The Big Buck... my turn to play uninformed analyst

Prologue: This is sort of tongue in cheek as I really don't pay much attention to these sort of things. However, a couple of things clicked in my head when discussing the current situation with some co-workers today.

The newsflash across Canadian media yesterday was that our beloved Loonie is now worth the same as one American dollar. The last time this occurred, I was 2 weeks old (November 25, 1976) and it was 3 days before the Rider lost the '76 Grey Cup (I obviously don't remember the game, but somehow it got in my blood to hate Tony Gabriel/Tom Clements). It's a stretch, but perhaps the good year the Riders are currently having (who's kidding who...7-4 at this point in the season may be common place for other teams, but this is a GREAT year for the Riders) has something to do with the Loonie's run.

Obviously, this milestone is worth enjoying as means good things for us as personal consumers and shows our economy is at least headed in a positive direction, but there are two sides to everything. The dark side of this is that it has as much to do with high oil prices and a floundering American economy as anything else. It may not really highlight anything other than our reliance on a single commodity (of which we are in a very enviable position through not much more than luck) and having a seriously worriesome economy (the US's) as our prime trading partner. While everything is going to get cheaper for us, this will begin to cause havoc for our exports as all of the sudden our neighbour's goods begin to cost less than ours. This is an issue as a strong export market is the foundation of a stable economy. We are already seeing tourism down (not really an export, but along the same lines). As well, cross border shopping will hurt the lowest levels of business. I am guilty as I've made 2 trips to Montana in the last 4 months primarily because it is a good deal. This could be a large factor as four out of five Canadians live within 100 miles of the US border, making shopping trips easy.

Like most things in nature (which it can be loosely argued that the planet's economic structure is a part of), it is all about balance. What sort of worries me is how fast our currency gained against the US dollar (one Loonie was worth only 63 US cents as recently as 2001). Such a swift rise over the last few years indicates some sort of imbalace in our markets and I am curiously waiting to see if and how things correct.