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Canadian Dollar Reaches Parity with US$
boxlight writes in to mark the occasion when the Canadian dollar hit parity with the US dollar for the first time in 31 years. The article notes that Canada has run a budget surplus in each of the last 10 years. "This is actually bad for the profits of Canadian corporations that sell their products to the US for US dollars (Canada sells far more to the US that the US sells to Canada); but it means us Canucks will get cheaper Macs as the Canadian prices get closer to US prices with every new release."
Anyone got a graph handy that shows how the two dollars reached parity?
It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be yourself no matter what they say
Answer: Change them to "American dollar jokes"
So I guess the original article wasn't in USA Today if there wasn't a graph.
Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
And I'll be saving the occasional Canadian quarter. Thanks George Bush.
Our economy is strong, and always growing. At least that's what the preznut keeps telling me.
Three jobs! Uniquely American, isn't it.
What with all the new American dollars flooding the market at the moment, is it any wonder that its value would sink considerably?
... and there is nothing wrong with this either IMV. The industry is very adaptive. It will adapt to this and we will be stronger from it.
Somehow that seems like little comfort for us Canadians that realize the impact this has overall on our economy. Anyone that isn't into business or economics up here gets excited about the CDN dollar being stronger because it translates into better cross border shopping for a very small minority, cheaper vacations, and some discounted consumer items like Macs. But take a look at how this impacts the country as a whole and we don't have much to celebrate as an exporting nation.
People assume that the dollar falling in value in relation to foreign currency is a bad thing. This is not necessarily the case. Here are some benefits:
* American products become cheaper to foreign markets. This helps with the trade imbalances we currently have.
* Foreign products become more expensive to American consumers, also helping with trade deficits.
* It discourages foreign workers from sneaking into the US. Getting $4.00 an hour is suddenly not so much compared to what they get paid in their home country.
I could go on, but you get the idea.
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
And just think: when the plans for the North American Union are finalized, we can add the power of the Peso to our combined economy, which will unite us all under the shadow of the Amero!
What is understood, need not be discussed.
I was just up there for a conference, and I stayed in the Royal Hotel. I hope this isn't all my fault.
-- http://www.criticalassets.com
Another way of looking at this is that the US dollar is in freefall against the Euro and other major currencies. The shift between the US and Canadian dollars reflects this new reality. That said, I suspect Forex traders are caught up in the euphoria of parity. The Canadian dollar might well dip significantly below $1 American again as the rush of breathless media attention dries up and currency traders take their profits and run. This certainly isn't good news for Canadian manufacturers - I run a little electronics company that sells 90% of our goods in the USA. We have raised some prices by as much as 30% over the past five years, just to maintain margins. However, our customers don't necessarily see it that way - they think we're getting greedy. To keep things from getting out of hand, we've moved some production to China and started to source North American components in the USA, rather than dealing with Canadian distributors. That's not good news for our economy.
... all the Slashdotters who were moving to Canada to escape their totalitarian state will be whining about how dear everything is up there now.
You did all move to Canada right?
${YEAR+1} is going to be the year of Linux on the desktop!
http://finance.yahoo.com/currency/convert?from=USD&to=CAD&amt=1&t=5y
Can the book publishers start to change their book prices, then? It made sense before when they priced them out relative to currency, but at this point, to spend $32 CDN versus $21 USD for the same book, well, as far as I'm concerned, Canadian book vendors are going to go out of business as I start to buy more from Amazon.com rather than Amazon.ca - and Amazon.com frequently offers free shipping.
In other news, Apple stock soared on the account that Canadians only spend their dollars on Macs!
Here you have a graph:
http://www.x-rates.com/d/USD/CAD/graph120.html
...or our culture may be destroyed.
They speak a different version of the english language (and even French) and we let their trucks on our roads.
We allow their rampant bacon and beer imports despite their higher labor and environmental standards.
Their people are infuriatingly polite and respectful and I think they may be benefiting from global warming.
I fear we are building our wall on the wrong border.
Whose economy tanked? Japan's.
The dollar has always been overvalued. Yet the doom and gloom isn't for the US when the dollar's value comes down, its usually for the other side. Usually its the other side who does the majority of exporting. Exporters to the US will take it on the chin.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Sorry to break it up to canadians, but as a european, I still haven't seen computer prices reflect the 1:1.4 ratio between the us$ and the euro, nearly all prices are translated 1 us$ : 1 euro, and it really sucks.
Meanwhile, for instance, a Honda Goldwing is US$20'000 and CAD$30'000, same thing for almost all cars, especially sports car like the WRX STi or others...
It's time we all go shopping in USA, I live in Montréal so I am 45 minutes from NY state and often go to Plattsburgh or even Burlington in VT, just to buy stuff sometimes 60% cheaper than here.
"Science will win because it works." - Stephen Hawking
it wont be long until the US Dollar reaches parity with the Mexican peso...
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
Various establishments (hotels, restaurants, etc) have been taking CAD at par for many years, although most of them stopped doing so once 1 CAD dropped below 0.75 USD (and there have been times in the past 10-12 years where it was as long as 0.59 USD/CAD. The only difference now is that soon those establishments that take CAD at par will start making money from the forex conversion instead of losing it... Also, here in Minnesota, Canadian coins have always been easy to spend as if they were US coins...
Meanwhile, while I sit in Europe trying to irk my way through grad school living off of dollars I saved while I was in the army(and a part-time job doing IT stuff for a small business), I watch their value and my immediate standard of living drop.
For everybody on a fixed income, including retirees and people like me, this sucks. Seriously, parity with the CAD? No, this is not a good thing.
As for the idea that discouraging foreign workers is a good thing, might I ask in what universe you live in? Do you actually want to pay 25 bucks for a meal in a cheapish restaurant? That is what will happen if the immigrant labor leaves.
weirdest thing I ever saw: scientology advertising on slashdot.
That right, bond-holding suckers, we'll be paying back your 9 trillion dollars, just as soon as the dollar is worth so little that we can afford to do so. Crisis averted!
Currencies are adjusting to the prospect of a U.S. economic decline because of its non-competitiveness from the LACK of
health care costs externalization through universal health care.
I find it funny how it is always put "the Euro rsing against the dollar" or "the Canadian dollar rises against the US dollar" when the truth is the US dollar is in freefall, loosing value hand over fist. I wonder how long before the Peso overtakes us?
Karma Whoring for Fun and Profit.
to make the statement that the US Dollar has sunk to a new low?
Hope is the currency of fools
i wonder if the vending machines will start excepting them now.. always annoying when you think you have enough change and one of the damn things slips in........
'...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
It isn't necessarily bad for Canadian corporations. When something like this happens, it changes things. Canadian companies now get less money for final goods and services provided to Americans because of the exchange rate. BUT, Canadian companies can get intermediate things for cheaper. So, let's say that Bombardier (a Canadian train/plane manufacturer) buys components (like Aluminum) from the US. They get that cheaper. Then they sell that plane to the US which they earn less money for. That comes out as a wash. It really just shifts income from those who export to those who import. But in the long run, it doesn't even change that. As the demand for American goods in Canada rises, the price level of American goods will rise and along with it the currency. Things in economics tend toward equilibrium in the long run.
to have a parachute built in. If we still had a $1000 bill, it would need retro-rockets.
