Thursday, December 06, 2007

US $ versus Loonie

The plot below shows the event of the year in Canada, the ratio of the US dollar to the Canadian dollar:

The Canadian dollar reached parity with the US dollar in September 2007 for the first time since 1976 and remained strong. The value of the US $ reached a low of .92 Canadian dollars on November 6th. Luckily, the US dollar rose again (because I still haven't closed my bank account in the US).

PS for the visitors from elsewhere: The Loonie is the Canadian one dollar coin, and yes, they really call it such.



  1. When I moved to Canada, summer 2001, Canadian dollar was worth 62 American cents. I think every dual citizen in Canada (and there are many) should go down and vote for Bush again...

  2. :-) Well, I can't vote in either country, but I am pretty happy with having left my savings account in Euro.
    I expect though the US $ will continue to rise at least over Christmas. The Americans seem to take Christmas consume more seriously than the Canadians. Best,


  3. Shouldn't that be Volksrepublikvonkanukistanische Scheißemünze? Oh wait, Bush the Lesser lifted the turd by its clean end. Never mind.

  4. ......hilarious Moshe.

    I am glad to see Hilary is advocating universal health care, while our own "big business politicians" seem to think the American system current is much better. "For profit" healthcare how wonderfull to make money off the backs of ill and sick people?

    Maybe the Us still thinks this Canadian system is a "communistic deterioration" of the countries values? Still trying to insight a "societal fear" into what is every persons right. Or maybe, that extra money you have can push you to the front of the line?

    Anyway, before the Loonie and the Twoonie we had a one dollar and two dollar paper bills.

    We saved them for our children.

    I'll upload them sometime in the future so people can see what the paper bills looked like.

    I still haven't unpacked all the boxes to get to our scanner.

    Mortgages in the states has been the US's downfall.

  5. Bee, why are you up 6am to post about the dollar? Are you a hedge fund manager?

    FWIW, the surge of CD to almost 1.1 is too much and too fast, causing unwarranted disruptions. This was caused mostly by currency traders around the world looking for safer currencies to protect their USD holdings, by converting to CD. The Bank of Canada just lowered discount rate by 0.25% to kick the CD lower, back to a more sustainable and sensible level - no more than par with the USD. It also protects Canada's economy from the winds of significant economic collapse from down south. The Americans are finding out that when you have $14 trillion in debt, barely able to pay the interests, have to borrow to pay the principal, and a housing bubble wiping out a projected $2T in people's net worth, you've got the kind of problem you can't sing out of. Just ask the Japanese who can remember 1991.

    Keeping your saving account in EU or CD is just fine. But don't bet one the USD rising. Nobody does.

  6. sigh.. I recall that November day when I told a colleague I'd like to take a punt on long usd around 0.9000.. I think the low was around 9120. But having been burned at 1.07 I was a bit shy.

    The BOC cut rates this week and while they may claim it is related to the credit crunch, that was a convenient cover to take some steam out of the loonie ahead of an expected Fed cut.

  7. Tomk: why are you up 6am to post about the dollar? Are you a hedge fund manager?

    Probably not, I'm actually not really sure what a hedge fund is, not to mention why it needs to be managed. Nah, I've been doing my travel reimbursement the last days and I figured I spent several thousand US $ on flight tickets sometime around Easter, but will get reimbursement in Canadian Dollars sometime in January... so I'm counting my losses... Best,


  8. "Probably not, I'm actually not really sure what a hedge fund is, not to mention why it needs to be managed."

    I am pleased that you don't know a thing about above. Stick to wonderful physics.

    As you may know, there's an over-supply of physicists and mathematicians in the US for quite a while. Not able to find academic or research jobs, many joined Wall Streets to make some serious money. Their jobs - design sophisticated models on complex money-investment strategies, to squeeze huge profits out of risky perturbations. Their most famous invention must be the securitization of subprime mortgages. Through a whole bunch of incomprehensible math, these 'brains' behind Wall Street managed to turn billions of debts loan to poor uneducated people into supremely safe grade AAA bonds, and tricked a whole lot of sophisticated people to buy these crap. Then suddenly the bonds are worth almost nothing. It is not nice to make bankers look like fools, especially by untenured scientists. Guided by these math and physicist 'genius', at least $1T worth will be wiped out. Back to ground state when the excitation turns out to be fake.

  9. sounds to me like bubbles of nothing :-) don't worry I'm very unconvinced of the merits of monetarism and have no intention contributing to that game. for now I'd be happy if I managed to open that savings account which I've been told is good for something. best,


  10. Event of the year?

    I think you missed out when Spot, the lead on our national dogsled team, stubbed his toe in May. The country wasn't right for months, people didn't leave their beds, Tim Horton's almost went bankrupt, and the Prime Minister had to declare a state of emergency.

    Now that's real Canadian news!

    - Shawn

  11. :-) Must have missed that. Hope he's feeling better now!

  12. Haha. I'm glad you took that in good humour. I should have added a smiley. Anyway, this blog that you two have is great. I've learned a ton.

    - Shawn

    P.S. Spot's doing great -- he just renewed his sponsorship contract as the off-season mascot for the Atlanta Falcons.



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