My job requires me to travel to BC regularly. While there the last time, I bought a large dollar item. On the particular day of the purchase the US dollar was actually worth LESS than the Canadian dollar. What gives? I recall in the past actually planning fishing vacations to BC because the exchange rate was so beneficial to us. I'm no economist but I assume this has something to do with our present economic state. How did we get ourselves into this mess?

The U.S. dollar is relatively weaker than the Canadian dollar for a variety of reasons. Bottom line is currencies fluctuate. I have seen the Canadian dollar worth as much as .08 more than ours back in the 70s.

Like so much with international economics there are good and bad about this. A relatively weak dollar is part of why we are paying more for gas and all other imports. But it also increases our ability to export our products such as airplanes, apples and wheat.

A weak dollar helps the fed, and hurts all of us who use it to buy things we use to live. A weak dollar directly precedes inflation, it takes more to buy the same things, but cheaper short term to pay debt based on number of dollars.

I am very concerned that our basic economy is broken. As in can't be fixed, needs an overhaul and parts replaced. Hope I am wrong; I have 2 kids still in school and am at least 5 years from "retirement."

As an American, I will keep plugging along and do m best to be a citizen who makes something or does something of real value.

I remember in the 90's when I managed a bank in Bellingham, and the Canadian dollar was worth 64 cent in US funds. The Canadians would complain about the rate, and my reply was, "Do you vote? Give Chretien a call and let him know."

A trip to Canadia for some entertainment was pretty cheap.

A weak dollar also helps boost exports, something we desparately need. This is one reason why the export lumber market is strong right now, but there are others.

I have a Canadian friend who makes his living exporting stuff to the USA. He used to whine when we travelled because our dollar bought more pesos than his, but now he's unhappy that our weak dollar hurts his export business.

Part of the issue is simple semantics. There is absolutely zero reason why our dollar and theirs should have the same value. If they called theirs a fukwad no one would expect them to be equal.

The strength of a countries currency reflects many economic issues as well as political. The Chinese have long kept their currency undervalued to help with exports. It seems to have worked.

The company that owns the company I work for loves a weak dollar.

Very true. We have to price our goods to be competitive in the global market.
The Canadiens have so far not gone throught the recession we have in the States. Thinking out loud here, is that because the Canadien dollar and economy has been underpriced and now is showing underlying strength, or is it the more recent run up (with some more recent drop) in commodities. Or is it just because they are Canadiens?

It's because their bacon is round.

This..............

..and the fact that they didn't have the run up in real estate that we had. Commodities are worldwide and their dollar is effectively at par, give or take. We both see the affect of commodity price changes. They didn't experience the RE boom we did, and that is what has insulated them somewhat.


Awesome answer Dave!

Just spent a weekend in Victoria.

-Customs in and out was a breeze, didnt see any searches at all agents were friendly.

- Fuel higher than here, expected

-Food prices were amazingly about exactly the same as in the US

-Alcohol, didnt go to the liquor store but bar and restaurant prices were higher than the US, it hurts buying $5-6 bottles of beer and $50 for a pitcher...fuuu

- Did some recreational hiking, site seeing etc. Canadians are a pretty active bunch, there was a lot of traffic in the parks we went to, foot and vehicle. Lots of sandle wearing hippies, overall a good bunch of people. Saw lots of BMW's and other high end cars, thier economy seemed very good, restaurants and bars were full.

We're all part of CanAmerixo.


Fishy

Tell people in Vancouver and the lower mainland that they haven't seen a Real Estate boom and their eyes might explode.

Gas, smokes, beer, milk, and processed foods are more expensive up there.

Vegetables, weed, sushi, and medical care are less expensive up there. I would also argue that the people are nicer, more open-minded, and the streets are safer.

The Asian influence is the biggest reason their economy survived and you their streets drip with Beemers and Mercedes. They also don't give all their tax dollars to the military.

He sounds like a hard guy to please.



I would agree with those statements as well...except for the weed part as I have no experience in that area on either side of the border.

I'd move there just for the fishing if it wasn't considered "unamerican". We should have just taken BC when we had the chance. Yeah, we may have ruined it faster but I would have gotten some good fishing years out of it before it went to hell.