Value of the Dollar Keeps Falling

This is great for exporters because basically they charge more in dollars for the same amount of goods or services as before. For example, I often work with international clients (Australia, UK, Canada) and with the value of the dollar falling, a client in say Australia could pay me the same amount in AUD as before but for me, this would be a higher value in USD. Alternatively, I can continue to charge the same price in USD and for international clients, it would seem like my prices are coming down so they are getting more value. Either way it’s generally a good thing for exporters and bad for importers, domestically speaking.

I took a high level international trade class during my time at Cornell and I did surprisingly well in that class despite thinking a lot of the stuff would go right over my head at the beginning of the semester. (I had to take the class to fulfill a requirement). I will attribute this to good teaching - which is less common than you think in today’s institutions of higher education (even at Ivy League schools). This is an example of a class that translated to real world value. Admittedly you probably don’t have to take an international trade class to figure out how a falling dollar is good for exporters but I wouldn’t have even thought about this if I hadn’t taken the class. And now I understand the economic reasons behind it - and knowledge is always better than ignorance. Overall I’d say the class was actually really interesting despite it being a lot of economics and mathematical formulas because we read about a lot of real world examples. The Game Theory was also very interesting. If it were just definitions and formulas, obviously it wouldn’t be that engaging.

Now I digress.. it’s ironic how my best subject in high school (ah yes, the carefree days of high school..) was Math and then in college my worst subject was also Math. The difference was my level of interest. I mean I just completely hated math class (and this really started senior year in HS due to senioritis). Nowadays I barely even use multiplication - I mean that’s what calculators are for. Like when I’m at the gas station, you’ll see me punching numbers into my cell phone.. 15 gallons x freaking $3.499 equals..

P.S. I know June has been a very prolific month of blogging so far. I’ve been working a LOT this month and I guess every time I take a break, I blog.