For those who haven't heard already, the Australian dollar dropped to an all time low of less than 50 US cents a few days ago! I'm still laughing at the cartoon in the paper with a dollar coin sinking past two deep sea angler fish, entitled "Deep sea creatures".

And while I'm sure many companies doing international business from Australia are charging in foreign currency to stabilise their income, now I hear that the Australian Stock Exchange was/is considering listing shares in US dollars to make them appear more stable and more attractive to overseas investors!

Long live the aussie dollar!



(Oh, I don't have all the facts on that Stock Exchange thing, just something I briefly heard in a news bulletin on the radio).

I also read somewhere our dollar is on par with countries like Romania and Haiti right now. Not exactly the sort of company that inspires good feelings.

I agree maybe the stock exchange should think about that. We use US pricing which is a lot more stable. I can't imagine what the workload would be to change prices on almost a daily regiment. Of course the servers and billing systems are all in US pricing too so it works out nicely.

Even with the Ozzie being the way it is, all you have to do is look a thousand miles east to New Zealand to feel a lot better though. :) Those guys are in it deeper than we are

Greg Moore

*shudder*

BC,

*lmao* Not often you're left speechless. I think that alone says a lot :)

Greg Moore

Originally posted by akashik
BC,

*lmao* Not often you're left speechless. I think that alone says a lot :)

Greg Moore

LOL! :D

Seriously.... My hip pocket is really feeling the effect since I buy most of my books from Amazon and some other stuff too..... *arrrghhh* Really, really painful, that's for sure.

yes it's very unfortunate, for me both my income and expenses (majority) are in US dollars so it works out the same - although my my income is always delayed in relation to when i earn it :(

speaking about books, lucky i purchase my php/mysql related books before the drop at fatbrain.com - advice search the net for discount coupons at fatbrain.com - i saved alot :)

and i thought the indian rupee was bad.. hmmm

bah... that is still good... In my country of origin, Indonesia, US$1 worths around 10000 rupiahs (1 rupiahs = $0.0001) :D At one point, it even plunged to 1:17000 (US$1 can buy 17000 of our money) :D :D Actuall it's really not funny :(

cheers,
:beer:

dektong,

I know what you mean. My fiancee's parents are thinking of retiring to Thailand (her mother's birth country). From doing ok in the states, they'll be retiring as very wealthy people if they move there (in comparison) :) Last time she checked it was about 15000 to 1

Kunal,

The rupee must be better than it used to be isn't it? With companies using Indian tech support as outsourcing you'd think it would be helping boost the economy. Though I suppose with over 1 billion people living there it's would take a fair bit to make a dent.

akashik, is that 15000 to 1 was in Thailand? wow... I though in the South East Asia Region, Indonesia plunged the lowest, never knew that Thailand was really closed to reaching the bottom of the sea :D

Anyway, having said this, one thing to note (so that people don't have bad impression about my country), in Jakarta (the biggest city in Indoesia with about 10-14 millions people), you can have one of the most expensive hotel in the world too (US$6000 per night), one the most expensive meals. The cars used to worth 3 times as expensive in Indoensia than in US (before finally the government decided to cut the 100-200% taxes on imported cars); the money you buy for Honda Civic in Indonesia can buy you a Mercedes 320E here.

Yet still... you can get the cheapest food, cheapest everything... You can see people living only by $1-2 per day yet you can also see people spending thousands of dollars per day.
What a strange world.... Very strange, indeed. :(

cheers,
:beer:

well naa.. its kinda stable right now.. stuck at 47Rs. to 1$.

Dektong,

just check today, the currency rate for Indonesian US$ 1 = Rp. 10413 (well I guess the market is not open yet--so probably is the closing value from last business day)

btw, where are u now? I am in Rochester MN....

Yeah Jakarta is a very strange city... I just went back home for vacation last december, I saw soo many Jaguar (new model), porche, soo many Mercedes and BMW around town....
Yet there are soo many people also cannot even afford to buy a motorcycle......

Lucky for me I don't have to depend on indonesian rupiah right now... Hopefully the stuff going on there (political, ethnic clash, economic) will be much better soon....

remember when the exchange rate was 1US$ == Rp. 500???
:(

The global currency speculators do seem to enjoy playing in Australian dollars. We are only 19 million people yet the Australian dollar has been the 8th most traded currency in the past few years - and as of late has been the 4th most traded currency!

freakysid - I'm guessing it's the most SOLD currency at the moment too!

Originally posted by Lawrence
freakysid - I'm guessing it's the most SOLD currency at the moment too!


If it's the most sold, it's also the most bought. ;)

OK, you've got me on that one cperciva :D ... I was implying that mass selling lowers it's value... but you're right.

It does, of course, depend on whether you talk in number of sales or quantity of sales.

This is not good news, personally. It doesn't seem the Aussie dollar will ever pick up again. :-(

Back at the beginning of the 80's the Aussie dollar was equal with the US and previous to that at one stage was actually in a better position. The beginning of the 90's saw it around the 70-80c mark and it has continued through the mid 90's to slide through 60-65c, to where we are now at 49-50c (with the odd recovery to 55c or so). To blame that on the euro, or current markets doesn't make a lot of sense being that it's a 20 year slide.

While many countries like the US and some in europe continue to innovate and create wealth increasing products Australia still seems to think we 'ride on the sheeps back' meaning agriculture is the key to success. In reality farming makes up less than 10% of our GNP each year. Mining accounts for a larger share - Bauxite and Uranium mostly. The Bauxite we then buy back from foreign countries as Aluminium. While taxes and cost of living go up, quality of life and employment opportunies go down. The current government has a role in this too which poor choices in policy.

So yeah, it's bad now if you're buying offshore, and it isn't going to improve any time soon. Many of us have just giving up on the local scene. We buy offshore, sell to offshore, use an off shore currency, and run our company under off shore business hours.

In fact about the only local work we do at akashik.net is the odd 'charity case' for local community organisations. At least we know we're not getting paid so don't have to hide that sour look when we get handed a few 'magic beans' for a much larger amount of man hours. :)

Greg Moore

There was one theory that they were splashing over the news a week or so back that Australia's "Sports mad" image was causing the slide in it's dollar and a decrease in foreign investment. Interesting theory, but I'm not convinced.

I very much doubt that - though who's to say regrading finance these days *lol*. I would hope that serious investors would be able to see past the Sport Mad, Bronzed Aussie, 'Corks around the hat' Paul Hogan type image the tourist commission seems intent on promoting us all as. Last time I was in the states I was asked on more than one occasion if he had 7-11 and McDonalds here yet.

sadly, yes we do by the way.

I suppose we could be considered a little backwards though as we don't have Jack In The Box. I could kill for a Sourdough Jack right now... I miss them

Greg Moore