The Collapse of the Almighty Dollar?

I recently read an interesting article about how the most currently famous model in the world, Gisele Bunchen, is demanding to be paid only in any denomination of currency that is not US dollars.

Used to be that the US dollar held a strong place compared to other foreign currencies, but this is apparently not the case any more, and is perhaps a signal that our floundering economy is not near being on the mend, thanks to a downer of a housing and mortgage market, the war in Iraq, and other factors that typically don’t bode well for the US economy.

The US dollar used to be one of the most desired forms of currency. Heck, I remember going to Canada when I was a kid and the exchange rate for the US dollar was almost double what the Canadian form of currency was worth. It was pretty cool to pay $5 for something in US money and get almost that back in change! Seemed like your money stretched a lot further that way, but today that’s not the case.

Another problem that was cited for the decline in worth of the dollar was also tied to the mortgage/housing crisis, and that is the fact that Americans are spending above and beyond their means. This is the precise reason that is being eyeballed and hypothesized for the housing situation, since many people are buying “mini mansions” without really knowing what they’re getting into.

The subsequent outcome is a domino effect that trickles down to creditors who were admittedly a little too eager to extend credit without really accurately assessing these people’s income to debt ratios and their ability to comfortabely pay home mortgages. Hence, the mortgage emergency is a piece of the US dollar’s falling value “problem pie”.