Chris Goodrich

Many business news sources have been reporting that the dollar has been gaining strength against other foreign currencies.  The dollar has gained about 5% against the euro and as much as 7% against the yen.  Although this will provide a long-run benefit, it may actually be detrimental to our economy in the short-run.

The academic definition of a recession is:  two or more consequitive quarters of negative growth in gross domestic product (GDP).

Look for a second at the equation that defines GDP: (foregive me for the simplified version here)

GDP = Consumption + Net Exports where Net Exports = Exports - Imports

The value of the dollar has a major influence on Net Exports.  When the dollar is weak, it attracts exports.  The weakness of the dollar means that foreign nations can purchase goods for much cheaper if they purchase them from the United States.

For example:  Say there is a widget that can be purchased in both Europe and the United States that costs 100 Euros and $125 United States Dollars.  The current exchange rate is 1 Euro for every $1.4691 United States Dollars.  This means that someone from Europe can purchase the product from the United States for about 85 Euros, a 15% savings.

Currently our economic growth is led by strong exports because of our weak dollar.  In the past year, we have seen very little growth in consumption, but higher levels of growth in net exports.

However, if the dollar strengthens, we are fronted with the possiblity of losing the only real economic growth we have left, which could end the debate over the United States recession of 2008.

Unless you have lived under a rock for the past year, you will be well aware that the U.S. economy has been under tremendous pressure.  The media and academics have been bantering about recession or no-recession, but does it matter?  There is an old saying that a wise man once told me about the difference between a depression and a recession.

“A recession is when your neighbor loses his job, a depression is when you lose yours.”

This statement could not be any more realistic with today’s markets and struggling economy.  Forget about the academic definition of recession and just look around and you will quickly notice that our economy is not what it was just one year ago.

What is the difference if we are in a recession or not?  Is our economy struggling?  If so, then let’s worry less about declaring the recession and worry more about fixing the recession.

There seems to be a disturbing trend that is occuring with Apple’s App-Store; name changes.

1. BoxOffice became Now Playing
2. PageOnce became iOnce
3. MPG became AccuFuel
   

Have the developers forgotten about the importance of branding?  The developers want as wide distribution of their application as possible, to either make money on app sales or to distribute ads.  Either way, you can’t build brand loyalty by changing the brand name.

Could this be the future of internet browsing?  A very futuristic, but realistic, possiblity of how user interaction on the internet may be.  After watching all 4 videos, I found it very interesting how politically correct they have attempted to be while creating these videos.  Adaptive Path used almost every ethnicity, age group, etc. in their videos.  It reminds me of the Toys ‘R Us catalogs I used to get when I was younger.

In the midst of trying to send an email today, I began to get errors from Gmail. I soon realized that Gmail was down and there is no way to access my emails, not even via imap.

It got me thinking (probably a very cliche discussion, but oh well) about how much I rely on the technology around me. Gone are the days of days of a paper calendar, and welcome are the days of iPhone UI beauty. Have I put too many of my eggs in one basket here? I rely so much on the internet to manage my day to day activities, that when it goes down I am lost as to how to communicate.

I guess I shall just go hibernate in my cave. That way I can be more productive when Gmail comes back online.