Damn you US spenders

I could not have a blog without commenting at least once on economics. Kelly and I have experienced firsthand the effects of varying currency conversion rates. This is much too simplistic, but basically the average US consumer has been spending more than he/she makes for the past couple of years (you know who you are). I'm sure most of you are aware that the US government has been basically spending more than its intake for decades. In essence this means that you and I are buying the 'extra' that we are not producing in the US from other countries, which also means that we are 'sending' alot of US dollars overseas to pay for these products and services. This makes the US dollar 'cheap' so foreign buyers want even more US dollars less and less (there is only so much they can do with it). That means that the US dollar buys less and less of foreign currencies. See http://www.x-rates.com/d/NZD/USD/graph120.html to see how badly the US/NZ dollar exchange rate has deteriorated over the past four months. It's even worse if you look at it from a year ago. So basically Kelly and I can buy less than we should be able to afford. Please remember this for future purchases if you think you may ever want to travel outside of US boundaries or even just buy foreign goods from within the US.