"To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
Imagine the reduction in social strife that will come the day that all the world's currencies are of equal value.
A work that expires before its copyright never enters the public domain and thus enjoys eternal copyright protection.
I can't understand why our dollar went from 62 cents
to parity (with me losing my good paying manufacturing
sector job) without any real fundamental changes in
the economy, or for that matter, the cost of things.
But then again, when you think of a "floating currency"
that doesn't make a lot of sense either.
So what, it's worth what people think it is? It's worth
one dollar U.S. because people are willing to pay that
much?
I do know one thing, every time it goes up or down,
SOMEBODY makes money. That's all I know.
I grilled my local independent bookseller on this. She blamed the publishers, which are all in the U.S.
Complain about it here: http://www.competitionbureau.gc.ca/
I was in Ontario and Quebec last month, and though the official rate at the time was about 1 CAD = .94 USD, if you used US cash the vendors/businesses would treat it as 1 to 1, no change. But I noticed on the way home that the tollbooths in New York state had signs stating that Canadian currency would be treated as 80 percent of a dollar!
And by the way, I'd consider moving there, even given the currency parity.
We live in Toronto, my parents need a car and now I think they should go to the US and get one there. The interest rates there are very low, 1 our dollar can buy 1 dollar US and US car prices were always cheaper anyway. Now it looks we should buy everything in the States instead. Little headache on the bordre = probably 10-15K saved.
You can't handle the truth.
For me, I keep track of all the various currencies and commodities, and plot my own charts based on comparing two currencies in what they can buy in a given commodity. My favorite 4 commodities are gold (1 ounce), silver (20 ounce), oil (1 barrel) and a barrel of goods I created.
Every currency, over time, is being inflated via credit expansion or money expansion. This inflation of new currency or credit causes prices to go up in various markets. The graphics I talk about above show the destruction of money by the various scheming central banks. Some of my charts also recalculate currencies based on the daily trade ratio, so you can actually see when currencies trade at par, and the commodity graphs show all currencies falling moreso in the last 3 years.
Would love to get an early start on xmas shopping but alot of places won't ship to Canada -- amazon.com does, and I think bestbuy.com does too, but I can't think of anymore. Anyone have a list of sites or directory of sites that ship/sell to Canada?
body massage!
As an Albertan in the middle of Canada's oil country one statistic with regards to the Loonie is how much of our provincial Gov't loses in royalties for a given rise in the Canadian dollar. It is estimated that for every One Cent increase, there is a 100 million decrease in royalties/revenue at the provincial level. Now Alberta faces the Oil Industry to claw back some of that money - a potentially dramatic change in royalty structures - that has CEO's of major oil companies fuming mad that we intend to cut into their bottom line. http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2007/09/19/royalty-reaxn.html
Even in Southern MI, Canadian change consitutes about 25% of the change in circulation. I expect to it all disappear if the dollar sinks any lower.
Sure, they're cheaper... as long as we don't buy them in Canada! I checked out the price difference on the Canadian Apple Store vs. the U.S. alternative the other day. The prices on the Canadian store were about 15% higher, after taking the exchange rate into account.
Consequentially, Apple Canada isn't going to see a dime of my money until they rectify their rectal-cranial inversion, and lower their prices. If they haven't done it by next month, I'll still be picking up my new 8 core Mac Pro, but I'll be doing it in Seattle!
Not at all !
Goods are allways at higher price in Canada.
Look at cars, even if no border tax exist for foreing company to import car in Canada (or in the USA) all car have better price and better warrenty in the USA than in Canada. Go to jeep.ca or toyota.ca and try to build a car and then compare it with jeep.com ou toyota.com for a 30k car in the USA you will buy 36K in Canada (plus taxes).
Samething for everything from Apple, you got 10% to 30% of foreing charge when you buy in Canada.
And don't try to buy it at Amazon.com, they don't send thing like that in Canada, you must buy at Amazon.ca.
Try this Ipod Nano at future shop 219$ (or BestBuy.ca)
Same Ipod nano at BestBuy.com at 149$
Even if the Can$ is higger thant the US$ price a cheapper in USA, That's before taxes, and the overall business etablishment price is lower in Canada.
Ceci n'est pas une Signature !
There was a time when, whenever I got an american coin in my change, I would say (only half-seriously) "Woohoo! I'm rich!". Now it'll be more like "Hey! Are you trying to screw me?"
After 3 days without programming, life becomes meaningless
- The Tao of Programming
Vending machines have always excepted them ;)
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
believe that Bush is running your country into the ground?
Anybody else think it's ironic that at a time when people are resisting government run health care because of the expense, the Canadians are running a budget surplus — despite have government run health care?
Ah come on! It is such a meme on sites like this to say "fuck it, I'm off to Canada" in humans rights related discussions. Thought it would be funny to pretend they really did.
${YEAR+1} is going to be the year of Linux on the desktop!
Would how the Euro has affected the European marketplace/ community be a precursor?
Our beloved, once great country (the USA) is in serious financial trouble. China has been acquiring dollars for awhile now with the trade surplus they've had with the USA for some time. Usually this isn't a problem as the trading country reinvests these dollars into the USA's markets and businesses. This is good for the USA as you can imagine. In theory it should also raise the value of the trading countries currency because their GNP should be higher. But imagine the trading country keeps its currency artificially low so it can export things cheaper and cheaper and acquire more money (dollars) faster to build more and more factories, etc. It does this by sending the dollars back to the USA in the form of treasury bonds.
Now imagine the USA expected a surplus and made a huge tax cut because of it. And then the surplus never happened so a huge debt was created. Someone has to pay this debt off. Imagine if the people paying this debt off are the ones you are running a trade deficit with. Hence, our trading partner buys treasury bonds at an alarming rate.
This works great for the USA short term because we get cheap goods from China (because their currency is still of low value because they invest their profits right away) and save a little bit on taxes. Well, a lot if you're rich.
But as you're probably starting to realize, this can't go on forever. Eventually it's going to collapse. At some point the debts will have to be paid and this will be done by raising taxes and INTEREST RATES. So now not only is the dollar worth less because everyone has a ton of them around the world, but it costs a ton to borrow them so no one wants them.
All of a sudden the value of your house is half of what it was, the value of your paycheck is half, etc. A domino effect is created because no one can afford to borrow money any longer. American business doesn't take risks, people can't take risks, and money is tight. We haven't experienced this in a long time. Money has been cheap. It's been the USA's biggest seller. The dollar was valuable and it was available. That's prosperity. Imagine the dollar being expensive and worthless. That's a depression.
So expect the Canadian dollar to become more and more valuable against the USA dollar for awhile.
"If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer
Canada is the US's biggest customer
and,
The US is Canada's biggest customer.
I remember a time when I was a kid when the Canadian dollar was actually a little more valuable than the US dollar.
Even with the equal exchange rate, US gasoline and many foods are still cheaper Down South - at least it is between BC and Washington.
It will be interesting to see how this will affect our relationship with our Southern cousins.
Ed
Hehe.
Waiting for the pedants to show up and miss your wink.
If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.
Let the reverse brain drain begin! Many of canada's best a brightest left for the US in the late 90's for the promise of higher salaries etc ... now witha dollar at parity ... will america's brightest now move north to canada? Especially those with families ... public health care, simlar/better standard of living, a thriving economy, etc etc etc ...
