Slashdot Mirror
Weak US Dollar Means Nintendo Favors Europe For Now
timeOday writes "The LA Times is reporting that the new Nintendo Wii Fit is hard to find on US shelves, due not only to strong demand but also the United States' declining status in the world economy: '"[Nintendo] is also is shrewdly maximizing its profit by sending four times as many units to Europe, reaping the benefits of the strong euro," says Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities. "The shortage demonstrates one consequence of the weak dollar. We're seeing companies ignore their largest market simply because they can make a greater profit elsewhere."'"
I wonder if this has anything to do with Bush running up trillions in debt and making everyone hate us?
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So, the *Wii* sucks because employees at your local department store buy them all up against the agreement Nintendo made with the store?
Or how about just initially releasing it in English for the vast majority of gamers who simply want to play the game? Even weirder is how the games are delayed even in those European countries that don't get a localized version.
My Sig: SEGV
Also, while our European governments steal all our money for taxes, we use it for better things than throwing bombs at some desert...
Wait... your initial point made sense... but your last half is some ridiculous rant against environmentalism. What says we can't save the Spotted Owl AND Increase our industry. We can be environmentally conscious as well as industrially advanced. The problem is that industry is lazy and would gladly steamroll the environment to save a buck.
I consider myself to be an environmentalist... MOST environmentalist don't say "Don't chop down trees" they say "Chop down what you need and reseed the forest, using technology that limits the impact on the surrounding earth". We can have both strong environmental policy as well as a powerful industry.
It's been 15 years since I last came across anyone in mainland Europe that didn't speak any English at all - a very helpful French shop owner in a tiny town in Provence that, when he realized we were talking past each-other with my limited French, stopped a couple of random people who were passing by his shop and got them to translate.
On my last proper visit to Paris a couple of years ago it had been 12 years since last time I'd spent any amount of time there (I'd been on a couple of business trips where I spent 3-4 hours in town and then went back to London) in fact, I find it hard to practice my French as contrary to my last holiday there every French person I came across switched to English the second I had problems finding the right word, or butchered their language too much (my French teacher used to say that the one thing you should always make sure to get right in France is the sounds - if you pronounce things correctly you'll get away with almost anything - so far I think she's been right)
Your post is so reactionary and simple-minded that it certainly seems to have been written by an American, short on rationality as it is. In fact, in the last day or so /. has had several posts like yours modded up because they say absurd things such as the high cost of oil is due in part to the restrictions on domestic drilling.
If you think the US economy is in the shitter because of environmental protections you are an embarrassment to the genetic legacy your ancestors have bequeathed you.
The US economy is in the craphole because of the massive debt that has been leveraged against insolvent debtors. This came in the form of the mortgage crisis and its effects have reverberated and multiplied through the banking system. This has led to a crisis in commercial credit which has taken away the ability of consumers to fuel the economy which further erodes the ability of the banking system to maintain solvency. The causes of the credit crisis caused by the tanking of the mortgage system has not yet finished and we are likely to see much worse before it stops.
Regarding the offshoring of manufacturing and environmentalism, the real impact of environmental legislation in the United States is not to preserve non-human species, but to protect humans themselves. Look at the places where mining companies, steel refineries, chemical manufacturing plants, and pulp mills have operated and what you'll find are poisoned water tables and insanely elevated cancer rates. Additionally, the relative low-production of minerals from mining is due mainly to evisceration of the lands where valuable resources once existed, not due to the governmental restrictions on development.
For you to say something like "the tree huggers over her taking so much power" is laughable. Opening all the protected lands in the US would to natural resource exploitation do virtually nothing to fix the GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS let alone the paltry problem of the US economy stumbling against the stronger European economy. The kind of neanderthal thinking that bad economic times can generate amongst people is amazing and your post is an example of such stupidity.
Environmentalism has not caused the US economic crisis. Bad banking practice has.
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That is absurd. The US has been running deficit budgets (to pay for wars) and balance of payments for decades. Consumers have not been saving; in fact the rate of savings in the US is negative.
Other parts of the world with strong economies have IP laws that are just as strong as in the US and are doing fine.
It is all about unwise fiscal policies that are resulting in the decline of the dollar.
Is this a joke?
In a post that is riddled with historical inaccuracies and plain daft statements, this stands out:
"Of course, typical Americans; cleaning up after europe shits all over the place. Abolishing slavery."
WTF? That's a party you were particularly late to (just like both World Wars). You might want to check on the dates for European countries abolishing slavery (hint: generally before you). And as for reinstating civil rights, of course you remember what happened about 40 years ago, right?
Congratulations on making yourself look like an ass and giving your fellow Americans a bad name.
"by that I mean people who don't sit on slashdot all day wondering why everyone else isn't building robots" DECS
As far as Isreal, I didn't hear the US object to giving them the land and it's the US that defends Isreal these days more than anyone else.
Going after Iraq for 9/11 isn't cleaning up after Europe. It's making an excuse for Jr to do what daddy didn't do. Though Bush senior, in general, while being called a wimp was more sensible and at least was leaned more to being a sensible republican. It was he who helped make businesses accomodate people with disabilities. Just as Nixon made an attempt to help the environment with creating the EPA.
Since the Clinton era, the republican party has really gone to hell. In fact US politics in general have gone to hell. That's what's hurting the US more than anything and it makes me glad I've moved out of there years ago.
Get over it. He was your biggest ally for decades. The fact that you lost control of him is your own stupid fault.
Bullshit. It was the US doing the testing. Saddam merely used what the US gave him.
So? Go and invade Israel if you're so concerned about UN human rights charters and resolutions.
WTF?
That's quite a simplistic view. I forgive you, considering your other way-off statements so far. Communists HAD taken over Vietnam, and had MASSIVE backing from the population. That's no reason to invade and carpet-bomb the place with napalm and chemical weapons ( the same weapons you were just crying about Saddam using ).
Hardly. It's more like MAKING all the shit and expecting everyone else to call it flowers.
Oh fuck off. The US was built on slavery, and the remnants of it are still very much alive today. Abolishing monarchies? What do you call George Dubya, commander in chief? What's the point of abolishing something and replacing it with the same thing, but a different name? Why not try some democracy instead? Huh? And as for cleaning up the mess in the middle east, I believe you're FUCKING up the middle east. You must have a pretty warped idea of what's going on over there. You're American, right