Thursday, December 18, 2008

Oh no! The dollar is dropping again.

Dear whomever is in charge of this kind of stuff:

I have one question, why! why! why!

I had to transfer money yesterday from my American bank to my Italian one. Let's see, a few weeks ago the Dollar was at 1.27 to the Euro, much better than the 1.64 earlier this year.

Yesterday it was 1.46 (the bank rate). What is going on?

I need to start making some money in Euros (Pounds would be even better. ha) stat.

Meanwhile I am going to try and not look at the exchange rate every day. No good can come of it.

For my Italian and British friends this is great news as they travel to the States. I told one British friend I didn't want to hear how cheap the iMac store and Barneys were. Hello, that is just cruel.

Will the Dollar ever return to 1.20 or be equal to the Euro?

signed,

A broke expat

18 comments:

Anne in Oxfordshire said...

1 GBP = 1.54715 USD 1 USD = 0.646348 GBP

1 GBP = 1.06118 EUR 1 EUR = 0.942347 GBP....

I am not sure that I understand fully...all we know in the UK is that if we want Euro it is nearly equal..whereas last year ,we were getting more Euros for our money..

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

Anne - that is weird. I remember that too, the Pound was very strong against the Euro as well.

Maybe the Euro is getting stronger period as opposed the Dollar changing?

Last year the Dollar was almost two-to-one against the Pound for a while. Yikes.

The cost of oil per barrel has something to the with the exchange rates. Oil is traded in dollars. When the price per barrel was at it's highest the Dollar was getting clobbered.

Gil said...

The way the dollar is falling it won't be long before it is as low as it was last July.

'A Tuscan view.....from Umbria' said...

At least it's stopped raining! Opps I spoke too soon, it's started again:( amanda

Anonymous said...

Be grateful you account isn't in Canadian Dollars - 1.72 yesterday!!! Sorry not the time to be funny I know. Let's keep our fingers crossed for a Christmas miracle.

Unknown said...

Lots of changes are coming. You never know what will happen with the dollar.

Lucia said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

gil - I so hope that doesn't happen.

amanda - ha.

joanne - ouch. that is pretty high. I am sorry.

mike - that is true, maybe there will be some positive movement.

Anonymous said...

Ragazza, I too have been tracking the exchange rate since I am preparing for my trip in Feb. I really enjoyed the $1.27 exchange too. I hope that there is some relief for you soon, just keep working hard and something will give for your project.

glamah16 said...

I know its rough. Im getting ready to fly over tomorrow. Thankfully I wont need lots of money staying with his parents. Start asking for those Euros in payments.

glamah16 said...

Oh BTW,I wont be with internet at his parents, so Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Read you when I get back.

Anonymous said...

I hear ya. I'm on the Cdn side of things and it hurts! I don't see myself back in Italy anytime soon. I'll be dreaming about it though.

Jen said...

I sure hope it gets easier for you, soon.

And for all of us!

Homebody at Heart said...

If the European Central Bank lowers its interest rates like the Fed did in the US, the euro will go down against the dollar. There was speculation that the some of the poorer nations (Italy, Ireland, Portugal) might break from the euro currency if the recession deepens in Europe. That might help the exchange rate, too (not the recession, although I think that it is inevitable that it will deepen). While it might have been true in the past that oil and dollars were linked, oil went down to $36.29 a barrel today. It was $147.27 a barrel in July but the price drop in fuel hasn't been passed onto consumers in lower air fares disappointingly.

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

gypsy girl - grazie.

glamah16 - Merry Christmas to you as well and buon viaggio. I do hope I sell another project in Italy. Getting paid in Euros is a good thing.

ms. violetta - maybe by the spring things will improve.

jen - really. The reports say the economy in the States will get worse before it gets better. sigh.

homebody - I did read about the possibility of several countries returning to their own currency. wow. And you are correct that the lower oil costs have not been passed down to consumers outside of lower gasoline prices. Airfare is still high which why I'm not travel this December.

Camille Acey said...

all my debt is in dollars and i get paid in euros so this is always good news for me. you better get like jay-z and start refusing dollars as payment!

Kataroma said...

Yeah, the key is to get paid in euros although of course salaries are so low here that that doesn't really help that much. The best would be to be paid in euros from a country where they pay people properly - like Holland for example. Haven't worked that one out though.

But ragazza - I thought you'd sold a script here in Italy? That would be some euros coming in, wouldn't it?

Can't wait to shop til I drop in NYC when we go there next month! :)

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

camille - remember when Jay-Z did a video/rap song and talked about euros not dollars. That is when I knew the dollar was crazy weak. ha

kataroma - I sold a treatment/movie idea so yes some euros came in already. If and when they hire an Italian screenwriter (the company translated my treatment from English to Italian) that would trigger the next step in my deal for a few more euros... fingers crossed. I earned the same as what I would have made for a U.S. film at that budget. Hopefully as my written Italian improves I might be able to co-write (with an Italian screenwriter) one of my ideas in the future.

Happy Holidays and have a great time in NYC!