The value of currency is bullshit anyway as long as the currency is by fiat.
The fact that our money is all "elastic" makes it purest BS.
What's really sinking the U.S. dollar is strong inflation. You DO realize that's why they changed the inflation index to not include food anymore, right? They don't want to paint a real picture of what inflation is like because they don't want to cause a panic. If you include housing and food you get a double digit inflation rate over the last umpteen years.
What's worse? Now that the U.S. subprime crisis is in full-swing, the FDIC/Fed Reserve are propping up lenders by giving them money. (Remember the news about this a few weeks ago about opening up billions of dollars?) Where does that money come from? Nowhere! It's made from an elastic currency, which is the same as saying it is really coming indirectly from the people in the form of inflation as the money supply is diluted.
Now if only we had a gold standard again.... If banks weren't given government guarantees with fiat money all the time, they wouldn't have incentive to make shady loans in the first place for fear of going out of business if too many default. i.e. we wouldn't have a subprime mess in the first place. And even if we did, the cost of Countrywide going out of business isn't nearly as big as inflation across the entire populace.
And then there's that whole national debt thing...
It's not a wash. Simplistically,
Profit(P) = Sales Price(S) - Cost of US input(U) - Cost of Canadian input(C)
Imagine all those figures staying constant in their respective currencies. In USD terms, S and U are the same but C has gone up so P is smaller than it used to be in USD. Convert that back to Canadian Dollars and P becomes even smaller.
Things in economics do tend towards an equilibrium but that doesn't mean the same state as before. The reason for the fall in the USD is because the previous value meant foreign imports were a lot cheaper than local production, which resulted in the trade deficit, which in turn causes the USD to fall in value.
Mmmm.. Donuts
I've been saying for a longtime that the PS3 isn't over priced relative to the PS2 since in Canada the launch price adjusted for inflation is within $50 of the PS2 launch price. Whats happened is the US's dollar has fallen. The relatively equal Japanese, European, Canadian price is close to the launch PS2 price. What Nintendo did was aim lower and what MS did was subsidize heavily. Which makes the PS3 relatively expensive compared to them. That is why the PS3 is doing well in markets outside the US.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
When you talk about building a manufacturing infrastructure, this is a classic example of the cost of having so many consumer goods made offshore.
When these goods are manufactured there, sure there are points made on the retail sale, but the cost to the economy for cheap consumer goods results in a lower paying service jobs and reliance on foreign countries for most goods.
If the foreign manufacturers started adding a 10% fee to everything shipped to the USA, then you have a HUGE increase in inflation and a further devalue of the dollar and this puts the entire economy at risk.
This is the cost of shopping at the big box stores and being pleased at buying your offshore manufactured goods at discounted rates.
As for the comment about service jobs, the scary thing is that continue to see those shipped offshore too, have you called a tech support line in the last few years??
C
What goes up usually comes down. Here's a little history: The Canadian dollar has seen some steep ebbs and flows in its history. In 1864, the greenback traded at less than 36 cents (Canadian), an all-time low for the U.S. currency. In 2002, by contrast, the loonie traded as low as 62 cents Quoted from http://www.reportonbusiness.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070920.wdollar0920/BNStory/robNews/home
Oil.
Importing is another aspect.
If your economy starts importing stuff from the US in a major way, the Canadian dollar will also fall until the imbalance is removed. There's a tendency for trade to balance out unless like China, one currency is locked to a different rate than the other.
Deleted
I don't expect Canadians will see much benefit from this for a while, in terms of trading with the US.
Case in point: I live in Canada. I want a new cordless reciprocating saw that works with my Home Depot-brand Ryobi cordless tool set. So I went to the American homedepot.com website and looked it up. I discovered it was available for $50. Great, the price should be about the same in Canada, I thought. I went to the Home Depot closest to where I live and found the saw - where it was selling for $80. There's no excuse other than price-gouging to sell an item for that kind of markup when the Canadian dollar and American dollar are almost equal.
Conclusion: It's going to take a while for prices to equalize while American companies with footholds in Canada will gouge as much as they can out of us to pay for that stock they imported when the dollar was worth less.
And for the record, for all the Americans who don't think this is important, the US is Canada's biggest trading partner, but Canada is the US's biggest trading partner, too. Look it up.
Low dollar is good? Ok, let it fall to zero. Everybody is wiped out. Great!
The low dollar scam was perpetrated by liberal propaganda outlets to distract the public from the fact that the dollar fell while the liberals were in power.
It's "norte-americano" (literally "north-american"). Still innacurate (last time I looked, our new Canadian Overlords were located in North America, too)
The traditional economic theories of Adam Smith and D. Ricardo under-stated the increased risk associated with free trade, especially lopsided trade. Sure, the average return on free trade is higher than protectionism, but like just about any investment, higher returns also means more risk. I think the US should have a policy that prohibits or discourages lopsided trading. The more lopsided our trade is with a given country, the higher the tarriffs on their goods. We need to balance things out somewhat. A little lopsidenedness is okay; a lot is just too risky.
Table-ized A.I.
"The Canadian Dollar is taxed much more then the American Dollar."
"Socialism is great till you run out of other peoples money."
Oh really? Care to show some evidence of this?
As for the tired claim of socialism, please show how many governments in Canada are socialist, including the current federal government.
The pursuit of absolute tolerance leads to the most rigorous and ludicrous intolerance. - REX MURPHY
People assume that the dollar falling in value in relation to foreign currency is a bad thing.
Where'd you learn that, TV? It is a bad thing. The US Dollar is the world's reserve currency. To quote the Wiki:
How long do you think foreign nations are going to continue to hold dollars as dollars plummet year after year? Bernake's 50/50 rate cut on Tuesday told the world the dollar is nowhere near finished devaluing. What do you think happens to the dollar when all those foreigners get fed up with their devaluing dollar reserves and decide to dump them on the open market? Interest rate cuts didn't save Japan's real estate market in the 90's. Interest rate cuts won't save America now. If those dollar reserves start to flood the market, America is seriously fucked.
For unclear resaons our local Xmas parade started incorporating more and more penquins each year on its floats. I guess it might have something to with all the penguin movies rather than Linus. Santa must have a really bad GPS, is all I can say.
All of the moderators that rewarded this simplistic thinking haven't thought this one through enough.
* American products become cheaper to foreign markets. This helps with the trade imbalances we currently have.
Maintaining the view that reaching some sort of trade parity is a common good is still fiercely debated in economics. How many years has this been going on with no apparent harm? Don't get side tracked into other issues related to, but not dealing specifically with trade imbalance.
If it were the case that the U.S. had a booming manufacturing segment, you would indeed be correct. Long ago the common wisdom was the U.S. economy was becoming a service economy. Let's agree it is for a minute and keep reading.
* Foreign products become more expensive to American consumers, also helping with trade deficits.
Devaluing currency sets off an inflationary cycle. It makes everything imported more expensive. As a result, you will do some combination of buying less and demanding higher wages. Except, I thought a cheaper dollar was supposed to make it easier to sell american products?
* It discourages foreign workers from sneaking into the US. Getting $4.00 an hour is suddenly not so much compared to what they get paid in their home country.
