.998 today!!!
Already passed parity…
I should have waited to buy the CFAI curriculum, My visa bill shows $667.89 CAD charge. Damn!
Yeah I got my CFAI books and exam for 630 CAD.
We have hit parity!
Never thought I’d see this in my time. My parents always told me the “folklore” stories of in the 70’s before I was born, how our CAD was worth more. I always blew that off as myth. This is crazy. A few years ago (late 90’s/early 00’s) when I was at DePaul, I remember coming back here to CHI after X-mas at home in SK and LOSING almost $40 for every $100. Just waiting for the perfect time to transfer my CPP down here.
If I were a Canadian ex-pat lviing in the US with Canadian savings I’d be converting now for sure. Play the cycle, the CAD will be back to 0.80 within 5 years or so for sure.
My ex-housemate used to work in SF Bay Area. But now he returned to Vancouver. He is only making slightly less now but nothing beats being around your family.
CFA_Halifax Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > If I were a Canadian ex-pat lviing in the US with > Canadian savings I’d be converting now for sure. > > Play the cycle, the CAD will be back to 0.80 > within 5 years or so for sure. Hali - that’s exactly what I’m planning to do next week when I fly home for a week vacay. Got a lot of money stuff to handle. It does kind of blow for me going the other way; paying off my CAD credit cards with USD now.
But why would CAD be back to 0.8 if US keeps spending like it is financed by printing new money (ie reduce interest rate)?
ymc Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > But why would CAD be back to 0.8 if US keeps > spending like it is financed by printing new money > (ie reduce interest rate)? long term I mean. The Canadian Dollar/USD, for all of it’s strengths has everything, absoluetly everything going for it. - Extremely strong labour market, relatievly low inflation considering, record high oil prices (in nom terms), high prices for other commodities (minerals, agricultural goods, gold, timber etc.) except for the notable exception of natural gas, and above all else, a weak USD. The Canadian labour market and macroeconomy will almost certaintly slow, espeically in the East due to the strength of the CAD and a general slowing in the US where much of it’s trade goes to. The west is course a different story, as the Asian boom and general state of the global economy (both of which are still pretty strong) is much more important. All the same, the boom out west is causing significant wage (and house) inflation in the west, especially in Alberta and it is eventually going to cause wage rates to go up out there even more than they already have. Worse yet, they will go up at a time when organized labour is mobilizing in the oilsands, and the provincial governemnt is looking for ever higher royalties. To make matters worse, the USD value of the oil extracted needs to increase in order to keep the margins the same due the declining USD for oilsands producers as they face costs in CAD and reciveve USD energy prices. It’s really going to be a perfect storm of bad events out there. I’m definetly not saying that it is going to collapse, or that it isn’t the long term future of global carbon based energy, but it faces stumbles in the next few years for sure. When this all starts, this combined with the fact that the US is more productive and has lower labour costs will cause the natural long term exchange rate to move more towards natural rate of say 0.75 to 0.85. Still I think we have a few years of 0.9 to 1.1ish Canadian Dollars. Just my 2 cents (which are now worth your American 2 cents!)
In the long run CAD will go to 0.8-0.85 USD since productivity of Canadian workforce is only 80% of US workforce. But other factors may prevent that from happening like commodity prices (important since Canada is a resource based economy) and debt levels (especially since the US is up to its neck in debt).
time for more ebay shopping. lots of it.
yup, I agree. With lower taxes, lower prices (due to exchange markup not being eliminated here in Canada) and now an exchange rate at parity, goods are more less half as much in the U.S. They were when I was there a few weeks back. Will PPP ever hold, me thinks not!
Does anyone here know the reasons as to WHY in the mid 70’s the Canadian dollar reached parity, what were the economic forces behind it then? It would be interesting to see the differences/similarities!
cfa_toronto_on Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > In the long run CAD will go to 0.8-0.85 USD since > productivity of Canadian workforce is only 80% of > US workforce. > What kind of logic is that? Even if you productivity number is correct, what about Japan? Do you mean their productivity is only less than 1% of US? 
bsivia Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Does anyone here know the reasons as to WHY in the > mid 70’s the Canadian dollar reached parity, what > were the economic forces behind it then? It would > be interesting to see the > differences/similarities! The gap in labour productivity didn’t exist, that’s actually a quite recent phenomena. I think if you look back to before the 70’s the canadian and us dollars were pretty much at par for a very long time. Were our currency’s ever linked?
OK, seriously, what is the deal with Schweser. They’re more or less overcharging us Canadians $100 considering the strength of the CAD. I check everyday to see if they update prices, nope… It’s pathetic!