Thanks! That's good to know... I don't want to be a cynic.
However, when it comes to funding for particle physics in the US, I tend to lean in the direction of cynicism... or maybe just pessimism. These days, when I hear about an exciting new project, I pretty much assume that it won't get funded. This attitude comes largely from my time at Fermilab, where I watched project after project get cancelled. Right when I arrived at the lab, gyades was upset because an upgrade for his experiment, the D-Zero detector, had been cancelled, presumably to free up funds for a new project, called BTeV. A year and a half later, BTeV got killed, too. In the meantime, I watched a promising new -- and relatively inexpensive -- experiment called CKM bite the dust. Et cetera, et cetera, and so forth. So I don't have a lot of hope for the future of my field, at least in the country of my birth.
For those of us who live in the US, why would we care about the exchange rate? After all, we live in the US. Are the fluctuations of an international economic delusion likely to have anyy effect on my life?
A very good question, and one that I do not pretend to know all the nuances of the answer to it. Certainly basic fluctuations should not have an effect. I think that the 7% drop in the dollar is more than a fluctuation, though. For these effects, I would guess that, on a simple day-to-day level, a drop in the value of the dollar will not have an impact on your life unless you travel outside of the States. In the longer term, though, it still matters the the economy if your currency goes into the toilet.
For instance, a country with a falling currency may find that its export market will increase, as its cheaper currency makes its goods more affordable in over countries. However, the US is a huge importer, currently running record trade deficits, so I suspect that this will have little effect on that voerall picture. On the other side, a county with falling currency value will find it more expensive to import goods. This may have a stronger effect on the US economy, as the US is a tremendous importer. Everything says "Made in China" (or India, or Korea, or Taiwan, or Indonesia, or wherever the cheapest damn sweatshops are these days) now.
My guess would be that a dropping dollar's greatest effect would be to raise the cost of imports, thus slowing the economy as people buy less. HOWEVER, this is all the musing of a layperson with no actual training in economics. So I could be entirely wrong.
Honestly, the reason I've been looking at the dollar/pound exchange rate for the past two months is that I moved to England and it first mattered to me because I had to change money... and then, when I did not need to change anymore, I kept looking because I am a numbers geek!
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Thanks! That's good to know... I don't want to be a cynic.
However, when it comes to funding for particle physics in the US, I tend to lean in the direction of cynicism... or maybe just pessimism. These days, when I hear about an exciting new project, I pretty much assume that it won't get funded. This attitude comes largely from my time at Fermilab, where I watched project after project get cancelled. Right when I arrived at the lab,
For those of us who live in the US, why would we care about the exchange rate? After all, we live in the US. Are the fluctuations of an international economic delusion likely to have anyy effect on my life?
A very good question, and one that I do not pretend to know all the nuances of the answer to it. Certainly basic fluctuations should not have an effect. I think that the 7% drop in the dollar is more than a fluctuation, though. For these effects, I would guess that, on a simple day-to-day level, a drop in the value of the dollar will not have an impact on your life unless you travel outside of the States. In the longer term, though, it still matters the the economy if your currency goes into the toilet.
For instance, a country with a falling currency may find that its export market will increase, as its cheaper currency makes its goods more affordable in over countries. However, the US is a huge importer, currently running record trade deficits, so I suspect that this will have little effect on that voerall picture. On the other side, a county with falling currency value will find it more expensive to import goods. This may have a stronger effect on the US economy, as the US is a tremendous importer. Everything says "Made in China" (or India, or Korea, or Taiwan, or Indonesia, or wherever the cheapest damn sweatshops are these days) now.
My guess would be that a dropping dollar's greatest effect would be to raise the cost of imports, thus slowing the economy as people buy less. HOWEVER, this is all the musing of a layperson with no actual training in economics. So I could be entirely wrong.
Honestly, the reason I've been looking at the dollar/pound exchange rate for the past two months is that I moved to England and it first mattered to me because I had to change money... and then, when I did not need to change anymore, I kept looking because I am a numbers geek!