Korean Job Discussion Forums

[sojourner1]

I noticed that you get 100 more Won per US dollar today than you did last year which means roughly a 10% pay decrease from last year if buying dollars with your savings. I thought it was the US Dollar that was weakening, but it seems to be the other way around unless going to Europe. With Euros as you get 1 Euro to the US dollar today instead of 1.5 like a year ago. So the Euro is strengthening while most others are declining? The US dollar buys 166 Yen today while it only bought around 110 Yen last year which means either the Yen is weaking, the US dollar is strengthening or both. You get 33 baht to the dollar instead of 30 like a few months ago. It's still $2 per GBP in England like last year.

That's more Asian currency for your US dollar, but less US dollar for your Asian currency you earned. Is Asia slowing down and weakening for some reason? If so, why? Since they produce all this stuff for the whole world. I thought the trend of getting more US dollar for your Won would continue, but that isn't so. We know the US economy is in big trouble and effects the whole world and most currencies, but what is going on?

Nothing seems to be logical; it's a big cloud.

Can anyone explain what's going on?

[Ya-ta Boy]

Both the dollar and the Won have been weakening. Until last week the Korean government had a weak Won policy. This may have changed when the government decided to defend the Won in an attempt to fight the inflation caused by soaring oil and commodity prices.

There are frequent articles about this in English language Korean newspapers like the Chosun Ilbo and JoongAng Ilbo.

[hagwonnewbie]

Uh-yeah........The Euro buys 166 yen. The dollar buys about 106 of them. The dollar will continue to decline. The won is tied to it because of so much export to the US. The Korean overnment likes it that way.

You should see more movement of U.S. rates soon. Korean, European and the U.S. governments are all considering actions that will affect the value of their currencies. Get ready

[bogey666]

[hagwonnewbie]

[bogey666]

[JerBear]

The Korean government doesn't want the won to get too strong as that would cause imports from Korea to be too expensive in the USA. At the same time, they don't want the won to be too week as that would make necessary imports (such as oil) to be too expensive in Korea. The balance has been to keep the won loosely pegged to the dollar at approximately 1000 won to the dollar.

[4 months left]

Bernanke , Paulson and Bush have been talking up the dollar and sent the dollar on a few day rally It came off yesterday. Fed fund futures are showing a increaase to over 3% by early next year. Ggenerally gov't intervention to strengthen a currency doesn't work in the long run.

Lehman is looking for 4 billion and a Korean bank is said to be close to putting some cash in. Bernanke told banks last week that it would be a good idea to raise some capital.

The U.S. has printed so much money that it can't control the fall . Maybe if there was a coordinated effort by all major banks then something could be done. JC Trichet , EU Bank head, talked about raising rates last week. The EU has 1 mandate - inflation, the US has 2 - growth and inflation.

Korea's export lead economy is fine with a low won. I think we're in for a worldide recession or severe slowdown, especially if oil prices stay high. Remember China heavily subsudizes oil. Indonesia, Malaysia and India have recently taken off subsidies, if China does then maybe that can reduce the price of oil.

[i]

The dollar seemed to peak 14 days ago. That's shortly after I arrived and exchanged. It's been dropping a bit ever since. Still have some US$, but been holding on to see if it will come back up a bit to around 1064 like it was. But I think they are both dropping. It's just the $ is dropping a little more.

[tigerbluekitty]

I think if Korea continues to remain unopen and unfriendly towards foreigners, the Won will continue to fall and the Korean economy will continue to tumble. No one likes supporting unfriendly, racist people unless they have to. Korea has nothing crucial to offer the world.

[Zenas]

It's going to take more than talk to save the dollar, much more.

With the dollar being the world's reserve currency since about 1945, the US has been able to inflate it's currency for over 60 years. What we have now is a dollar that is worth 2 cents of what it was in 1945. What is being discussed now is that 2 cents.

The dollar is finished. As Jim Rogers said, who wisely moved out of the US to Singapore, the private Fed banksters "threw the dollar out the window." Any currency tied - aka pegged, to the dollar is going down with it. That is why countries, such as Vietnam are letting go of their dollar peg. The dollar is going to crash and burn, by design, to be replaced by the Amero.

Fiat debt currency, ie. the dollar, by definition, needs, in fact demands continual printing and hence devaluing. Every dollar in existence was loaned out with interest. To pay that interest, more money had to be printed. You can't pay back the loan with the interest with only the original amount loaned out. You have to print more currency. Loan + Interest. That increase in the money supply is called inflation. This monetary inflation causes price inflation, more fiat currency chasing fewer goods. Hence the producers of oil, for instance, are demanding more dollars to pay for their resource and this is driving price inflation for most of what we buy, becasuse oil is necessary at just about every production step along the way.

Want to know who is to blame for most of the financial problems we see today?

Look no further than the central banks of the world, particularly the US Federal Reserve System, a private banking corporation controlled by a few, a very few, with their counter parts in Europe, especially London.

The only reason the US has gotten away with inflating it's currency for so long, is that it was the world's reserve currency. People holding dollars are wising up. They know they are playing Old Maid, no one wants to hold the dollar. When they decide to dump the dollar, the game is over.

Meanwhile, they are buying up as much of America's assets as they can. That is why the US government has decided to stop publishing how much direct foreign investment is taking place in the US. If the American people knew how their nation is being sold out from under them, they'd be shocked.

And may actually get off their Mexican made La-Z-Boys and do something, but I doubt it.

[Bigfeet]

[Ya-ta Boy]

[Zenas]