General non-MG related discussions. No politics here please!!
The last time this happened I was 14 years old. 1976.
After paying an extra 0.60 on the dollar just four or five years ago... this is hard to imagine. I just went and checked some stuff I am bidding on with Ebay and even they are showing the item costing more in US dollars.
Laugh at our funny coloUred money now will yaz :D
BUT... Still not seeing the deals. :(
Paul.
1 Australian dollar = 0.885387 U.S. dollars
Yep, time to hit eBay!
Yes, the dollar has been loosing a lot of ground since last year. I work for a British Car company in the US and the British engineers coming over for a few months are having a field day when it comes to shopping for Jeans, shoes, etc. The exchange rate is almost 2:1 and of course, it hurts me when I go to the UK and need to buy parts, shoes or beer!
Pretty soon our families will be taking wheelbarrows of money to buy bread. Then Hillary will get elected,..after a mysterious burning the RiechHouse. Then she will declare middle aged white men enemies of the state. Ugly big women will be conscripted into the army. Shortly there after the invasion of Canada will begin. Soooo, enjoy your moment in the sun,..while you have it.
wyatt Wrote:
wyatt Wrote:
Jim1971 Wrote:
The lower dollar helps our balance of trade and makes products made in America cheaper overseas... oh, that's right... we don't make anything here anymore. Everything’s been off-shored to China. OK, we're screwed.
Steve
Maybe when the dollar falls to the level of the rupee, the Chinese will start outsourcing to the US. :D
That's part of the process before we make you the 51st state! ;)
I stopped at a Starbucks today and was idlely looking at at the merchandise while waiting in line. There was a coffee mug w/ a price tag that said: $10.95 US / $14.95 CAN. What's up w/ that?
PaulP Wrote:
Anyone check what they have done with the pricing on books and magazines?
We are still getting screwed on magazines and books. The companies now say that the price difference reflects duty, transportation, etc.
Before, they said it was the exchange rate.
Best to cancel our subscriptions to all those US publications here in the GWN and place them in the US.
(Just being the devil's advocate) Look at it this way. We were willing to pay more for books etc. when the exchange rate was way out of whack. What's the problem now? $14CDN for a $10US magazine was OK 6 months ago. What's wrong with $14CDN now?
What should happen is that suppliers should suck it up and eat the loss of an equal exchange rate and give us Canadians the break.
Good point John... The US suppliers of our magazines are doing great getting their Canadian price. An extra $4 on a $10 sale is only an extra 40%. Hope they are writing out nice bonus cheques for their people.
To really put the free enterprise system to work we need to refuse to pay their price. As long as we pay it the price is correct.
My father taught me that what you paid for something had nothing to do with what you sold it for. You just charged what the market would bear. At times if the cost was too high you had to sell below cost.
Yay - the Aussie dollar cracked the $US0.90 today for the first time in 20 years!
Currently it is wavering around $US0.89.
Doing interesting things for the share market and worrying exporters - but I am desperately looking for something US to spend my new-found wealth on :)
Derek up North Wrote:
Absolutely. I could retire comfortably to Mexico with what I've got save.
At the risk of being dumped on by my Canadian brothers and sisters this is fact:
1/ Canadian products require bi-lingual packaging, manuals, and as such drives up the cost of products sold in Canada. Perhaps not by the differences you are seeing still on the products (because they are still in the supply chain pipeline at the older exchange rates), but it is a fact that with our smaller market, lower production runs and added costs of selling in Canada (including the added cost of having employees with our social costs) you will find and continue to find a discrepancy.
2/ While consumers may gloat about the Loonie and the US greenback being at par, the result is that Canadian manufacturers (yes we DO have many small Canadian manufacturers) are taking a bath. They used to sell in Canada and the US at the same price and reap an added margin on US sales. This has evaporated and is causing problems.
How do I know this? In 2004 we bought a US software company. We took Canadian dollars, converted to US and bought. Over the last three years as we paid down the debt (using sales in the the US, paying US taxes and supporting US employees I might add) we have lost ~ $250,000.00 just in exchange rate conversion loss.
Give me back a .65 dollar any day. It attracts business to Canada, tourism, movie production, events, you name it. When Americans come here they spend money. Where is the incentive to come if they get penalized on their greenback?
20 million Canadians vs 200 million Americans? Which market would you prefer to sell to?
Seriously, and with great respect.... God Bless America!
I'm collecting Canadian dollars for the future -- just send all you want to me --feel free to email for address :)
Here's the kind of thing that gets under my skin. BestBuy USA vs BestBuy Canada.
Toshiba 32" LCD HD TV
US price? Regular: US$899.99 Sale: US$809.99
CDN$874 CDN$786
Canadian price? Regular: $999.99 Sale: $899.99
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&id=pcat17071&type=page&ks=960&st=Toshiba+37%22+LCD+HDTV&sc=Global&cp=1&sp=&qp=crootcategoryid%23%23-1%23%23-1%7E%7Eq546f736869626120333722204c43442048445456%7E%7Ecabcat0100000%23%236%23%237e%7E%7Ecabcat0101000%23%235%23%2354%7E%7Ecabcat0101001%23%230%23%2341%7E%7Ef312%7C%7C4c434420466c61742d50616e656c%7E%7Ef330%7C%7C33302671756f743b202d2033392671756f743b%7E%7Enf401%7C%7C546f7368696261&list=y&usc=All+Categories&nrp=15&iht=n
http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&MSCSProfile=3C79F0C7EA3162B2D7ADAC57314A0E6ADB34F063B1ED7D353633380C1E9BE124DEEB65AF82A4CCE775EBEA03F3F6897919E9A509770B70B40F1E3E324B0685F010BA531DC79DE560957229AAF868799F4AD96A8B9F26C69BC262E5A7A05885EE3BF3CA5D25FC49E435B7513776330FB49EF1FBD6A234EAEFEC2C9184846A69AA1B951ED302885790998D026AF3047E35C776B4CA67DFDDE786D51FBD63619A43E81E2676797FBBCD5A0428F1C568A77DF8D23C684C9CCC85D513EBC8C3C0EE0316E96969FC3D6AE3&sku_id=0926INGFS10085638&catid=23244
Not that anyone buys a 32" TV any more!
Derek up North Wrote:
Hold on to that water - it will soon be bringing top CSA$ in this neck of the woods unless we get a few hurricanes or something!