Some scary stuff about the dollar

[NT!]

there was a question mark in there

i was pretty sure this was the case but i was trying to come up with a good reason why it's not. it feels kinda like cheating.

[ahnuld]

your real debt shrinks only if there is real inflation higher than the lender forcasted at the time you went into debt

[haakee]

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pretty well convinced a dollar collapse is coming

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Don't you think you guys are a little late to the party? In the past 5 years the USD is:

-30% vs euro
-22% vs £
-36% vs Canadian $
-56% vs gold

I'm not saying the US$ is not going to continue to fall, but you guys missed a lot of the action already.

[NozeCandy]

We should change the president's on the face and call them something new just to shake things up.

[Marwan]

So if I am a Canadian and my source of income is in American dollars (Online), what's my best play as of now? Do I keep the money in my online poker accounts if I don't need to spend it or do I take it out and exchange it or what? Sorry for the newbish question, I don't know much about this kind of stuff.

[suzzer99]

So how does it work if I invest in an international mutual fund? Does it gain just by the dollar falling? Can I buy a European CD or something?

[mmbt0ne]

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i was pretty sure this was the case but i was trying to come up with a good reason why it's not. it feels kinda like cheating.

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Even better, I have family in Canada. Let's have it keep going down, I'll go up there, work for a bit make a lot of US$ and be set. Man, you Canadians had it so easy for a while there.

[highlife]

please explain how a dollar "collapse" is different that the dollar just continuing to slide down as it has for the last several years?

I'm not trying to be sarcastic, I really don't know what a full collapse would be or what it would mean for the US economy.

[TheMetetron]

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So how does it work if I invest in an international mutual fund? Does it gain just by the dollar falling? Can I buy a European CD or something?

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Yes, the stocks in the fund are denominated in foreign currencies and therefore gain dollar-denominated value if the dollar slips. Some funds hedge, the vast majority do not.

[pig4bill]

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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?

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I don't know what you consider a "collapse" vs a "fairly dramatic decline". The dollar has stunk and will get worse with the Fed cut. It could really dump with another cut. As bad as it is for foreigners with U.S. dollars, it is very, very bad for Americans. Imported goods, including oil products, will go up significantly. Interest rates are already going up as investors slow down their dollar buying (t-bonds and notes) and may really fly if they dump their dollars. It's going to suck, huge.