How foreign cash is beneficial for a country?
Let me ask you another question: if that person stayed at home and made a widget instead, would exporting that widget benefit his home country? There is no difference, economically, between the two situations. A foreign worker sending home remittances is no different from a local manufacturer exporting their products. Both are earning export dollars for themselves and their home countries. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Clearly, the answer is yes - this is a good thing or a bad thing but we cannot know which in isolation. However, in general, foreign worker remittances are overwhelmingly beneficial for the host (which gets work done that otherwise would not be done) and the source (which gets export income. With reference to your particular question about local inflation, a rise in exports causes appreciation in the exchange rate i.e. local currency becomes more expensive with respect to (in this case) the Euro. Appreciation in the exchange rate actually puts downward pressure on inflation. However, the absence of our worker from the local economy puts upward pressure on local wages and and hence inflation. Both of these effects are small and other factors will dominate them.
So if a country forces their savings onto another country, say the U.S., the U.S. would have to absorb those savings somehow. If there were enough productive investments available, then this would be a good thing. But if there aren't enough productive investments available but the savings are still forced upon the U.S. it would seem that it would inevitably lead to some kind of a debt bubble for the U.S. I can see that dollars are more useful than Yuan (after all, in my example, Russia may wish to buy from countries other than China).  What proportion of, say, international trade by Japan with countries other than the US is conducted in dollars? Taking into account your POV I would recommend mostly goods that will be harder to obtain, precious metals (not only gold) and forex (although the forex aproach depends on some other country not having troubles with it's own economy which in a world as interconnected as ours by internet and all the new technologies doesn't seem likely)  i highly recommend silver which is cheaper than gold and is stable enough in the long term Yes.  When the currency of a country appreciates, it benefits some groups and disadvantages others.  In particular, exporters suffer when a currency increases in value relative to other countries.  In a country like the US, where exporters are small relative to the economy, this isn't a big deal.  In germany, where exporters make up a big part of the economy, a currency increasing in value leads to large numbers of layoffs and other negative net effects to the economy. Assuming US,but the principles apply in many (not all) places: If the bills are legitimate and issued by the federal government, they're legal tender and you can spend or deposit them. Old bills, especially silver certificates,  may be worth more than their face value to collectors (or may not).  Bills issued by banks, by the confederate states, or something like that have only collector's value (which will vary depending on exactly what they are and their condition). The value of money from another country will depend on the issuing country and exchange rates, of course. There's nothing wrong with windfall cash. The IRS may ask some nosy questions about it to make sure you aren't trying to hide something, but if you aren't deliberately trying to cheat them or hide something illegal that's generally harmless at worst. "You are violating the Uncovered Interest Rate Parity.  If Country A has interest rate of 4% and Country B has interest rate of 1%, Country B's expected exchange rate must appreciate by 3% compared to spot. The ""persistent pressure to further depreciate"" doesn't magically occur by decree of the supreme leader. If there is room for risk free profit, the entire Country B would deposit their money at Country A, since Country A has higher interest rate and ""appreciates"" as you said. The entire Country A will also borrow their money at Country B.  The exception is Capital Control. Certain people are given the opportunity to get the risk free profit, and the others are prohibited from making those transactions, making UIP to not hold." This is more of an economics question than personal finance. That said, I already started writing an answer before I noticed, so here are a few points. I'll leave it open for others to expand the list. Advantages Disadvantages Advantages Disadvantages The flip-side to the argument that more users means more stability is that the impact of a strong economy (on the value of the currency) is diluted somewhat by all the other users. Indeed, if adopted by another country with similar or greater GDP, that economy could end up becoming the primary driver of the currency's value.  It may be harder to control counterfeiting. Perhaps not in the issuing country itself, but in foreign countries that do not adopt new bills as quickly. Assuming you are allowed to trade freely, you can use free labor to pull money into your economy from outside your borders.  This net influx of money will increase your overall wealth.   I has the double effect of allowing you to undercut any competitor and having none of your people spending their earnings outside your borders.  Because of this, it would be a mistake for anyone to enter into trade with you. When I traveled to Germany,  I found it was much better to get cash at ATMs and use credit cards.  The exchange rate was better than exchanging dollars for Euros at an exchange center.  Just make sure you have enough cash to get from the airport to whereever your are traveling.  The airport exchange rates were terrible. If you prefer the stock rather than cash, you might find it easier to take the cash, report it, and then buy the same stock from within your own country. Apart from some of the excellent things others say, you could borrow money in AUD and invest that in another currency (that's risky but interesting) if the AUD interest rate is low and the other countries interest rate is higher, you'll eventually win. Also, look at what John Paulson did in 2007, 2008... I wish I'd thought of that when I was in your position (predicting a housing crisis) Essentially imported goods from the country (in this case the US) that is improving against your local currency will become more expensive. For the most part, that is the only practical effect on you on an individual financial level. Well i'm not saying it will be terrible, i could have said this wrong but it might be terrible. Dollar is not the international currency just in oil but mostly everything. Different countries uses dollar to trade, this is one of the core reasons of US economy being the strongest. US should not be tolerant about this sort of stuff since if this trend continuous it could be disastrous. Thank God.  I mean, I like having some kind of spending power... But not at the expense of my taxes being used to bombs kids in countries who's leaders try to reject the dollar.  Unfortunately, the international banking cartels are invested in Yen and Rubbles, so they win and we all lose no matter what.  If only the people of all three nations were able to see past nationalism and devise a system that doesn't rely on competition for currency dominance.... The general idea is that if the statement wasn't true there would be an arbitrage opportunity.  You'll probably want to do the math yourself to believe me.  But theoretically you could borrow money in country A at their real interest rate, exchange it, then invest the money in the other country at Country B's interest rate.  Generating a profit without any risk.  There are a lot of assumptions that go along with the statement (like borrowing and lending have the same costs, but I'm sure that is assumed wherever you read that statement.)