censored] hits the fan. I refer you to the 1970s.