adis, are you bosnian?

HOLY FUCKING SHIT! You dont see over the border, do you?

http://www.finfacts.com/img/costofliving50cities.gif

As you can see, 6 out of the 10 most expensive cities to live in are in Europe. New York follows on #12.

Even Dakar, Senegal is more expensive than Florida. Sometimes its just too funny.

and yeah ... it really sucks!

I'm not sure where you heard that, but it isn't quite true... :1orglaugh

Before money changes 1DM (German Mark) was around 1.000 Italian liras. So, on the day of the change, 1 euro is changed for 2.000 Italian liras...

Then, I would really like to know about club in Croatia where you can get dring for 50cents... Here in Budapest you can't get drink in "normal" club bellow 2-5 bucks, and the prices are very simillar in Belgrade and Prague as well...

And, I'm paying my apartment $650 per month without bills (phone, Net, power, etc...). Nothing spectacular - 72m2...

Gaseline is $1.30 per litre (x3.78 ~ $4.9 per gal)...
And I need $6.000 for the camcorder which you can by in USA for $2.900...

he/she just said above they were born there and has lived in the US for 9 years :Graucho

Funny how living there for only 9 years already will make you as simply as most Americans.

I bet he votes Bush as well.

I guess i would be in shock, when I was in Europe, (in the Army) in the pay line we could change our $$ into marks, 4 marks =$1.00... downtown it was 3.50 to 3.80 marks.

Why not just order a PAL camera from BH in NYC and have it shipped to you in Hungary? If customs finds out they will take the camera?

By the time I paid everyone who is along to way to me buying land and building a house, I paid out over 250k here in Poland for a building I could have had for much less in most usa states -
I drive a ten year old car I paid four times the price I could have bought the same car in the UK. I also have to pay four times the cost of fuel here compared to the States -

The dollar has now dropped through the floor - 30% lower in real terms of that I was making online 4 years ago - and now I can litterally only use usa ccp's based in the states as Visa is slowly pushing all the online business that way-

I work harder to make up the difference and do not complain - But some of you Americans really ought to get your asses outside the country and look at other people's points of view without being so uninformed, arrogant, and often quite amazingly clueless about life outside of your own toilet.

heh, let me tell you dude that in Sweden its way fucking more expensive, $0,5 for a drink?? what a fucking joke, if you want a cheap one its costs $8 here......
Gas, $1,3 per liter.
1 pound of steak goes at around $10
and we pay 35% in income tax :(

50 :glugglug

Hmmm, I always thought income tax in Sweden was much higher than 35%.

lol, ? you dont have euros in hungary !! what that guy said is true!!!

everything got WAY more expensive becasue of the euro !!! :mad:

And I thought the Euro was outpacing the dollar in value, yet all this time it was just a difference in inflation. When can I say "I told you so!"?

a drink in norway would be about 80-90kr.. thats $12.46-14.. the dollar has dropped about 35% the last 3 years and keeps dropping daily.. so this isn't funny..

that is also not true, it is not inflation !! the stores changed all their prices in their advantage when they had to convert to euro !!

something that when converted correctly would be 1.45 became 2 to make it easier for the store onwers!

The dollar hasn't devalued at all. That would require deflation, which only happened for one quarter in 1979. Other then that, the US dollar has never deflated. In the last few years, the Euro has taken on lots of inflation and the US dollar has taken on almost none. You could say there is a comparative devaluing between the two currencies, but there is no real devaluing.

Income tax in Sweden is well over 50%. Sweden has one of the highest levels of taxation in the world.

The price of goods and services rose? That sounds like inflation to me.

prices increased ARTIFICIALLY

there were laws that forbade the store owners to do this , but many did it anyways

If you only price a dollar on goods you can purchase in the US then it hasn't devalued, that's what you'd typically call deflation.. But if you compare against a basket of goods in the world then it has grossly devalued.

