The loonies rise again

[M.Dancer]

Did you check back to 1800's ?

You mean back before Canada as a nation stated existed and the currency was the pound sterling?..no..why would I?

[dre]

Not really. Thailand return cost me just $1400. Same 12 years ago $2600.

Retired snowbirds are very happy. Extatic!

What the fuck? Retired snowbirds?

Im talking about tourism in Canada...

[Bonam]

People focus too much on the negative of high currency value. Sure, exports suffer. But, imported goods become cheaper. Even for manufacturers, which are hardest hit by the rise of the loonie, importing equipment and machinery becomes more affordable. Most consumer goods in Canada are imported, and so when the Canadian dollar rises these goods become (or at least should become) cheaper. So a high Canadian dollar is a big benefit for Canadian consumers.

Personally, I really enjoy a high Canadian dollar, my Canadian savings and scholarships do a lot more for me that way, living in the states.

[bjre]

Bad news, the gas price, which contribute significantly to the inflation, did not go down with the loonies rose. Now is still high at 112.

Edited December 30, 2010 by bjre

[Saipan]

You mean back before Canada as a nation stated existed and the currency was the pound sterling?..no..why would I?

If I meant pound sterling I wouldn't say DOLLAR.

[Saipan]

Bad news, the gas price, which contribute significantly to the inflation, did not go down with the loonies rose. Now is still high at 112.

Because of WORLD oil prices.

They pay even more in Europe.

[Saipan]

Im talking about tourism in Canada...

And I'm talking about Canadian tourists AND Canadian grocery consumers - including the poorest ones.

[Wild Bill]

How did Canada survive? I imagine that was so long ago that there were differen world circumstances. It was before the Chinese and other third world manufacturers were priced so much lower than us, and I suppose most of our exports were raw materials - where again we had less competition from abroad than we do now.

Actually, if you go back to the 50's Canada had a LOT of domestic manufacturing! Not just steel or raw materials but radios, televisions and whatnot.

Our domestic industry looked very much like a smaller version of the American one. Loudspeakers were made here. Tractors, cars and such as well. At the time, the vacuum tube was the basis of electronic technology, found wherever we find transistors and ICs today. The important difference was that unlike solid state products vacuum tubes wore out and needed to be replaced, like light bulbs. This ensured a continual large replacement market.

Like most countries in those days, Canada had a lot of duties and tariffs that kept the price of imports high, encouraging local production. Many American companies found it cheaper and more profitable to open up branch manufacturing plants inside Canada to escape those duties. Others paid local companies to produce clones of their products, under licence agreements. Radio Speakers of Canada in Kitchener/Waterloo was one such example, producing big name speakers like Jensen for Canadian customers like Electrohome, Clairtone and other Canadian manufacturers of home mono and stereo hifi receivers and record players.

During the 60's the Japanese began sending stuff to Canada and the US so cheap that only a ridiculous amount of duties and tariffs would have let domestic manufacturers compete. In the 70's, the car companies made a big mistake! They supported letting the Japanese bring in small cars. The American car companies didn't believe that anybody wanted anything but a big car.

Of course, that was when OPEC was formed and drove the price of gas through the roof! Everybody was scrapping their muscle cars and bulgemobiles in favour of Japanese compacts and Volkswagen Beetles. The Americans didn't have any small cars that were worth a damn to offer! They lost a lot of market share and over the years things have just gotten worse and worse for them.

Then came Mulroney and his Free Trade Agreement. No more duties and tariffs! We can argue about whether or not it was a good deal. Some say yes and some no but it's really not a clear thing to see, even in hindsight. We know that much of the domestic and branch plant manufacturing was shut down. American companies exported into Canada. The factories here became just warehouses. Warehouse jobs pay much poorer than manufacturing ones. However, how do we know if without Free Trade with the USA things would have been even worse? Globalization was already starting to happen. The real competitors were in the far East and not America at all.

This is all just history, of course. I only post this because you seemed to believe that we were always just a raw materials exporter and that simply isn't true. Still, we seem to be BECOMING just a raw materials exporter! Manufacturing in Ontario and central Canada has taken a huge hit and will never likely be as big as it once was. It's still an important and large piece of the economy but not the biggest piece, like before.

Countries that do most of the manufacturing tend to be wealthier than those who rely just on raw materials. Some believe that a raw material economy is part of the definition of a third world country. These countries have nothing else to offer and are forced to offer their raw materials at super low prices, just for the foreign exchange. The main exceptions would be the OPEC countries, who have become rich by controlling the price of oil.

Perhaps we should tie the price of the wheat we sell to Saudi Arabia to any increase in their selling price of oil!

[Saipan]

Then came Mulroney and his Free Trade Agreement. No more duties and tariffs!

Same money different name. Custom Duty changed to GST, PST, and Clearing fee.

[Wild Bill]

Same money different name. Custom Duty changed to GST, PST, and Clearing fee.

No! We had the duties and tariffs. THEN we had federal and provincial taxes! And we've always had clearing fees, because we've always kept much of the paperwork.

