RIP Canada's dollar

[ElectricPlasma]

Holy crap, I can hardly buy anything valued in USD anymore without dishing out way more money than intended.

The loonie (Canadian dollar) is now at an all-time low valued at .72 cents USD. Let me put thing in perspective for you; something worth 285 USD would cost a Canadian ~400$ of their money. I call BS! :yabbmad::scowl:

It's getting to the point where I have to convert something before I consider buying it (online). I'm actually thinking about opening a US bank account and converting a large amount of money to USD so that account's money value would go up, as apposed to down. This is ridiculous for Canadians, the worst thing is it's supposed to get way worse. I'm trying to act now while I can.

The loonie isn't forecasted to go up until 2018, it's supposed to go down until then. At .72 it's already horrid, I can't imagine it plunging like banks have said, that would be terrible.

This would be a very odd way in basically investing in the united states dollar, to try and compensate for the loss of value Canadian's are experiencing. Given my bank's foreign exchange fees are 2.5% of the amount of money you give them to exchange, but that's nothing compared the the ~28% loss of value our currency is already witnessing. There's no clear indication why it's going down, there are given reasons but there doesn't seem to be a main one it's more of a collection of difficulties. Oil, supply and demand, USD raising, I don't really know honestly.

Hopefully banks are wrong and it will go up sooner, or maybe the government will at least get off their ass and realize this, but for now I'm going to try investing in USD, it's kind of easy and obvious since official banks such as Scotiabank have already given info that the loonie will not rise for 2 years.

Struggles of international rates.

I use USD very often because I do a lot of my shopping online, even some Canadian stores sell products in USD. Again, not working in Canadians' favor, but we gotta deal with it anyway. I could imagine this would greatly affect people travelling from Canada to the USA as well, whether it be vacation or any other reason. Prices would go sky high for them, especially if they are not aware of the situation.

Is anybody else affected by the currency exchange rates, good or bad?

 

[Ears and Eggs]

It sucks, yeah. I've basically stopped buying from any US sites unless there is absolutely no alternative. Incredible considering just 5 years ago the currencies were close to par with each other. It's starting to cause the cost of lots of items here to increase I've noticed.
Really hope it doesn't go too much farther, or I'll simply have to stop a lot of my online purchasing.

 

[InfinitusEquitas]

Huh, I remember going to montreal, way back in 2007 I think, and that was the first time the Canadian dollar matched the US dollar. Even then I was still able to get slight discounts for paying in USD.

On the plus side for you guys, it's likely to make traveling to Canada look very appealing to Americans, and maybe bump tourism up a bit. I mean crap, if it was spring or summer time, I would go for a long weekend without a second thought.

 

[Gabe]

Plus climate change is affecting the production of Alberto's oil sands, one of Canada's biggest incomes and one of the largest oil reserves in the world. It can be a very environmentally damaging project at times, but everybody complains until the value of our dollar drops and our government budget gets shrunk. It'll especially suck for us Albertans, but who cares about them anyway. I'm all for environmental change, but I have a feeling soon my province won't be the best place to live... :/

 

[ARG]

It's just the Canadian lifestyle tax increasing again. Internet prices, cellular prices, dollar dropping. All just part of living here.

I think we're in for even more drastic drops soon.

 

[ElectricPlasma]

It's just the Canadian lifestyle tax increasing again. Internet prices, cellular prices

Don't even get me started on cell prices, lol.

You'd be surprised that everything is cheaper in the USA, as they do have 16 trillion dollars in debt to pay. Also keep in mind that there is not 16 trillion dollars in the economy to obtain all at once, not even to pay it off gradually.

Why the USA hasn't gone bankrupt is still a mystery. Seems like they can do whatever they want and not have to pay, but they can still keep their prices/taxes/currency reasonable.

But we still have free health care!

 

[diachi]

It's just the Canadian lifestyle tax increasing again. Internet prices, cellular prices, dollar dropping. All just part of living here.

I think we're in for even more drastic drops soon.

The coming year or two will be rough for a lot of people. I'd say it'll be a close contender to the 2008 crisis, but I'm not economist.

 

[planters]

There's no clear indication why it's going down, there are given reasons but there doesn't seem to be a main one it's more of a collection of difficulties.

Why the USA hasn't gone bankrupt is still a mystery. Seems like they can do whatever they want and not have to pay, but they can still keep their prices/taxes/currency reasonable.

It's my understanding that the US dollar is stronger because we say it is. This is not meant to be facetious. The US dollar is the fiat currency for the globe. Fiat means "defined" to have a particular value relative to other currencies and this value is negotiated between the largest central bankers and the Federal Reserve (a private organization made up of central bankers on loan from their banks:yabbmad.

Consequently, the US is enjoying a false sense of wealth at the expense of other devalued currencies. However, in the long run, this is further destroying the US manufacturing base. We don't have to make anything we just buy it with our over-valued currency.

With our screwed up politics we had looked into moving to Canada, but recent changes in immigration law meant it would cost us millions and your even more recent presidential election sure put the nix to that idea. How could you be that stupid? Oh I forgot, look who's talking.

 

[Shakenawake]

Don't even get me started on cell prices, lol.

You'd be surprised that everything is cheaper in the USA, as they do have 16 trillion dollars in debt to pay. Also keep in mind that there is not 16 trillion dollars in the economy to obtain all at once, not even to pay it off gradually.

