Ailing Euro Seen as a Signal of Deeper Woes on Continent

It used to be easy to sum up the way European business executives viewed exchange rates: a strong dollar was good; a strong euro was bad.(...) “I haven’t heard of anybody who is sad about it,” said Ralph Wiechers, the chief economist of the German Engineering Federation, an industry group in Frankfurt that represents makers of machine tools and other capital goods.

But there is also a range of negative effects. The cost of oil and other raw materials priced in dollars is rising. Consumer prices could come under pressure because goods imported from outside Europe become more expensive in euro terms.

More important, there is a queasy feeling that the decline of the euro makes an uncomfortable statement about Europe’s chronic tendency to underperform the United States in economic growth.

And the move of the euro from being worth 80 cents to being worth $1.60 in just 7 years was a sign of what? Decline for US prospects, or woe for European economies? Whatever the euro rate is, it means doom for Europe. These stories write themselves, don't they?