Margt er líkt með ....

Ég hef áður bloggað um hve mér þykir umræðan oft lík hér í Kanada og á Íslandi, og kringumstæðurnar oft svipaðar.

Ég var nú eitthvað of fljótur á mér í færslunni í gær, þar sem ég talaði um að engum hefði dottið til hugar að leggja niður Kanadíska dollarann og taka upp þann Bandaríska.

Á vef The Globe and Mail í dag má einmitt lesa um slíkan málflutning. Fréttina má finna hér.

Þar má m.a. lesa eftirfarandi:

"Mr. Jarislowsky, a former Canfor Corp. director, said the loonie's rise to above par with the U.S. dollar is destroying manufacturing and could devastate the forest sector.

“We don't have a single mill in Canada which isn't losing cash at the current exchange rate despite the fact we invested hundreds of millions in dollars into new equipment when we had the money,” said Mr. Jarislowsky, chairman of Montreal investment firm Jarislowsky Fraser Ltd.

“I believe that if we stay at the present levels the entire forest products industry practically is going to be in liquidation-bankruptcy and there's going to be an enormous loss of employment.”

He scorned suggestions that now is a great time to invest in new equipment because the stronger loonie can buy more.

“Very often we are being told that this is a wonderful time to invest but if you are going to go bankrupt anyhow, and if the dollar keeps shooting further up, I would say it would be throwing good money after bad,” he said.

You may as well go bankrupt and try to save as much of your money by pulling it out of there before you go bankrupt rather than putting additional capital into the company.”

Mr. Jarislowsky said Canada could either aim for a common North American currency or peg the loonie to the U.S. greenback at about 80 cents (U.S.), allowing it to float within a small band."

"However the federal Finance Department is cool to such ideas. It resolutely opposes the notion in briefing notes prepared for Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and obtained by The Globe and Mail under access to information law earlier this year. Finance officials told Mr. Flaherty that a common currency would mean an erosion of sovereignty for Canada.

They say it would ultimately mean Canada abandoning an independent monetary policy and therefore its ability to directly influence economic conditions within its borders.

“A North American common currency would undoubtedly mean for Canada the adoption of the U.S. dollar and U.S. monetary policy,” Finance officials say in the briefings. “Canada would have to give up its control of domestic inflation and interest rates.”"

Fyrir Íslendinga óneitanalega kunnugleg umræða og kunnugleg rök, eða hvað?

 

Finance also believes that alternatives to a common currency, such as pegging the loonie to the greenback, are even worse ideas, notes show.

Prufið nú að skipta út "Canada" fyrir "Ísland" og "Forrest industry" fyrir "útflutningsgreinarnar" og llesið svo fréttina að nýju.