The Euro at $1.55

EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque) writes:

Perhaps one should define "Phoenix"? I had always believed the
allegations that Los Angeles was "too spread out" until I moved to
Arizona! There may be rail service in Phoenix itself, but I've lived
here for more than a year now, and have yet to find myself anywhere NEAR
"downtown" Phoenix!

Well, a 20-mile light rail system can only cover about 25% of the city in any
given direction. In contrast, a 7-mile system can span the entire city of
Paris proper--and Paris has 19 lines.

Dusty Furtile Morrocan writes:

By roughly how much are they expecting car usage to drop?

0.000000000048772%, once the system is fully broken in and at peak usage
hours.

From: Bert Hyman
Organization: Not so you'd notice
Newsgroups: rec.travel.europe
Date: 14 Mar 2008 16:59:02 GMT
Subject: The Euro at $1.55

(Hatunen) wrote in
:

On 14 Mar 2008 16:22:42 GMT, Bert Hyman wrote:

(Hatunen) wrote in
:

On Thu, 13 Mar 2008 15:24:53 -0700,
"EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)" wrote:



Mxsmanic wrote:
Hatunen writes:

Problem for whom?

Many financial organizations in Europe, and some EU
governemnts, think the euro has risen too far, too fast.

But the euro has not risen; the dollar has fallen. That's an
important distinction.

One I was also trying to make - but it fell on deaf ears.

Why is this distinction important, and how and to whom?

It's likely important to anyone who exchanges euros for anything
other than US dollars.

That's true of any shift in exchange rates between two
currencies.

Except that what's happening is more of a shift between one currency
and all the others.

What's happening to the exchange rate between euros and currencies
other than the US dollar?

Essential-- and extremely useful-- Web site for anyone wanting to monitor
currency fluctuations:

http://www.xe.com/ucc/.

Note that these are the current official rates of exchange, usually
available only on large-volume transactions done by banks and corporations.
The rates available to mere mortals like you and me will be slightly less
attractive, depending on where you buy your currencies (it really pays to
shop around even at home if you have the opportunity, let alone overseas).

The xe.com site does continual updates while the currency markets are open,
and since the Asian markets are the better part of of a day ahead of North
America, that means they're updating almost 'round the clock. On days when
the markets are volatile, you'll notice slight-- and sometimes not so
slight-- fluctuations every time you refresh the screen. If you're an
insomniac, it's also interesting to notice the changes through the night to
the North American currencies as the European markets kick in and then New
York opens a few hours later. Fascinating and even a bit scary sometimes. If
nothing else, you'll get an idea of just how much your local wechsel is
ripping you off.

I obsessively check the site every day for the rates on the Euro and pound
against the Canadian and US dollars, and the US dollar against the Canuck
buck. Masochistic of me, I know, but it's like passing a bad traffic
accident-- it's almost impossible to stop yourself from looking.
GMW

On the particular moment of Sat, 15 Mar 2008 01:09:36 +0100 in
relation to Mary's disappointingly immaculate rumpy pumpy, Mxsmanic
put forth:

Dusty Furtile Morrocan writes:

By roughly how much are they expecting car usage to drop?

0.000000000048772%, once the system is fully broken in and at peak usage
hours.

Did you round up or down the least significant digit?

Of course a simple light rail system won't have any great effect, but
it seems to be a popular choice for local governments everywhere (even
here in Genova), despite that they rarely bring much benefit. It would
be much cheaper to carve bicycle lanes of various roads, and would
probably be used more. Not the bicycles would be so great in the
furnace of Phoenix in summer.
--
---
DFM - http://www.deepfriedmars.com
---
--

I obsessively check the site every day for the rates on the Euro and pound
against the Canadian and US dollars, and the US dollar against the Canuck
buck. Masochistic of me, I know, but it's like passing a bad traffic
accident-- it's almost impossible to stop yourself from looking.
GMW

like watching 1 pound = 1 euro......then the UK can adopt the euro
sans probleme ;-)

Dusty Furtile Morrocan writes:

Did you round up or down the least significant digit?

I rounded up, motivated by my natural optimism.

Of course a simple light rail system won't have any great effect, but
it seems to be a popular choice for local governments everywhere (even
here in Genova), despite that they rarely bring much benefit. It would
be much cheaper to carve bicycle lanes of various roads, and would
probably be used more. Not the bicycles would be so great in the
furnace of Phoenix in summer.

