I have previously admitted to being low on cash. How low, one might ask? Well, on Monday morning, I was $24 short of having enough cash to pay my mortgage, which is due on Saturday
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Oh, yes: the discrepancy between American attitudes toward currency conversion and European attitudes was quite apparent :)
It made me long for the nice little shop in Paris where they were all business, gave me a decent rate, and sent me off in about 30 seconds.
Of course, I could find a money changer just about anywhere there. In Columbus, OH, there's only one, and it's at the airport. And banks, as you see, aren't being positive about the exchange rate.
I had a military history professor who used to like saying, "Jimmy Carter was from Georgia, Josef Stalin was from Georgia. . . there's got to be some connection there!"
I think a lot of it has to do with our general Amerocentrism regarding currency, which can best be summed up in the statement, "Why would anyone want anything other than a dollar?"
Whereas I'm seriously thinking about a bank in Greece that had a very nice exchange rate and a solid interest rate for Euros. They offered a 12% interest rate for dollars and a 10% rate for Euros: that, alone, showed me the stability patterns in the currency.
When I was in Italy in 1990, everyone wanted dollars. The best exchange rate was had with random people in random places, rather than at real money-changing booths.
Of course, besides the stronger dollar then, that was in the pre-Euro days of the Lira. One Lira made a penny look good.
"Heck, our local currency isn't even the Euro, and you can still withdraw it from any relatively new bank machine. ;)"
:) :) A business trip I did about a year ago to Sweden followed by Switzerland reminded me that there are euro-less parts of Europe. Although the practical impace on my life is mainly that I can't conveniently get an espresso between flights at Zürich airport.
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It made me long for the nice little shop in Paris where they were all business, gave me a decent rate, and sent me off in about 30 seconds.
Of course, I could find a money changer just about anywhere there. In Columbus, OH, there's only one, and it's at the airport. And banks, as you see, aren't being positive about the exchange rate.
I suddenly miss Europe a lot more than before :)
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(The comment has been removed)
I think a lot of it has to do with our general Amerocentrism regarding currency, which can best be summed up in the statement, "Why would anyone want anything other than a dollar?"
Whereas I'm seriously thinking about a bank in Greece that had a very nice exchange rate and a solid interest rate for Euros. They offered a 12% interest rate for dollars and a 10% rate for Euros: that, alone, showed me the stability patterns in the currency.
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Of course, besides the stronger dollar then, that was in the pre-Euro days of the Lira. One Lira made a penny look good.
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Of course, I can't find the deal promised on the ATM slip on their site, but it's not the best designed site I've ever encountered.
Wish I still had the slip, but I gave it to ferrelux, who was just as keenly interested as you :)
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:) :) A business trip I did about a year ago to Sweden followed by Switzerland reminded me that there are euro-less parts of Europe. Although the practical impace on my life is mainly that I can't conveniently get an espresso between flights at Zürich airport.
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