Business English Practice: US Dollar Near Record Lows

Click on the linked picture above to go to a newsy.com video on the low value of the US dollar. You can also find the written transcript together with the video at [http://www.newsy.com/videos/u-s-dollar-reaches-three-year-low/]

SOME EXTRA BACKGROUND:  Despite periods where the value of the US dollar spiked in the early 1980s and also for the most part of a decade around the turn of this century when the US dollar surged; the value of the US dollar as measured by the US Dollar Index created in 1973 has mostly been in broad decline. Starting at an index value of 100 in 1973, the index reached record lows around the low 70s mark not long before the Great Financial Crisis in late 2008. The market uncertainty of the Financial Crisis caused the value of the US dollar to shoot up. As that crisis becomes more distant, the value of the US dollar once again is testing the record low 70s range of 2008.

The video points to US debt from the Government deficit for this weak currency situation. A low US dollar means most everything measured against the US dollar is very high in US dollar terms. The video mentions the price of oil.

Commodity prices slumped in late 2008; however as the USD continued to weaken after its late 2008 spike, the USD value of commodities also continued on their rise to new records, as indicated in this Yahoo Finance chart, by market indices for oil in blue, copper in green, silver in red, and gold in brown.

Oil has now climbed over the the $US 120 mark, triple the financial crisis low of $US 40 set in early 2009. It has not been at this level since 2008, the year it went to a historical high of over $US 140 (the period when the US dollar was also at a record low) prior to crashing during the Great Financial Crisis.

The issue is even more stark in the metals sector of the commodities market. Gold, silver and even the industrial mainstay, copper - having gotten over the Financial Crisis - have punched through 2008 levels and are at highs never before seen in modern history. Things valued higher in dollar terms - that is exactly what inflation is; the very last item mentioned in the video.

The London Metal Exchange, with over 400 years of history, is the major world
market for physical gold as well as other metal contracts such as contracts for copper. This
picture comes from a story on record copper prices from the Guardian newspaper.

The NYMEX (New York Mercantile Exchange - now part of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange
group) - from a Guardian picture - is the major market for oil trading, as well as a major
trading venue for gold, silver, copper and many other mineral related contracts.

Some notes on the language:

- deficit - This is a word commonly used for discussion of economics (but not as common in casual everyday conversation). It refers to a "lack" of something, and  in economics it often refers to a situation where the value of something is negative. Hence in this video, "trade deficit" and "national deficit" are used. "Budget deficit" is also a common term in economics. Please note that prepositions often found with the noun "deficit" include "in" and "of". For example: "There was a deficit of funds, which is why there was a deficit in our budget." The opposite of "deficit" is "surplus".

- ceiling - This word which commonly refers to the upper overhead surface of a room, can be used figuratively. Here it is used in the term "debt ceiling" - that is, an upper limit to debt which should not be breahced. Another example of the figurative use of the word people say: "There is a glass ceiling for the career path of women in this organization."  This means that there is no explicit ban against promoting women to the highest positions in the organization, but women are never placed higher than a certain level - such that the ceiling is real, but the ban is not made explicitly visible as if it were made of "glass".

- "turn around and say" - This is a useful phrase. Although it can simply mean to physically turn around and say something, it can also be used to criticize people for trying to say or do something which seems to go in the opposite direction of their previously stated position. For example, to paraphrase what was said in the video: "You can't vote to spend more money in the federal budget, then turn around and say you don't want to raise the federal debt ceiling."


Practice your business English by watching and listening to the video above. For more detailed study, you can read the written transcript at the link given above.

Don't be scared if there is a lot that you don't understand. As long as you learn a little something new, then that is valuable: learning bit by bit is natural learning. By watching and listening, you will also be more exposed to, and more familiar with, various sentence structures and other language techniques used by English speakers.

I'll be happy to receive questions and comments from English learners, and I'll try to answer your queries here about the language in this video. I look forward to your comments!

[A rare opportunity for you to speak, practice, chat and learn English especially for business, finance, law, international economies & trade at the webpage for Mastery English.]