Border states to adopt Canadian dollar

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Spyder7

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Hope this is not considered political:

Quote:

Border States, including Washington, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont and Maine will make the change in 2012.

U.S. dollar bills will remain in circulation within these states until August 1st, 2012, when they will be exchanged against Canadian coins and bills. However, all inter-bank commerce and stock exchange trade will be denominated in Canadian dollars as of January 1st 2012.


http://finance.sympatico.ca/news/contentposting_af/border_states_to_adopt_canadian_dollar/316b2b80

Interestingly, another story right below that one on MSN talks about how our PM is planning some degree of switch back to Imperial from metric. Should be fun times for those of us gen X and younger who grew up with metric.

Strange times we live in. Never envisioned living in a day when any US state would adopt the Canadian currency alongside, or in place, of the US dollar, or a day where Canada going back to the Imperial system would be anything other than a joke.

-Spyder
 
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This reminds me of a video I saw some years ago. In the middle of the US west, a border drive through gate was erected on a highway. It said "Welcome to Canada". When people pulled in, they were told that the US had sold the entire area to Canada. Folks said "wow" and just when on their way. Hilarious.
 
Its a short story but the bottom line reasons they put forward for it make sense: to eliminate exchange fees when Canadians shop cross border. And its only being adopted by the border states. With the Canadian and US dollar having parity (while Canada's has been the more stable of the two in recent years with our southern neighbour's economic woes), they are simply trying to entice more Canadians on or near the border to shop in the US.

With no currency exchange fee to pay, that means every bit of every Canadian dollar spent south in these states will go toward the goods being purchased, and not first being "taxed" by the currency trade which allows the banks to skim some for themselves on fees.

It may bring more Canadian consumers south to spend more money, and the beneficiary will be small (and large) US businesses and Canadian consumers. From the consumer perspective, this is the first tangible gain we will see since NAFTA came along promising everything, but providing Canadian consumers little to nothing.

Edit: a final but important beneficiary will be these states themselves and their residents. More trade (in this case, export) means more money circulating in these economies and taxable/spendable revenue for business and state governments.

-Spyder
 
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Makes sense.... but I get the feeling this is a fool's prank
grin2.gif
 
Click the "hear one American's angry rant" link at the bottom of the story and all will be revealed.
 
Originally Posted By: Spyder7
Its a short story but the bottom line reasons they put forward for it make sense: to eliminate exchange fees when Canadians shop cross border. And its only being adopted by the border states. With the Canadian and US dollar having parity (while Canada's has been the more stable of the two in recent years with our southern neighbour's economic woes), they are simply trying to entice more Canadians on or near the border to shop in the US.

With no currency exchange fee to pay, that means every bit of every Canadian dollar spent south in these states will go toward the goods being purchased, and not first being "taxed" by the currency trade which allows the banks to skim some for themselves on fees.

It may bring more Canadian consumers south to spend more money, and the beneficiary will be small (and large) US businesses and Canadian consumers. From the consumer perspective, this is the first tangible gain we will see since NAFTA came along promising everything, but providing Canadian consumers little to nothing.

Edit: a final but important beneficiary will be these states themselves and their residents. More trade (in this case, export) means more money circulating in these economies and taxable/spendable revenue for business and state governments.

-Spyder


The best April Fool's jokes are the ones that include an element of truth to make them believable...like the Ryanair press release that they will offer infant-free flights...

Let me help you understand this particular news story: APRIL FOOLS!
 
So it is. It did contain enough "sense" to make it believable, and the link that explained it a joke wasn't there at the time I first posted. They got me on that one.

-Spyder
 
Oh boy, that's a good one. I was like LOLWUT. I live in New York so it would have affected me directly. That was a good one.

Also, a good april fools day is how we were supposed to have 6-12" of snow today. I look outside. Nothing. I can still see grass.
 
I get Canadian quarters, dimes and nickels all the time here in Virginia.

I used to complain, but given the present currency exchange rate, I feel like I got a bonus!
 
Originally Posted By: Astro14
I get Canadian quarters, dimes and nickels all the time here in Virginia.

I used to complain, but given the present currency exchange rate, I feel like I got a bonus!


It would have been a bad deal back when our dollar was worth less than 70 cents US. Today things have really changed, though, and its not so much that our dollar has increased in absolute value as it is that its relative value against the US dollar has boosted its value to parity as the US dollar has plunged this past decade on international currency markets.

With the depreciation of the US dollar, combined with the volatility its seen over the last 10 years, I would consider (were I living south of the border), any stable non-US currency a "keeper" to hang on to as I did day to day buying in US currency.

And if I were in the US and in an economic position to do so, I would be shifting as many free US dollars as I owned into the more stable commodities like gold; plus, historically, as the value of the dollar drops or becomes volatile, the value of gold only increases. I would do this instead of depositing US dollars into savings accounts for anything other than emergency funds.

Just my two cents.

-Spyder
 
Does this mean that the other border states will adopt the Mexican Peso?
crackmeup2.gif


You can buy a pizza at Pizza Patron with Pesos here.
 
That already unofficially happens. A lot of places near the border gladly take Canadian and American dollars, for a price increase of course.
 
I don't think the Canadian dollar and Mexican Peso compare very well
wink.gif


One of the places I lived growing up was near a former US airforce base (remnant of the land-lease agreement from WWII), that went Canadian and NATO when the agreement expired. Anyway there were always several currencies floating around, but the most valuable by far was the US dollar (many American personnel would spend them, and they were accepted as such everywhere, as though they were Canadian dollars). This was way back when our dollar was 67 cents US, so those US greenbacks were a very valuable commodity when one strayed your way.

-Spyder
 
Originally Posted By: sciphi
That already unofficially happens. A lot of places near the border gladly take Canadian and American dollars, for a price increase of course.


For many years there has been a Mexican restaurant in Detroit that, on Mondays, has accepted Canadian money *at par*. That doesn't mean much now, but back when the U.S. $ was ~$1.60Cdn the entire nation flocked over there on Mondays.

It is not uncommon at all for retailers in the Detroit area to accept our money; and it is a rarity here in Windsor to find someone who does *not* accept U.S. currency. My wallet always contains (trace amounts of) both.
 
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