Happy Anniversary!

[crunchtastic]

With our almighty dollar at new lows, oil at new highs, and the holiday retail season right around the corner, let's take a moment to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the last big one.

Follow this link to oodles of chart porn:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119239926667758592.html

[editor]

Interesting. Something very similar was the front page headline of the Financial Times a couple of days ago.

A lot of people complain about the low dollar, but long-term investors realize that these things are cyclical.

A weak dollar is a great excuse to ramp up production because whatever it is that your company makes (assuming your company makes stuff) is cheaper and more attractive to people overseas. I know my sales to companies in England are up more than 500% over last year. I've raised my rates, and they still think I'm a bargain.

Of course, this means it's becoming prohibitively expensive to visit Europe, but that's no big deal -- I head to Asia where prices are even lower than the U.S. and taxes are virtually non-existent.

[RedScare]

...let's take a moment to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the last big one.

As a show of respect, the Dow dropped 250 points today.

[Mark F. Barnes]

Yeah but Google is up another point and a half. 649.78 @ 14:00 hrs. Not bad for going public @ 85.00. Of course I took a hit in Texaco and Shell down 2.12% and 1.24% respectively. Oh well life is still good.

Edited October 19, 2007 by Mark F. Barnes

[OkieEric]

As a show of respect, the Dow dropped 250 points today.

277 now...will she hit 300?

Today is one of those days where I just don't check my portfolio!

[crunchtastic]

I just walked past a co-worker's office and heard the strains of that creepy, faux-british accent, 'buy gold' woman from the infomercial. This guy stares at his portfolio tracker all day, every day. I'm surprised I haven't heard the sound of him breathing rapidly into a paper bag.

I'm with editor--worse things than a weak dollar. And the Eastern Caribbean Dollar is pegged to ours, for the most part, so I won't need to change any travel plans.

[editor]

I just walked past a co-worker's office and heard the strains of that creepy, faux-british accent, 'buy gold' woman from the infomercial. This guy stares at his portfolio tracker all day, every day. I'm surprised I haven't heard the sound of him breathing rapidly into a paper bag.

I'm with editor--worse things than a weak dollar. And the Eastern Caribbean Dollar is pegged to ours, for the most part, so I won't need to change any travel plans.

Hong Kong dollar is pegged to ours at 7.8, too. And I think there are a couple of South American countries that actually use American dollars as their currency.

No need to panic. Just follow the age-old advice: diversify.

Sure, my American stocks are down 4% in the last couple of weeks, but my Asian stocks are up 81% in the same time frame.

[Subdude]

Interesting. Something very similar was the front page headline of the Financial Times a couple of days ago.

A lot of people complain about the low dollar, but long-term investors realize that these things are cyclical.

A weak dollar is a great excuse to ramp up production because whatever it is that your company makes (assuming your company makes stuff) is cheaper and more attractive to people overseas. I know my sales to companies in England are up more than 500% over last year. I've raised my rates, and they still think I'm a bargain.

Of course, this means it's becoming prohibitively expensive to visit Europe, but that's no big deal -- I head to Asia where prices are even lower than the U.S. and taxes are virtually non-existent.

When you live in Europe though the weak dollar is really bad news. I'm just hoping the dollar strenghens soon. I guess the positive thing is that the US is viewed as a great discount vacation spot.