After this spring semester, I was looking forward to a relaxing European vacation this summer, but with the decline of the dollar, my hopes and dreams of going to London to try and make a Buckingham Palace guard smile have been crushed.

Like other students planning to take a European getaway, the current value of the dollar has made it seem simply impossible.

Even as we speak, the United States’ dollar is losing its value ever so rapidly, allowing other currencies, like the Euro, to succeed.

Some of the reasons our economy has been doing so poorly has been because of lowered interest rates, tax cuts and military spending to fund the war in Iraq. With a $3.1 trillion budget proposed last week by President George Bush for 2009, it is said the U.S. economy’s deficit will grow even larger.

Esmeralda Ramirez, a senior majoring in government and international relations, says her main concern with the weakening of the economy is its effects on other countries. Having studied abroad in Central and South America last year, Ramirez has seen the importance in the value of the dollar and how it has effected prices in other countries. “Within a week you could see prices change in produce, transportation and gas because of the value of the dollar,” she said.

Economics professor Kristin Van Gaasbeck explained that students can mainly feel the effects of the weakening economy if they travel abroad to countries where the currency has exceeded the value of the dollar. “Spending a dollar in the U.S. would be like spending $3 in Europe,” she said.

Van Gaasbeck also explained that the decrease in the dollar’s value is not all such a bad thing. “When your currency is weaker it tends to have a positive effect,” she said. The decrease in monetary value forces the need to import and export in order to produce profit.

As students, we have to deal with the heavy prices in the things we need such as books, housing, gas and food. But despite a weakening economy we can be lucky enough not to have to worry about paying more for the things we like – well, at least for now.

Psychology graduate student Angel Rodriguez said he isn’t too concerned about our weak economy. “Although the decline of the dollar is a reflection of our slowing economy, I am not very concerned about it. I would be concerned if I were traveling to Europe in the near future,” he said.

Most countries are unsure where the U.S. economy will go in the future and do not want to lose a great amount of American consumers. Even though the U.S. economy is weakening, companies abroad are trying to keep prices competitive so that consumers are still able to buy a PlayStation or Plasma television at an affordable price.