Canadian Dollar ????

[Robert1950]

I haven't been following the $$$ market lately. I just checked and found the Cdn. $ is 92.5 U.S. !!!! What's happening??? Has Bush really *&$&*$ the US that much or what ???

[Rumble_b]

It's great! I took advantage of it last week to order some new p/u's from guitar fetish. It was around 0.90 I think. Saved me a few bucks for sure.

[bRian]

Some economists predict the Cdn $ will hit the value of the greenback$ and might even surpass it. The thing though about American's is that they are less conservative when it comes to spending money, their economy is capable of climbing out of a recession mucho faster unlike Canadians who tend to be even more conservative as prices begin to climb. Let's enjoy the ride while we can.

[Accept2]

Well some are enjoying the ride. The rising dollar is killing alot of Canadian companies, and the investers who hold shares in those companies. I guess it all boils down to if you prefer being a country that makes and sells things, or a country that simply buys things. If it keeps going up, we may just turn the country into one big Wal-Mart. But yes it is great to able to buy things much cheaper, it sucks if you are selling though.............

[searchin4signal]

The high dollar is one of the reasons I'm laid off right now. My whole mill is laid off with NO recall date. Another mill is going down at the end of this month indefinitely.
That makes me (and 150 other families and soon to be about 400 families total) less able to take advantage of buying anything from the States now don't it ??

[Milkman]

The high Canadian (or more accurately the weak American dollar) has had and continues to have devastating consequences for the Canadian manufacturing sector.

Factories are closing in Ontario folks. Remember that when you get excited about your buying power south of the border.

This is a consequence of our trade surplus with the US. Most manufatured goods are sold to American companies in American dollars.


It's tough sledding these days.

[Accept2]

The banks and oil companies are happy about the dollar, and it seems that they are the only ones our Bank of Canada and Finance Minister (regardless of party) is concerned about, so dont count on any changes...........

[dwagar]

changes? what changes do you expect from our federal gov't?

I don't think it's the strength of our $, it's the meltdown of the US$ internationally that is causing this. You can't pump trillions of $ into a war machine without consequences.

[Accept2]

I think you are thinking way too 1 dimensional there. The amount of changes the government could do in any situation could fill a library. Economies arent static and simple, well unless you speak to an economist, then they are. I guess thats the problem, you get the economists in the media and in the government departments and all of a sudden, we throw our hands up in the air and say we cant do anything because there is a war on. Thats the CDN way though, just let everything ride, and dont be proactive with your economy. Leave that kind of stuff to the Europeans.......

[dwagar]

sure, let's see. We could try to tank our economy to keep up with the US, that'd probably help.

With the weakness in the US $ that's already starting to happen. As said above, mills closing, etc.

How we doing against the Yen, the Euro? Does it matter?

One dimensionally, probably, it's called the Greenback. With the sheer powerhouse of the US economy, it is frustrating that there is very little we can do about it. The US$ has gone to hell against other currencies too.

US housing starts are on the decline (negative growth now) - Canadian mills start closing. If they rebound, they'll probably try to tax us again so we can't go after the business.

It's one thing to be proactive to keep our economy rolling, but really, what do we do to try to dive along side the US. That's gotta be a hard one.

I guess the question is, where should our $ be, who benefits and who gets hurt. For those of us importing a new guitar, hey, it's great. But as said above, if you don't have a job, any deal isn't a good one.

[JHarasym]

I keep hearing there are two primary factors driving the CDN $ up vs. the US$. One is demand for commodities that feature so heavily in our economy (petroleum products, metals, lumber), much of which goes to the US, but also to China and India, whose economies are booming.
The other is the US administration's fiscal policies (running huge deficits to finance the war) scaring currency traders away from the greenback.
It seems to me there is little we in Canada can do, governments or private sector, to influence this. So the demand for the CDN$ will continue to drive it's value up until these factors abate.
On the other hand if our federal government had any cojones (or weren't so tied in to big business) they could address the massive influx of cheap goods coming from China, the manufacture of which I believe are heavily subsidized by the Chinese government (which amounts to dumping) by charging dumping duties. Sure we would all pay a bit more at Wal-Mart, but it might lessen the rush by Canadian manufacturers to grab higher profits by moving jobs to China.

[Jeff Flowerday]

I have a Taylor 914c on the way, so I called Larry @ L&M in regards to the better dollar. He's looking into it, they don't pay for Taylors till they arrive unlike Gibson. Since I prepaid for most of the guitar, it looks like I might save myself a little on the remainder.

[Robboman]

$1 CAN = $0.9464 US as of today. Yikes!

[lolligagger]

I listen to the news channel every morning on my way to work (630 CHED News, Weather, Traffic and Sports) and occasionally something catches my attention. Apparently, another driver is the number of big Canadian companies getting taken over by big US companies (latest is Alcoa taking over Alcan). Canadian law requires the deal be done in Canadian currency, which makes our money scarcer, and theirs more abundant.

[Accept2]

Actually that is reverse of the current situation. There are more foriegn takeovers being made by Canadian companies now than by foreign companies taking over Canadian ones. Its because the CDN$ is so strong. Only in Dion's head are the foreigners taking over Canada..............