American Dollar, hows it doing?

[duckwithanokhat]

I'm only a teen, so I wouldn't know. But how is the American dollar doing? Last time, I heard its getting rekt by Euros, but since a lot of companies target America, the european prices for those products go up.

 

But since I just checked, looks like US dollar is going up. So, how is it?

 

EDIT: I'm stupid, US is still getting rekt by Euros

[Rune]

Better than the canadian one.

[KettyKoala]

Their are pros and cons having a strong or weak currency, so you can't really say one is beating another because it's not how it works. Having  weak dollar will mean it costs more to import goods from foreign countries, but it also means that you can set prices of exports more competitively. Having a strong currency is the opposite. Governments will try to keep their currency balanced based on how much they import vs export, which is why China keeps it's currency very weak because it exports a lot of goods.

[dalekphalm]

9 hours ago, duckwithanokhat said:

I'm only a teen, so I wouldn't know. But how is the American dollar doing? Last time, I heard its getting rekt by Euros, but since a lot of companies target America, the european prices for those products go up.

 

But since I just checked, looks like US dollar is going up. So, how is it?

 

EDIT: I'm stupid, US is still getting rekt by Euros

I don't know what you mean by "rekt".

 

The Euro is currently worth $1.14 USD today. In Q2-Q3 2014, the Euro was worth about $1.40 USD - so either the Euro went down, or the USD went up (Or more likely, a little of both) in the last 2 years.

 

Furthermore, cost of goods is generally cheaper in the US (Not always, but compared to the likes of Germany, UK, France, etc), so your dollar goes farther - hence, it balances out.

 

In general, the USD is doing "just fine". It's not getting "rekt", but it's also not "rekking" either.

 

The CAD, on the other hand, has been steadily tanking for the last 5 years or so. Back in 2012, the CAD and USD were at parity - the CAD even took the lead for quite a while, before the Oil Price collapse. It dropped to a low of about $0.65 USD or so, in late 2015. Since the start of 2016 though, the CAD has been rallying and climbing back up - we're currently at 1 CAD = $0.77 USD right now. Not great, but better. The price of CAD is tied to the strength of Oil pretty strongly, since one of our major industries and exports is Oil from Alberta. We're attempting to further diversify our economy, and the central-east (Ontario-Quebec) economy is much less reliant on the price of Oil, so the CAD seems to be getting stronger.

[GeekJump]

Do you plan on traveling to/from the US and Europe anytime soon? The USD is doing just fine right now. It's always going to fluctuate -/+ a few cents regularly but it's improving.

 

Went abroad a couple years back and the conversion now is dam good these days >_>'

[duckwithanokhat]

8 hours ago, GeekJump said:

Do you plan on traveling to/from the US and Europe anytime soon? The USD is doing just fine right now. It's always going to fluctuate -/+ a few cents regularly but it's improving.

 

Went abroad a couple years back and the conversion now is dam good these days >_>'

Nah, just curious.

 

8 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

I don't know what you mean by "rekt".

 

The Euro is currently worth $1.14 USD today. In Q2-Q3 2014, the Euro was worth about $1.40 USD - so either the Euro went down, or the USD went up (Or more likely, a little of both) in the last 2 years.

 

Furthermore, cost of goods is generally cheaper in the US (Not always, but compared to the likes of Germany, UK, France, etc), so your dollar goes farther - hence, it balances out.

 

In general, the USD is doing "just fine". It's not getting "rekt", but it's also not "rekking" either.

 

The CAD, on the other hand, has been steadily tanking for the last 5 years or so. Back in 2012, the CAD and USD were at parity - the CAD even took the lead for quite a while, before the Oil Price collapse. It dropped to a low of about $0.65 USD or so, in late 2015. Since the start of 2016 though, the CAD has been rallying and climbing back up - we're currently at 1 CAD = $0.77 USD right now. Not great, but better. The price of CAD is tied to the strength of Oil pretty strongly, since one of our major industries and exports is Oil from Alberta. We're attempting to further diversify our economy, and the central-east (Ontario-Quebec) economy is much less reliant on the price of Oil, so the CAD seems to be getting stronger.

Whats the Oil Price collapse? Sound pretty bad considering the CAD went so low.

[PlayStation 2]

You know practically every currency is traded into US dollars because it's the most prevalent currency.

[CrazyCanuck]

5 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

The CAD, on the other hand, has been steadily tanking for the last 5 years or so. Back in 2012, the CAD and USD were at parity - the CAD even took the lead for quite a while, before the Oil Price collapse. It dropped to a low of about $0.65 USD or so, in late 2015. Since the start of 2016 though, the CAD has been rallying and climbing back up - we're currently at 1 CAD = $0.77 USD right now. Not great, but better. The price of CAD is tied to the strength of Oil pretty strongly, since one of our major industries and exports is Oil from Alberta. We're attempting to further diversify our economy, and the central-east (Ontario-Quebec) economy is much less reliant on the price of Oil, so the CAD seems to be getting stronger.

I'm happy you've italicized 'attempting'. I don't think we're actually putting effort into that attempt, though. Our government, Alberta specifically, put 'all their eggs in one basket', and now they're suffering the consequences for not diversifying. If history has taught anything, you can't focus on one industry and expect it to never decline.

 

And sadly, the rest of the country pays for Alberta's incompetence. While I feel slightly bad for the people affected and who went en masse on EI (or whatever Alberta's version of Ontario Works/welfare is), it was to be expected. Signs have been there for years, and yet we ignored them all.

[ALwin]

6 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

The Euro is currently worth $1.14 USD today. In Q2-Q3 2014, the Euro was worth about $1.40 USD - so either the Euro went down, or the USD went up (Or more likely, a little of both) in the last 2 years.

