Beggars CAN be choosers...

...and when they choose to refuse the dollar, you know we're in trouble:

Erica Nevins's faith in the dollar was shaken the moment she pressed a crumpled $1 bill into the hand of a little girl begging for money on the streets of Marrakesh, Morocco.

"I don't want this. This is nothing," Nevins recalled as the scornful reaction of the child, who demanded more.

Since then Nevins, an American fashion executive, has replayed that moment over and over in her head as she confronted the harsh reality of living on a dollar income in Paris and then moving to pricey London. "The absurdity of this is that it's so true," she said. "A dollar really means nothing. It's scary."

With plunging exchange rates, American expatriates whose pensions or incomes are paid in dollars are scrimping...

The zeitgeist is best summed up by the rapper Jay-Z who last month released a music video of himself cruising the streets of New York in a shiny Bentley with a flash wad of €500 notes.

Even U.S. government employees are feeling the pinch in countries with strong currencies like the Czech Republic, where the koruna has gained 17 percent this year against the dollar.

(HT: Pro Libertate)