Canadian Dollar broke the 1.00 USD mark Good times. W's tax cuts are really paying off big time, right TJ?
Raising interest rates will bring the value of the dollar up. Who wants to do that and ruin the economy in the process? You people are simpletons. If you are using the dollar as a proxy for economic health, you need help.
Ok on a more serious note. More americans under the poverty level More americans not insured by health care More americans who live in debt More americans who are payed less compared to 8 years ago Should I go on?
My view of government is maximizing opportunity for people to succeed, not providing a safety net for incomptence and bringing everyone down to their level.
Here’s a story from the Chronicle on it. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/business/5152134.html Five years ago the Canadian dollar was worth 65 cents US. Today it reached parity. Since we’re your biggest trading partner, this a pretty big change for both of us.
To put this in perspective, and this will shock those who haven't traveled in Europe for a while, a dollar is worth .50 cents in the UK (worse than I thought), and .70 cents in the European Union. That is pretty staggering, folks. Trader_J may be heroically trying to bolster his good pal, Mr. Bush, but things are looking grim. As of today, the US trade deficit is $523 billion dollars for the year. It is not like a weak dollar is giving us a trade surplus. My old friend from Houston, who's lived in BC for the last 25 years, must think this is wild! The Canadian dollar, which he used to make fun of, worth as much as a US dollar. Wow. Impeach Mr. Bankrupt America. Hurry!
Five years ago I dealt with currency conversions on a regular basis and $0.64 was what I remember the CAD being worth. That is depressing. The worst of every world. If the dollar is going to be trashed, at least it could improve the trade deficit. The real problem is we have a huge intelligence deficit in the White House that can't be eliminated until January 2009.
It may have bottomed out at 64 cents. Now that I think of it it may have dipped under 64 briefly too. That was an all time low, or at least a many decade low, and today we hit a 30 year high. This is certainly not all good news for Canada, btw. Something like 80% of our exports go to the US. You have a population of 300 million while we have a pop. of 33 million, remember, so you are a huge market for us, and if you can’t afford to pay 60% more for our products than you did 5 years ago that’s a problem for us. When it comes to oil and gas you’ll pay whatever it costs, but for other products you may have other options. Our manufacturing sector is not wearing a happy face today.
replace "elitist" with "jerk" and you will be on point. TJ and some of the other ultra "rich people are always right" conservatives should move to some latin american countries where they can see how true income and wealth disparity is and see what this country is heading to.
What does this have to do with Bush, exactly? The massive spending for Iraq is part of it, but the tax cuts help growth and help offset that. But to me it is more about monetary policy. Greenspan left the Fed funds rate at 1% for a year!! That is a recipe for weaking your currency. But a couple of potentially good things about this is the trade deficit will narrow and American companies will be able to make more money from exports. It may also cause Americans to actually start saving for once.
No Child Left Behind. The Department of Homeland Security. The Medicare Drug Program. Increased interest payments. Record pork during the last Congress that is soon to be blown away by this Congress. And while the tax cuts certainly helped growth (although the mob will come running with some 2004 data to discount that), it didn't help it enough to offset all the socialism he saddled us with. And now he wants Universal Healthcare. D&D. Impeach LBJ, er I mean GWB.
