How the mighty (dollar) has fallen.

I know that currency exchange rates are a pretty good barometer of international relations, but I just don’t keep up with them on a daily basis. I got an Amazon.ca gift certificate recently, totaling a little over $20 CDN, and after looking over a few items such as Doctor Who DVDs and whatnot that wouldn’t be covered by that amount, I settled on a CD of traditional Maori music from New Zealand (don’t ask – it’s just something I’ve really grown to enjoy over the years, and sometimes the chorus of Crowded House’s “Together Alone” just doesn’t quite cut it), punched in the gift certificate code, and placed the order. This left me with a balance of $9.74 CDN that w0uld still have to come out of my debit card. OK, that’s cool. I figured that’s gotta be, what, five U.S. dollars?
Wrongo. According to XE.com, $9.74 in Canada = $8.45. Holy crap. I mean, I suppose it’s good for Canada – I remember visiting Toronto and picking up a stack of something like eight or nine books and forking only over a few dollars in my native currency, so I suppose this evens the scales – but wow. Though I don’t think it’s solely a case of their dollar gaining value. I think it’s more likely a case of our dollar losing value. And lots of it.
So much for my quarterly “Woohoo!” when I get a $20-odd Amazon.ca gift certificate in the mail! Though it’s still worthwhile – there’s something perversely humorous about an American guy buying a CD from New Zealand through Amazon in Canada. Now watch the disc ship from a warehouse in Cleveland and shatter all my illusions.