UNBELIEVABLE - the good ole aussie dollar

[h0ughy]

RB et al do not read on........


The dollar has reached a 23-year record, hitting an intraday high of 90.22 US cents it hit the mark at 10.46 (AEST) this morning, its highest level since June 4, 1984 when the Australian dollar closed at 90.5 US cents.
:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

[xelasnave]

Maybe the time will come when a dollar is worth a dollar.
No doubt you have a list of things you can buy all in the interest of saving money.
So go for it...
alex

[Tamtarn]

Damn! I just paid for our DSI Pro on Friday, thought I got a good rate then.

:mad2: :mad2:

[xelasnave]

Floating the dollar is a load of crap.
I put some in the bath and they all sank.
alex

[h0ughy]

;) try mercury:whistle:

[mick pinner]

so when do the prices start dropping?

[h0ughy]

probably has to be sustained for a few weeks

[Stephen65]

The price of everything I buy from the US is dropping...even shipping paid for in US$ is getting cheaper.

The A$ is high against the yen too....good time to buy Japanese product as well.

[sheeny]

That's good news for me... heading to Canada in less than 3 weeks time. I hope it keeps going up in the meantime!

Al.

[Stephen65]

Unfortunately Al, the Canadian dollar is also rising strongly against the US dollar - its reached parity for the first time in many years. Because the CAD has climbed faster against the USD recently it means the A$ has actually dropped against the CAD in the past few months and is not particularly high against it right now.

Of course, if you can do your spending in the US you will get the benefit of the high A$/USD.

[sheeny]

I was afraid you'd say that!:(

Al.

[fringe_dweller]

WOOOHOOOO!!! time for me to hit amazon for even more rare CD's/DVD's woot woot - especially before CD's dissappear altogether - bah to only having lossy d/l formats - were going backwards folks!.
I think the aussie dollar reached parity and beyond in the 60's once?
wish that stupid pound sterling moved around occasionaly - whats with that? - protected species? bloody poms grrrr who do think they are? grumble :D bow down before the mighty resources aussie dollar you swine!

[Karls48]

Yes, I remember Australian dollar to be worth 1.24 US dollars. Early seventies I think

[fringe_dweller]

thanks Karl! must of been the last time we had a resources boom I 'spose! 'cept this one is going to be a 50-100 yr long one (apparently!) and in some area's, till the earth ends, i believe woohoo for dirt!

[Omaroo]

If I remember rightly - it was Keating who devalued our dollar back then - on the premise that we did so in order to compete on the world stage. Good for exports for a time - bad for travellers/buyers of o/seas goods.

[Stevo69]

I hope it stays high (or goes higher) next week. I ordered nearly $600 worth of stuff from ProtoStar (http://www.fpi-protostar.com/index.htm)for the Dob.:whistle:

A couple of weeks ago I ordered $500 worth of Feather Touch focuser and parts from Starlight Instruments (http://www.starlightinstruments.com/index.html) when the dollar hit the 88-cent peak, but PayPal seems to be a day behind in exchange rate calculation, so I missed out and paid at the 82-cent rate.:mad2:

hoo roo,
Steve

[fringe_dweller]

Hi Steve, i believe paypal cream off the exchange rate, that's how they make their money off non-merchants, so you never get the going rate, its always a few cents diff/lower.

[[1ponders]]

Kearn's got that right. It's a bit of surprise when you don't know about it and you calculate using a currency converter and then you check your account after paypal has deducted their amount. :mad2: Mind you it's a bit safer than paying directly with a credit card. Might be worth the bit you lose out on ;)

[fringe_dweller]

Hi Paul, (been a while mate) yeah they should be a bit more upfront about the deal eh!
I have only made small purchase's with paypal, I was thinking what it amounts too when its a large transaction say 10k+ - thats a substantial amount via skim I would guess!! I want my own paypal company now :D
but i did hear once that aussie dollar being a currency speculators favourite (for some strange reason!?) and hence moves around a lot and quickly sometimes, we are treated more harshly? as they use some caution more than with other currencies mebbe? is this true?
and i agree its worth it still for average to small buys, peace of mind wise.

[Stephen65]

Just a tip about paypal...you don't have to accept their currency exchange rate, if you are paying using a credit card via Paypal there is the option to instead elect to have your card be charged by Paypal in the merchant's currency. This means that instead of say, Paypal charging you A$125 for something selling for US$100, instead US$100 will be charged to your card and your bank will apply its own exchange rate to the conversion.

