Question on the Euro dollar

Hi All,

Okay so over here in the U.S. we're hearing that the Euro Dollar is in real trouble. Being that I don't trust our own media outlets here can someone from over in the U.K. or Europe gives me a different perspective? Is it true? Is it false? What's going on? Just curious.

Thanks,
Toby Goatfield

Here in germany/europe we dont know anything like a Euro Dollar. If u are talking about europes main currency its just called Euro.

And to answer your question, no we dont get any rumors about currency problems, we still got some problems cuz of economy crisis in general but thats not related currency so far. For germany its more of a problem the Euro is pretty stong (high in exchange rate) as we are an exporting county.

Interesting. Thanks!

Well, the only issue I could imagine is that the FED is increasing money supply by a greater amount than the EZB (europea central bank), which would lead to a fall of the dollar compared to the euro... apart from that, everything is as always with our currency...

Stupid media. We were hearing that some European countries couldn't pay back their loans and that was causing quite a hornets nest over there. But since I hold our news organizations in contempt, I wanted to here from folks across the pond. Again, thanks!

Sounds more like us in the US, sadly.

I think that is Iceland. We hear quite a lot here in Sweden about it, as both countries are in Scandinavia. Though i am not totally clear with who or what they owe (on question one Im guessing Britain, and on question two I say cheese)

You watching Fox News or what

No, but close. This is a clip from an old news-broadcast from Sweden... lwait and see what happens...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRN2ho2tjp0

It probably has to do with Greece going down the drain - financially. So yes, this was in the news here too. But not for long thanks to swine flu, Haiti or whatever was "hot" at the moment. I guess it's not a good topic to make money of.

If you are seriously interested try to google for something like danger + euro + greece. Maybe it's not exactly what you heard but at the very least it should get you there from some of those results.

Opheliate wrote:

I think that is Iceland ... Though i am not totally clear with who or what they owe (on question one Im guessing Britain ...

Yes, Iceland owe Britain £2.3 billion and they're planning on holding a referendum on whether to stump up the cash or not.

Iceland also owes the Netherlands 1,3 billion euros. But I guess Iceland will have to pay it back eventually or else they won't get any help anymore from the IMF (International Monetary Fund). I suspect it's just tactics from Iceland to try and get a better deal/agreement than they have now (the deal they had was to pay it back in 10 years or so).

A bigger issue IMHO is that there are concerns that Greece (and to a lesser extent Spain and Portugal) will not be able to pay back their loans. If that is the case then the other euro-countries will probably have to step in for them to keep the euro creditable. But because no other European country wants to pay for Greek mismanagement I think a different solution will be found. E.g. further loans from the European Union coupled with a promised/forced cut down on expenses by the Greek government. The uncertainty of what is going to happen has caused the euro to drop quite a bit over the last few days so I think a solution has to found as soon as possible.

Yes Iceland was long ago and one of the reasons they couldn't cope was that they're NOT part of the EURO region. What you're currently hearing would propably be about Greece and Spain. What Mithras said.
This is what I don't get about the stock market is how rumours and speculations can get something to increase or decrease in value without any real drive behind it... What a strange world we made ...

The problem is not the Euro... but specific European countries (mainly Netherlands and Greece) in heavy debt to the European conglomerate. The conglomerate is (AS THEY SHOULD) working hard to avoid financial issues... working so those countries do not go under, taking the rest of Europe down.

Germany is in a GREAT economical uproar (specially when you think of the global situation), with strong export markets. They are doing it right!

Spain has a great 'issue' with their universal care. Citizens of the EU can go to any EU country to receive medical care. In theory, this is to cover 'emergencies' during visits and the country where the medical procedures are done would get reimbursed from the EU common medical fund. What is happening in Spain is that they have 'universal' medical services, paid by the state. So they are getting (since 2004) a great influx of 'medical tourism' in which people from other countries that do not have 'universal' health care go and 'take a vacation' to Spain and have their medical procedure done. Better to recover on the warmer climates! The back-log for reimbursement is astronomical (they claim on the billions of Euros)... and they are making a fuzz claiming that it would devalue the Euro (it may.)

