Tuesday, May 3, 2011

U.S. DOLLAR CONTINUES SLIDE

From the Washington Post. 


The U.S. government has pulled out all the stops to try to get the economy back on track following the Great Recession: It is running a huge budget deficit, the financial sector has been bailed out, and the Federal Reserve is keeping interest rates ultra-low.
But these very efforts to get the economy going again create risks of their own. One of the biggest is that the value of the dollar could decline in ways that are abrupt and disruptive.

The dollar has already been drifting gradually downward as a result of large U.S. trade and budget deficits and the growing economic might of the rest of the world. It is down 36 percent against six other major currencies over the past decade — and was down even more before the 2008 financial crisis prompted fearful investors to plow money into dollars.
The downward trend is likely to continue over the years as the other economies continue to catch up with the United States. The risk now is that large U.S. budget deficits, a lack of political consensus over how to reduce them and the Fed’s low interest rate policies will transform the slow decline into a precipitous fall.
“There is an ongoing very gradual diversification away from the dollar,” said Barry Eichengreen, an economist at the University of California at Berkeley and author of “Exorbitant Privilege,” about the unique role of the dollar in the world economy. “That movement could be very significantly hastened if foreigners grow concerned about deficits as far as they eye can see and the pressure the Fed will feel not to normalize the level of interest rates, resulting in inflation.”
Remember the US Dollar / Japanese Yen exchange rate is one of the key dynamics that impact the anime industry in both the U.S. and Japan. When Robotech first came on the air in 1985 $1 USD = Y240 JPY now in 2011 1 USD = Y81 range in other words the dollar has lost 2/3 of its value. If the dollar continues to decline at this rate it forces the cost of acquiring anime (be it shows or merchandise) to go up.

1 comment:

  1. YAWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-0

    And this insightful post about the sliding Dollar is relevant how???? Your team's primary focus should be making anime (you know, the Robotech OVA sequel that's supposedly on hiatus) not acquiring the next anime show to make a quick buck for the short term. Yes, so freaking what, the US Dollar has lost 2/3's of value to the Yen, oh noes!!! Big freakin' deal! You know, there's a way around that if your company is experiencing production problems, um it's called budgeting, maybe you've heard about it?

    Look, in all seriousness, and listen to the Robotech fanbase and I think I speak for all of us here, give us some REAL ROBOTECH NEWS.

    Thank-you!

    ReplyDelete