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"Americans not getting bang for buck in Europe"



 
 
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  #11  
Old February 7th, 2004, 09:40 AM
freeda
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Default "Americans not getting bang for buck in Europe"

I read an article on this in a UK broadsheet. Apperently, if you want a
Digital Camera, an iPod, and a laptop computer, you can save about

500-700
GBP, more than worth it since a return from London to NYC is under 200

GBP
and it is only a 7 hour flight.


And you have to be lucky at UK customs, too.


I didn't think luck came into it. If you only have a few items for personal
use, I was always under the impression the no import duty/VAT was payable.
Well personally I have never decared anything and I have never been
searched/questioned when returning to the UK. Perhaps someone with more
experience can clarify this..


  #12  
Old February 7th, 2004, 10:18 AM
Jeremy Henderson
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Default "Americans not getting bang for buck in Europe"

On 7/2/04 9:08 am, in article ,
"Sjoerd" wrote:


"freeda" schreef in bericht
...

I read an article on this in a UK broadsheet. Apperently, if you want a
Digital Camera, an iPod, and a laptop computer, you can save about 500-700
GBP, more than worth it since a return from London to NYC is under 200 GBP
and it is only a 7 hour flight.


Plus you can buy pepperoni. Oh yes, and Cheddar cheese.

And you have to be lucky at UK customs, too.


They can't even spot truckloads of Chinese cockle-fishers, so an iPod
shouldn't be a problem.

J;

  #13  
Old February 7th, 2004, 11:02 AM
Keith Anderson
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Default "Americans not getting bang for buck in Europe"

On Sat, 07 Feb 2004 10:18:21 +0100, Jeremy Henderson
wrote:

On 7/2/04 9:08 am, in article ,
"Sjoerd" wrote:


"freeda" schreef in bericht
...

I read an article on this in a UK broadsheet. Apperently, if you want a
Digital Camera, an iPod, and a laptop computer, you can save about 500-700
GBP, more than worth it since a return from London to NYC is under 200 GBP
and it is only a 7 hour flight.


Plus you can buy pepperoni. Oh yes, and Cheddar cheese.

And you have to be lucky at UK customs, too.


They can't even spot truckloads of Chinese cockle-fishers, so an iPod
shouldn't be a problem.


There are adverts everywhere about how HM Govt will chase benefit
fraudsters - but so far I have seen none about targetting corporate
tax fraud or gangs who smuggle in Chinese, Romanians etc, charging
them thousands of pounds, then enslaving them as per these poor sods
in Morecambe Bay.
  #14  
Old February 7th, 2004, 11:51 AM
nightjar
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Default "Americans not getting bang for buck in Europe"


"freeda" wrote in message
...
I read an article on this in a UK broadsheet. Apperently, if you want

a
Digital Camera, an iPod, and a laptop computer, you can save about

500-700
GBP, more than worth it since a return from London to NYC is under 200

GBP
and it is only a 7 hour flight.

And you have to be lucky at UK customs, too.


I didn't think luck came into it. If you only have a few items for

personal
use, I was always under the impression the no import duty/VAT was payable.


Up to a value of £145, that is true. Over that, you are liable to pay UK
import duty and VAT, but you should also be able to claim back any taxes you
paid in the USA when you export the goods.

Well personally I have never decared anything and I have never been
searched/questioned when returning to the UK.


You probably weren't giving off any of the signals that people do when they
know they shouldn't be smuggling stuff :-)

Colin Bignell


  #15  
Old February 7th, 2004, 05:13 PM
Olivers
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Default "Americans not getting bang for buck in Europe"

EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque) muttered....



Well, we enjoyed favorable exchange rates for a long, long time - when
the dollar keeps dropping in value, perhaps we should do something about
our trade deficits? (I admit my recent trip to Vienna cost me
considerably more - in US currency - than the one in 2000, but what can
you expect, with our current administration?)


Quick course in Economics, Ev, the part you must have missed during your
last and lamented miseducation.....

For trade deficits, a dropping dollar makes US goods cheaper and cheaper
abroad, quickly increasing US exports (although we now produce less
exportable goods, and have not been able to produce cars attractive to
foreign purchasers).

Meanwhile, the dropping dollar causes folks to quit buying foreign goods
which begin to cost more and more (works for everything but oil). Imports
drop, the trade deficit decreases, and the dollar strengthens.

Actually, the US dollar had become far over-valued as a number of foreign
economies had slowed/declined, and the current "adjustment" down represents
a reality bite for US travelers abraod, the dollar being worth closer to
what it ought to be. Sadly, for US consumers, one thing which would cause
the dollar to jump in value would be a quick increase in US interest rates
causing a flood of foreign investors to invest in US governmental and
commercial debt instruments. Immediately, US consumers would be paying more
for personal debt service and the interest-increase would shoe up in price
increases.

Currently, vehicles sales remain relatively high because the cost of credit
is so low. Even imports continue to sell, because their cost of production
is reflected in dollar values from months ago when their materials and
components were purchased, and the financing/debt costs to the US consumer
are the same whether he buys a foreign made auto or a domestic car (and
many "furrin" cars are assempled in the US (with many US comonents).

For decades, the US, with little competition from tiny postWWII foreign
economies essentially "fixed" the value of the US dollar, with the
USTreasury and banks ever able to buy and sell funds in amounts large
enough to stabilize and fluctuation overnight. While still the world's
largest economy (by any measure or standard), the US is no longer so
dominant that it can almost effortlessly keep the yen or the
pund/franc/mark and now Euro from going up (or even down).