If you had worked somewhere that imported products at the time you would know for yourself. I did, so I have direct experience.

[Jerry J. Fortin]

No! We had the duties and tariffs. THEN we had federal and provincial taxes! And we've always had clearing fees, because we've always kept much of the paperwork.

If you had worked somewhere that imported products at the time you would know for yourself. I did, so I have direct experience.

Times change dude. WE are taxed beyond our very lives, even our estates are taxed to a very real extent. That is only the beginning of our trouble or the first step in looking at where our hard earned dollars really go. The sales taxes on the products we buy and the user fees for the services our tax dollars pay for represent the next layer of our economic slavery onion. Going even deeper we can look at the monetary and banking systems we use to transact our personal business through. I do believe the core of that onion is the central banking/fractional reserve system now utilized worldwide.

The issues go way beyond a few production line jobs, or very damned nearly every private sector position in the nation, when ALL business is underpinned with financing leveraged through legally mandated accounting procedures. The entire system is a house of cards, by any definition. Instead of supporting structures we have designed a leveraged credit system based entirely out of the hands of both private citizens and national governments. Bankers own the world, its just that simple.

Those are merely our own domestic issues we are talking about. Unfortunately there is a world full of nations and nations full of localities and a myriad number of governmental levels within each, all competing for financing with you me and the place we work at. To get to the root of the problem we need to search for the signs of the foundation we have built upon in the systems we designed to function in our society. The entire thing is based upon growth and perceived leveraging. Any interruption or degradation of system integrity and it collapses damaging or destroying purchased or created personal properties and goods. The only people protected from this are the bankers and their supporters and attendants. The rest of us are screwed blue and tattooed.

[Saipan]

No! We had the duties and tariffs. THEN we had federal and provincial taxes! And we've always had clearing fees, because we've always kept much of the paperwork.

I didn't. And brought LOT of stuff from the US.

[William Ashley]

Perhaps we should tie the price of the wheat we sell to Saudi Arabia to any increase in their selling price of oil!

1. Where is wheatpec? (wpec?)

Canada is a relatively "small" producer of wheat Canada between 29 and 26 million tons the last couple years. Countries like Russia(2xproduction), China(4xproduction), EU(5xproduction), US(2xproduction), and India (2.5xproduction) are larger producers - lesser producers are pakistan, ukraine, turkey and austrailia

kazahkstan, iran, argentina, egypt and syria range from 2 million tons to 15 million tons.

2. How are domestic prices going to be kept low? Are you going to bar the export of wheat below a certain rate? Will this conform to WTO practices? For the government to restrict foregin trade?

3. Who buys Canadian wheat? Who has it..? and what will the effect of higher wheat prices be... the bottom line.. is that if wheat becomes uneconomical, people won't eat wheat, they will eat rice, or other products as a staple.

What is to be done with excess stocks..? Feed? There is a functionable CPI that can be done.

Higher wheat prices don't mean places of OPEC don't have wheat, it means they won't buy wheat. The don't need wheat.

What countries are effected -- poor countries in Africa and Asia.

Main importing areas: Asia and Africa (how much is in the form of foreign aid?)

WPEC would probably succeed in raising wheat prices - BUT it would effect Canada the US and Europe most because it is a cultural food item, and part of the Western Staple.. NOT part of the OPEC staple that has corn and ??? What do arabs eat? as their main diet

. Chickpeas (Garbanzo beans

Tahini (Sesame Seed Paste)

Mint

Eggplant

Cumin

Turmeric

rice is the staple and is used for most arab dishes

so you need a RICE OREC if you want to get at OPEC not a OWEC

Or perhaps more direct exchange deals on rice to wheat exchanges with asia. example do direct trade deals for ricewheat trade.

God may be handling this one though..

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-24/thai-rice-output-from-main-crop-may-fall-5-3-on-flooding-forecaster-says.html

The fact is though OPEC helps... Canada, not hurts it.

The oils sands are non profitable below $75 oil. ..

its not like Canada is Bolivia

http://www.reuters.com/news/video/story?videoId=172695443&videoChannel=1

Edited December 31, 2010 by William Ashley

[dre]

And I'm talking about Canadian tourists AND Canadian grocery consumers - including the poorest ones.

Yeah thats my point. You answered my post with a post about another subject thats unrelated to the point you seemed to be trying to address.

[Wild Bill]

3. Who buys Canadian wheat? Who has it..? and what will the effect of higher wheat prices be... the bottom line.. is that if wheat becomes uneconomical, people won't eat wheat, they will eat rice, or other products as a staple.

The fact is though OPEC helps... Canada, not hurts it.

The oils sands are non profitable below $75 oil. ..

My comment about wheat pricing was merely off the cuff. I quite agree with you that it wouldn't have a hope of working.

This only confirms that Canada has allowed itself to slip into a position of little or no leverage in certain areas. Again, that fits the definition of a third world country. You have a resource based economy. Third world countries can only compete on price with their resources against other countries. The countries that manufacture/add value always make the real wealth.

