Word: greenbacks
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After years of watching Europe's single currency appreciate against the U.S. dollar, European companies are rubbing their hands at the sales boost they should get from the euro's 10% decline against the greenback in recent weeks - a slide that may not yet be over. "After so much protest about the strong euro, I know there are big French exporters out there who aren't unhappy seeing it where it is now," French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde told Europe 1 radio in late February, just days before the euro's exchange rate to the dollar dropped another cent...
Asked to name the beleaguered Western currency that sits near a 10-month low against the dollar and has lost 7% against the greenback already this year, most people would probably plump for the euro. They'd be wrong. Europe's single currency - walloped by the big economic problems in Greece - is hardly having a stellar year. But for a currency well and truly in the pickle, look no further than the pound...
Certainly the U.S. did not embrace the idea of carry trades being funded by the greenback, because this worked to only further weaken the dollar against major currencies, including the euro, the British pound and the Swiss franc. This made imports more expensive for consumers - at least in theory. (In reality, because of the size of the U.S. market, few importers could risk raising their prices for fear of being pushed...
Since March, the dollar has lost about 15% of its value against the world's other major currencies. That's a dull way to put it, though, so you're more likely to read or hear that the greenback is "wobbling," "slumping," "plunging" or even "collapsing." Marc Faber, a Hong Kong-based investment guru with a flair for the dramatic, went so far as to declare in a TV interview a few weeks ago that the U.S. currency was on its way "to a value of exactly zero...
...These sources of support may not last forever. Warren Buffett warned in a New York Times editorial in August that the unrestrained buildup of U.S. government debt - and the likely need to print money as a result - would inevitably undermine the dollar's value. "Unchecked greenback emissions will certainly cause the purchasing power of currency to melt," the sage of Omaha wrote. "The dollar's destiny lies with Congress." Richard Portes, a professor of economics at the London Business School, believes that central banks will increasingly see other currencies, especially the euro, as more reliable storehouses of value. "The idea...