Unless you’ve not been paying attention the financial news of late, the U.S. economy is not very strong, at least compared to most other countries. In Canada, the exchange rate between the Canadian and U.S. dollars has been inching towards parity. Today’s rate is almost exactly at 1.00, whereas even two years ago when we moved to Canada, the rate was .85. In other words, I could go to the bank here, and with my USD 1.00, buy about CAD 1.15. That was nice, for me.
Today, I went to the bank and bought USD 1,500.00 worth of Canadian dollars. You know what I got? I received from the teller $1,475.50. That’s right, for the first time, for me, I received less for my U.S. greenback at the bank; in fact, I lost about $25.00, enough for a dinner out, a couple of movies, or a good book about the future of the United States in the global economy.
Postscript: Here’s the press release.