All in all... Europe got it right. The movement to a unified economical system is the way to go. Countries back each other, so the end result is an overall more stable currency.

Yes the EU is the way to go! not only economicly (but mainly so) but on so many cases the EU has done a lot of good for it citizens! it's just to bad that most of what's done isn't noticed by most people even though it affects very important aspects of daily life! that togheter with the commision's pathetical PR qualities and the many opposition to the union (specifically from those countries like the UK who are so lucky to have a strong economy so they don't really need the EU, though the Union is constantly gaining on them) makes it very difficult for them to operate like they should. Lissabon has shown that they ignored the importance of public opionion for to long and that is now backfiring. but they certainly are on the right way... to bad about Kopenhagen though

Captain Bernhardt wrote:

... the EU has done a lot of good for it citizens!

Give some examples, please.

Captain Bernhardt wrote:

... countries like the UK who are so lucky to have a strong economy so they don't really need the EU ...

You are joking, aren't you? The UK economy is in a dreadful state.

Mordheimer wrote:

The problem is not the Euro... but specific European countries (mainly Netherlands and Greece) in heavy debt to the European conglomerate.

I agree with most of your posting but what you state about the Netherlands is not true, it has one of the strongest economies in the EU. Sure it suffers from the financial crisis, for example unemployment has gone up from 3,6% in januari 2009 to 5,2% in january 2010. But that is still low compared to most other countries. Also in other regards things are not THAT bad.

Quote :

All in all... Europe got it right. The movement to a unified economical system is the way to go. Countries back each other, so the end result is an overall more stable currency.

This I totally agree with. If it hadn't been for the euro a lot of European countries would have been in a much worse state now.

5.2% unemployment is still Waaaaayyyy better than most of the rest of the world. Even when Canada was doing well it was around 8% IIRC. The powers that be like to keep it around 10%. It keeps the proles from getting uppity.

USA is at 10% unemployment... where I live (Fort Myers, Florida) is at 12%... Literally EVERYONE knows someone without a job (and looking) and you can NOT go a block without seeing a house in foreclosure (and if you don't see it, its because they are in the process!)

I have a job as a Contractor (can be laid off any day) and besides that they all agree that I'm a great employee, they won't hire me. The market is so weak that I can't make any pressure... nowhere to go. So I take Canada's miserable 8% any day!

We had a highly regulated banking and investment industry, luckily.

Here's an article about the possible default of Greece on its credits, for those interestes. I just scanned it, but it looked pretty interestening:

http://europac.net/externalframeset.asp?id=18180&type=browne

Interesting article. I hadn't make the parallel connection with California's problems (I know a lot less about European current events). It will be interesting whether Greece or California pull out better. My gut is saying Greece, who's problems seem (at least to me, the casual observer) much more clear cut (simply spend less) than California's. Canada went through a similar time in the 90s, although no where near as serious as what Greece seems to be facing. We were forced to make deep, sometimes painful cuts, but we were the better for it. At least until Conservatives got elected and started frittering away the hard fought surplus.

Well, "simply spend less" would have been quite an easy solution to the debt problems of all countries even decades ago, but somehow, they never really managed and instead decided to just put the maximum debt ceiling higher and higher, like in the US...

the problem with "simply spend less" is u significant reduce the prosperity of ur citizens, and in democratic countrys this is pretty bad for comming elections.

One problem of european unition is, all countrys try to give the same prosperity to thier citizens but not all of them got the same economical backup. Additionaly its nearly immpossible to cut of a member of the curreny union afterwards, and also to find usefull penalization for missbehave.

This was known from the very first beggining, thats why european union is kind of selective for new members.

the "simply spend less" issue is in contrast to California, who's problems are much more fundamental and entrenched, and go all the way back to when Reagan was governor. California's problem isn't overspending per se, It's that succesive lawmakers have so handcuffed the government (in the name of fiscal prudence, which plays well with voters) that they can no longer raise the money to govern.

As for Greece, I am very curious what the end game is. Do they get bailed out by the wealthier countries? Do they get kicked out of the EU?