US$

[Invert]

US$ is worth less and less.

Now a US$ = CA$

Who do you blame? And why?

[Barabajagal]

Well, if the recently posted video is anything to go by, I'd say it's because we're printing money we don't have and we're in debt up to our eyeballs.

As you can tell, the Bush families did a shitload of damage, and in between, Clinton tried to get it down, only to have George W ruin it. all over again. Apparently it all started in WW2's final stages, and steadied throughout the Cold War, jumping up again around the "Regan Era". It's still not as bad as it was in the mid 40s, but it's not where it was in the 80s. In essence, I blame poor spending, and even poorer saving.

[rabbit]

You get an F on that graph.

[iCe]

it is now worth less then the CAD

http://finance.yahoo.com/currency/convert?amt=1&from=USD&to=CAD&submit=Convert

[Barabajagal]

You get an F on that graph.

Blame Wikipedia, not me.

it is now worth less then the CAD

http://finance.yahoo.com/currency/convert?amt=1&from=USD&to=CAD&submit=Convert

Canadians will come spend their money here then, which will in turn increase our currency to be above theirs. If it doesn't, we may want to start thinking about doing something.

[iago]

Heh, I've been watching the Canadian dollar for the last couple days, just waiting for it to overtake the USD. It's about time! It really sucked when our dollar was worth 56 cents.

[MyndFyre]

Who do you blame? And why?

Interest rates and taxes.

Government debt is a relatively unimportant part of international economics.  The notion that countries can borrow against their future income is based on the idea that countries will exist in perpetuity.

However, with the housing market the way its been, subprime mortgages are being broken.  To recover them, the government is issuing additional money, and in fact, the Fed just lowered interest rates by half a point, a substantial drop.  This makes a lot of money available to borrowers, and many have been unable to repay their loans.

@Andy: yes, the Bush presidencies did damage, but unemployment has been going down sharply for the last 5 years.  If you take a look at the last couple years of Clinton's presidency, you see that the rate of decline of unemployment until a sharp spike upward, caused in part by the recession Clinton left us in.  Unemployment was further aggravated by 9/11.  However, shortly after, Bush lowered taxes, unemployment dropped and has continued to fall, consumer confidence has climbed.  D/I is not the only measure of economic stability.

The tax cut took money away from the government and put it back in the hands of the people.  Of course when people have more money it will be devalued.

Ideally I'd like to see the elimination of about 60% of the federal government's budget.  That would definitely put us into a quick road to recovering our debt, no?

[iCe]

The govt borrows the money from the Federal Reserve which is a private corporation. The govt then needs to pay the money back with interest. So under the current system, we cant get out of debt. we need to borrow more money to pay the interest back.