So what is it exactly you suggest we do? I mean, what's (partly) causing this problem, the invasion of Iraq, is a no-talk subject. You have a fiscal (tax) system geared toward rewarding abusive spending (consumerism: buying houses, cars, IRAs, etc.) and penalizing the people who like to save money, whom eventually help lower inflation and raise the value of the dollar. Bottom line is the system itself is breaking down. It has happened to other empires in history and it seems stupid to go throught he same... Since we know better.
Western Europeans, our leaders like it or not, are quick learners. Their leaders make progressive decisions, and although once in a while they show their ugly side when an Iluminatii (Hitler et al) comes up, they do know how to get back on their feet faster than you can say "get up". They've gotten their economies to be less reliant on foreign energy sources, and some of their countries, Iceland or Denmark, are now at a point in which they do not need oil to be run. European leaders have scored contract after contract of natural gas and we're at a point now in which natural gas (liquified natural gas, aka LNG,) the next oil (at least for the next 20 years,) is being negotiated, worldwide, in Euros. Our "leaders" (since they have no fucking idea how to do anything except sending our kids to their death) stubbornly insist in getting the oil leftovers, knowing that production has reached its peak and the price is going to go up to the point that the majority of countries will turn to LNG. In the process pissing everyone off and the world eventually reaching a boiling point. We can only hope that when we get there no Bushes come along. The thought of it makes me tremble.
Getting back to the subject at hand, the (relative) value of the Euro has gone up because people around the world view the currency of the EU as a stronger currency than the US dollar. Then again... Wouldn't you? I mean, with Bush in power, the Corporatocracy that has taken over, moving funds from the mid and lower classes to that insatiable 5% of the richest Americans (via deficits), who in turn send the money to their factories in China, Romania, Poland, Indonesia, etc (away from the sacrosant IRS;) and hence not allowing US corporations (except warmongering stuff of course, in that we're cutting-edge) to produce something we can sell to the rest of the world; what can you posibly do?
I have an idea: Not vote republican. If you vote republican, and you are not rich, write it down: YOU WILL GET IT UP THE ASS! And I apologize to all those who vote republican, but your party has been taken over by CEOs and pastors. Bottom line.
Cya.