A Bit Of Good News -- I Think

Since upgrading my computer, I've been using Vista. Vista has a gadget bar on the right side of the screen. I picked a gadget that tracks international currency exchange rates. Over the last two weeks, I've noticed the dollar rising against the Euro. Two weeks ago it was something like .7 Euros to the U.S. Dollar. Today it's .79 EU to 1 USD. The Euro is still stronger than the Dollar, but the Dollar is gaining ground at a steady rate. If this keeps up, by about the start of the year, they'll be roughly equivalent again.

I don't pretend to know why this is happening. Part of it may simply be that there are fewer Dollars to go around and therefore they are becoming more valuable. Part of it might be that Euros are being devalued even faster than Dollars, so what I'm seeing is not a strengthening of the Dollar but rather the Euro weakening even faster than the Dollar. Or maybe this represents some effort on the part of healthy European financial institutions to reach out to rehabilitate the American economy, and at the same time take advantage of an opportunity to make some money for themselves while doing it.

For whatever reason, though, the Dollar is strengthening relative to the Euro. And that at least seems like good news.