“Turn the lights off and look for another job” (US dollar in LatAm)

[Say_What]

<clips>

Ronald Brown, president of the Chilean Association of Exporters warned that if the exchange rate in Chile drops to 500 pesos to the US dollar then, “turn the lights off and look for another job”.

“No country can follow an exchange rate policy isolated from the rest of the economy and a general development strategy, and if the export industries are unable to grow then the rest of the country is condemned”, emphasized Mr. Brown.

Actually Chile has fallen victim of its own success: in just twelve months the Chilean currency has appreciated from 720 pesos to 600 pesos last week meaning that exporters have seen their costs in US dollars balloon and their income in pesos drop dramatically.

“We want a country with equal opportunities for everybody, non discriminatory where everybody has a fair chance of development and with an exchange rate at 600 pesos to the US dollar this becomes into a serious problem”.

http://www.falkland-malvinas.com/Detalle.asp?NUM=2959

[ender]

1. dollar devaluation...

is starting to get nasty in a hurry...

in fact, i think that the reserve board is going to up rates tomorrow...

[OrAnarch]

2. Nope

In an election scenerio, keepiugn the rate flat will do the least harm. Thats all they are thinking of, I hope, as that is what I am banking on. :)

[HereSince1628]

3. Well the hope was that these nations would also import

goods from the US (granted we've lost a lot of manufacturing, but we still do).

I don't see the Chilean peso strengthening as a necessarily bad thing for the US. Maybe they will buy some of the few things we still produce...like tanks, fighter planes, maybe a frigate or two?