Peso versus US dollar

I just noticed that the value of the dollar jumped up today.

$1 = 11.57 pesos. Haven't been following it but that doesn't look so good compared to a year ago.

Yeah but it looks great compared to a week ago.

1 CDN = 12.17 MX

Nice.

The $USD gained a whole 0.0013 Pesos today (over yesterday) to close @ 11.5759. Not exactly what I'd call a jump. A week ago it was 11.75, much better than today. Where are you getting your info Kip?

I thought it had gone under 11?

Had that been the case it would have been a jump in the value of the Peso, not the $US. Like I said, "What site are you looking at?"

David wrote:Had that been the case it would have been a jump in the value of the Peso, not the $US. Like I said, "What site are you looking at?"

It's not where she gets the info but what she does with the info she gets.

Folks that are not accustomed to dealing with exchange rates often get confused and miss the direction thing are moving or their absolute value. It boggles my mind but I'm sure it boggles theirs too.

Uh ...if I'm getting more pesos for my dollar....that is a jump in the value of the dollar..I think....

I love these nonsensical exchange rate debates. When we moved to Ajijic in 2001 we paid dollars for our new home so this was not an issue but in 2006, when we bought a second home in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, we paid pesos ´cause nobody no-how takes dollars in Chiapas generally speaking. Ain´´t gone tell yáll what we paid for that house but, just for the sake of furthering this discussion, let's say $2,000,000 Pesos.

If we had bought that house in Chiapas in 2001 when we would have received 8.9 Pesos to the buck, we would have paid about $225,000USD for that house but in 2006 we would have paid $174,000USD for that same house. When the peso reached about 15 to the dollar a while back, we would have paid about $133,000USD for that house. But, guess what; the peso did not shrink to 15 to the dollar in 2006 so the decline of what was once (in 2001) called "The Mighty Peso" did not meld in time with when we wanted to buy a home in Chiapas. That´s the way it is on Planet Earth and, I can tell you as an ex-international commercial bank lender, folks who own business concerns that market goods and services internationally, hedge againt currency fluctuations because they know they are in the business of selling zithers, not gambling on currency exchange movements - a skill at which they are generallly not adept.

By the way, I resisted the urge to convert a bunch of dollars to pesos when the peso hit 15 to the dollar because, for all I knew, that sumbitch was going to hit 18 to the dollar within a few months. Dawg is too stupid to gamble on something he fails to understand.

When I was a bank manager in the San Francisco Financial District for some two bit bank back in the late 70s and early 80's, customers, especially lawyer types for some reason, would come into my office and want to discuss the general trend in interest rates at a time when interest rates were shooting though the roof. These seemingly erudite discussions among fools seemed to be more prevalent in two bit banks than in larger, more sophisticated banks for which Dawg also worked but that is another story. I had no idea where interest rates were going but these discussions made for great entertainment over shots of single malt scotch and between rolls of liar´s dice at Dawg´s favorite Financial District watering holes where these discussions always concluded. As best I remember, we always reached definitive conclusions as to the direction of interest rates toward the ends of those discussions but none of us could ever later rememember the conclusions we had so adeptly drawn at the bar.

I am reminded of an old story. Many years ago we lived on Monterey Bay just north of Big Sur in California and many tourists drove the Big Sur coast from the central California coast to Carmel on Monterey Bay, a beautiful and dramatic drive but through an area prone to coastal fogs - especially in the mornings during the summer. The last gas station in those days between Hearst Castle and Carmel was in the tiny coastal town of Gordo, California. Dawg thinks that all Gordo consisted of was a Standard Oil gas station and a small eatery that was probably the inspiration for The Postman Always Rings Twice. Most tourists driving this magnificent coastline would leave some such place as Santa Barbara early in the morning and arrive in Gordo around 10:00AM or so much distressed about the often blinding, earth hugging coastal fog which prevented any sightseeing. Anyone who has ever lived for any serious amount of time on the central or northern California coasts knows that absolutely nobody knows for sure when the coastal fog will lift during the summer or even if it just might return forthwith after briefly lifting. The guy who owned the Standard Oil gas station in Gordo was famous for his remarks in response to the inevitable questions of tourists, especially from back east, who always inquired as to when the fog on the coastal route would lift. He was quoted as always telling them, "About 11:00AM." which was about the time the tourists would reach the most spectacular stretch of coastal cliffs. His philosophy was simple. For the next hour or two, those tourists would find comfort in the fact that the fog would lift by 11:00AM and if it didn´t, what the hell, by that time they could stop in the famous Nepenthe Bar in Big Sur and drown their sorrows in a cold cerveza. Who knows; maybe the fog would lift as they enjoyed that brew and there is no more magfificent view than from Nepenthe with a cold brew in hand. Maybe one more would do the trick.