On the "Review your Payment" page for a Paypal payment there will be a link called "Other Conversion Options". If you click on this you get the option of choosing to be charged by Paypal in the foreign currency.

Whether this works out as a better deal than having Paypal do it depends on your bank's rate and whether it charges a fee for a forex transaction.

[fringe_dweller]

wow, thanks for the tip Stephen, i'll try that next time!
cheers

[ballaratdragons]

All good as long as it doesn't go any higher!
I was listening to the guy from Westpac and another from Commsec at lunchtime. Both said the same thing: If it reaches 0.8% (it's nearly there), then the interest rates will go up. That's not good.

[fringe_dweller]

yeah true, but then those depending on interest from savings will be happy? there's a winner for every loser? and JH will then definitely be voted outta power! thats a good point eh, and besides i get more CD's as i said

[[1ponders]]

Cheers, thanks for that Steven. Very handy to know.

G'day Kearn. 'bin missin' your widefields. Wonderin' where ya bin ;)

[Karls48]

For AMEX the difference between Forex rate and exchange rate they give you is 3.6 cents.

[JimmyH155]

My brother lives in Jasper, Alberta, Canada. He says the other day, a supermarket put up a notice "U.S. currency not accepted here" :lol: Apparently the Americans are in shock:lol::lol::thumbsup:

[Stephen65]

In my experience the rate the Commonwealth Bank gives you is close to the prevailing forex rate, but you do need to factor in the charge they make for a forex card transaction - its about 1 or 1.5%.

[fringe_dweller]

been a while mate, and I burnt out processing my mcnaught shots from early this year, still never finished them, broke me, loool, and ended up in an exclusive rehab clinic in the Bahama's for IIS/forums/internet/astrophotography addictions for these past months, but then i decided, along with ben ;) that rehab is for quitters as they say! :D
cant even remember how a camera even works now :lol:

[h0ughy]

1 USdollar = 0.88 Aussie dollars in a recent paypal transaction today. so they milked almost 3 cents or say 3% of the transaction

Bank Spot Buy Bank Spot Sell
Country Currency Code T/T Cheques or T/C Notes T/T or Drafts T/C or Notes

USA Dollars USD 0.9076 0.9130 0.9335 0.8965 0.8838

[Stevo69]

I always thought at PayPal only take their fees from sellers, not the purchaser. Obviously I've been wrong.

[h0ughy]

gone past the 91 cent mark now on the way to 92 cents - man this is bad news - too tempting:whistle:

[Omaroo]

It's OK David - just wait for it to crash with a change of government.

[Dennis]

Hmm, that SBIG ST8 is looking more affordable...

Cheers

Dennis

[h0ughy]

nooooooo must get now before oblivion:scared:

[ving]

sheesh! been a while since its been this high... too bad i dont have any money and just as well i am gunna win the canon competition :)

[citivolus]

Wow, 0.9231 last check.

Must... control... wallet.

[fringe_dweller]

I find it fascinating that this forum and other aussie astro forums are predominantly made up of 'conservative' thinking people - i guess thats why if i hang out in a forum, i now prefer muso's or political forums.
i guess its all the self funded retirees (who dont have to put up with WC) farmers and the like - interesting :)
I'm more worried about our democracy and the 'fair go' 'crashing'.
with the dollar finally lower, at least my friends who work in the car industry would be breath a sigh of relief, but sadly the so-called 'oil crash' could be coming anyway? then NOBODY can help us! and the BS fantasy dream will definitely be over?

[fringe_dweller]

and for JH lovin retirees, dont forget it will be some poor disgruntled unhappy WC slave that'll be wiping ya bum in a few years mebbe, if it continues ;) LOL i hope you dont expect them to care much?

[h0ughy]

US Dollar USD 0.9263

[Dennis]

Interesting comment. I was born in the UK in 1954 and I remember my parents going to the shops with ration cards due to the continuing shortages after WW II. Our house did not have heating, other than a single fireplace in one of the rooms. Coal had to be carried, on shoulder, from the local corner shop to make a fire, a 2 mile trip, often through snow. Water pipes had to be thawed in winter, if they hadn’t already burst that is.

