The Canadian Dollar is also going to pass the US Dollar any day now. One of the main advantages of doing your startup outside of the United States is that you get to base your worth in a currency that isn't facing impending doom.
When the value of the US dollar keeps falling, it becomes more and more difficult for foreign companies to keep their prices low for the US customers.
If you're outside of the USA, it's much easier to keep your money in a foreign currency. You just go to the ATM and deposit the money instead of having to go out of your way to maintain a portfolio hedged against the collapse of the USD.
I think the peak of US civilization was the first bubble era. After that, George W Bush and his horrendous economic and imperialist policies combined with the worst Congress ever have further hastened the decline of America.
Our currency is worth half as much as it was in 1999! It's hard to notice for the rich, but for young people without money, life is getting harder. If you don't have an engineering degree or a CS degree+portfolio, there aren't any jobs without graduate education in something relevant. And good luck paying for graduate school when your net worth is already -$100,000.
Inflation is creeping up but it's hard to tell because the government doesn't publish M3 numbers anymore. I just don't see anything that can reverse this trend and I'd like to get out while I can. If I don't make a good amount of money soon, I'm afraid of being trapped in America instead of being able to move overseas and cheaply rebuy America later.
But the way you talk about the reality of the US economy sure paints a grim picture. I can only hope the country finds its place again in the new world order.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200507/fallows This is a really good piece of speculative fiction about the election of 2016... obviously it won't all come true, but American travel infrastructure assumes that every family owns one or more cars. At this point, it's clear that personal transportation is just unsustainable. $6/gallon gasoline is going to hit the average (poor) American very hard. Mobility is going to be severely reduced, especially as public transportation starts getting cut.
Let's take a look at this list for just one example...
#22: Merrill Lynch
it's ahead Pepsi and Sony and Nike. Huh?! That MAKES NO SENSE WHATSOEVER! Just safely ignore this list... their methodology is CRAP.
As far as RIM goes, I can only ask if it isn't more of a single product than a brand worth billions? I can't comment much as Blackberries aren't used in this corner of the world if they're even available. The local alternative (ie what people in the management want) must be the Nokia Communicator line of devices.
Merrill Lynch takes money and turns it into more money and is rather well known for doing so. It makes sense to me that there is more money in the financial business than in the shoe business.