Minimum Tempo

The value of the American dollar abroad has declined over the past few years and another psychological threshold was crossed on Friday: the 100 yen mark. The dollar’s value continued to fall over the weekend to just under 96 yen, the lowest since September 1995. This is just the latest in a steady decline from a peak of about 124 yen in mid-June 2007 that has surely made importing stuff more financially difficult with a 20% increase in relative cost. In his weekly Anime Corner Store newsletter, Robert commented that the falling exchange rate might be one of the most overlooked factors in the Region 1 anime market and cause some licensors to add premiums onto existing and future contractual license and royalty payments since they want to be paid in yen.

On a personal note, I don’t care about the dollar-to-yen rate as much as dollar-to-euro since I would like to return to the continent and visit Ireland among other countries. When I was studying abroad in Germany last August, getting native currency cost me about $1.35 per euro (plus 5-cent transaction fees) but with the euro valued at around $1.58, it looks like I might not be heading back there, or Europe in general, anytime soon. Japan might be more feasible but as I mentioned earlier, any advantages to be gained through exchange and general price differences have already likely already diminished.

This post is tagged currency, dollar, Exchange rate, Money, Yen

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