How you can tell when your economy is fucked

[andrewducker]

Generally speaking, it's when people stop accepting your currency.

Which means the news last week that Gisele Bündchen now only works for euros was interesting.

But in many ways not as interesting as discovering that rappers are also moving ot the Euro.

(cheers to brad for the second link)

Comments

How you can tell when your economy is fucked

[fjm.livejournal.com]

And when an overseas conference may have to be cancelled because the exchange rate is so lousy that the perfectly ok Euro rate is beginning to look extortionate in dollars, and so unstable that you are saying to people "decide and pay now, or we cancel".

[henriksdal.livejournal.com]

I saw this on metafilter last week, and promptly forgot about it. But it is really interesting - the Canadian dollar is worth more than the US dollar for the first time in a very long time, too..!

Wait, is now a good time to buy an iPod from a US retailer?

[andrewducker]

8GB iPod Nano.
US Price: $195
UK Price: £117

Current Exchange Rate: £0.47 to the dollar. So the US price translates as £91.65

Now, if that gets hit at customs then they'll charge you at least 15%, if not more. And the shipping will no doubt be at least a tenner.

So I'd say that if you're over there then it's worthwhile, otherwise no.

And yeah - Canadians are apparently now even more upset than usual about books costing more in Canadia than in the US.

Were you up or Beowulf next weekend? Saturday at 6:15 it looks like.

[henriksdal.livejournal.com]

Oh well :D

Depends if I'm working, our Rotas are not done very far in advance so I'll let you know later this week.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Uh, yeah. In 1999, the price in Canadian dollars on books was about on par with the price in US dollars, after conversion.

Right now, you're paying 30% more Canadian dollars than US dollars for the same books, and US dollars aren't worth the paper they're printed on. It's essentially a 50% price penalty for wanting to buy in a brick-and-mortar store rather than buy online and ship it.

(PS: Buying online from Europe and shipping overseas: not as cheap as the US, still cheaper than paying Canadian, and doesn't put money into the currently-starving economy of a terrorist-supporting country run by repugnant shitheads. What's not to love?)