Part of the reason for the Euro going down is due to the Swiss.  Last year or so, the Swiss banks had run out of what they could do to keep the Euro strong.

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-30829917

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/euro-floor_swiss-national-bank-scraps-exchange-rate-ceiling/41217364

[dalekphalm]

1 hour ago, duckwithanokhat said:

Whats the Oil Price collapse? Sound pretty bad considering the CAD went so low.

Steak years ago, oil was trading well over $100 per barrel.

 

Then the price dropped... A lot. I think the low was around $30 per barrel.

 

Most of Canada's oil is trapped in the Alberta oil sands. Compared to conventional oil fields, it's quite expensive to mine oil from the oil sands. Canada's pill industry needed a high price per barrel of oil to turn a good profit.

 

Today, the cost of oil is about $35 USD per barrel.

[Blade of Grass]

2 hours ago, CrazyCanuck said:

I'm happy you've italicized 'attempting'. I don't think we're actually putting effort into that attempt, though. Our government, Alberta specifically, put 'all their eggs in one basket', and now they're suffering the consequences for not diversifying. If history has taught anything, you can't focus on one industry and expect it to never decline.

 

And sadly, the rest of the country pays for Alberta's incompetence. While I feel slightly bad for the people affected and who went en masse on EI (or whatever Alberta's version of Ontario Works/welfare is), it was to be expected. Signs have been there for years, and yet we ignored them all.

Honestly, the real issue isn't that the province of Alberta put 'all their eggs in one basket', but that our past Federal government put all their eggs in Alberta's basket. 

Funny enough, Ontario and Quebec are benefiting from a dollar (makes buying from Canada's manufacturing hub more appealing). 

[patrick3027]

13 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

-snip-

When the Euro was created, a conversion of $1.20 = 1 € was targeted, so I'd say the current situation is pretty balanced.

 

When the dollar was at $1,40 for an euro, it hurted the European economy quite a lot, so I'm happy the situation is now more balanced, even though a trip to the US is now a lot more expenesive than it was a few years ago.

[Paralectic]

14 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

I don't know what you mean by "rekt".

 

The Euro is currently worth $1.14 USD today. In Q2-Q3 2014, the Euro was worth about $1.40 USD - so either the Euro went down, or the USD went up (Or more likely, a little of both) in the last 2 years.

 

Furthermore, cost of goods is generally cheaper in the US (Not always, but compared to the likes of Germany, UK, France, etc), so your dollar goes farther - hence, it balances out.

 

In general, the USD is doing "just fine". It's not getting "rekt", but it's also not "rekking" either.

 

The CAD, on the other hand, has been steadily tanking for the last 5 years or so. Back in 2012, the CAD and USD were at parity - the CAD even took the lead for quite a while, before the Oil Price collapse. It dropped to a low of about $0.65 USD or so, in late 2015. Since the start of 2016 though, the CAD has been rallying and climbing back up - we're currently at 1 CAD = $0.77 USD right now. Not great, but better. The price of CAD is tied to the strength of Oil pretty strongly, since one of our major industries and exports is Oil from Alberta. We're attempting to further diversify our economy, and the central-east (Ontario-Quebec) economy is much less reliant on the price of Oil, so the CAD seems to be getting stronger.

The euro wasn't 1.40 dollars 2 years ago, it was in 2009.

[MrDynamicMan]

Wow. Here's little me sitting in South Africa where our economy tanked from 7 to the dollar to fifteen in 4 years. 

And we're durrently dealing with a president who stole the equivalent of $120 million to build his private mansion for him and his six wives. Did I mention that our president dropped out in third grade, and that he can barely read and gets all his speeches written for him? 

[CrazyCanuck]

1 hour ago, MrDynamicMan said:

Wow. Here's little me sitting in South Africa where our economy tanked from 7 to the dollar to fifteen in 4 years. 

And we're durrently dealing with a president who stole the equivalent of $120 million to build his private mansion for him and his six wives. Did I mention that our president dropped out in third grade, and that he can barely read and gets all his speeches written for him? 

To be fair, isn't that the vast majority of presidents/prime ministers/etc.? Obama doesn't write his own speeches. I know for a fact pretty-boy Trudeau doesn't write his own speeches. I imagine that's the case for most country leaders.

[MrDynamicMan]

1 hour ago, CrazyCanuck said:

To be fair, isn't that the vast majority of presidents/prime ministers/etc.? Obama doesn't write his own speeches. I know for a fact pretty-boy Trudeau doesn't write his own speeches. I imagine that's the case for most country leaders.

It's much worse than that. 90% of the time he doesn't know what he's talking about. The other day he read a speech from 2012, and only stopped once someone told him it was the wrong speech. 

YouTube "jacob Zuma counting." And you'll see the extent of how bad it is 

 

[CrazyCanuck]

2 hours ago, MrDynamicMan said:

It's much worse than that. 90% of the time he doesn't know what he's talking about. The other day he read a speech from 2012, and only stopped once someone told him it was the wrong speech. 

YouTube "jacob Zuma counting." And you'll see the extent of how bad it is 

 

That video is amusing. "Listen properly", as if it'd be your fault for not understanding.

[MrDynamicMan]

1 minute ago, CrazyCanuck said:

That video is amusing. "Listen properly", as if it'd be your fault for not understanding.

Yup... 

Hopefully he gets ousted for this whole nkandhla bullshit. (the mansion he built) 

[dalekphalm]

5 hours ago, Paralectic said:

The euro wasn't 1.40 dollars 2 years ago, it was in 2009.

(red lines added for emphasis)

 

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