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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.
Our economy is strong, and always growing. At least that's what the preznut keeps telling me.
Three jobs! Uniquely American, isn't 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.
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.
Interestingly enough, I listened to an industry expert on the radio who stated that the high Canadian dollar was not the result of the stronger Canadian economy, but rather a weakening American economy. I guess those who are bailing from the greenback are viewing Canada in a different light...
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.
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...
I still want to know why all the books in the book store, and magazines, have the US price at 2/3 of the Canadian price, when the exchange rate hasn't been that bad in years.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
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.
Apparently, it was just the ones that can do math.
"It doesn't cost enough, and it makes too much sense."
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.
These things are called psychological barriers. Likewise with the $1.40 per Euro mark that was reached at about the same time. If these barriers fall, people take extra notice of the trend, not because there's much of a difference to the day before, but because humans pay more attention to round numbers. On your 20th birthday, you're just one day older than the day before, but you don't celebrate the day before or after your 20th birthday. It's kinda stupid, but that's the way it is.
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.
I'm sorry that has happened to you. Unfortunately, anytime the value of something changes, someone wins and someone loses. I know hindsight is 20/20, but how far did you expect to get living in Europe with US dollars in the bank? Why would you not change those over to Euros when you decided to live there?
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.
I have no problem with immigrant labor. What I have a problem with is illegal immigrant labor. Sure, it helps me get a cheaper burger at Chili's, but when I have to pay $50 for an aspirin at a hospital, I figure I'm not saving all that much. Besides, slavery allowed for cheap food and clothing as well, but that doesn't make it right. When an illegal is working at a plantation.. I mean farm, they are more or less owned by that farm. Only instead of being shackled by chains, they are shackled with the thread of deportation or imprisonment. I expect foreign workers in the US to get a fair wage. When that worker is here illegally, enforcing minimum wage or any other labor laws is impossible.
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
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/
That's absolutely the case. The American dollar is falling in comparison to a number of currencies, in particular the Euro.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
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
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 !
Vending machines have always excepted them ;)
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
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?
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.
So, there's economic decline when companies spend their money on employees' health care, but not when the government takes that money and spends it on employees' health care.
Interesting.
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
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...
Actually the Chapters here in Vancouver has had a sign up for a while that stated the true Canadian price would be given at the till. Maybe they've even started putting price stickers on the books.
If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.
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
>>Socialism is great till you run out of other peoples money.
So are budget deficits. Wait until the Chinese get sick of funding yours.
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.
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
Oh, and keeping the Soviet-style economy in mind, Russia wouldn't have to "buy" anything to sustain a war effort. They'd simply order their people to build it - and that would work because the Russian mentality is nothing like ours is here. For one thing ultra-patriotic nationalism is normal and encouraged in Russia, rather than a silly notion as it is here. For another, not much time has passed since the bad old days when you did as you were told or you simply vanished in the night. People remember that too, and they have no illusions about their leaders not resorting to that kind of pressure in a time of war.
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.
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
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.
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
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
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.
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."
Russia is the number 3 (or so) oil exporter in the world. As oil reserves go down and the price rises, Russia will have no problem getting what it needs or wants. A very different scenario will play out in the US.
That is all.
Actually, oil has approached a level in cost where drilling the Gulf of Mexico is now profitable. Chevron holds a lot of drilling rights to this area.
This reserve is thought to be the largest oil reserve in the world. It's the USA's wild card. These reserves have been known about for years but it wasn't profitable to drill them. Now they're finding there is more there than they ever thought.
Expect to be able to walk to Cuba on the tops of derricks in a few years.
"If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer
http://www.oanda.com/convert/fxhistory
At 5 year intervals, Jan 1, beginning 1976. US$1 =
British Pounds
1976 = 0.4943
1981 = 0.4186
1986 = 0.6923
1991 = 0.5165
1996 = 0.6445
2001 = 0.6696
2006 = 0.5781
curr = 0.4980
Canadian dollars
1976 = 1.0168
1981 = 1.1945
1986 = 1.3985
1991 = 1.1604
1996 = 1.3645
2001 = 1.4988
2006 = 1.1641
curr = 1.0134
Japanese Yen
1976 = 305
1981 = 203
1986 = 200
1991 = 135
1996 = 103
2001 = 114
2006 = 117
curr = 116
German Mark / Euro (1 Euro = 1.95583 Marks)
1976 = 1.3398 Euro equiv (2.6205 German Marks)
1981 = 1.0021 Euro equiv (1.9600 German Marks)
1986 = 1.2510 Euro equiv (2.4468 German Marks)
1991 = 0.7627 Euro equiv (1.4917 German Marks, post-reunification)
1996 = 0.7348 Euro equiv (1.4371 German Marks)
2001 = 1.0620 Euros (2.0771 German Marks)
2006 = 0.8446 Euros
curr = 0.7100 Euros
So if you look at just the last 6 years, yes it looks like the US dollar is crashing. But compare over 30 years and you see that the British Pound and Canadian dollar first dropped against the US dollar, and are now returning to levels seen in 1976.
The Yen rose during the 1980s when Japan became an economic powerhouse, and has held pretty steady during the dollar's recent drop. In other words, the Yen is dropping right along with the dollar relative to the Euro, Pound, and CAD.
The German Mark and Euro have been up and down in 30 years, but the current rate is really not that far off from historical rates against the Mark.
Claiming that the US dollar is dropping into obscurity like some have been saying is like looking at a sports team's last 6 games and seeing that they're 0-6 and claiming they're dying; all the while ignoring that in the previous 24 games they were 15-9. Yes there are serious problems, but it's probably better characterized as "coming back down to earth" rather than crashing.
>>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