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July 6, 2008 12:33:05 PM CDT



Euro Hits America

"Change is good, but dollars are better." -Anonymous

With the dollar at its weakest since the days of floating currencies, some Big Apple merchants are opening their arms to the euro. Celebrities aren't far behind: rapper Jay-Z flashes wads of euros in a new music video, and supermodel Gisele swore off the dollar. Will the currency continue to squeeze its way into America's tills?

Stories

11 Stories

  • March 2008
    • Stocks Bounce, End Mixed

      Stocks Bounce, End Mixed

      Stocks seesawed throughout the day, finally ending today's session mixed, with the Dow closing up. The markets struggled to rebound from serious losses sustained after Bear Stearns' fire sale; buyer JPMorgan Chase's stock closed up 11%. The Dow ended up 21.16 at 11,972.25, the Nasdaq down 35.48 at 2,177.01, and the S&P 500 down 11.54 at 1,276.70. More »

    • Oscar Winner Is 9/11 Doubter

      Oscar Winner Is 9/11 Doubter

      In year-old video just now resurfacing, best-actress Oscar winner Marion Cotillard says she doesn't believe the "official story" of  the 9/11 attacks—and she's not sure the moon landing was real, either, the Telegraph reports. In a TV interview, the French star of La Vie en Rose speculates that the World Trade Center towers were so outdated that their destruction was engineered and passed off as a terrorist attack, since it would be cheaper than trying to renovate. More »

  • February 2008
    • Wholesale Inflation Surges

      Wholesale Inflation Surges

      Wholesale prices rose more than twice as fast as analysts predicted in January, in the latest sign that inflation is outstripping growth, Bloomberg reports. After a 0.3% drop in December, finished good prices rose 1% last month, with the core indicator up 0.4%, its biggest gain in almost a year. Fed chief Ben Bernanke will discuss the inflation statistics tomorrow when he delivers a policy report to Congress, MarketWatch notes. More »

    • New York Loves Euros

      New York Loves Euros

      Wander through the Big Apple these days and you’ll see signs like “Euros accepted!” and even “Euros Only.” The latter is a joke—dollars are accepted, as are British pounds—but many New York City merchants are more than willing to accept visitors' currency, the Washington Post reports. “I need euros,” said one street vendor. “The dollar’s going down.” More »

    • Should NYC take the euro?

      With travel to New York City at record levels, and with the the dollar at near-record lows against the pound and the euro, does it make sense for New York City businesses to start accepting foreign currency?

    • Big Apple Opens Arms to Euros

      Big Apple Opens Arms to Euros

      The falling dollar has made the US a travel bargain, and some merchants in New York City have flung open their doors—and their tills—to the sudden influx of foreign currencies, Reuters reports. The euro, up 12% against the dollar in the past year, is particularly common. "Money is money,” said wine-store owner Robert Chu. More »

    • Dollar to rise, say currency traders

      US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke%u2019s decision to lower interest rates 1,25 percentage points last month will end the dollar%u2019s two-year slide, according to the world%u2019s biggest currency traders.

    • Canadians catch on to the euro, too

      If the striking declarations of an American rap mogul and a Brazilian supermodel weren't convincing enough, Canadians are getting more proof it's no longer all about the Benjamins. The Bank of Nova Scotia will announce today it has become the first major Canadian-based bank to offer euro-denominated savings accounts at a time when the relatively nascent euro continues to outpace the American greenback on currency markets.

  • January 2008
    • Waving goodbye to hegemony

      Turn on the TV today, and you could be forgiven for thinking it%u2019s 1999. Democrats and Republicans are bickering about where and how to intervene, whether to do it alone or with allies and what kind of world America should lead.

    • The dollar could fall even lower

      2007 was not a good year for the dollar. On a trade-weighted basis, the US currency lost about 7.5% of its value during the course of the year. According to the Fed%u2019s trade-weighted Major Currency Index, the dollar was even weaker, losing about 10%.

  • November 2007
    • Supermodel Swears Off Dollar

      Supermodel Swears Off Dollar

      Gisele Bundchen, who pulled in $33M in front of the camera this year, doesn't like the looks of the dollar. Following the lead of billionaires Warren Buffett and Bill Gross, the world's richest model is asking to be paid in some other currency, usually the euro. “We don't know what will happen to the dollar,'' commented Patricia Bundchen, the model’s twin and manager. More »

11 Stories

American and foreign currency   (Getty Images (by Event))
Brazilian model Gisele Bundchen is at the top of a growing list of rich people who believe that U.S. currency can only depreciate under the leadership of George W. Bush.   (Getty Images)
Rapper Jay-Z is interviewed during a taping of BET's countdown show "106th and Park" at Steiner Studios in Brooklyn, N.Y. in this Nov. 8, 2007 file photo. Jay-Z's new video for "Blue Magic"_in which...   (Associated Press)
Rapper Jay-Z's flashing of a wad of Euros in a recent video signify a cultural awareness of the declining dollar, and a new definition of a wise investor.   (Shutterstock.com)
A one Euro coin sits atop U.S. one-dollar notes in this July 5, 2005 file photo in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.   (Associated Press)
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Background

dollar
World Encyclopedia

dollar ($) Standard monetary unit of the US since 1792. It was derived from the Spanish dolar , the most widely used coin in the American colonies. ...

» Read more about dollar at Encyclopedia.com

European Monetary System
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition

European Monetary System arrangement by which most nations of the European Union (EU) linked their currencies to prevent large fluctuations relative to one another. It was organized in 1979 to stabilize foreign exchange and counter inflation among members. Periodic adjustments raised the values ...

» Read more about European Monetary System at Encyclopedia.com

euro
World Encyclopedia

euro Single currency unit of the European Union (EU). The Maastricht Treaty (1992) established a timetable for economic and monetary union (EMU). A European Currency Unit (ECU) acted as a theoretical unit until the birth of the Euro on January 1, 1999. In this first stage, 11 member states ...

» Read more about euro at Encyclopedia.com


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