U.S. Dollar Exchange Rates

The US dollar isn’t looking so good. You can really see how the value of the dollar is dropping when you’re not in the USA. The US dollar use to be the currency that ran the world. This seems to be changing fast. The Euro is taking over. When I was in France last December, American dollars were completely useless. No banks would exchange them or even take travelers cheques in dollars. Even if I could have changed Dollars for Euros, I still wouldn’t have been able to buy anything because of the outrageous price of everything in Europe.

Now I am noticing a change in Central America. Things used to be priced according to the dollar in touristy places. For instance, a beer in Costa Rica use to cost 500 Colones, and 500 Colones is equal to $1 USD. Now prices match Euros. A beer in Costa Rica now costs about 750 colones, which is equal to 1 Euro. This is about $1.50 USD. In Guatemala the Euro is about 10 Quetzales and all the prices are in increments of 10 Quetzales. They are not in increments of 7, which is the exchange rate of the dollar.

A reason for this change is probably due to the fluctuating value of the dollar. It is no longer a stable currency. The war debt from Iraq has seen to that.

I went to the bank last Monday to exchange money. 1 US dollar was worth 7.34 Quetzales. This week I went and the exchange rate had dropped .03 Quetzales. The dollar was now worth 7.31 Q. Changing $100 I lost 50 cents. That isn’t that much, but to have such a decrease in 1 week is worrisome. The Lonely Planet 2007 Guidebook values the dollar at 7.6 Quetzales. That means since publishing, the dollar has gone down in value almost .3 Quetzales. This is about 30 Quetzales when changing $100 US dollars. 30 Quetzales is about $4 USD. This is a lot for a year.

The future is looking bleak for the US dollar. George Bush Jr. had better get out of the president’s chair so someone can save our economy from crashing. If not, this little hobo will have to start earning cash elsewhere in a more stable currency.