So, while cheap dollars make your trip to Europe expensive, cheap dollars
actually stimulate production and employment in several large segments of
the US economy (but accomplish quirky side effects such as grave damage to
a fragile Mexican economy for which the two largest providers of funds are
money sent home by Mexicans, legal and illegal, working in the US (whose
dollars will no longer buy as much) and US tourism (declining as tickeys,
hotel rooms or meals go up). That's why Mexico, no matter the dollar's
movement, does everything possible to hold the peso in a stable
relationship to it.

The over=priced dollar of the later Clinton years wasa sure-fire
inescapable predictor of "things to come" to almost every international
economist (and the pages of dozens of economic publications, 1995-2000,
were filled with dire projections). Some folks simply didn't read (and
never have).

That's how currency traders make money. Most of them read.

TMO
  #16  
Old February 7th, 2004, 05:31 PM
Michael Gallagher
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Default "Americans not getting bang for buck in Europe"

On 6 Feb 2004 07:43:17 -0800, (Mike) wrote:

Americans not getting bang for buck in Europe


I'm a little reticent to blame all the tourist troubles Europe is
having on the weak dollar. On average, people plan their vacations
about six to nine months in advance, sometimes longer. So what
Americans were thinking about Europe earlier this year may be as
important as what the exchange rate is now.




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  #18  
Old February 7th, 2004, 05:44 PM
Sjoerd
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Default "Americans not getting bang for buck in Europe"


"Olivers" schreef in bericht
...
EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque) muttered....



Well, we enjoyed favorable exchange rates for a long, long time - when
the dollar keeps dropping in value, perhaps we should do something about
our trade deficits? (I admit my recent trip to Vienna cost me
considerably more - in US currency - than the one in 2000, but what can
you expect, with our current administration?)


Quick course in Economics, Ev, the part you must have missed during your
last and lamented miseducation.....

For trade deficits, a dropping dollar makes US goods cheaper and cheaper
abroad, quickly increasing US exports (although we now produce less
exportable goods, and have not been able to produce cars attractive to
foreign purchasers).

Meanwhile, the dropping dollar causes folks to quit buying foreign goods
which begin to cost more and more (works for everything but oil). Imports
drop, the trade deficit decreases, and the dollar strengthens.

Actually, the US dollar had become far over-valued as a number of foreign
economies had slowed/declined, and the current "adjustment" down

represents
a reality bite for US travelers abraod, the dollar being worth closer to
what it ought to be. Sadly, for US consumers, one thing which would cause
the dollar to jump in value would be a quick increase in US interest rates
causing a flood of foreign investors to invest in US governmental and
commercial debt instruments. Immediately, US consumers would be paying

more
for personal debt service and the interest-increase would shoe up in price
increases.

Currently, vehicles sales remain relatively high because the cost of

credit
is so low. Even imports continue to sell, because their cost of

production
is reflected in dollar values from months ago when their materials and
components were purchased, and the financing/debt costs to the US consumer
are the same whether he buys a foreign made auto or a domestic car (and
many "furrin" cars are assempled in the US (with many US comonents).

For decades, the US, with little competition from tiny postWWII foreign
economies essentially "fixed" the value of the US dollar, with the
USTreasury and banks ever able to buy and sell funds in amounts large
enough to stabilize and fluctuation overnight. While still the world's
largest economy (by any measure or standard), the US is no longer so
dominant that it can almost effortlessly keep the yen or the
pund/franc/mark and now Euro from going up (or even down).

So, while cheap dollars make your trip to Europe expensive, cheap dollars
actually stimulate production and employment in several large segments of
the US economy (but accomplish quirky side effects such as grave damage to
a fragile Mexican economy for which the two largest providers of funds are
money sent home by Mexicans, legal and illegal, working in the US (whose
dollars will no longer buy as much) and US tourism (declining as tickeys,
hotel rooms or meals go up). That's why Mexico, no matter the dollar's
movement, does everything possible to hold the peso in a stable
relationship to it.

The over=priced dollar of the later Clinton years wasa sure-fire
inescapable predictor of "things to come" to almost every international
economist (and the pages of dozens of economic publications, 1995-2000,
were filled with dire projections). Some folks simply didn't read (and
never have).

That's how currency traders make money. Most of them read.



You forget one important fact: many currencies of important trade partners
of the USA in Asia are officially or in practice linked to the US$. Changes
in the GBP or EUR value expressed in US$ do not have much impact on
bilateral trade between the USA and these very important trading partners in
Asia.

Sjoerd


  #19  
Old February 7th, 2004, 05:48 PM
PJ O'Donovan
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Default "Americans not getting bang for buck in Europe"

"EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)" wrote in message ...

perhaps we should do something about
our trade deficits? (I admit my recent trip to Vienna cost me
considerably more - in US currency - than the one in 2000,


but what can
you expect, with our current administration?)


Yeah, a good fuehrer would do *something* about normal cyclical
currency fluctuations and while he was at it he should do *something*
about tooth decay and hemorrhoids.

The oversimplifications and the simple minded limited perceptions here
are unbelievable.
  #20  
Old February 7th, 2004, 06:10 PM
Mxsmanic
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Default "Americans not getting bang for buck in Europe"

Sjoerd writes:

The number of Chinese visitors is also increasing rapidly.


Right now there are a great many Oriental tourists in Paris. Most of
them seem to be Chinese, or from a country where Chinese is spoken.
Traditionally the Japanese have been the most frequent visitors from the
Orient, but they are currently a minority from that part of the world in
Paris.

--
Transpose hotmail and mxsmanic in my e-mail address to reach me directly.
 




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