How the mighty have fallen

[Lsbcal]

The weaker USD has an immediate impact for the US citizen who needs to convert his dollars into Swiss Francs or vice versa. But comparing a US citizen spending his dollars in the US and a Swiss citizen spending his francs in Switzerland, the deep slide in the exchange rate between the USD and CHF does not seem to have had a profound impact on the relative standard of living in both countries. In fact, correcting for purchasing power, the US and Switzerland are still neck and neck when it comes to GDP per capita:

List of countries by GDP (PPP) per capita - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I'll let people smarter than me debate why that is.

I think I see what you are saying now. I'm always looking at the world from my US spending/investing point of view. If one is going whole hog into another country (full conversion of assets plus cash flows) then the above is something to keep in mind.

 

[bondi688]

Of course, a weaker dollar is good for any US worker who competes against foreign workers - at least in terms of getting a job. Most people who post here are either retired or have jobs that don't have a lot of foreign competition.

The US have been losing industrial, manufacturing and even some high tech jobs despite the weak dollar.

 

[dtbach]

The US have been losing industrial, manufacturing and even some high tech jobs despite the weak dollar.

That is starting to change though. With cheaper domestic energy, industries are starting to come back.