Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Expat Life Gets less Cushy

The cushy expat lifestyle is increasingly a thing of the past, The WSJ reports. Story is about corporations and executives who work overseas, but the mantra is much the same for foreign correspondents. Times are tough.

The WSJ says corporate cost-cutting has been eroding lavish packages -- once replete with premium pay and hefty allowances for maids, drivers and schooling -- for some time. Now the falling dollar and changes to the U.S. tax code have sharply eroded the lifestyles of executives and their families posted overseas. The perks of lore are now largely reserved for only the highest level executives or hardship postings like Kuwait and Pakistan.

The weak dollar is causing much of the pain. The dollar has dropped more than 25% against the euro since the end of 2002 and reached parity with the Canadian dollar for the first time in more than 30 years. It has lost almost half of its value against the Brazilian real since 2003.

J467 Students can read the full story on Blackboard, under heading course documents.

https://blackboard.ohiou.edu/

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