Okay, enough with the veiled immigrant bashing. Americans don't take jobs that pay $4/hr. Instead of considering the idea that the huge number $4/hr jobs might be a problem, we all accept immigrants (illegal or otherwise) who work for $4/hr.
IMHO, cheap credit is a crack pipe the U.S. economy has been living off of for decades. The financial world knows that. They've been exporting investing dollars too. Americans won't control their own spending/saving and this is one of the consequences. China's economic/political policies have a role in this too, but the first place to look for blame is in the mirror.
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
Beware of using UPS for shipping from USA to Canada.. UPS will charge you like $30-$40 on a $50USD product. That's because UPS charges you "convenience fee"(brokerage fee) of $20 for a $40 product. (http://www.ups.com/content/ca/en/shipping/cost/zones/customs_clearance.html) [UPS.com] USPS charges you a $5.00 flat fee.
As someone who lives in Canada and works in the US, all I have to say is "I miss 2001 and the days of $1CDN = $0.65US" :)
Have EVDO, will travel.
in part cause the DEA got $500.00 bills quashed years ago...
I knew I'd read this before- and I found details readily.. multiple sources exist,
this is a good one from 2004
http://slate.com/id/2111504/
"But among a subset of global cash connoisseurs, the dollar is losing ground to the euro--"
"Finally, in the past two years, euros have also become easier to carry, store, and hide than dollars. Generally, the largest denomination of U.S. currency readily available is the $100 bill. But in the past two years, the European Central Bank has started to print 200-euro and 500-euro bills. These larger bills thus allow for the concentration of wealth in smaller packages. At today's rates, a 500-euro note is worth $682."
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
>>Socialism is great till you run out of other peoples money.
So are budget deficits. Wait until the Chinese get sick of funding yours.
It's piracy.
This goes to show that the Canadian people are overtaxed, and that Canada is doing nothing significant to rectify that.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
umm sorry. Federal government in Canada has been running surplus's for 10 years.
Not really. The US$ hasn't fallen with respect to the Yen (graph) or the Mexican Peso (graph), and it's fallen only slightly (5%) against the Chinese Yuan (graph). So of its top four trading partners, it's only Canada that the US dollar has seriously fallen against, and in general it's mostly the CDN$ and Euro that've increased so much against it.
The US$ and Euro are major trading blocs - each about 20% of the world economy - but they're not the only story.
It's sad, because I can get a lot of books cheaper from Amazon.com than I can from Amazon.co.uk even with international shipping. The only downsides really are that it takes a little longer for delivery and I feel a little more guilty about having it shipped all that way. The same goes for some computer games or DVDs, if I buy a couple at once even with import duties it's still cheaper.
Higher taxes perhaps? Canada is a welfare state afterall (a good thing in my book).
As a Canadian, I love to see our Dollar gain in strength. We get our hockey players cheaper and vacationing in the States becomes more attractive. However, I decided to cancel my iPod Touch because it is still priced $40 more than what US citizens can get it for. I can accept a small premium because of shipping and handling, but $40!! Come on!
I was astounded to find that you are right. Federal tax in Canada caps out at 29% http://www.taxtips.ca/fedtax.htm Where the United States caps out at 35%http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/article/0,,id=164272,00.html. One could probubly make an argument that the US federal rates are lower for low income, but there is no doubt that they are higher overall.
Sales tax may be a diffrent story however. The rates in Canada range from 6% in one province, to 13%-16.6% in all the others. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provincial_Sales_Tax I have never seen a US sales tax rate over 7% http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_taxes_in_the_United_States
In any event I thank you for pointing out the Federal rate difference.
they can.
...because "hacker" sounds way sexier than "code drone."
I remember making poking fun at the Canucks on alt.geek and mentioning how their money couldn't buy much... now that wouldn't work! Pretty soon the US will be importing Poutine...
libertarianswag.com
"Canucks will get cheaper Macs as the Canadian prices get closer to US prices with every new release."
It's actually surprizing, how prices in the US are generally still cheaper - I guess Canadian companies are making some extra cash, by not passing on directly and immediately the very similar exchange rate.
It may or may not be true that Macs have become cheaper as the Canadian dollar has risen (I don't know).
But, the prices we pay for most consumer items is still vastly out of whack. Sticker prices still show the exact same higher value which accounted for the exchange rate when we traded much lower.
We're not suddenly gaining the advantage of a higher-purchasing power of our dollar. We effectively pay the same sticker price domestically as we have all year. So, effectively, we're paying more for goods.
Cheers
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Don't suppose you've got a tax rate on the middle class handy do you? Didn't think so there sport.
So I pay around 30% in taxes here, and I'd pay around 25% in the US...
We have a massive surplus (remember those?) that goes in to renewing our health care and infrastructure. Sort of a help out the community approach, that might be difficult for some people to understand but I'm sure no one here.
Yea.. You've certainly got us on that 5% though.. Wow. We are socialist pigs!
I Like Pie...
I had mine over 6 months ago in Vancouver. Good times.
My friend just had his in Vancouver last week. Those dollar bills aren't as desired as before...
There are a huge number of yeast infections in this county. Probably because we're downriver from the bread factory.
I am not at all surprised to see parity. Canada has a strong economy and Alberta especially so.
There are many reasons for weakeness in the US currency including but not limited to a massive government debt and a glutonous appetite for foreign oil.
Yesterday T. Boone Pickens was on TV on the business channel I sometimes watch. He made a number of interesting comments:
1) World oil production is about 85 million barrels per day and T. Boone does Not think it can be increased. The best information I have comes from expertize within the Geological Survey of Canada, but this expertise is certainly not limited to the GSC, and we are now pegging the peak of work oil production at September 2006. If production increases above that level then it will not be by much. T. Boone commented that the estimated demand for 4th quarter 2007 is 88 million Barrels per day.
Hence we will see the oil price driven up in order to destroy demand. In all likelihood it will get worse.
2) T. Boone says he favours nuclear and pointed out that General Electric says they can build a reactor in 3 years plus the friction added by the regulators and dealing with opposition. Probably this is correct.
3) Canada is ramping up Tar Sands as fast as we possibly can which explains why our economy is so strong. We cannot increase production has enough to make much of a difference. Currently we are investing billions per year.
Currently the USA consumes about 23 million barrels of oil per day.
Any way you want to slice it - this is not good news. It is clear the US dollar will continue to weaken is decades of political scrapping and decades of economic mismanagement finally face their day of reconning. As has been said many times, in order to avoid the melt down of our economies due to lack of energy availablity and high cost, we have to build at break neck speed an infrastructure that can replace oil and gas. We needed to start about 15 years before the peak of world oil production. We have not done so.
If the peak really was last year, then all hell is about to unfold and it will not surpise me to see gas rationing in the not too distant future.
Some things to remember.
Ethanol will not solve the problem. 100% of the US corn production will provide less than 2 weeks of liquid fuel. Next, ethanol from any source lives by the equation that 1 tonne of dry plant mass yields the equivalent of about 2 barrels of oil and this if we can do the conversion for free. This includes cellulostic ethanol.
We don't have the plants build anyways.
