US Dollar hits a new record low...

[ArkadiosV2]

US Dollar hit a new record low against Euro today.

The ratio was 1Euros/1.413 USD at some point today before closing at 1/1.41

USD is expected to hit more low records in the enxt few days/weeks as it is rumoured that the US Central Bank will reduce interest rate by 0.25%

Obviously the US is doing it on purpose, so why not take advantage of it?

I'd suggest to my European fellow members here (especially Greeks) to take advantage and buy their electronics/dvds/books online from the US since the Greek stores are literally robbing us.

Just a few examples:

Playstation 3: Greece: 600-650 Euros, USA: 600 USD = 360 Euros
Friends Box Set: Greece: 300+ Euros, USA: 160 USD = 115 Euros
IPod 80GB: Greece: 440Euros, USA: 250 USD = 180 Euros
Sony Vaio VGN-N31Z/W: Greece: 1000 Euros, USA: 800 USD = 570 Euros
Nikon D40 + 18-55mm Lens: Greece: 550 Euros, USA: 500 USD = 360 Euros

I think the prices speak for themselves.

[kestas]

I think the prices speak for themselves.

import taxes and shiping costs almost render price differences irrelevant. pluss there are warranty issues.. although it's clear as a day that buying something (anything, actually) two times cheaper (sometimes even three times as I've noticed with certain fishing gear for example) in US than in EU is easy nowadays. sadly all those difficulties importing
btw, Amazon would not ship anything apart from music, movies and books to Greece anyways. try going to ebay, etc.

edit: now <almost wrote Philip> below is right, imho!

[woma]

Great situation for a teams which are building their roster around US players .

[ArkadiosV2]

import taxes and shiping costs almost render price differences irrelevant. pluss there are warranty issues.. although it's clear as a day that buying something (anything, actually) two times cheaper (sometimes even three times as I've noticed with certain fishing gear for example) in US than in EU is easy nowadays. sadly all those difficulties importing
btw, Amazon would not ship anything apart from music, movies and books to Greece anyways. try going to ebay, etc.

edit: now <almost wrote Philip> below is right, imho!

From what i know shipping expenses are rarely over 20-30 Euros. Warranties cover all major brands all over the world. If you present it of course. (The warranty).

There are more sites that amazon, but if you can't order from amazon.com you can do it from amazon.co.uk, i got mine order in 2 days from there.

Ebay would work too. Although i sometimes doubt if there is a catch in a $10 Laptop

[ArkadiosV2]

Great situation for a teams which are building their roster around US players .

You think we can order some US players online?

[Joško Poljak Fan]

Most often depreciation of $ was regulated in order to decrease US external debt which in big measure means US bonds held by China and east asia and to improve the US export/import rate with China and other countries in general. Chinese always kept the $ pace and depreciated Yuan as well, this time $ actually looses it's value towards Yuan.
It's strange since I didn't expect chinese to allow $ loosing it's value faster than their own currency, since China is loosing their export push with it and due to large ammount of US bonds in the hands of chinese economy, those bonds are also becoming less and less profitable. They might've gave up on $ and try to balance their reserves with €...
Unlike previous regulated depreciations, this one might actually mean some bigger crisis than solely real-estate one

From europe stand point strong € in the last few years might be a blow to large exporters that still manufacture their products in EU and make them even more convienced to move their production to China. But on the other hand european monetary union is finaly getting what they've wanted, euro becoming the worlds trading (and savings) currency not overshadowed anymore by swiss frank, japanese jen and catching up on US $ in attractiveness.

from slovenian stand point, we're an economy on our own, wall-street might collapse and our "sick to the fundations" stock exchange might have it's best trading day in whole year. Due to (so-far) relatively closed&isolated financial market our economy only gets weakened by such quakes to the extent our exporters in Germany, Austria and Italy feel it...


suddenly NBA contracts look less and less favourable to european ones, compared to 1 and a half year ago $ lost almost 20% of it's value towards euro and if this keeps on Stern will have to re-adjust the salary cup once more... So yeah, CSKA could pay Kirilenko, Barca could pay Gasol... but the problem still remains euro-bball doesn't create enough revenues... some clubs seem as if completely uninterested in doing so...

