Two or three years ago I made some suggestions here, that in the light of the huge U.S. gov't. debt (much of the cause having been that they chose to bail out huge banks that were " ... too big to fail" - and there are fewer of them, that are even bigger, now ... plus some auto manufacturers). It seemed to me that that situation, when added to the major U.S. private debt, meant that there were some major difficulties ahead.

Also, the U.S. Federal Reserve, isn't it, that prints the money? was printing massive increases in issued currency.

I felt that those issues meant that there were some substantial difficulties ahead for the U.S. Dollar, and that it would be wise for some U.S. folks to change some of their assets into assets based in a different currency ... possibly better ones than Canadian, as our economy is so closely tied to yours.

Had some of you chosen to invest in Canada, about 78 - 80 U.S. cents would have bought CDN$1.00 at that time.

Suppose you'd invested in some Canadian assets that grew by about 20% over those two or three years - now you'd have CDN$1.20 or so value of asset.

Suppose you choose to repatriate the dollar now - and why would you, as similar conditions still apply?

Each of those Canadian Dollars would buy US$1.04 now ($1.05, last weekend) so you'd get US$1.21.

That 50% growth in your asset over 2 - 3 years is a nice rate of return, right?

On the other hand ...

... had I used CDN$1.00 to have bought U.S. funds in order to buy products, travel or invest, in the U.S. - that would have been expensive.

Suppose that I'd bought a good U.S. stock ...

... and it grew by 25% over those 2 - 3 years ...

... now I'd have US$1.00 ...

... and when I traded it back into Canadian money ...

... I'd get about 97 cents.

ole joyful