Industry runs under much tighter constraints than consumers. A consumer will simply give up a dinner at a restaurant in order to save the money to pay for his next tank of gas. Industry shuts down the plant and lays everyone off. We have already lost most of the North American fertilizer industry and plastic feedstock production (IE the pellets that go into injection moulding machines) is also going to die. Electricity production from Natural Gas is not threatened yet but expect power costs to continue to climb as this sector pushes out weaker sectors. In all cases jobs are lost and expensive infrastructure goes idle.
If one looks at the mortgage crisis and factors in the job loses precipitated by energy issues, then it becomes clear that this picture is not yet well understood.
Next consider how a government deals with recession? They print currency. Faced with the choice of inflation or recession, which do you choose? People on fixed incomes will lose their retirement.
Of course - one way to look at this is that its the retiring generation that lived beyond their means and created the mess. Their children certainly didn't. So maybe its poetic justice. However I do not think that people realize how bad its going to be. I watched my father-in-law lose his retirement because of the inflation Pierre Elliot (Idjot) Trudeau and his henchman Jean (Cretin) Chretien during the 1970's.
In part this
I, for one, welcome our new on par overlords...
But natural gas is needed to melt the oil off the tar sands. And there is already a crunch all over North America on supplies of the gas. The practical limit on the tar sands is probably 20 years or less.
I can buy more with 2 dead horses than 2 dollar bills.
I am dim. Why is this funny? Is it a Bush quote? ... if you can stop laughing anyway)
Enjoy! (Work safe
When I was growing up in Michigan in the 1970s, the USD and CAD were so close everyone just used both interchangeably in stores. So another way to view this is that after 30+ years, the Canadian dollar has finally made it back to where it was in 1976.
I'm waiting for that day myself. They're going to unload the USA dollar big time and we're going to see serious drops in the value of that thing. We're talking mega drops.
We keep selling those treasury bonds to them and it's going to eventually come time to pay the piper. China is in effect subsidizing our war with Iraq.
Out of curiosity, does Canada have a tariff on imports from China? That's the one thing the USA could do right now to really help themselves. A tariff would level the playing field and force China to value their currency at correct levels.
Of course American consumers wouldn't go for this because then the garbage Wal-Mart sells would cost more. But it would save us from crippling ourselves even more.
"If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer
In response to both your post and your sig, this really is obligatory:
Singer: The trading gap shuffle, we're in a heap of trouble, doing the trading gap shuffle!
Bart: He already sang this song!
Marge: No, that was about the budget gap. This is the trading gap.
Momentarily, the need for the construction of new light will no longer exist.
Oh really? Unload them to whom? I keep hearing this bullshit but have yet to hear who the hell could absorb them.
They're stuck, and we're stuck.
I do agree with forcing China's hand on currency valuation though...
This is actually bad for the profits of Canadian corporations that sell their products to the US for US dollars (Canada sells far more to the US that the US sells to Canada);emphasis mine.
Why, I submit that that is, in fact, the feedback mechanism responsible for the leveling of the currencies.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
All your LOONIES are belong to US!
Over-the-top Response Guy! Giving "Over-the-Top Responses" since 1970.
A) we have massive resource based economy, which translates to what exports to NON american places where our dollar is not changed much.
/year on war, you aren't looking after the socail and economic needs at home. Its enriching those that already have money and htey arent doing anything for you.
China, russia need oil. Other countries need our wheat.
B) The real issue is the borrowing habits of the american public and its shameful real estate rules.
When you spend 300-400 BILL
C) Our budgets are in surplus which means we have cash to spend.
D) oh my lets migrate all our govt computers to linux and have what a 5% increase in federal spending to play with oh you could really put that to keeping htings going.
-federal govt savings by migration from MS liscenses 10 Bill, provincial another 7 Billion
-municipal savings about 3 billion.
The above would be enough to whethar ANY mass serious downturn in america.
E) Ever since you yankies screwed with us over the softwood lumber deal we have been quietly diversifying our need of american good.
F) China followed by russia very shortly will suplant america as our main buyers of oil.
Add to that a proposed russia canada northern oil idea and you have america in 50 years as a 3rd world country.
G) you have 8 million slave laborers er mexicans, and slowly as they get the boot or have to pay mroe you take another hit. Would have been better to not let em in EH?
H) albertans are now asking for higher proceeds of oil profits and if you dont want the oil im sure russia and china will. When you can't fuel that tank or copter or plane then you finished for warmongering.
I) Alberta, BC, saskatchewan all are growing economies due to oil and other resources look at double digit growth
example: 14$/hr to work at tim hortons
Prices: are only about 5% on avg higher then elsewhere.
300-400K jobs expected in alberta alone in next ten years.
And in passing, if americans dont want canadian oil where else you going to get it.
Neat how things change eh.
J) we also WILL be leaving afghanistan in 2009 , better find a country with balls to take the lead , seems the UN said no one wants to do it.
I was in Paris on Euro Day on 1/1/2002 when the Euro was at US$0.88 and came home with about 40 euros. I still have them and they're worth a lot more now. I was in Canada two weeks ago and still have CN$30 in my wallet. I've made a little more profit that covered the conversion fee (I went to a credit union ATM and used my credit union ATM card so no ATM fee). I need to travel more so I can retire. ;-)
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
The idea, or theory, and it's just that and nothing more, is that as the dollar slides because it becomes more and more common, countries holding a lot of them are going to dump them. And then more countries will dump them, creating a chain reaction. So the people on the bottom holding the dollars end up being the losers. Who are these people? American's of course. We hold them every day. We work for them, our houses are paid for in them and we owe them to people.
This is tied to us too. We don't save money in this country. The average person doesn't have a savings any longer. They have a debt. And as individual's debt climbs more and more, the value of the dollar becomes less and less.
There's a lot of forces at work making the dollar worth less and less. From our lack of savings and increase in personal debt to foreign countries paying off our debt via t-notes. And then of course countries we deal with artificially keeping their currency low.
You do realize that if China did push their currency up, our goods would go up in price too. That would make the dollar more valuable of course, but not short term. So Bush isn't pushing for it because his Wal-Mart voter base doesn't want to pay more for cheap imports.
So with all these forces at work lowering the value of the dollar, the theory is big spenders like China are going to eventually say "screw the dollar, lets sell them now while they're worth something" setting off a chain reaction of dollars. The dollar becomes very much so worthless at this point.
So then interest rates go up because no one can pay their debts. High interest rates are bad of course.
This is one situation but it's increasingly more likely as we continue down this path.
"If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer
For the Canadians that are working in the US, how has this affected your student loan payments? Have you been following the exchange rates and making the appropriate adjustments in what you've been paying, or have you just been paying them off in US$ units and using the currency exchange advantage to pay off the principle sooner?
the good ground has been paved over by suicidal maniacs
Actually, only some economists are saying rosy things. Bush is cherry picking the favorable predictions, so he is basically stating his own opinion -- or what he wants us to believe is his honest *cough* opinion. And he is responsible for whatever he says, like everyone else, but even more so, because of his position. When he lies (which is most of the time he's in public), I will call him a liar.
The sales tax in Quebec is 7.5 %. This is the provincial sales tax.
6% extra on top of this is Federal sales tax.
The kicker on this is that they charge provincial sales tax on federal sales tax.
JP http://www.wearerite.com
You think that's bad? It's the exact same thing with cars, too. When you're looking at buying a $49k car (Subaru WRX STI) and you see it's only $33k in USA, well, that's just pure bullshit. I have yet to read ANY reasonable explanation for this extreme disparity.
