For the first time in my memory (and I’m 61 as I write this) the American Dollar and the Canadian Dollar are at equivalent value. I heard this on NPR as I drove to Betty’s lunchcounter in Shepherdstown this morning for a late breakfast.
Frankly, I was stunned. I remember growing up and working as a kid in my father’s drug store in Connecticut and his sign on the cash register not to take Canadian coins. When I asked him why, he would tell me that four Canadian quarters were only worth seventy cents… and we took a loss when we sold things and collected Canadian money in the mix.
At different times in my life an American dollar was worth 1.25 Canadian, or 1.40 Canadian, etc. But it was never worth the same (and heaven help us it was never worth less.)
Now, with our current economy, which Bush seems to think is just the greatest on Earth, the value of the American Dollar is no different than that of the Canadian Dollar. What’s more, the Euro is taking over world markets as the standard trading currency, when the American Dollar had always been the International Standard.
What does it all mean? Is it a reflection on the value of all things American? I’m glad Paul Krugman’s column is free again… I’m sure this is something he will address in the short run.
Meanwhile I’m saving the Canadian coins I pick up.