Our bath was a tin bath which we filled from a kettle – we had one, once every week, whether we needed it or not! Being the 2nd eldest, I was lucky enough to only have Dad and my older brother go before me in the tub. I felt sorry for my little brother, last in the line of 7. We didn’t go away for holidays. The only fruit we saw was at Xmas – a real treat to have an orange and banana. Mum had to put all our laundry in a pram to walk the 3 miles to the local wash house every Saturday morning. We walked to school; an 8 mile round trip come rain, hail, shine or deep snow. The Education Department provided us with free school uniforms, shoes and school dinners. Dad worked 5 ½ days a week.

We didn’t have a TV – just a wireless. No car, no ‘phone. We were a typical Northern English working class family. There were people around who were better off than us; as there were families who were worse off than us. Some days, food was simply a slice or two of bread – that’s all we had. We built our push bikes from wrecks scrounged from the local scrap merchants.

We never locked our front door. Cars didn’t have locking doors or locking petrol filler caps. Apart from a few locals who tried to escape the daily grind through alcohol and the odd gang fight between mods and rockers, our neighbourhood was a reasonably quiet and safe place.

Our neighbourhood was a mixed bag of West Indians, Poles, Czechs, etc. We all lived and played together. I didn’t “discover” discrimination until I attended secondary school at age 11.

So, when the dream ends, and if gets no worse than my childhood, I do hope that my tool set and skills are still sharp enough to manage those changes, even though there is no glory in poverty; just hard times.

Cheers

Dennis

[fringe_dweller]

Interesting response!
what makes you think i'm not familiar with hardship? your generation have an exclusive claim to it? didnt your generation enjoy hecs tax payer funded free uni education to gain your degrees qualifications that led to your prosperity later on - not to mention i did live in the UK for a few years 17 yrs ago, and lived and worked with the working poor here, not much has changed for them since WWII!
technology has a lot to do with our improved circimstances/lot than conservative idealogies i would think, specially in food production.
what side of politics started that war again?
I liked being poor there coz, SO many people are poor, that you dont feel singled out ;) or left out, its different when your part of a smaller group looking at all the prosperity around you, more like the million working poor homeless in the US must feel.
the dream i am referring to is that its all simply down to conservative policies and the enslaving of one half of the population will solve the other halfs problem of getting that 100th investment house/property subsidised with middle class welfare/ tax cuts/ neg gearing

[Dennis]

Whoops! My post was not directed at you in terms of appreciating or understanding poverty or hardship. Hardship is a personal thing and is not easy, nor worthwhile, to compare across generations as each person, family, situation and time is quite different, so it becomes kind of meaningless. There were probably more well off families who suffered more in terms of (lack of) love, quality of life, general well being etc.

My post was simply a personal reflection on the contrast between now and then. At the time, we never actually felt poor as we were all in the same boat. Also, the real battlers were the mums and dads that had so little hope yet carried so much responsibility. Neighbourhood crime, drugs, burglary, etc were almost non-existent too. We generally felt quite safe and it was a very comforting feeling.

Cheers

Dennis

[casstony]

Don't worry there's a few of us subversives here .......... and we're taking down names.:)

Still, we have good friends from the dark side - we just skirt around the issue of politics. We save politics for when we're in a house full of loony lefties so we can all have a group hug and make each other feel better.

[Omaroo]

So... who's bought what as a consequence of this situation?

[erick]

Well I'm thinking seriously about that Astrosystems barlowed laser! :)

[casstony]

Denk II universal powerswitch binoviewers - there's been a few on Astromart recently around the $US850 mark.

[Omaroo]

Mine just arrived yesterday Eric. It's fantastic! Sooo easy and spot-on to boot.

Cheers
Chris

[Dennis]

Although some Australian suppliers, such as BinTel and AEC have lowered their prices for US and Japanese products to account for the Aussie $ strengthening against these currencies, I don’t think that I have seen DSLR body and DSLR lens prices come down in the same period?

Cheers

Dennis

[Glenhuon]

Originally Posted by Omaroo http://www.iceinspace.com.au/vbiis/images/buttons/viewpost.gif (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?p=266128#post266128)
It's OK David - just wait for it to crash with a change of government.

If you blow any balloon up far enough its got to burst, doesn't matter who is in government :)

Yep, I was brought up in the UK too, and still think of them as better days in a social sense. We didn't have much although dad worked full time as a miner. We never locked our doors, we knew every neighbour for 2 streets either side of ours, only ever had one car (dad got done for DUI, silly old fool, and that was the end of it). I built my own push bike from scrapyard parts as mentioned before. I appreciate what I have now, I've worked for it, but I wonder if today's generation aren't going to find it hard later when things go pear shaped (as they inevitably will) . When I see kids of 17 driving new cars that mum and dad bought for them, running around with $300 mobile phones that are mostly used to send purile messages at 25c a time, and think they are in strife if the batteries on the ipod run out at an inconvenient time. I hope they cope when the big balloon bursts, or we are all buggered ;)

[fringe_dweller]

Hi Dennis, i apologise for going off, this is 'sposed to be a friendly place, i was a bit stroppy and lost it at the time, and the current political climate is a bit tense and serious for good ol laid back oz than we are used to in recent decades, and as Tony said, despite our personal views we're all friends here :) I do actually appreciate what everyone went thru back then, it wasnt fun I know that, hope you accept my apology :cheers:
but for gawd sakes can we please have this election over with already :whistle:

[Dennis]

That is a kind and thoughtful gesture – thank you. IIS is indeed a wonderful Forum with a great, diverse bunch of people but it is inevitable that we occasionally misunderstand each others messages. The interface is so restrictive via plain text, which would not be the case if we sat face to face, where each would have the benefit of a whole range of indicators and feedback to clarify, put in context and perhaps more completely understand what was intended. I put an interpretation on your post that I now understand was not where you were coming from, so in that context your response was understandable and certainly didn’t offend or upset me.

And as I said, despite the hard times, ours was a safe and happy street, something I wish the children of today could experience. Today’s (different) stresses and pressures were not part of that era – mercifully.

I suspect we both owe an apology to H0ughy for the OT stuff.:whistle:

Cheers

Dennis

[h0ughy]

Nope!!;) Just buy me a double overhead nebula camera with twin foxtails and we will call it even:rofl:

If you notice boys I left your topic well alone. Astronomy and politics don't mix:D;)

Now don't do it again - you never find me going off topic..........much:P:D:whistle:

[Glenhuon]

My apologies too h0ughy, got on my soap box a bit. If you really want to have a laugh at "the good old days" thing, look for a copy of Capstick Comes Home.mp3, by Tony Capstick, real funny.

[fringe_dweller]

no worries Dennis :) IIS in definitely a great place to hang out! i grew up in the 60's and 70's - i guess that was the last of the leave your door unlocked era, and kids could play anywhere and be kids, i walked millions of miles to school and back over the years
thing i remember about the 60's 70's from a kids perspective was that it was the cold war era, and the threat of WWIII nuclear winter was always presented as very real and imminent, and we grew up thinkin it was inevitable i think, and consequently lived my early life as if there was no tommorrow - todays scary monster under the bed equivalent for kids today would global warming i expect?
I'm going off to the naughty boy room corner right now h0ughy :lol::thumbsup: your a good sport old son :)

[h0ughy]

LOL I like ancient history like that Kearn

[h0ughy]

"The Australian dollar surged past 93 US cents for the first time since 1984, soon after the US Federal Reserve cut interest rates overnight.

The domestic currency shot up to a 23-year high of 93.37 US cents at 5.55am after the US central bank's interest rate setting arm, the Federal Open Market Committee, announced a quarter of a percentage point cut to the its federal funds rate, to 4.5 per cent.

This is the Australian dollar's strongest level since April 4, 1984, when it closed at 93.93 US cents, data from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) shows." from SMH

Oh well i have done it now..........:lol:;)

[GTB_an_Owl]

WHAT have you DONE h0ughy ?

do you have a DEATH wish ?

leave the bank account alone - you need brownie points for leave passes - not for frequent flyer points for the ambulance service

geoff

[h0ughy]

its the cloud I tell you its the cloud - the voices, they made me do it:scared: honest:whistle:, besides - its nothing much:whistle::D

[citivolus]

Moohaha, the Megrez 90 is here :) Now to go on an accessory buying spree.

[vash]

this reminds me of a Saturday Night Live sketch about the American dollar being down and out, I found a link to it.

http://www.dailymotion.com/clomas/video/x2trwo_the-not-so-incredible-adventures-of_fun

[h0ughy]

give you a hint;) (http://www.focuser.com/cgi-bin/dman.cgi?page=productdetail&plugin=dstore.cgi&product=CR2):D

[h0ughy]

US Dollar USD 0.9382 0.9435 0.9603 0.9261 0.9187 now one of those lotto numbers is my exchange rate:whistle:

[GTB_an_Owl]

and a choice of colors whats more

what one did you order ?

or should we have a guessing competition ?

geoff

[h0ughy]

I will leave that a secret;)