Word: dollarization
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Commentators in Europe point out that the dollar's continued slide against most international currencies has largely been fueled by domestic American factors - notably the credit tension and business failures in the wake of the subprime crisis, and wider signs that the U.S. has or is entering into recession. But plummeting investor confidence in the American economy has only accelerated the greenback's erosion, which in a little over two years has depreciated from $1.1826 per euro in January, 2006 to Thursday's $1.56. The result is that products manufactured by companies paying euro-fixed salaries and supplies wind...
...example, A Dolce & Gabanna woman's watch marked down on Amazon.com France to 192.72 euros - or $300 - is hardly a bargain compared to the same watch on Amazon's U.S. site selling for $225. Why should dollar-spenders even think of shopping Europe? On the other side, the profits European companies make on dollar sales are shrunken by the time they get converted back to euros. For the euro-zone economy with a projected growth rate of only around 2% in 2008, the upshot is a major pinch on export revenues threatening to stunt growth even more...
That discomfort is especially great on companies and countries that have been slow to reform their economies - such as France and Italy, whose considerable price tags for cars, trains, airplanes, luxury goods and food products have become absolutely daunting once they've traversed the euro-dollar exchange. In places like the Netherlands, Germany, and Austria - where enormous pressure on salaries and production costs have made goods and companies more competitive in recent years - the rise of the euro has been less catastrophic, though only in relative terms. Whereas Germany has watched the plummeting dollar eat at its healthy trade surplus...
Meanwhile, Trichet - who in the past has been critical of Washington's uninterest in the negative consequences of its economic and monetary policies for other countries - said he'd "noted with great attention the re-affirmation of American authorities... that a strong dollar was in their economic interest." A good sign, indeed. The Bush administration once saw the decline of the dollar as a boon to U.S. industry. But with investors continuing to bail on U.S. securities and monetary markets Thursday, the question now is whether American intervention alone can turn things around - or whether European politicians and central bankers...
Sources: The Three Trillion Dollar War; war cost: Congressional Research Services fiscal-year estimates; oil: Energy Information Administration; vehicles: Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments...