⌛ R.I.P. U.S. Greenback

U.S. Dollar to Philippine Peso Exchange Rate - Yahoo! Finance

Sinking like the Titanic, and this is only the beginning of the housing bubble burst back there, and I keep reading about all these other countries unloading their dollar reserves.

Kinda scary for those of us expats on fixed dollar incomes.

 

Not good for families getting remittances from balikbayans either :(

 

I'm sure they're really taking a beating.

 

Weeell...
Yes, the dollar is dropping but that was not unexpected and yes, it will likely drop a bit more but it's not time to turn out the lights just yet.
A falling dollar makes imports more expensive but it also makes exports more attractive to foreign buyers.
[Editorial mode: Personally, I would like to see the U.S. start manufacturing more things and import less from China but that's not likely to change anytime soon. Addtionally, the expenditures for the "debacle in the desert" is taking a lot of money away from more important things, IMHO.]
The housing market is not quite as bad as many members of the media would like to make it out to be. Bad news always sells well.
There are certain areas of the country where unbridled speculation combined with unscrupulous lenders have left some holding debts they were not anticipating, however, there are just as many areas where real estate values and employment continue to rise. The "fall" in housing is more accurately an adjustment to realistic numbers.
It's going to take a lot more than this "blip" to crash the U.S. economy.
I'm not unsympathetic to Filipinos that are counting are foreign remittances. A falling dollar definitely cuts back on what they get.
Living on a fixed income has risks. Diligent planning to absorb inflation should be part of a retirement scheme. Not always the easiest thing to accomplish.

 

Well Tim, thank you for your warm reassurances. But I'm looking at several sources of information showing a decline of about 30% in the value of the dollar in relationship to several other major currencies, in less than a year, with no end in sight.
I also don't see much of an acknowledgment of the problem by any of the U.S. mainstream press.
As far as hoping the American industrial base is going to somehow pull the country out, well don't get your hopes up, that went overseas years ago.
I'm working on my victory garden today, pineapples and sweet corn.

 

There's nothing wrong with growing your own food and nothing wrong with being self-sufficient.
As for your figures, the USD has declined against the CDN dollar by about 30%over the last FIVE years.
There's a lot more to economics and currency exchange than what is seen in a graph. I stand by my previous statement.
Smile! It's not all gloom and doom.