Why the USA hasn't gone bankrupt is still a mystery. Seems like they can do whatever they want and not have to pay, but they can still keep their prices/taxes/currency reasonable.

But we still have free health care!

the debt will never be paid. each dollar loaned to the treasury by the federal reserve is loaned plus interest, so even if every dollar was repaid, there'd still be the interest. it's impossible, and the proponents of the system know this. it's one reason I am in favor of silver/gold backed money. if it were tied to something finite and tangible, maybe our monetary policy would follow. might not be perfect but it should prevent us from continually pulling money outta thin air to pay for our unenlightened empire which we rule with force and coercion rather than by good example. for now our income tax will continue to pay the shareholders of the federal reserve their guaranteed 6% dividend. just my thoughts

in short, we are bankrupt and have been for a long time. our dollars are essentially traded debt, aka IOUs

 

[planters]

I am in favor of silver/gold backed money.

All responsible people should be, but this will never happen. The fraud is too great. Ever wonder why commodity prices are not skyrocketing with the Fed "printing" money like mad? Notice how real inflation as measured by the buying power of your dollars is much higher than the declared 0.5% in the US. Are you kidding me? Go to the grocery store. What used to cost $3 now costs $3.15 and at the same time you only get 14 oz when you used to get 16 oz and instead of a box you get it in a sack? These two things shouldn't go together, but the difference is the global commodities are paper IOU's and these are flooding the market, keeping the prices low. If the only acceptable form for gold were physical gold the price would be many thousands of dollars.

This can't be allowed to happen. The real inflation rate would force interest rates to comparable levels otherwise no one would lend money only to be paid back with money whose value decreased to less than the interest earned. Real interest rates of 5-10% would completely consume tax revenues to cover our 20T in debt. The entire world is becoming one banana republic, a few extremely rich individuals with access to the institutions that control the currencies and a huge, poor dependency class with little hope of advancement. This system is not conducive to research, innovation and hard work, "why bother" the chances of bridging this gap are remote. We are facing a new dark age.

 

[Kizaru]

Good news for me, as I've always wanted to see alaska

 

[RedCowboy]

The Canadian Dollar is tied to oil prices.

Oil prices can't stay this low forever, there's too much profit left on the table.

I bet the Middle East will get back to normal after the US election, well as long as we get a republican and get ISIS under control.

There is a lot we are not being told, but ISIS has tankers full of stolen oil for sale, and middle men could turn it over, the whole world over there depends on US protection, I don't know, but I can't see oil staying this low forever.

 

[ElectricPlasma]

Good news for me, as I've always wanted to see alaska

If you're referring to taking advantage of Canada's low currency value for travelling purposes, I can only hope you're joking... For one CAD is currently higher value than AUD (Australian dollar) and for two Alaska is not located in Canada. :crackup: Alaska is a state in the USA, which borders Canada.

The Canadian Dollar is tied to oil prices.

Oil prices can't stay this low forever, there's too much profit left on the table.

I bet the Middle East will get back to normal after the US election, well as long as we get a republican and get ISIS under control.

There is a lot we are not being told, but ISIS has tankers full of stolen oil for sale, and middle men could turn it over, the whole world over there depends on US protection, I don't know, but I can't see oil staying this low forever.

Interesting,

Luckily, the oil crisis is starting to revert to normal. Oil prices per barrel skyrocketed by 8%, and has had positive effects on CAD. CAD to USD recently started increasing, for the first time in months at 0.73 USD per CAD. Us Canadians are celebrating as we're hopeful to finally see an increase in value for CAD rather than a continuing decrease

 

[Pi R Squared]

The wars in the Middle East will only continue to escalate after the U.S. election no matter who is elected, and so will the refugee crisis. The Euro will decline in value, it will drop to $0.75 maybe not by the end of the year but if not it will be soon after. The Schengen area will come to an end, the U.K. will likely leave the E.U. and there will be widespread unrest in Germany and Sweden. As the wars continue to escalate so will terrorist attacks in the countries participating. All this will further destablize all of Europe. Eventually the wars will cause a big drop in Middle East oil production, that combined with an increase in demand due to the war effort will cause the price of oil to go back up. Sorry to sound so pessimistic about the future but I think that's what will happen.

Alan

 

[RedCowboy]

I fully expect to see a lot of Muslim extremist/Jihad terror attacks.

I hate it, I hate to say it but I see it coming.

I am not picking on Muslims, but I fully expect there will be a lot of nasty stuff in the years to come.

I have no inside knowledge and I am not hoping for any of this, but I fear it is coming.

The world economy is headed for a recession, but it may be avoided, there are a lot of variables, I know if we get a democrat we are in trouble, Barry has dug us in now we have to slowly dig out carefully.

Another big variable that I hate to mention, but if there is any atomic involvement in the middle east fighting that could restrict oil supply and change things for Canada and Russia, China and the US will need cold fusion soon or we will be getting poorer while propping up Canada buying oil.

If we get cold fusion going soon that will hurt the world economy but be good for the US.

There are many variables, but also a lot of possible trouble Barry has left us facing.

Now China could get cold fusion going before we do, this next US election will dictate our path, decline or a fighting chance.

There are some facts in the front of this video, the tail end is a commercial, still oil can't stay this low or we will have global trouble.

The whole world is feeling the pain of low oil prices and it is expected to get worse.

 

[Alaskan]

Good news for me, as I've always wanted to see alaska

I never knew Alaska was part of Canada!