How Many Dongs for a Dollar?

...dollars are being swapped for dong in Vietnam’s vigorous black market.

Yeah - sometimes I can be a real child. Here we are with a potential monetary crisis in Asia and I'm thinking of ways to make some sort of 16 Candles or dick joke. I know it's serious - but come on - their currency is called a dong!

I know it's serious but you would think that investing in the banking or currency of a Communist country would seem like a huge risk in the first place. No matter how much progress toward a market-oriented economy is made in Vietnam – it’s still a Communist country. Plus - over 21% of the country’s exports go to the US (the largest export country) but a very small percentage of their imports come from the US (even less than the 4.2% of imports that come from Malaysia).

Vietnam has over 86 million people which puts the country at about 30% of the population of the US jammed into an area about the size of New Mexico. What’s interesting is that according to the CIA Handbook the migration rate is “-0.39 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2008 est.)” That means as bad as things are in Vietnam slightly more people are moving in than moving out. With a thriving black market for US dollars – I think you’ll see more Vietnamese in the US sending back money to the “old country”.

I don't pretend to be versed in monetary theory or Asian economic thought but I do know that for a long time I've been hearing people complain about how weak the US dollar has become. Now the US dollar is become strong against another nation's currency and it is considered a crisis? If the US dollar becomes stronger against the Canadian loonie - or any other currency - will that too be a crisis no matter the circumstance?

HT Instapundit