I haven't seen any threads on this yet so I will how do you guys feel about the depreciation of the CDN dollar as opposed to the USD? Anyone think this is going to temporary or long term?

My own take on it is since I work for an industry that only services Canadians and has very little market globally; that a depreciation has only negative aspects to me.

For one; some of us have cross shopped between american retailers and Canadian retailers and found a much better deal (especially for a niche market like car parts) from the states but now that our dollar has dropped; we are forced to purchasing locally at a much higher price if we choose to. I guess this is good for our economy but I would rather just hold off my purchases than pay the outrageous mark up here. Our purchasing power has diminished incredibly.

But on the other hand; our vehicles will not depreciate as quickly as they were before. Less people will be inclined to importing and thus the price is somewhat more firm. Some of us (like me) who purchased from the states and got a deal can now benefit from that even more. Also our Canadian suppliers to american firms will benefit from the drop in the dollar.

Finally; I think it will be long term as our dollar cannot remain at par when our largest trading partner is facing a economic downturn. I really hate the drop though; all my future purchases for my camera are now being delayed .

Interested in knowing how you guys feel about this though.

 

I am not sweating it in the least. My US real estate purchases have taken a 21% gain in a month. More than offsets the decline in value. I also purchased a large chunk of US currency when our dollar hit 1.08. I have made 33% on that.

I guess it is all in the timing. Half of our trade with the US is in the energy sector which has dropped like a rock. It will go up again as will our currency. When is anyones guess. The US economy may be in the tank for several years. If I were an American, I would gamble large and buy Canadian dollars. Oil will go up, the Canadian dollar will follow it. The question is just when. IMO.

 

All my company's customers pay in USD so I'm not to worried. Only thing is a lot of expenses are also USD meaning we just end up where we were before.

I guess the only difference is I personally will not be buying as much stuff from the states.

 

it is temporary. when commodities start booming again, our dollar will move with it. we may not reach back par, but we will be back over 90 cents.

its kind of sad to watch it sink to 0.79 US so fast. its even sadder to watch where my stock portfolio has gone...

 

it will rebound against US but this will take couple of months. we actually had a meeting about that at work. looking at historical data, we have max 11 months. as recessions like this takes 12-13 months, and its been close to 2 months so i am predicting next june or july it will start rebounding and come to the level where it start going down.

its good time to invest, normally u dont have the chance to buy certain investments this low. but that would be long term investments.

 

thinking that the canadian dollar would hold against the us is ludicrous. our economy is the size of a rice grain compared to theirs. the only thing holding our dollar up before was our precious oil. as others have noted, now that the price of oil has dropped so has our dollar. our oil dollar has created a fictitious health indicator for this country that will hurt in the long run. many sectors have been struggling here in canada over the past few months... it's about time our currency has reflected that.

i'm only disappointed that this didn't happen before the elections took place. maybe then there would have been more emphasis made towards our economic indicators rather than debates encompassing frivolous green initiatives and carbon taxes.

 

I think it's just a matter of time until the US dollar starts dropping fast. Just look at all the bailout efforts the federal reserve has been implementing to try to steer out of this recession. They've been printing a lot of money, and all that inflationary pressure will have to hit the US dollar eventually.