To say the USD has not devalued is to have your head in the sand. The USD has lost value against nearly EVERY freely traded currency.

If prices increased, but it's not inflation, then what is it? I thought that was the very definition of inflation.

According to the book "Economics: Principles and Applications", the definition of inflation rate is as follows: The percent change in the price level from one period to the next.

Isn't this exactly what happened, prices went up?

it's worth shit in canada too now

Inflation rate in the USA in 2003: 2,3
Inflation rate in the European Union 2003: 2,0

USA

European Union

The Dollar has devalued in comparisson to the Euro and a couple of other currencies. If you say it has lost value against nearly EVERY freely traded currency, then prove it.

What I'm saying is that the "devaluation" is only comparative to a couple of currencies, but there is no real devaluation.

According to the book "Economics: Principles and Applications", the definition for devaluation is as follows: A change in the exchange rate from a higher fixed rate to a lower fixed rate.

If you use the Euro as a bench mark, you could say that, but that's just about it. Further, devaluation is not necessarily a bad thing. It is bad if it's because of deflation, but it is good if it's because of another currency's inflation. In this case, the Dollar has not deflated, had almost no inflation and the Euro has had lots of inflation. In this case, the devaluation of the Dollar as compared to the Euro is a good thing for America and a bad thing for Europe.

Same here in Czech Rep.

God, I hate socialist/leftist governments :feels-hot

How about 2000-2003? This is only last year's data and hasn't effected markets just yet. The USD had almost no inflation 2000-2002, yet the Euro had higher inflation rates, which gives us a added value difference today. In other words, we need more then just one year's stastics.

100% correct :thumbsup

There are always two sides:
- The current situation really hurts our exports. Our products are getting way too expensive compared to similar products available in the US. That hurts our industry. Greenspan has no intention to change that.
- But the current situation is good for our import industry. Products from the US are getting cheaper and cheaper.

Overall, its a bad thing for Europe as we do more exports than imports

Do you think it will re-gain it's value in the next months or years?

it will get even worse. Why should greenspan change the situation ??? Its good for the US economy.

Maybe the p. election will have some effect on this situation. Ya never know.

Dollar took a tremendous dive this year. I was told it benefits the people here in the U.S though.

Prove it? Go look it up yourself.
The USD has declined in the last two years against the Yen, Pound, Euro, Aussie Dollar, NZD, Canadian Dollar, Swiss Franc, Norweigan Krona..

The currencies it hasn't declined against are either third world hell holes or currencies that are managed by their Government e.g. China (it's probably decrease against that too anyway)

The president has nearly ZERO control over what the economy. The economy is a fallicious campaign platform. What congressmen we elect will have more effect on the economy then the president.

Well it's very oversold now, so I guess a bounce of some kind would be in order.

However with big budget and trade deficits it's hard to make a good case for a fundamental improvement in the dollar..

I hope though :/

I hope not, because this is a great situation for America. If we can keep inflation down, this will encourage the purchase of American exports.

BTW, the "devaluing" is only with a couple of currencies. World wide the USD is gaining value and has been for its entire history. Why do you think smaller countries and unstable countries prefer to trade in American money as opposed to their own currency? A Turk or Brazilian would accept a Dollar before they accept a Turkish Lira or a Brazilian Cruzeiro.

Well the President has power of veto so he has as much control as congressmen.

No, you made the positive claim, so it is up to you to prove it. I'm not going to prove shit for you, that's your job.

yup, the president has no control over the economy. But i said that the election could change something ... cause a positive sign from the election (the world is waiting for kerry) will result in more trust in the US economy and in the US dollar. Foreign companies will start to invest more in the US economy and traders will start to invest in the US Dollar again and guess what will happen ...

Congress can over ride his veto though, with a 66% majority. There is a limited sharing of power as checks and balances, but the president in the end has the least amount of power of all the governmental branches. Constitutionally, the president is supposed to be little more then a figure head, much like England's royal family.

not all of europe is slums