Reply #1: Hi progdonkey, say that's a nice nest egg which you have two options...

[whistle]

... 1) send me the a money order and I'll invest it for you or
2) contact a very honest broker or banker to give you the best advice on conversion timing to Euros or Duetch marks, because I believe that although the European Union is moving toward a single common currency, each country still has their own currency which may or may not be trading at par with the Euros.

However, the U.S. dollar is most definitely heading south against the Euro, so depending on how long you will be in Germany for your studies, it might be wise to convert soon. My sister and brother-in-law who live in Canada came to my daughter's wedding last month and have been staying with me for a little over six weeks. They just returned to Canada today. In the period they were with me they would have made 15 to 20 cents on their Canadian money had they just slapped everything on credit. But of course they were spending as they went along, but they also brought a minimum amount of U.S. cash with them to begin with converting periodically and bragging about the windfall they were making. Of course my grocery bill tripled during their stay with me (not a real problem though).

As for what Shrub is doing to the U.S. dollar, I think a lot of economists are just as baffled as the rest of us. Can you think of anything the Germans would want to buy from the U.S. that they just can't do without for another 6 to 12 months? I can't, so I think as long as the Germans keep producing great luxury automobiles and Bush keeps giving the wealthy in this country tax breaks, our trade balance will continue to be negative and our dollar value will keep dropping. The endless war concept is also a bad thing for the dollar, and of course Bush keeps hoping other countries will join into the self destruction idea, but so far, we remain a coalition of one. Is the ink on our money waterproof? It better be, because the dollar is being flushed down the toilet.