Currency free fall

I have to admit, this is starting to freak me out.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16143465

Morning Edition
November 9, 2007
Dollar's Woes Threaten Status
by Eleanor Beardsley

This week the U.S. dollar has hit an all time low against major world currencies, including the euro and the British pound.

The greenback's decline has been going on for two years. Some are predicting the dollar may soon lose its status as the world's leading investment currency.

There is such a lack of confidence in the U.S. dollar that the world's richest model, Brazilian Gisele Bundchen, says she will no longer accept payment in the currency. She says the euro is now her currency of choice.

And she is not alone.

Paris-based financial analyst Pierre Briancon says the world's major investors — including China, Russia and the Gulf states — are beginning to switch their reserves and assets out of dollars and into euros.

"Major holders of currency reserves would rather hold currencies that are likely to appreciate than the dollar when there's no end in sight in the slide of the dollar against the euro," Briancon says.

The dollar has depreciated 10 percent against major currencies in the last year.

America's current account and budget deficits, plus the recent subprime mortgage crisis, are fueling the dollar's free fall.

While a weak dollar makes U.S. products cheaper abroad, thus boosting U.S. exports, it also leads to a spiral of inflation and recession.