http://www.theage.com.au/business/just-how-high-can-the-aussie-fly-20101218-191d1.html

Which reminds me. I have to cough up some loot soon as my 30-day trial is about to expire.

It’s fascinating to hear that the US will be targeting us. Fifty years ago, that term would’ve had an entirely different meaning!

Thank you for yet another informative comment.

As a consumer its great and some of the stats I have seen really shows online traffic heading to international retail stores.

As an example, a drink bottle for my daughter that my wife was wanting to buy Sigg is the brand, in Australia costs $35 to buy from a store, to buy it direct from the US its $18 (ex delivery).

The reports I was reading were saying that many online stores from the US will be directly targeting Australians. So our retailers should beware. Its not just the consumer looking for these deals, they are also looking for us.

http://www.theage.com.au/sport/cricket/tickets-galore-as-fans-shun-ashes-20101114-17ssc.html

Having lived in a number of different countries in my life and with friends, family and clients across the globe, I also monitor the currency fluctuations quite carefully.

For anyone taking their Aussie dollars out of Australia, sure, what’s happening at the moment is great, but for the Australian economy and businesses here – including tourism, as you mentioned, it’s not so good.

I agree with Sarah who, in her comments above, talks about the savings not always being passed on. With the dollar rising that fast, aren’t prices of petrol, PCs and other imported goods and gadgets supposed to be visibly falling? I don’t see that happening.

Personally, our business gets a fair bit of work from overseas, which means our earnings in Aussie dollars are down. I have just changed the US$ prices quoted on my website again and now put them on par with my AU$ rates. It was not long ago that it was very attractive for companies in the US for instance to outsource web copywriting work to me, a content writer in Australia, but businesses in Australia have now sadly lost that competitive edge, internationally.

Anyway, like you concluded, there are good sides and bad sides to this issue, but I’d prefer the dollar to be back at around $0.85!

http://www.theage.com.au/business/a-blamed-for-caterpillar-job-losses-20101111-17obt.html?rand=1289437366876

Fifty bucks for the average courtyard garden.

China’s economy is moving inwards now – local consumption and growth rather than relying exclusively on production exports. There is already talk of floating the Yuan which will then further impact the US$.

The one factor we haven’t yet discussed is the growing strength of the Euro as a standalone currency. Even now we are being quoted Euro prices out of China as it remains a stable currency. We have been very fortunate that our dollar’s growth has also reduced the cost of dealing with European suppliers as well.

Businesses would be foolish to peg their current performance and cost base on currency gains and I for one have asked our accounts to run 12 month costing scenarios based on a varying (worsening) exchange rate.

http://www.theage.com.au/business/passenger-numbers-hit-record-for-melbourne-airport-20101111-17obs.html

Imagine if everyone holidayed at home one year. How quiet it would be …