liz h, A number of the foreign agencies (a major one being the Government of China) that hold U.S. debt now are holding U.S.-issued bonds. The U.S. issuers will be required to pay off those bonds at maturity in U.S. Dollars, of course. The reference that I made, but did not indicate, in the part to which you refer was in situations where U.S.-based agencies made borrowings denominated in the foreign currencies, which would need to be repaid in those (at that time more expensive) currencies. But this does not happen often. When much of the U.S.-issued debt is held within their country, there is less risk of detrimental effects if confidence in the currency falls, as many are disinclined to move money abroad. There are deeper problems for the U.S. issuers when foreign entities hold large amounts of their debt, for they are much more inclined to dump the U.S. debt and put their money elsewhere. In such a case, when the U.S. issuers issue new debt, if the issues are at former rates, knowledgeable lenders won't buy them, fearing that the value of the bonds may drop and they'll lose part of the value of their principal, down the road. Which requires that the issuers offer substantially higher rates of interest, in order to have this new issue of the bonds be fully subscribed. But - when current interest rates go up, say to 7%, lenders who had bought a bond issued earlier, paying, say 5%, will sell it on the secondary market, in order to buy one of the new bonds. He won't find any buyers of his bond at full value, however - for they don't want to earn only 5% any more than he does. So the only way that the holder of a $100. bond paying 5% can sell it is to be willing to accept $95. - $98., depending on how long term there is until that bond matures. The rule for this is: when interest rates go up, the price of dollar-denominated assets go down. Considering that the U.S. government carries a huge debt load now ... and is going deeper in debt each year because they're spending more than the income that they're generating, added to which they're putting a substantial number of tax cuts in place, a number of money management experts are growing increasingly concerned that the future value of the U.S. Dollar is in jeopardy. Even though a much larger proportion than formerly of the total U.S. debt instruments these days that is held by foreign agencies can be paid off in U.S. Dollars, even though their value has shrunk, the risk that they may not want to buy more U.S. bonds in future because they fear more of the same is very real. Even more so because many believe that the U.S. is printing a lot more money, these days - which puts the continued stable value of each one of those dollars at risk, into the bargain. Sorry to be the bringer of less than happy news. ole joyful

Dollarama (Ontario) Canada sells whole wheat and white bread for $1.00 and recently added other related bread items Giant Tiger has great prices on produce, not a huge selection but usually just what I need, it's fresh and always much less than Zehrs or Sobeys. The only thing I don't like about GT is that they don't offer reward points. :-( Ah well, I go for the overall savings (but the points are nice) JASDIP I've never had a problem with printed online coupons and have used 2 (different) coupons for one item My favourite sites for coupons and deals: www.smartcanucks.ca www.bargainmoose.ca Coupon sites: brandsaver.ca save.ca websaver.ca (more listed on smart canucks) Price Match! Zellers and Walmart price match, you can use coupons with price matching and do pretty good! I am an avid "point" collector, optimum, visa rewards, airmiles, Sobeys, Sears, HBC, (which I convert to airmiles) I buy Shopper's Drug Mart gift cards and recieve optimum points for purchasing them. Then I get points for spending them. Adds up really fast. I've used my Visa Reward points to buy Shopper Drug Mart gift cards - which are different than the gift cards SDM sells. Then I take the Visa SDM gift cards to SDM and buy their gift cards, then spend them on 20x the points day. I only redeem my points on point redemption day and use tons of coupons. I have saved hundreds and hundreds doing this! And it's all legit. :-) Oh and we go to a lot of movies and have a Scotia Bank Scene debit card which gets you free movies and discounts at the concession stand. Last week was the first week in ages where we had to pay full price for movie tickets as our scene point were all used up (darn teenagers!) But it's still a great deal (if you like the big screen like we do) Of course there is half price Tuesdays ... AND Pizza Pizza has a pizza and movie deal on right now. Get a large pizza and 3 drinks for $11 and get a free movie pass. So, that pretty much makes the movie free. Shopping these days is all about strategy it seems. Everyone at my house knows better than to go out to buy something without asking Mom first if she has a coupon! lol Usually I do. Geesh I could go on forever about couponing. It's sort of a hobby for me. :-) BJ

My first stop at the airport is the bank ATM, which does not charge any type of fees. Some countries it's illegal. I use a Capital One Money Market account, which also does not charge a fee. If you are getting foreign currency out of an ATM there is a fee, if you are getting U.S. money out there probably isn't. Hidden on all of these exchanges is the spread (aka the bid-ask spread). Go to the ATM at the airport when you are leaving Canada and get money, then immediately turn it back in to your bank for US currency. The amount they took out will be more than you get back even without transaction fees. FWIW - My Capitol One VISA doesn't charge a foreign exchange rate. I don't understand what you are saying here. The market for currency works just like any other market. So instead of thinking of buying and selling money let's think about buying and selling apples. Suppose you are an apple grower and you sell your apples to the market for $1.00 each. Later you realize that you sold too many and return to the market to buy apples. However, the market is selling those apples for $1.10 because the market has to make money to pay it's overhead. Many people mistakenly believe that exchange rates are fixed, at any time you can trade one currency for an equivalent amount of another currency, but they are not, currencies are commodities. Just like apples, there are people buying currencies and people selling currencies and the market takes its cut every time. Some banks have a lower spread than others but everyone has a spread.

Malls are definitely not on their way out around me, in suburban DC/Baltimore. Where I live, in a large tourist town, we have our downtown/Main Street shopping district with its touristy shops, boutiques and restaurants. Unfortunately high rents and parking issues mean lots of turnover and some businesses fleeing to our huge mall a few miles away, as well as a Towne Center (funny it's called that b/c it's not the center of town!) just down the road from the mall and an additional large strip mall another few blocks from there. Our mall has been around since my childhood and has expanded several times in the last 30 years. The anchor stores are Nordstrom, Lord & Taylor, JCP, Macy's and Sears. It also includes Crate and Barrel and all three Pottery Barns. I almost never go to the mall though my teenagers do. Not to hang out - my dd17 loves to shop and ds16 will meet friends for a movie. Our Towne Center is huge as well with a high rise high end condo complex as well as Whole Foods, Target and stores like lulu lemon, and Anthropologie and numerous restaurants. Kohl's is a stand alone store across the road from there, then TJ MAXX is at another strip mall across from the Towne Center. A couple of blocks from these shopping areas is yet another large strip mall with Nordstrom Rack, Barnes and Noble, Fresh Market and a movie theater as its anchor stores. I used to love shopping but since having kids, it's more of a burden. When I do shop, I tend to hit the strip malls rather than the huge mall b/c I typically just want to go to one or two stores and then flee. ;). I rarely buy shoes or clothes online b/c I need to try them on first. I will if I already have the item and just want a replacement, or it's something where I know the fit won't be an issue. I do often buy my kids clothes online, esp my boys. I do use Amazon Prime but not really for clothes or shoes. I also try to buy from locally owned stores as much as I can. But all that said, I don't see our mall going belly up anytime soon. Our anchor stores never seem to be the ones to close when retailers announce they are closing some of their locations.