By the way, that small, cheesy bank I worked for in those days was purportedly a minority (meaning in this case, African American) owned bank headquartered in Oakland that was actually owned by Kaiser Aluminum and Clorox Corporation, both Oakland based companies who bought up the unsubscribed stock when the organizers failed to raise enough captal to open. Because this was a "minority owned" bank, I had a pretty celebrated clientele but I was determined to bring the then super legislator Willy Brown´s San Francisco law firm account into the fold. At the time, consumer interest rates for, say automobile loans were hovering around 20%. I invited Senator Brown out to lunch in North Beach and, during that rather lengthy lunch, when appropriate and between interruptions by Senator Brown´s myriad supplicants, I inquired as to what I would have to do to have Mr. Brown move his law firm´s account to our bank. Well, said Senator Brown, I do need a new Porsche to drive back and forth to Sacramento, what do you think the interest rate would be for me on a new 100% car loan? Oh, said I, how does 5% sound. Landed that account. And you thought your banker loved you!

kipissippi wrote:Uh ...if I'm getting more pesos for my dollar....that is a jump in the value of the dollar..I think....

That's true, it's simply not the case today. We're getting fewer Pesos by the day.

David wrote:

kipissippi wrote:Uh ...if I'm getting more pesos for my dollar....that is a jump in the value of the dollar..I think....

That's true, it's simply not the case today. We're getting fewer Pesos by the day.

Because the dollar is worth sh*t everywhere.

I guess I'm still confused....if the dollar is getting stronger against the peso....why would it be worth shit?

kipissippi wrote:I guess I'm still confused....if the dollar is getting stronger against the peso....why would it be worth shit?

You need to look at a financial website, the Dollar is NOT getting stronger, it's getting weaker. BTW, I gave you the numbers yesterday.

johninajijic wrote:

David wrote:

kipissippi wrote:Uh ...if I'm getting more pesos for my dollar....that is a jump in the value of the dollar..I think....

That's true, it's simply not the case today. We're getting fewer Pesos by the day.

Because the dollar is worth sh*t everywhere.

Well, John, I, like you, am concerned about the value of the dollar vis-a-vis currencies both in Mexico and in Europe but the proof is in what I actually do with my liquid reserves such as they are. Because we live in Mexico with "inmigrado" status and are soon to become Mexican citizens and I am a U.S. citizen and my Wife is a French citizen, we could denominate our liquid reserves in U.S. dollars, Mexican pesos or Euros with equal ease in any of those currencies. We keep some decent cash reserves in Mexican pesos and have Euro denominated savings in France but the bulk of our savings/investments are and always will be denominated in U.S. dollars and held in the United States. We might think differently if we were fabulously wealthy and kept cash reserves and investments in tax havens the world over but for middle class folks with limited alternatives and shouldering normal U.S. tax burdens, the dollar is the only repository of our wealth, such as it is, that makes sense.

Dawg has no particular love for the schizophrenic hellhole the United States has become of late but I´ll keep my melons in that refrigerator any day versus Mexico or France.

All I'm referring to is dollar to peso.

kipissippi wrote:All I'm referring to is dollar to peso.

I hear you, but apparently you don't hear me, the dollar is getting WEAKER vs. the Peso everyday. We're getting FEWER Pesos everyday.

Then I misread my conversion table a few days ago because I thought it had gone under 11. Right now the one on my computer says 11.575

It has not gone under 11 since April 2007. Go you Yahoo Finance and you can view the history. It was 12.2 on March 16 and the Peso has been gaining strength ever since, i.e. the Dollar is dropping.