[ArkadiosV2]

So yeah, CSKA could pay Kirilenko, Barca could pay Gasol... but the problem still remains euro-bball doesn't create enough revenues... some clubs seem as if completely uninterested in doing so...

Great post man.

About the last sentence... they are not interested... because there is no such NEED for them. Panathinaikos is run by the Yannakopoulos brothers who see it purely as a hobby and don't mind losing money.

Same goes for Olympiakos Aggelopoulos brothers.

If they had run these teams as businesses they would be broke by now.

Of course it is not that healthy for a club to be so much depended on it's owners funds and appetite for glory. (For example Olympiakos of 1997-2006)

CSKA is run by the Russian Army, i mean Russian Army must be one of Europe's biggest exporters, they can pay Kirilenko's salary selling a MIG to Iran.

The only ones who are obviously interested in keeping a balanced sheet are Real Madrid, Barca, Unicaja, TAU and Maccabi who keep good marketing departments, sell many season tickets, have their own 'little salary cap' and get the most for their TV rights.

PS: Another fact which allows European contracts to be lucrative for BA players are the bonuses (car, house) and low taxes. (Unless you play in Sweden).

[kestas]

There are more sites that amazon, but if you can't order from amazon.com you can do it from amazon.co.uk, i got mine order in 2 days from there.

UK has some of the highest prices in Europe, so amazon.co.uk is not an alternative price-wise to US shops. unless it's discounted books we're talking about . not to mention amazon.co.uk still treats majority of central-eastern Europe (including 10 EU states if I'm not mistaken) as "Other states" and doesn't send us almost anything
ebay is almost the only hope here, imho, and very safe and solid now too (although I do hate PayPal). besides, ebay sellers often agree to write down bs like "Gift" or "Used parts" on a parcel, although if the post custom works well enough, they'll probably check and tax it anyways

[woma]

Great post man.

About the last sentence... they are not interested... because there is no such NEED for them. Panathinaikos is run by the Yannakopoulos brothers who see it purely as a hobby and don't mind losing money.

Same goes for Olympiakos Aggelopoulos brothers.

If they had run these teams as businesses they would be broke by now.

Of course it is not that healthy for a club to be so much depended on it's owners funds and appetite for glory. (For example Olympiakos of 1997-2006)

CSKA is run by the Russian Army, i mean Russian Army must be one of Europe's biggest exporters, they can pay Kirilenko's salary selling a MIG to Iran.

The only ones who are obviously interested in keeping a balanced sheet are Real Madrid, Barca, Unicaja, TAU and Maccabi who keep good marketing departments, sell many season tickets, have their own 'little salary cap' and get the most for their TV rights.

PS: Another fact which allows European contracts to be lucrative for BA players are the bonuses (car, house) and low taxes. (Unless you play in Sweden).

I understand that it sounds fun giving money for team like a hobby... but there's nothing better than running team as a business in a situation where this business can be profitable. In european bball both aspects doesn't exist (does anybody see any team being profitable, except maybe for FMP?), so NBA is the winner here.

Regarding taxes - Sweden or not, doesn't matter, since players usually are paid tax-free money from the clubs, and the clubs on their own are finding the way to pay player's taxes to IRS, using less or more creative ideas to achieve it.

[ArkadiosV2]

I got Friends Box Set from amazon.co.uk less than half the price it is in Greece, paid 1 Euro for delivery and got it in my door in 2 days.

Can't talk about other countries and why they do it...

eBay is just fine also.

[ArkadiosV2]

I understand that it sounds fun giving money for team like a hobby... but there's nothing better than running team as a business in a situation where this business can be profitable.

I agree. That's why i said it is not healthy, even dangerous, and there are some examples like Olympiakos.

But when the club you support has a sugar daddy then you can't think further in the future, you just enjoy the presents from him.

Who wouldn't be happy?

[JET007]

wow ps3 is cheap for you guys!!!
in rp its $1=P46
so its ps3 cost P27600 here...

[Phantim3dx]

nothing like a good war to jump start the overall economy, i hope we have another neocon subgroup of the GOP leading the whitehouse again. i wonder if china would mind if there buddy iran was a bit perked up

[warren99]

in rp its $1=P46.

no it is $1 = P45.
it can be $1 = P44 tomorrow or next week.