The Weakling Dollar: Expected but Embarrassing

In the land of the euro, the dollar is treated like a banana republic(an) currency. The devaluation of the dollar isn't such an awful thing: it was long overdue. We can't have a $9+ trillion dollar debt (almost half of which was accumulated in the last seven years), a humongous trade deficit, negative personal savings, and an economic recession, and still expect our currency to be worth something. But this is embarrassing:

The U.S. dollar's value is dropping so fast against the euro that small currency outlets in Amsterdam are turning away tourists seeking to sell their dollars for local money while on vacation in the Netherlands.

"Our dollar is worth maybe zero over here," said Mary Kelly, an American tourist from Indianapolis, Indiana, in front of the Anne Frank house. "It's hard to find a place to exchange. We have to go downtown, to the central station or post office."

That's because the smaller currency exchanges -- despite buy/sell spreads that make it easier for them to make money by exchanging small amounts of currency -- don't want to be caught holding dollars that could be worth less by the time they can sell them.

While none of the problems are easy to solve, Bush and the Republican-led (and after 2006, obstructed) Congress made these problems a lot worse.