I didn't realise that the economy Down Under is standing on shaky ground at present.

Add to that Japan moving out of Australian bonds and into European ones coupled with a general outlook of the AUD heading south, and things don't look so bright in terms of Australian tourists enjoying a strong Dollar in the times ahead.

This also makes the AUD more susceptible to bad news abroad, one only has to look at what happened in mid 2008 to see what an impact global issues have on the Aussie Dollar. At the time the Australian economy was doing well, the banking sector was deemed to be one of the most solid ones in the world, and yet the currency went into complete freefall, going from the high 90's to the low 60's.

The AUD fall actually helped avoid recession.

Yup, the very way the AUD behaves when faced with trouble (home or abroad) actually helps the economy.

The Japanese Yen does the opposite, when there's trouble and even Japan is knee deep in 'you know what', the Yen soars as investors seek safety. Of course this ends up having a detrimental effect on the economy, which is why Japan recently took desperate measures to weaken it's currency.

Some will win,some will lose.If iron ore is $100 per tonne at parity then at a forex rate of 80 cents BHP have a 25% rise in profits (the winners).

I'll look forward to the crying of high petrol prices and oil companies making a fortune(the losers)

Gold tends to move in the opposite direction to the US dollar,partly because of production costs,there'll be some crying there.Depending how much they have at fixed prices and forward sales then margin calls on the companies could be made and they will close.So much leverage in the price of gold.The price could drop drastically if the short sellers move in.

As a westfield shareholder I'll look forward to larger dividends etc etc etc

Geordie downunder

The gold market has already plummeted months ago when things looked better for the greenback, gold having being one of the safest havens post GFC; now many are moving back to the greenback and this in turn has impacted on the AUS/US cross rate. If there is more confidence in the US and less confidence in China these both impact downwards on the Aussie dollar.