I've been looking at buying a car for months (hoping the price would drop on 2008 models but no they are exactly the same) and I WAS going to just buy it in USA and import it to Canada and save myself $5000+, but Honda has just emailed all their US dealership managers stating that if a buyer does this, the warranty is VOID for the vehicle in both US and Canada - your car won't be serviced under warranty even if you drive back down to the US to get it serviced. Obviously they are trying to protect their fucked up excessively-disparate market. Frankly, I don't even want to buy a car at all, now - I'll be paying 30% more than people a mere 20 minute drive from me will be paying for the SAME FUCKING VEHICLE.
On a more fortunate note, Toyota has stated rather loudly that they WILL honor the warranty of a vehicle purchased in the US and imported into Canada. So, obviously I am considering them at this time. Of course that still doesn't make me feel any better about the fucked up price disparity.
D6 63 0D 70 89 81 BB 8E 7B 7C 5F 5D 54 EA AB 73
It's a pyramid scheme. They sell them to someone willing to assume a risk on them. They sell them below market value. Others in turn do the same. Eventually enough people will have gotten out and not want anything to do with the USA dollar. It's like a bad stock.
Eventually someone at the bottom gets stuck with them. That person is you and I.
What you're saying is they're stuck with them. I disagree. They can find buyers (lets face it, it's a USA dollar. It will always be worth something) who will pay below market values for them. Others will do the same, creating a domino effect of devaluation of the dollar in circulation.
What goods are they buying? Do you know what China is doing with all the dollars they have? Stashing them away by buying USA t-bonds. They're not investing in American companies, they're funding the war on terror. Essentially paying us off to build factories and infrastructure on the cheap.
They're going to get sick of holding worthless dollars and start selling their goods to emerging countries that can give them something of value back.
"If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer
When an asset is not performing well, the typical response is to replace it with another asset that is doing better.
From a business perspective, dumping USD would be stupid. A slow transition would make more sense.
But from a military perspective, the global economy is just another potential battleground - and China's overall holdings in USD is quite an arsenal.
Put another way: The USA may be the strongman, but China is holding his genitals. It could switch partners (EU), or it could squeeze.
Also, their holdings are just above that held by Japan - if China wanted to be spiteful, they could dump the USD to hurt Japan indirectly.
When the adjustment takes place, I just hope that the business-minded prevail.
If you buy a Honda in the states, they will not honor your warranty in Canada. Free trade only applies when the corporations benefit, not the consumer.
You can just import one.
You need to really watch the couriers because they are experts at ripping people off. I know. I'm an importer and have imported millions of dollars of merchandise.
However if you are buying into Ryobi then IMHO it doesn't matter really what you pay because you're being silly. Still maybe its better to pay $50 bux for a POS than $80.
Good brand names include Makita, Hitachi, Bosch, and of course others.
Now I bought a Delta bench belt sander. There is a plastic belt in it that was about 1/8th of an inch wide. The plastic drive wheel had been designed to handle a belt that was about 1/4 of an inch wide.
How much do you think that company saved by putting in a plastic belt 50% of the width of that should be there? But then... what of the plastic drive wheel? I can buy metal drive wheels for a few bux. Of course they don't fit since they were not designed for the Delta.
You know... I paid for quality and I didn't get it. My response... in part warning others... and of course Delta no longer gets my business.
I have two (2) dead Black and Decker pad sanders and a dead Black and Decker belt sander and a dead Black and Decker router. Funny thing.... when I go and look at a construction site and see what the pro's are using... why don't I see much in the way of Ryobi, Black and Decker, Delta power tools?
What do I see?
Makita, Bosch, some Hitachi... there are some others of course.
So it says a lot IMHO.
BTW... you can import these other brands as well and with the net its pretty easy to find good pricing.
Hmm. I suppose for that matter I could start my import business again. But I don't think it is really worth it for $50 items. What I imported before typically retailed over $12,000. Its hard to get enough people together to organize as a $12,000 shipment of power tools. (I would expect this to be the case anyways). Note one would list $12,000 on a B3 the same as one would list $50 bux. Note that its the same number of trips to Customs and the same number of pages of paper work and the same issues with payment of GST and so forth. The only thing that changes is the size of the numbers.
Be very careful with UPS. With Air transportation they gouge but are up front but at least clear customs at an included cost. With ground transportation last I used them and I will not in the future... they try to apply a clearance tax based on the value of the item. If you were to ship say $12,000 via UPS ground your shipping costs will include a brokerage commission and hey typically don't quote this as a "shipping cost". Next, all they do is write a number on a piece of paper which is called a B3. The cost to UPS to clear an item costing $50 bux is the same as $12,000 and it takes a clerk no more than about 5-10 minutes to do it.
Think about this. The number they write on teh B3 is the cost of the item in USA currency. Then they multiply this number by the conversion rate which they have to look up for the shipment date. Then they add to this any duty and probably there is none. After that they multiply by the GST rate and add sales tax if applicable. They total these costs and you need to pay this to them if they paid the customs bill for you. The most difficult part is figuring out the classification category. This does not change regardless how much you are importing. For instance I think all power tools fall into one category.
So... I called UPS and I DO know what to ask them... What is the "Brokerage commission"?
0-20: free
20-40: $7.: $19.45
etc.
5,000: $69.03
$5,000 and up: add $5.38 per thousand.
IE. ground transportation of say $12,000 will cost $(69.03+ 7*5.38) = $106.69
Remember, the paperwork is identical in all cases. Its one (1) B3 that you need to fill in.
Well - if you add an unexpected $100 to a $12,000 shipment its maybe ok but an additional unquoted $20 bux for a $50 shipment is quite the gouge especially since you can buy i
Fedex and UPS will gouge for all the "brokerage fees" they can get their grubby little mitts on, but the USPS doesn't.
At the same time they are not investing in their own economy, so that if the US economy falters it will take China with it.
D6 63 0D 70 89 81 BB 8E 7B 7C 5F 5D 54 EA AB 73
Not because he replied to FP this time, but because he is a C-A-N-A-D-I-A-N bacon bit!
It was David Pimental from Cornel and others who first proposed this myth. Its simply not true. In fact the energy return is quite decent.
The thing is that an individual farmer could do quite well running his farm machinery on ethanol that he produces himself. In fact, the average farmer has lots of free time all winter long and could produce all of his required summer fuel and still have lots of time for curling, hunting, fishing and bitching about why there is no money in farming... when in fact there is.
How do I know? I grew up on a farm and brewing and making wine is something I have done since I was in grade 11.
I do know what the input costs are and I can assure you Pimental did not. He made many assumptions that are not supported by facts. Nevertheless one of the things they were doing back then was running coal fired distillation and pushing it past the Aseotrop. To be energy +ve you need high efficiency vacuum distillation.
My point is that its not practical to do this from starch sources which is basically beer making. I think from cellulose it might make sense. The cellulose costs are going to be low, but we are still talking about 1 tonne of dry plant matter is equivalent to 2 barrels of oil once we do the conversion. With oil under $200 per barrel I do not think the economics look good. Next we do not have the technology in place yet.
