Mo Money Mo Money

Great news: I got a 25 percent raise this week! Okay, not really—it's just that the crazy fluctuations of the currency market have brought the dollar up 25 percent against the Swedish krona. I took a pretty big financial hit when I moved to Sweden, because at the time, the krona was 40 percent higher than the dollar. In other words, if you were making $100,000 a year in the U.S., your salary would be worth just $60,000 in Sweden, where, incidentally, the price of everything you buy is also 40 percent higher. Ouch.

Anyway, so I got a little boost, at least temporarily. Before I went to Bali, it was 6 kronor to the dollar, and as of yesterday, it was 8. However, this morning it had already slid to 7.7, so this small victory might be short-lived.

There was an interesting interview on CNN International this morning with a European talking head who was trying to explain why the dollar is doing so well in the currency market despite the stock market crashes. Basically, there's a herd effect going on right now. People started buying the dollar because they thought it would be safer than stocks, and that boosted the value a little. Then others were encouraged, so they bought it, too, and it bumped up even more.

Meanwhile, unfortunately, other global currencies are tanking horribly (though Sweden seems to be doing fine). I'm not sure how much the U.S. news is covering this, but Iceland in particular has gotten creamed. Their currency now carries only 25 percent of its former value. In fact, the nation is bankrupt, which is insane considering just a few months ago it was still extremely expensive to travel there. All the world currencies are pretty volatile right now, especially those in emerging markets, which are swinging up and down wildly (see Korea, Brazil and Hungary). I've never taken that much interest in economics in the past, but it's really fascinating to observe what's going on right now. I guess it's a good time to be a young person with no real assets. We haven't got anything to lose, as they say, and it's definitely a buyer's market.