The Shrinking American Dollar

  I suspect somewhere on the news it mentioned that the dollar has devalued again. This is the second or third time in the two months we have been in France/Switzerland. Apparently, many countries are encouraging weakening their currency and the USA has been printing more dollars to help the dollar devalue so that our exports will be more attractive as a way of stimulating growth. Generally, I pay little attention to this but it's killing us living here. Living in France, the French require that you show proof of renter's insurance and to purchase it, we went to one of our local banks where it only runs a reasonable $50.00/month. In order to get it however, the bank requires that you open an account with them which I did with the idea that it would also help reduce the $80.00 I've been paying each time we do a wire transfer from my Auburn bank to the landlord or school or anyone here we make payment too big to go on the debit card. Thank goodness, I transferred a large amount of money to that account a few weeks ago before the dollar devalued again. When we arrived the Swiss Franc was worth .96 cents, it is now worth $1.05. The locals tell me that it used to be 12 Swiss Francs to the dollar. The Euro was worth $1.24 when we arrived in August and today it's worth $1.41. In practical terms, this means that our rent went up about $250/month from just the dollar devaluation. Had I paid Chris's school tuition in August, I would have saved $1,400 from what it costs today and unfortunately I only recently paid it. The good news for the rent is that I do have the money stored in Euros now so I'll benefit there but things I'm paying here on my AuburnBank ATM are steadily rising.
  Things just are more expensive in this part of the world. Beyond the dollar devaluing, everything is more expensive here. Most Swiss live in rental apartments and the ones we looked at ran $3,500 to over $4,000 for a two bedroom 1,000 square feet place. Interestingly, in France and Switzerland near Geneva they are building apartments as quickly as they can. Unfortunately for as beautiful as their old architecture is, these modern apartments are large cube or rectangular cement structures that are extremely unattractive - kind of like the rush them up condos at the beach during that boom. While I've been told that most Swiss don't own their own home, there are many homes for sale in France due to the same housing problems here we have been having in the U.S. The prices seem to run $600,000 to millions for what looks to me like a plain small three bedroom home on a small lot. How do they do it? The bank will finance your home here for 100 years and apparently this type of loan is popular.  Food is high particularly eating out that costs $50 to $100 but even at the grocery store food is high. And for the ultimate high, gas is $1.96/liter or slightly less than $8.00/gallon.  Another practical example, I was looking for a small backpack and our local sports store sells Dakine brand packs. The one I was interested in was 55 Euros. That is $77.50. I checked the catalog stores and in the US, the standard price for that backpack is $45.00, a 42% difference. Guess I don't really need it.
  In some ways living in Switzerland since I work there and Chris goes to school there might have been easier. Switzerland didn't join the EU so they maintained their own currency. France, of course, is a big EU member and thus uses the Euro. This means that we have to have Euro's and Francs at all times as vendors in each country will not take the other currency. I'm heading to Oman tomorrow and need to get Rials to spend there so I'll be toting three currencies next week. As I've said before in these blogs,  Visa Carte du Credit is the ultimate equalizer of currencies. As is typical, my Visa debit card from my French bank costs $100, what did yours costs from your bank?
  On the other side, Wines, bread, and cheese are fabulous and we rarely pay over $10.00/bottle of wine. Now that's a bargain. Wonder if I can get it home for Christmas presents?