The best ideas seem to involve enzymes derived from Trichoderma reeshi. This is a fungus isolated in Gaum during the 1940's. It is used for Stone Washer blue jeans since it does digest cellulose and it loves it in fact. The thing is most of the plant matter we have as feedstocks are not pure cellulose. They also contain pentosans and liganins and T. reeshi doesn't like these. There are other fungii which do like them. I work with some of these but not in the area of fuel production.
My point is that we are facing a bad bad problem and we do not at this time have in place technology which will do for us what we need. I for instance will not invest in an ethanol plant other than as a trade into the hype - and I have made quite a lot of money doing this.
I agree with your general sentiment, I have a few nitpicks..
You do not get richer by artificially holding your currency lower. You get more manufacturing infrastructure (what China values more than money really) because it's a better buy to invest and build there. It's the same theory as "dumping", tighten your belt now and sell products at a very low profit (or loss) to drive your competitor out of business so you can reap the reward later. Only China's intention is to supplant the US as the new leading country, something they are certainly capable of doing if the US continues on it present road. Historically though, a peaceful change of reigns is very unusual. I would predict a nuclear war to occur before the US will give up it's throne. Let's hope I'm wrong. As an American, it concerns me a good deal.
That "service industry" is just economic masturbation. I sell services to you, you sell services to somebody else, they sell services to a third guy, around and around ... until somebody decides that they'd like to eat today, or buy a DVD player, or whatever, and buys something that's imported. Suddenly that money is gone from the economy.
Relying on a bunch of corporate headquarters isn't how you maintain a civilization. Sure, they'll be the last thing to go, but when they do, there won't be a damn thing left. We'll have lots of service industry left, but no real exportable-wealth creation.
Service industry can act almost like manufacturing, when it 'produces' and 'exports' intellectual property, but as much as US politicians have fastened onto the idea of the 'information economy,' it's not a panacea. I don't see the US exporting enough music, movies, and microcode to make up for the amount of Canadian pressboard furniture, Chinese electronics, and Saudi oil that we consume.
Right now, we make up for this by issuing debt: we import (and in many cases, irreversibly consume) things that have real, intrinsic value, in return for scraps of paper (or, more likely, ephemeral digits in an account somewhere) that are only worth something because they're backed up by the US economy. When people decide that the US economy ain't what it used to be, suddenly those scraps of paper aren't worth much, and not only can we not buy any more, but the people who we've bought stuff from already are going to come calling for whatever we have of value left.
I've been asking for years how exactly the current US path is sustainable, and I've never gotten anything particularly reassuring. The current crop of politicians and financiers is selling the entire country up the river for enough gains today to them to retire on. But at some point in the future, the rest of us are going to be stuck holding the bag.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
Google and Yahoo can't give you a 30+ year graph.
Trust a canadian news site for that.
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During the Stanley Cup Playoffs last year, canadian playoff tickets were sold out and auctioned for as much as $500 for crappy seats. It became cheaper use canadian money to get a flight down to some small market US team, and get watch the canadian team at a playoff game there.
Ugh responding to an AC, but I believe he was talking about the American's deficit, not the Canadians (a surplus as you say).
It's easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
I guess the OLPC will soon hit the $200 a unit mark.
The US federal government is $9 trillion ($9,000,000,000,000) in debt.
Interest on the debt amounted to $406 billion ($406,000,000,000) last year.
Compare that to NASA at $15 Billion, Education at $61 Billion, and Department of Transportation at $56 Billion.
[from federalbudget.com] Look past the American flag lapel pins to find the true Patriots, if there even are any. This is simply treasonous fiscal mismanagement.
You are talking about marginal tax rates. Not much of a comparison. Let's say your salary is 100K and exchange rate is 1:1. How much would Canadian government would keep from your salary? In the US, Federal tax + state tax (Colorado) would run into effective income tax rate at about 10%.
What about sales tax? Is it still 15%?
While I understand what you write I say for most Americans they have no reason to complain about inflation in their food costs because they eat too much anyways. So if you think your food bill is too high, then go on a diet.
How is this all that much different than a drunk complaining about the cost of his bar bill?
eh?
well I think that does it, this probably finally tips the scale toward the inevitable annexation of Canada. I just hope this happens peacefully.
The value of your house will not decline because of inflation. Its the value of debt that declines.
In fact you win big time. If the value of your house goes up 10x and the value of your salary goes up 9x then you are probably way ahead because you now only need to pay off 10% of the cost of your house.
OTOH, the retired folks across the street who were told by a financial advisor to invest in high quality long term mortgages because they are too old to take the risk... it is these people who find the mortgage instrument and the income from it no longer has much value. They lose their retirement. They win somewhat on the value of their home of course but will find they need to sell it (usually by way of a reverse) mortgage in order to survive. So they tighten their belts and in the end their children lose their inheritance.
They also have tighter regulations on many things, making them more expensive. Some may argue that it's good for the environment, or whatever argument you want to insert, but that's not the point being made here, value of the Dollar/Loonie is.
Canadians also spend a lot more on home heating then Americans do, albeit less on cooling. The harsher climate also is harder on autos and other equipment.
There's also the fact that all the good vacation spots are in the States (not my thinking, my Canadian friend's thinking, but you have the better side of the Falls!).
As to taxes, don't look at just income taxes, look at all the hidden taxes, from sales tax to excise taxes to govt. mandated permits to do anything from fishing to building office complexes. That all adds up. Americans pay over 40% in taxes, and many Europeans pay over 60%. What's the real tax burden in Canada?
HexaByte - he's a square and a half!
Cdn price: $78000
Usd price: $51000
Eeek.
..don't panic
...of the SPP? If not, you should be, google for it, it is obvious you don't have clue one yet. The US, Canada and Mexico are MERGING, right in front of everyone's faces, and no one outside the elite system is having any say in the matter right now, the powerful goons are implementing it, right on schedule.
Oh, you aren't reading about it in the controlled press, the press who gets their reporting orders from billionaire bilderburgers? Gee, wonder why not....
So go look it up, it's happening. It makes NAFTA look like a casual exchange of phone numbers. And along with that, you can fully expect to see the bulk of governmental/public/we all paid for it necessary and common infrastructure sold off to the highest bidder, globalist capitalist pig run north american union in other words.
And your cute but naieve views on "left versus right" are 20th century. There is no left and right, it is globalist party, who give all the orders and call all the shots and are the top leadership of ALL major political parties in the US, Canada and Mexico, then everyone else. All that other stuff is political psychodrama for those who think voting still makes any difference. To the elite, it gives the rabble something to occupy their time with, but it doesn't change a single thing in power politics.
... Always nice to see Canadians pumping money into the Buffalo-area economy...
Not true on both accounts.
China would lose their biggest partner, right now. This is true. But with the Euro gaining more and more and India emerging as well as its own country creating more and more demand, they would be left with many other partners they aren't using much of right now. Money doesn't disappear. And if the USD isn't worth anything that means something else is. China will gladly sell to whoever has the money. And whoever has the money will probably want luxuries.
They are indeed building an infrastructure. This is why they have kept their currency devalued for so long. It means it's very cheap for them to build and since their exporting a ton they can keep expanding faster and faster. They have a tremendous infrastructure being built as we speak. And it's being funded by the USA's desire for cheap crap.
