Falling US Dollar, Rising Canadian Dollar

[Mitch]

What are your feelings on the rising Canadian dollar and falling American dollar? Should the prices of goods in Canada be lowered (they are still much more expensive than the US)? Should the dollar be stabilized or do something like the EU in time?

I think that prices for Canadians should be lowered on goods such as Magazines and Books to at least the American price. However, this should be done over time as it would put many small companies out of business.
Canada and the US possibly could merge economies in one way or another, but this must be done over a long period of time so it does not inflate the economy.

[ablaye]

It would be a good thing for Canada, the US and Mexico to have the same currency, I think.
I don't see the prices being lowered in Canada. The US dollar will once again rise once the idiot Bush is out of power.

[Mitch]

The problem with Mexico is that it is not close to the American/Canadian dollar at all. If we merged currencies with Mexico they would be much worse up than they are right now. Mexico is quite unstable as well, and this can cause many problem; the US also is planning to build a fence along the border to Mexico, so I doubt that they would want to merge currencies with them.

[Cattraknoff]

It would be a good thing for Canada, the US and Mexico to have the same currency, I think.
I don't see the prices being lowered in Canada. The US dollar will once again rise once the idiot Bush is out of power.

I dislike the idea of America printing money for Canada. Your central bank is a privately owned corporation, not state-owned.

"Give me control of a Nation's money supply, and I care not who makes its laws"

-Mayer Amschel Rothschild, founder of Rothschild banking dynasty

[Mitch]

psst... America is printing money for Canada and Canada is making coins for America
But I know what you're getting at. Currently Canada and the United States' political views are far apart from each other, while the European countries weren't as far apart. If the political aspect of the economy didn't exist (:p) I think it would be great to have the North American dollar, or whatever we'd call it.

[Horus]

If America prints money for Canada, and Canada make coins for America, isn't that a geographical issue then? Isn't this just because these are the best places to make them? Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I'll have a blind stab at it anyway.

My question is, you shouldn't sacrifice production quotas for the sake of some form of patriotic pride in knowing that all of your currency is being produced in-house. This could then be turned into a question involving such other commodities like weaponry and airships, could it not?

[Mitch]

If America prints money for Canada, and Canada make coins for America, isn't that a geographical issue then? Isn't this just because these are the best places to make them? Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I'll have a blind stab at it anyway.
Yep, Canada makes coins for lots of countries, I don't know about the US bills. I've toured the Canadian Mint in Ottawa and Winnipeg, it's pretty neat.

[Horus]

It's an age-old discussion, and has the same answer. Certain areas / regions have their specialist production. For example, areas that are rich in spice / oil / coal for obvious reasons. Places that are fairly easily reachable from anywhere and with good transport links to the relevant places are the ones that invariably produce more.

I think that it doesn't matter if the national currency isn't produced from inside said country, as long as the designated site for it provides at a satisfactory quality and quantity.

[Cattraknoff]

It isn't patriotic, it's the simple fact that your central banking system loans money to your government, to other banks, to people, etc. at interest, and the government needs to pay that interest. They're are a private corporation; And they control the money supply, which is essentially the ability to bring the economy to its knees on a whim. Merging economies would likely eventually lead to merging of countries, which is the idea I'm not overly fond of. I'd rather not have my remaining civil liberties stripped away. The American constitution counts for little these days, it is destroyed by things like the Patriot Act. Britain also has something similar in place, no?

Us joining together under different circumstances wouldn't be bad. The main problem I have is accepting an even more corrupted government than my own; And the Canadian one is bad enough.

[Horus]

The way I see it, if even your monetary system is based on a capitalist regime, you're going to have a couple of problems. I see that something such as a patriotic gesture is completely pointless as opposed to maximising output, but this is a far worse issue. Private corporations shouldn't be directly linked to Government initiatives. I have to say that I really don't think Canada and the US will merge though. Similar effect to Wales and England, which are two very separate countries; their only linking elements are their geographical proximity.

We don't have anything resembling a Patriot Act here. How would we fend the government off if we cannot even have guns? Sticks and stones? :)

[Cattraknoff]

The government cannot oppose the entire populace.

[Horus]

It would be a stupid idea to even try, in my opinion.

I will say though (to veer off topic from this thread) that we have absolutely no patriot act (or anything remotely close) in the UK. Our Anti-Terrorism Act was a neighbourhood watch kind of thing, but of course the courts are trying to rein that in as well.

We have a Big Brother nation, which means we're diverting from our little brother tying our shoelaces together when we're not looking.