Par!

[bjarvis]

This morning, the Canadian dollar was at par with the US dollar. Only five years ago, the loonie was at $0.62 USD.

This says more about the relative weakness of the US dollar than anything else, and I see the weakness as directly related to enormous trade and budget deficits. While a weak US dollar might be useful to correct the trade imbalance, it's an uphill battle: as of last week, the US' largest trading partner isn't Canada but China, and China loosely pegs their currency to the US dollar in large part to maintain the trade imbalance in their favour.

Comments

[copperred.livejournal.com]

While you are correct about Canada vs the US, there is a very grave risk that if the Chinese yuan/renmibi (since the yuan is not directly convertible) rose, it would cause a huge inflation spike in the US, since products made in China would rise in price. Wal-mart would go out of business pretty quickly if it couldn't alternately source.

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

A currency reevaluation is going to happen eventually. Neither China's expansion nor the US trade & budget deficits can go on forever. I hope for a slow and controlled correction but a correction is required.

The folks at Walmart and other megacorps are pretty bright: I'm sure they'll find a way to make a buck off whatever happens.

[manley1.livejournal.com]

I think it's part of some master plan to turn us into a third-world nation like where India and China were not too long ago. This way, Americans will start getting their jobs once their economy dominates the world as we'll be poor by then. Jobs for everyone?

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

Now I *really* need to replace my Canadian passport! :-)

[pectopah.livejournal.com]

Seeing as how I live in Canadian $ and earn in US $, my life has become more and more expensive. Yahoo! Canada points out that Canadian prices probably won't start dropping anytime soon. Although since the rise of the loonie has started people are starting to ask out loud why books and some other US imports in Canada are so much more expensive for no apparent reason. There's lots of hemming and hawing.

I expect to see far more Quebec and Ontario license plates in Vermont in the coming days. Canada recently changed the duty-free exemption limit from $200 to $400 for absences of 48 hours.

[weekilter.livejournal.com]

And $1.40 to €1.00