If we were to just stop today, China would hurt. But in 5-10 years, it could and very well might be a different story. China is being very frugal with their export money and allowing American companies to make huge profits right now off of them. A time will come where China wants to get paid and the trend will reverse.
Don't be surprised when "Made In The USA" is something that foreigners see on their clothing, etc one day.
"If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer
One problem, we still pay too damn much for the same car. And, they don't want us driving to the US to buy one, either.
.. I just can't understand it. OK, I'm not Canadian, I'm Australian, but we have a government health system here and it's brilliant. I'm not joking, it's fantastic. Sure, it costs a lot, but so does everything good - I don't mind pay tax if I think it's being spent well.
.. all over
Let me give an example - 3 weeks ago my wife had sudden pain in a gland. We went to emergency:
2pm arrived at emergency. Waited about 20 minutes, but nurse was already giving painkillers and taking measurements before being admitted
2:30pm in a bed, blood tests, detailed questioning and examination
3:00pm on a drip, pre-op, scheduled for theatre at 7pm
4:00pm met the surgeon, nice lady
5:30pm i was kicked out as she went into pre-op
9:30pm they called me to say i could come up to recovery
10:00pm free dinner
11:00 she is feeling fine, discharged herself because she wants to sleep at home
Total cost: $0.00
The staff were professional, obviously expert, efficient and just great. I honestly cannot imagine how it could have been any better. Sure I pay for this in my tax, but I'm totally happy with that, knowing that I can just walk in, anytime something's wrong, and get the best healthcare available. I just can't imagine why Americans have this philosophical problem with what seems to be to be a great arrangement.
So, sorry, know nothing about Canadian healthcare, or British, but the Australian socialised health care system is first rate. You should copy us.
I'd rather have the healthcare system that just gave my grandmother a heart valve replacement by a world-class surgeon, a private hospital room, and fully-staffed 24/7 nursing assistance, all paid for by Canadian universal health insurance. (Well, we did have to cover the cost of gas to drive her to the hospital, but that's it.) I'm perfectly happy to have my taxes pay for Medicare, and to have the government administer the system. I know that if I ever need the same kind of help, it will be there for me and I won't go bankrupt in the process.
Denying life-saving help to one's fellow citizens merely to save a few dollars on one's taxes, or out of some outdated "every man for himself" wild west nonsense, is what's immoral. Do you feel any empathy towards other human beings at all? Are you some kind of robot?
Are you some kind of robot?
AFFIRMATIVE!
Binary solo:
0000001
00000011
0000001
00000011
0000001
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I see lots of typos in other posts and just correct them. I'm quite tolerant of such things. Besides I had other things to do.
Alas, you are kerrect I guess.
One word: infrastructure. It takes a generation to build up your ability to make the tool that makes the tool that makes the widget you want to sell. China has an incredibly dense manufacturing infrastructure now, and the U.S. mostly doesn't anymore. No matter what, the U.S. is probably looking at decades of serious pain, thanks to the Republicans.
Does the metamoderation still work around here? Some simple minded mod seems to think I am Dick Cheney or something, rather than someone poking fun at what has almost become a Slashdot meme.
${YEAR+1} is going to be the year of Linux on the desktop!
O man! Now I'll have to save up for that case of Molsen and those hockey pucks I was looking at.
"Computers are a lot like Air Conditioners" "They both work great until you start opening Windows"
I'm so glad I got all those "monopoly money" jokes in over the last two weeks. I'd been hoping it'd take a little longer, good thing I didn't wait to make those jokes.
Come brothers, now it's time for a new joke. We must come up with something short and witty to taunt them for still paying prices that reflect a much lower exchange rate!
The Farewell Tour II
Yep, taxing taxes, now that's a distinct society!
This is pretty bad news for both the exporters in Canada and for the importers of Canadian goods in the US.
I, for one, welcome our new Canadian overlords!
(Come on, somebody had to say it.)
At the risk of spoiling the fast lane for the rest of us... www.getnexus.com. $50 for five years, and you can even do your application on-line now. You'll blast past all the suckers in the slow lane.
Neil
>>You shouldn't have to pay duty on computer hardware anyway. That's part of the FTA which became NAFTA.
(LOL) Oh. Really.
The last time I brought a "USA" product thru Canadian Customs, they looked at the Seagate hard drive and said "Hmmm 'MADE IN CHINA' "
I had to cough up a lot of duty AND GST.
So much for this NAFTA bullshit.
HELLLOOOO! Haven't you heard? The USA does not MAKE anything anymore!
They just move stuff around and re-sell it.
How long you think this crappy biz model will last?
And Canada is not that much further behind.
I give us about seven years, maybe less...
.
- aqk
F U
Would'nt this be a good time to combine the two currencies... maybe even throw in some pesos making the NAFTA equilant of the Euro.
Are you suggesting that maybe we should have a commercial military force, a la General Jim's Defense System? Oh, wait -- we already do.
In general, it is safe and legal to kill your children. -- POSIX Programmer's Guide
To put this in perspective,
The current account balance on a country describes whether it is a net importer or a net exporter of goods. Similarly, the current account balance of Canada with the US describes whether Canada is relatively a net exporter or net importer of goods from the USA.
Now, Canada has a net positive current account balance of around 2% GDP (IMF 2005) which means, overall, a stronger Canadian currency is a good thing for Canada (compared to the rest of the world).
However, the situation here is more about the dollar falling vis-a-vis all other currencies. And since the USA is the world's biggest net importer of goods with a current account balance of -6% (deficit) (IMF 2005), a weaker US currency is bad for the US, leading to inflationary pressure (All things become more expensive), which is further exacerbated by profligate spending by the government (essentially, the government prints money to spend, which reduces the value of ALL dollars).
At the same time, the natural correction is (as some readers point out), more manufacturing being done inside the USA to counter the current account imbalance. Less imports to the US, more exports from the US, more jobs in the US etc. etc. The challenge is to keep inflation in control at the same time.
The US is, however, exceptional in the global macro-economic context because it has the largest economy, and the de-facto world standard currency. The US currency is heavily supported by Asian banks which moderates the drop in it's value somewhat. All in all, a very interesting and complicated situation to learn about - you may wish to start with these:
http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/cda/doc/content/dtt_GlobEcon07_091506.pdf
http://www.jcif.or.jp/pdf/e_outlook2006.pdf
Which opens up markets for US goods that didn't exist before.
The US doesn't have to decline precipitously for China, India, and other emerging markets to rise.
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Ontario does the same.
JP http://www.wearerite.com
The Fall of the USD has been so fast (as it is not the rise of the CDN dollar at work), that prices will need quite some time to equalize.
Also if you are a foreign good producer, you want the Americans to pay Canadian prices, not the other way around.
Say a few years ago (simplification):
Profit point was:
$100USD, Canadian had to pay $140.
Now with the Fall in the USD, the profit point is:
$140 USD, $140 CDN.
but goods are priced at:
$100USD and $140 CDN...
This is a simplification, but you see the problem, US prices have to rise more than CDN prices have to fall.
Where prices finally settle will be determined by acceptable profit margins etc, what the US market will bear etc.
Meantime Canadian will have to travel to the USA to buy under priced goods, where they can save thousands on Automobiles for instance.
We haven't had a Province of Newfoundland for at least a few years. The official, legal name is now "Newfoundland & Labrador".