FREE MARKET'S HOTTEST WOMAN SAYS NO TO US DOLLAR

So, you may recall my post from last week about how the dollar is dropping in value while barrels of oil are rising in value. I've also been blogging about our ever-weakening economy for what definitely seems like years now. Well, now, whether she realizes it or not, one of the most beautiful women in the world (according to the free market, anyway) is agreeing with me. The former face of Victoria's Secret (apparently she was fired for gaining weight when she quit smoking), Gisele Bundchen will no longer be accepting American dollars for pay. Here's a cutting from a November 6, 2007 article from the Seattle Timesthat details Bundchen's bumping the USD to the side of the road:

When Bündchen, 27, signed a contract in August to represent Pantene hair products for Procter & Gamble, she demanded payment in euros, according to Veja, Brazil's biggest weekly magazine.

She'll also get euros for the deal she reached with Dolce & Gabbana in Milan to promote the Italian designer's new fragrance, The One, Veja reported.

Bündchen earned $33 million in the year through June, Forbes reported in July.

"Contracts starting now are more attractive in euros, because we don't know what will happen to the dollar," Patricia Bündchen, the model's twin sister and manager in Brazil, said in September from São Paulo. She declined to discuss details of the arrangements last week.

Gisele Bundchen has a twin sister!?!?

Sorry...

Anyway, so this choice by Bundchen (and her twin sister!) to move from the USD makes perfect sense since I've been blogging about the dropping US dollar for a while now and over the past few days I've been contemplating doing the exact same thing as the beautiful Miss Bundchen. I have one guy I do work for who is based in Ireland and I joked about how he should pay me in UK pounds. He then, seriously, commented that I should look into getting a bank account online that is based in the UK Sterling (a cool way of referring to pounds). I'm still looking into it, but it was heartening to see that the planet's richest super model had the same idea. What cracks me up is the reaction she got from some people.

Fox News' Heather Nauert had this to say in a November 6, 2007 "article" at FoxNews.com:

Reason No. 853 to dislike supermodels: Not only are they vapid, self-important amazons, but it seems they are greedy, too.

Take the world's richest catwalker, Gisele Bundchen, perhaps best known for her Victoria's Secret work. She is worth an estimated $150 million and she's just 27 years old! According to Forbes, she raked in $33 million last year through fees and endorsements.

The Brazilian beauty has signed a contract with American company Procter & Gamble to endorse its Pantene line of hair care products. Here's the kicker: She is asking to be paid for her hard work in euros, not dollars.

According to Bloomberg, Gisele's sister and manager said that contracts are more attractive when they offer euros because the dollar's future is uncertain.

The dollar has declined 34 percent in the past 6 years and the euro is stronger. Economists predict that the dollar will continue to weaken. Smart move financially, say experts, but bad PR move, especially when she's working for an American company.

I'm all for people earning money, but here's what gets me: She is working for an American company selling an American product. She has at least one home in America (in New York). She is working here, yet she doesn't want to be paid in our currency.

HOLY CATS, that's hilarious!!

Does Ms. Nauert fault all those American businesses that have no headquarters in the US so they can avoid paying US taxes? What about the cruise lines that cater to Americans yet don't headquarter in the US so they can get around strict American laws that regulate cruise ships? HEY, HEATHER, WHAT ABOUT THE BOTTOM LINE?

She says she's "all for people earning money, but here's what gets me: She is working for an American company selling an American product." Yeah, so the fuck what? This is the planet Earth, lady--money is king. The only reason you're writing such an inflammatory piece is to get more people to read it so your company will make more money from the ads displayed on the same page as the articles. Funny, how your picture is also displayed prominently on the same page suggesting, quite overtly, that your own hotness just might have something to do with your salary and that you have a job in broadcasting at all.

Who's the shallow greedy cow, now? You bag on Bundchen and then turn around and do the exact same thing. Perhaps your just jealous? I can only theorize.

Of course, Bundchen isn't the only rich-as-fuck person bailing on the USD, check out what that first Seattle Times article I linked to had to say about other famous folks fleeing American cash:

Like billionaire investors Warren Buffett and Bill Gross, the Brazilian supermodel is on a growing list of rich people who have concluded the currency can only depreciate because Americans led by President Bush are living beyond their means.

...

"We've told all of our clients that if you only had one idea, one investment, it would be to buy an investment in a non-dollar currency. That should be on the top of the list," said Gross, the chief investment officer of Pacific Investment and manager of the world's biggest bond fund.

The dollar fell 0.8 percent last week and touched $1.4528 per euro, the weakest since the euro's debut in 1999. The dollar lost 2.8 percent last week to 93.47 Canadian cents and 1.8 percent to $2.09 per British pound.

BNP Paribas chief currency strategist Hans-Guenter Redeker, the most accurate foreign-exchange forecaster last quarter in a Bloomberg survey, said the dollar may drop to $1.50 per euro by year-end.

...

Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Buffett told reporters in South Korea last month that he is bearish on the U.S. currency.

"We still are negative on the dollar relative to most major currencies, so we bought stocks in companies that earn their money in other currencies," Buffett said Oct. 25.

Jim Rogers, a former partner of investor George Soros, said last month he's selling his house and all his possessions in the U.S. currency to buy China's yuan.

"The dollar is collapsing," Rogers said last week. "I'm moving to Asia because moving to Asia now is like moving to New York in 1907 or London in 1807. It's the wave of the future."

The dollar is falling as investors seek better returns outside the United States. Developing Asian nations including China and India will grow 9.8 percent this year, compared with 1.9 percent for the U.S., the International Monetary Fund said last month.

"The world has learned to live with a weak dollar," said Jay Bryson, a former Fed analyst who is a global economist at Wachovia, the fourth-largest U.S. bank. "It's not worried. It doesn't rely on the U.S. as much as it once did."

Looks like it really is time to jump ship, folks.

I wish I was wrong, but I haven't been in the past and the big boys who are supposed to be experts are now saying what I've been going on about for a while.

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