The problem of cities like Phoenix is that they just aren't laid out to favor
any form of collective transportation. Their design assumes that everyone
will have a personal vehicle. Once this assumption takes root and guides the
development of the area for more than half a century, there isn't really any
way to change it.

One compromise would be to build mass transit in specific areas and encourage
development around it, so that you might eventually have a dense city center
or residential/business district that can profit from mass transit, with no
need for cars. But Phoenix doesn't really have any area suitable for that
experiment; even downtown areas are sparsely occupied compared to other
cities, and they additionally do not have the proper mix of business and
residential space.

If fuel problems ever progress to the point that driving individual vehicles
becomes truly not feasible or perhaps even impossible, cities like Phoenix and
Los Angeles may wither and die, except for one or two core areas that will
redevelop into Manhattan-style neighborhoods.

On 15 Mar, 13:35, Mxsmanic wrote:
Dusty Furtile Morrocan writes:
Did you round up or down the least significant digit?

I rounded up, motivated by my natural optimism.

Of course a simple light rail system won't have any great effect, but
it seems to be a popular choice for local governments everywhere (even
here in Genova), despite that they rarely bring much benefit. It would
be much cheaper to carve bicycle lanes of various roads, and would
probably be used more. Not the bicycles would be so great in the
furnace of Phoenix in summer.

The problem of cities like Phoenix is that they just aren't laid out to favor
any form of collective transportation. Their design assumes that everyone
will have a personal vehicle. Once this assumption takes root and guides the
development of the area for more than half a century, there isn't really any
way to change it.

One compromise would be to build mass transit in specific areas and encourage
development around it, so that you might eventually have a dense city center
or residential/business district that can profit from mass transit, with no
need for cars. But Phoenix doesn't really have any area suitable for that
experiment; even downtown areas are sparsely occupied compared to other
cities, and they additionally do not have the proper mix of business and
residential space.

If fuel problems ever progress to the point that driving individual vehicles
becomes truly not feasible or perhaps even impossible, cities like Phoenix and
Los Angeles may wither and die, except for one or two core areas that will
redevelop into Manhattan-style neighborhoods.

don't they have bicycles ?

On the particular moment of Sat, 15 Mar 2008 14:35:56 +0100 in
relation to Mary's disappointingly immaculate rumpy pumpy, Mxsmanic
put forth:

Dusty Furtile Morrocan writes:

Did you round up or down the least significant digit?

I rounded up, motivated by my natural optimism.

I feel better since I gave up hope.

Of course a simple light rail system won't have any great effect, but
it seems to be a popular choice for local governments everywhere (even
here in Genova), despite that they rarely bring much benefit. It would
be much cheaper to carve bicycle lanes of various roads, and would
probably be used more. Not the bicycles would be so great in the
furnace of Phoenix in summer.

The problem of cities like Phoenix is that they just aren't laid out to favor
any form of collective transportation. Their design assumes that everyone
will have a personal vehicle. Once this assumption takes root and guides the
development of the area for more than half a century, there isn't really any
way to change it.

Much of the USA has been built around the assumption that cars will be
available to all forever. That demand is enormous, and unless the
USA's middle classes are going to be decimated, a way will have to
found to maintain this mode of transport.
--
---
DFM - http://www.deepfriedmars.com
---
--

In article , Dusty Furtile
Morrocan says...

Much of the USA has been built around the assumption that cars will be
available to all forever. That demand is enormous, and unless the
USA's middle classes are going to be decimated, a way will have to
found to maintain this mode of transport.

It's just a matter of finding a cheap and clean source of energy
(perhaps fusion reactors?). Then switch to electrical cars and the
problem of individual transportation is solved.
--

Alfred Molon
http://www.molon.de - Photos of Asia, Africa and Europe

"Alfred Molon" kirjoitti
s.com...
In article , Dusty Furtile
Morrocan says...

Much of the USA has been built around the assumption that cars will be
available to all forever. That demand is enormous, and unless the
USA's middle classes are going to be decimated, a way will have to
found to maintain this mode of transport.

It's just a matter of finding a cheap and clean source of energy
(perhaps fusion reactors?). Then switch to electrical cars and the
problem of individual transportation is solved.
--

Very powerful and capacious batteries so that we can build cars around
electric engines which are a lot more efficient, simple and cheaper than
combustion engines.