Job Discussion Forums

[Van Norden]

See the US$ has just hit 2 to the British Pound. Other currencies are also at highs against the dollar. What if the dollar continues to fall? It isn't beyond the realm of possibility. Surely something's got to give here in KSA. At some point it's going to put off even the most desperate and comparative-wage insensitive tefler.

[veiledsentiments]

From the economic fundamentals, I would say that you should assume that it will fall. The question now is only how far and how fast.

VS

[Van Norden]

I assume nothing VS. Fundamentals don't tell the whole story. And anyway, the fundamentals are well-known and therefore already largely factored into the current rates.

My question is: what if it happens? Really, this gig must surely be up if it goes to 3 to the Pound or 2 to the Euro, for example. Unless of course our benevolent hosts raise salaries or change the rate which the SR is pegged to the US$. Or both!

SR2 to the US$ anyone?

[Cleopatra]

I suggest that OPEC start selling oil in Euros.

That's fighten' talk to the folks (any folks) in the White House, I know...

[Van Norden]

Saddam had that idea Cleo and he lost his head!

[Cleopatra]

Yes, but as a 'military hack' like you will know, oil and money had nothing at all to do with the invasion of Eye-rack. Surely you haven't forgotten that whole '45 minutes from doom' scenario?

[Van Norden]

I think we have a failure to communicate here Cleo. I "teach" in the military here but I never had anything to do with the military before I came here. You know I'm a man of love and peace, not war.

[Cleopatra]

So what you're saying is that, civvie or not, this particular newsstory managed to pass you by as well?

[colt]

If the dollar is down, the GCC may revalue it to all the GCC currencies. The GCC is meeting this month to discuss just that.

I think this will be beneficial to all who buy dollars, euros and pounds as it will reflect a truer relation to the value of the dollar and not an artificial one based on the dollar/barrel of oil

The inflation of the gulf countries would be solved somewhat if that happened, as they are paying inflated prices for all they import from countries other than the US.

[Stephen Jones]

The dollar was at the same rate to the pound in the early nineties.

Brits face the problem that even though they get 60% more gross salary in the UK, the price of accommodation is exorbitant. It now costs 29 times a teacher's annual salary to buy the average house in Gerrards Cross!

[Van Norden]

Interesting developments on the forex markets. A resurgent US$?

[Longton]

Sterling against the US Dollar was at its highest a few weeks ago when it reached about $2.05 for one pound. It has now fallen back to under $ 2.

[Latteegirl1974]

A farmer once said "You got to make hay when the sunshines."

The sun always shines in Saudi Arabia, keep making your money until the bottem falls out.
My daughter had me up a 300 am and I had a chance to watch the news. I saw that the mortgage industry in the US is effecting the world markets. The Asian markets fell very low and the European market was hit but not to hard. The US mortgage lenders made a lot of shady deals (money making scheme) now people are losing their homes, and the world market is suffering due to American greed.

Only in America

[globalnomad2]

Certainly greed gone bad, and a case of so many convoluted and complicated ways to extend loans to everyone.

But greed only in the U.S.? And only the US has all these bad effects on the rest of the world, who are all angels?

Personally I am fed up with Chinese exports. Read a few books about the Chinese economy and how it really works and you'll see that it's highly disorganized, unregulated and everyone's a crook. Recently,

* I had to worry about my cat back in the States because thousands of pets died due to Chinese poison chemical additives

* Deadly Chinese toothpaste in Central America and elsewhere

* All the houshold lamps in the UAE, at least in RAK, are made in China and I've gone through 7 of them in two years...they all blow out, some of them within two days.

* The lead paint on toys. One kid has died from it in the U.S. already. (He swallowed some small item that had lead paint on it.)

There's more but enough said. If these massive recalls of Chinese products continue, there could be major consequences for the world economy. Chinese stocks could dive like a kamikaze and set off a domino effect, just to name one possibility.

Here's how Chinese manufacturing capitalism works: Western investors transfer money to a Chinese bank and have their Western specialists in China find things to invest in. They scour the country for suitable factories (or whatever) with a modern standard (very hard to find actually). They find a Chinese super go-getter, a regular Chinese Donald Trump or Bill Gates, to run things. Later, Mr. Supercharged siphons all the profits into building his own, secret factory. Investors back in the West wonder where the hell the profits are if the original factories seem to be humming along so well thanks to Mr. Wonderful. A half-billion dollars in original investment vanishes into the black hole of inscrutable local greed. (Nah, I'm not racist...my wife is Chinese. She's the first one who told me the Chinese are all crooks

A different type of greed, that's all.

[007]