Flooding Europe with American (Canadian) dollars

I think more than US/Canadian Dollars, it was a number of International Currencies. I always hesitate to try to predict currency markets, but in general if you look back, while there are certainly ups and downs, the short term variance tends not to be enough to justify hedging or purchasing far ahead to find a savings. As for the latest moves, if anything, they will be stabilizing, Even if action had not been taken, I am not sure that the USD and Canadian Dollar would have benefited, a collapse of the Euro pobably would have created issues with the dollars, bringing everybody down.

Elaine, It's going to be extremely difficult to predict the short term and long term exchange rates. The current financial issues are somewhat "volatile" and there are many factors that can influence how this plays out. According to the news tonight.... "The Bank of Canada, the European Central Bank, U.S. Federal Reserve, Bank of England, and the central banks in Japan and Switzerland pledged to cut the rate on what's known as "dollar swap lines." That's the amount of money that banks pay in order to get their hands on different currencies so they can then loan them out to customers." I don't completely understand the strategy, but this is supposed to help the situation in Europe. The markets seem to have rallied today as a result of this news. While we all CARE about the exchange rates, I tend to take the attitude that "they are what they are" and I basically have two choices when I travel - pay whatever the rates happen to be at that time OR don't travel. Cheers!

The only thing that will help the Euro at this point is some self-discipline on the government spending side (matter of fact that's also what the US dollar needs). Call me a cynic, but I don't think most of the Southern European countries have it in them. Eventually, Germany, China, Canada, etc. are going to tire of bailing them out and they will default on their sovereign debt. Whether there will still be a Eurozone after that and how it will be structured is anyone's guess.

Interesting article in the link below on the potential crash of the Euro. Sounds somewhat alarmist but what utlimately happens is anyone's guess. Suggestion in the article is to take some US dollars in $100 bills. I usually do this anyway but for future travels it is something to think about. http://blog.thetravelinsider.info/2011/11/the-death-of-the-euro-what-it-might-mean-for-travelers.html

It is too early to know. As long as we keep printing $$ to buy our debt we will not be in a good position with
respect to the exchange rate in many countries.