Last Week’s Dollar: Why the Big Jump?

In the past I have written about the US dollars tough battle against a downward spiral. In short, the UnitedState’s dollar is fighting an increasingly gargantuan federal deficit and the prospect of continued low interest rates neither of which bode well for the strength of the dollar.

With that said, what happened last week that caused the dollar to soar against the shekel? Friday, October 23rd, saw the dollar close at 3.6972 while a week later on Friday, October 30th, the dollar closed at 3.7545 a jump of 1.5% in only seven days!

Today’s US Dollar & How it Affects Your (Nonprofit’s) Budget

Summary of US Dollar’s Recent Activity

The peaks in the dollar/shekel exchange rate this past year and a half make me more nauseous that the merry-go-round at the local playground (and they really make me queasy). The dollar tanked and leveled out against the shekel at an 11-year low in late May of 2008, trading for 3.24. As if to prove itself, the dollar then proceeded to rise faster than analysts had predicted, peaking a little less than a year later in Mach of 2009 at 4.25. Since those glory days of March, the dollar has plummeted against all of the world’s currencies. Specifically, the last six months have seen the dollar drop against: the Pound, 7.2%; the Shekel, 8.9%; the Euro, 8.7%; and the Yen, 10.6%. With world markets (and charities financed by donations in US Dollars) hanging on the dollar’s every move, things are, once again, looking just a tad scary. Not monster-in-the-closet terrifying, mind you, but enough to make me bite my nails more often than I should.