Wednesday, September 19, 2007

"The American Peso" Sheesh.

From Boo Chanco of The Phillipine Star comes word of a "joke circulating in financial circles that the once “almighty US dollar,” is fast turning into the “new American peso.” Since 2001 the dollar has lost more than half its value against the euro. It now costs nearly $1.40 to buy one euro. And it isn’t just the euro that seems to be growing stronger against the US dollar. It has declined against many other major world currencies, and even including minor ones like our (Phillipine) peso, reflecting the dollar’s loss of purchasing power."
As the Los Angeles Times reported, “in much of the world — from Brazil to Poland to Thailand — one dollar buys less than it did a year ago, and far less than it did four years ago. On Friday, the US currency hit a 30-year low against its Canadian peer.”
That gives me an opportunity to finally post this bit of trivia regarding a time when the dollar was worthless and the peso was king.
"Not worth a Continental" was a phrase heard in the 18th and 19th century to describe something as valueless as ...as ...well, the US (Continental) Dollar.
The Brits never sent enough currency to the colonies and, later, the young US couldn't get the hang of issuing its own.
If you wanted to transact in cash ...there was usually only one kind of cold hard stuff: the Spanish Dollar.
The Peso. A piece of eight. The ocho reales.
Not only was it used out of necessity but it was also official US legal tender until the time of the US civil war.
It is also the origin of what yanquis call the "dollar sign."
Those two symbols on the above coin are a likely source of the $. Another is the way peso was abbreviated by writing a "P" on top of an "S" ...sort of a ...later they simply dropped the top part.
"Why can't these people get their OWN damned dollar sign? It's SO confusing!" ...ever hear that around town?
But if you think it's confusing now ...buckle up, Dorothy.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am not surprised at all. When I was in the Army in 1953 and was in Japan, the going rate for the dollar and yen was 360 yen per 1 US Dollar.

Now the 1 US dollar is worth 114.5 yen. And I am sure we are also losing out to lots of other countries. I am going to be stunned if I live long enough (I will be 73) to see this country when China demands repayment of the loans they made to us. Some of which have gone to finance the war in Iraq. People don't talk about that.

Anonymous said...

Have you seen the movie zeitgeist? I don't know if I would recommend it, because about 90% is a little loco, but they go into this whole long thing about how the men behind the curtain are trying to start something called the Amero, kinda like the Euro.

yanqui mike said...

I thought maybe that I had seen it... but no. I'm downloading it now.

Yeah, I've heard that Amero thing over and over... but I don't know what to think about it. The only thing I'm sure of is that if the Bush Admin actually WANTED to do it... they could do it tomorrow and the Dems would rollover and let them... and the GOPs would rollover as that act destroyed their party. Weird world, eh?

The dollar's going down strictly on fundamentals... but the euro... what's that all about? It is not rising because it's a sound currency. I'm no fan of The Maestro (Greenspan) but he hits it on the head in that there has never been a currency that was both multi-national and fiat. A strange bird. And "not ready for primetime", either. It might take its place as the successor to the dollar, pound, peso... but it's not clear.

yanqui mike said...

Whoa! Hoss! Wa Hey! I just watched the movie www.zeitgeistmovie.com

They're lucky in that they ever got anybody to watch it... I mean more than the first 5 minutes with no words, just that fotomontage.

Then... what? 30-40 min of zodiac and religion? I don't know many people that would sit thru that. But I kinda liked it for some reason. I was thinking all the while that we need to call in EarthandStarrs to get the low-down, Brown, if you know what I mean.

A very slow beginning... but it was all tied together very well in retrospect. Probably pre-meditatedly slow at first... but, sheesh, they must not be afraid of losing an audience.
Then it picked up the pace, to say the least!

Whoosh. One stop shopping for every conspiracy theory ever known! Seriously, did they leave even ONE out?

All tied together nicely, tho. Pretty effective in that it leaves you thinking that among ALL the conspiracy theories of ALL TIME... there has to be at least ONE that's true! (something that statistical theory will tell you is not necessarily the case.) Something for everybody!

For me, it left me thinking that if you agree that "we" have always been lied to, at least a little, throughout history... we've certainly been lied to a hell of a lot more in recent decades. Maybe the feeling all that deception has left us with... makes us more likely to sit thru 2 hours of that.

Anonymous said...

Defanitly a very long movie, with a bunch of weird stuff the first 5 - 10 minutes, felt like I was watching startrek on acid or something.

The religion part to me didn't really do too much because he kept talking about parts of the Christian religion that aren't relevant at all, such as december 25, nowhere in the bible does it say Christmas is december 25th, as well as the three wisemen, nowhere in the bible does it say there are three wisemen, just three gifts. It just kinda goes on like that. Also, there is a lot of controversy wether the facts he presented about the ancient religions were just pulled out of his ass or what.

the 9-11 part, well I only watched half of that because I saw loose change, and thought it was put out there a little better

The third part, well that kinda actually scared me a little! But yes 2 hours, that is a long movie! And I think you are right! I don't think they left out any conspiracy theory!!

yanqui mike said...

Hey! I just thought of one! Masons. I kept waiting and waiting... but they never mentioned them.

Anonymous said...

Are Masons and shriners the same thing? I always wondered why during parades, there would be white masons (or shriners) on there little go-carts, and then 5 minutes later the black masons (or shriners) would come out on there little go-carts. I always wondered why they were segregated.

yanqui mike said...

Aw, Dude! That would be so hilarious if we invented our own conspiracy theory regarding the threatened world domination of the Shriners! We could include the ancient symbolism of the go-kart. I think you hit on the title of the best-selling book:

MASONS. SHRINERS. SAME THING? ...OR WORSE!