Quote from makloda:
The USD lost 41% against the EUR in the last 5 years in a pretty steady trend. Why all this whining right now and blaming Bernanke that he single handedly damaged the US purchasing power overnight?
If we're headed for a global recession and a global equity bear market - as some here think - then the USD will likely gain in value against the EUR like in previous bear markets as capital gets withdrawn from foreign equity investments and repatriated in the US. Also, let's not forget: The US historically was often the first to go into recessions and then the first to reemerge. And thanks to very flexible labor markets and little corporate regulation (compared e.g. to Europe) it usually came out stronger than before.
How often has the US economy been declared dead? How often has a "fundamental shift" in economic world power been declared, e.g. towards Japan in the 80s? So far, the US has always come out on top. Free markets can go a long way.