[Foundation-l] Relocation announcement

[Anthony]

On 9/22/07, Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net> wrote:
> Indeed.  The gross mismanagement of the U.S. economy by the Bush
> administration has a lot to do with this.  Recently the US$ has dropped
> against every major currency.  That makes it much cheaper to operate in
> the U.S. with foreign currency revenue.  As long as U.S. source
> donations remain bigger than all the others combined there will be less
> incentive to buy outside of the U.S.  Assuming that donations remain
> flat in the donor's currency the possibility is still there that
> non-U.S. donations converted to US$ could become bigger than U.S.
> donations.  This would not be because the fundraising was any better
> anywhere, but simply because other currencies have become worth more.
>
Your scenario is fairly unlikely though.  The US dollar is dropping
against other major currencies (just yesterday it became as worthless
as the Canadian dollar) because of the fear of inflation.  Inflation
is going to tend to cause donations made in US dollars to increase,
all other things being equal.

The US stock market (S&P 500), as measured in US dollars, is near an
all-time high.  If donations made in US dollars remain flat you guys
have some serious fundraising problems.

> As things stand, economics certainly favour retaining the headquarters
> in the U.S.

Or switching all donations and liquid assets to e-gold.  If you really
think the foundation should make decisions based on speculation as to
the state of the US dollar, it should start buying gold bars.