Things that make you go "Hmmmm...."

[unixronin]

I ordered a copy of Ayreon's new CD, 01011001, recently and paid for it (via Paypal) in Euros, not really giving it a second thought.  Today I updated transaction records in my accounts, and registered the amount in US dollars payPal sourced to meet the exchange rate.

This was the point at which I realized, in a tangible sense, that the US dollar has lost half of its value against the Euro since the last time I bought a CD from Europe.  It wasn't all that long ago.

Comments

[danjite.livejournal.com]

Those of us who live outside the US can't help but notice that- why you folks don't have a collapsing property market, $5 gas, $5 milk and hyper inflation is anyone's guess.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

We have a collapsing property market, and milk and gasoline are both not far from $5/gal. Essentially the cost of anything that's inconvenient or impossible to produce in a cheap-labor country is going through the roof. What's keeping the lid on official inflation figures is cheap consumer goods, notably electronics and computers.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Watch this space ...... ;)

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

That's why I'm laughing at the French publisher who owes me in Euros. I can wait...

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Heh. That's an excellent point.

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

Yayup (http://finance.yahoo.com/currency/convert?amt=1&from=EUR&to=USD&submit=Convert). It's the Wile E. Coyote (http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/09/20/is-this-the-wile-e-coyote-moment/) moment, the one where he notices he's standing on nothing, and starts to fall.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Heh. :) I like that term.

It's not like I didn't know the dollar was tanking. This just happens to have been the first clear, direct, first-hand example I've had of exactly how badly it's tanking.