We do have a geographic advantage with our oilsands. Canadian oil needs only a relatively short pipeline, instead of huge, slow oil tankers crossing the oceans. We also offer political stability and similar moral and cultural values, unlike many middle east states.

Sadly, resources do diddley to help my own Ontario recover its economy. And the feds will be very slow to stop raking off money for transfer payments. True, in theory we can all buy oil stocks to offset our losses. How big a portfolio does one need to generate as much income as the job you lost, by the way?

Edited December 31, 2010 by Wild Bill

[Jack Weber]

My comment about wheat pricing was merely off the cuff. I quite agree with you that it wouldn't have a hope of working.

This only confirms that Canada has allowed itself to slip into a position of little or no leverage in certain areas. Again, that fits the definition of a third world country. You have a resource based economy. Third world countries can only compete on price with their resources against other countries. The countries that manufacture/add value always make the real wealth.

We do have a geographic advantage with our oilsands. Canadian oil needs only a relatively short pipeline, instead of huge, slow oil tankers crossing the oceans. We also offer political stability and similar moral and cultural values, unlike many middle east states.

Sadly, resources do diddley to help my own Ontario recover its economy. And the feds will be very slow to stop raking off money for transfer payments. True, in theory we can all buy oil stocks to offset our losses. How big a portfolio does one need to generate as much income as the job you lost, by the way?

Look into DRIP's and SPP's...

[Saipan]

High price of wheat and corn are result of biofools. We burn food in cars the poor can't afford.

[William Ashley]

My comment about wheat pricing was merely off the cuff. I quite agree with you that it wouldn't have a hope of working.

Oh I didn't say it wouldn't work, the means would have to be far more elaborate than simply putting price controls on wheat alone. Certain countries that depend on imports and foreign aid don't want food prices to be fixed by the major exporting nations though - more than they already are. I'm geussing having back up food stock isn't a bad deal for some areas, especially considering food prices have been steadily rising. Avoiding markets for direct emergency exchange deals likely would be an advantage - in part. the question might be though, do you like eating rice - I like rice. It is actually my favorite staple - but I've also taken a fancy to making bread with atadurum and regular flour.

This only confirms that Canada has allowed itself to slip into a position of little or no leverage in certain areas.

It is all organization - Canada has a major influence - the issue is - it has a large foreign ownership contingent. the government could exert pressure on those sectors, but - what is the result - unless the government has a sieve under the process. National Government is an absolute monopoly at the national level (sans foreign inputs). The real competittion among states is at an international level. Look at what this has done to countries such as Venezuela.

You can't just nationalize and not expect ill sentiments to form. This is why strategic operations to ease out segments is a much more prudent means. Canada still technically has power of law even if it is regulated also at an international level.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ease_of_Doing_Business_Index

Bear in mind US-CBP is larger than the Canadian Military. Throw in the national gaurd of a few northern states... well... maybe a militia or two.

What type of influence do you want exactly? The problem is that there are other producers of most goods. Doing up a "Organization of POTASH producing nations" would be one step above... (I think this is maybe what BP was going for.) Fertalizers have far more impact on food prices than government controls could hope to exert. .... That and companies like montosanto http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto

Again, that fits the definition of a third world country. You have a resource based economy. Third world countries can only compete on price with their resources against other countries. The countries that manufacture/add value always make the real wealth.

You want to produce something lets get in touch I can walk you through starting up a company.

We do have a geographic advantage with our oilsands. Canadian oil needs only a relatively short pipeline, instead of huge, slow oil tankers crossing the oceans. We also offer political stability and similar moral and cultural values, unlike many middle east states.

The world is pretty small.

Sadly, resources do diddley to help my own Ontario recover its economy. And the feds will be very slow to stop raking off money for transfer payments. True, in theory we can all buy oil stocks to offset our losses. How big a portfolio does one need to generate as much income as the job you lost, by the way?

What is it people don't have that provides Canadians access to peace of mind and security.. can you trust a foreigner more than a fellow country man, if the law doesn't protect you?

The deal is the same. I 100% beleive Canada really does require an economic COOG plan.. this is why I favour indepth strategic reserves, and crown corporations for production of government goods, and products the population is willing to order from crown corps on finished goods.

Thing is though companies have all products people want, so you muzzle in, and that like starting a new political party may not be welcome.

The bottom line, other companies offer better product for whatever mental reason, or cheaper product.

If you want to compete you need to fullfill a certain number of criteria and it involves distribution and notice. I think it could be done, but you need to make a list of strategic materials, and required finished goods that supply is required for COOG and keeping the population alive in event of global crisis and disaster.

I think though in the mind of most - temporary crisis is on most peoples minds, not you need to grow your food on your lawn now (like where half of russias foodcrop comes from). Gonna have to convert those hydro grow ups to tomatos etc... (no no I'll eat the weed.. good calory base)

Once again you think there is a problem - solve it.. no one else will (or you can't count on them to) -- carpe diem.

There are however groups like the IMF that have this thing sort of ongoing. The IMF COOG plan.

http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/exrp/govern/govindex.htm

cocoa anyone?

Edited December 31, 2010 by William Ashley