Holy crap, the loonie is at a buck-seven USD. Economic analysts are saying that a jump to $1.10 isn’t just feasible but indeed near-term likely.
The Federal Reserve is just looking at this point for an excuse to cut interest rates, but it has to realize that doing so would be, you know, bad. Like drawing reasonable comparisons to Weimar-era Germany level of bad. Like oil-prices-well-over-$150 bad. And while I quite anticipate being able to buy things from Amazon this Christmas with what essentially amounts to about a fifteen-percent-off coupon, having Americans forced to cart around stacks of $10,000 bills in wheelbarrows to buy loaves of bread is something, on balance, I would prefer to avoid.
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Even if buying stuff from Amazon is cheaper now, you still have to deal with shipping costs and import taxes.
You’re not that well off after all.
I highly doubt America will be going the rapid devaluation route. Even with Greenspan no longer Chairman, the Reserve is still highly paranoid of inflation.
Fox, it was reasonably competitive to buy from amazon.com up here, even with shipping costs and the like, before the American dollar dropped. Now there simply isn’t a contest, especially since said shipping costs are also charged in greenbacks.
Aulayan, what you have to remember is that since about 2002, the Fed has demonstrated that it’s willing to monetize just about every single bump in the stock market or general economy, which is one of the primary reasons the dollar has sunk this far to begin with. (It’s like Ben Bernanke doesn’t have any other tools he’s willing to use.)
Admittedly, this wouldn’t be a bad policy if other key financial players, like the Asian central banks or the Saudis or whoever, were on board with it and willing to comply by buying dollars – but they’re not. They’re buying gold instead (which is why gold has risen almost two hundred dollars in price over the last couple of years).
Fox, it was reasonably competitive to buy from amazon.com up here, even with shipping costs and the like, before the American dollar dropped. Now there simply isn’t a contest, especially since said shipping costs are also charged in greenbacks.
Ah, but what about those import taxes, eh? You guys are still screwed. Unless you’re buying from Amazon.ca or something.
Another triumph of the Bush Administration.
I’ve never paid an “import tax” on a thing a day in my life.
They sometimes tag us with GST at the border, but we get most of that back at tax time.
On the other hand: BAD BIRD. SPEND YOUR MONEYS IN THE CANADIAN ECONOMY YOU DAMN DIRTY TRAITOR.
I reiterate the “what import taxes?” comment. In all my years of buying from amazon.com, I’ve never paid a border charge on a single thing.
Seriously? A friend of mine who lived in Canada got taxed like $20 on a few shirts his wife sent him from the USA. And I get a ton of requests to lower the declared value on shipments I make to Canada (from my eBay store.) I’ve always heard things about Canada’s import taxes, so I thought it was the same for everyone.
What I find amusing is that a $2.99 US comic still has a $3.65 Canadian price on it. Maybe they’ll just swap it so it’s $2.99 Canadian and $3.65 US.
I am reminded every day as I read the news of a comment I made about four years ago.
“I’m not concerned that George W. Bush is going to go down in history as the worst President the United States ever had. I’m concerned that George W. Bush is going to go down in history as the last President the United States ever had.”
Re: Import taxes –
We have this thing called the “North America Free Trade Agreement” or NAFTA for short. It means that things (goods) traded (sold) within North America (that includes Canada) can do so freely (without taxes).
Declared values are so that they can calculate GST, which is very low and, as I say, you get back at tax time, and also so that the brokerage companies can ding you with brokerage fees. If you get something through regular mail, no brokerage company can get its little claws into it.
Will we ever be great again? Ever since a week after 9/11 I lost all faith in this country. It’s not healthy to be jaded for so long =(
Considering what followed after the Weimar-era Germany and the military power of the USA, it is a thing that most of the world would prefer to avoid.
Your friend with the t-shirts probably got charged customs brokerage fees by UPS. These aren’t taxes but administrative fees charged by the shipping company.
T-shirts and clothing have their own wacky duties still in place. We had to jump through huge hoops to send some shirts BACK to someone in the Holy Republic.
Actually we dont pay import taxes on stuff from Amazon.com because they ship everything out of a warehouse in Mississauga.