#887 The Economy
Fanny asks Brian why the Canadian economy is doing so well these days.
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Fanny: Hey, Brian, you know, recently I heard that the Canadian dollar is very strong.
Brian: It is. It's been amazingly strong in the last few months.
Fanny: What happened? I mean, how come?
Brian: It went up. The reasons behind why the Canadian dollar is strong...
Fanny: Yeah.
Brian: Very good question. Without getting too complicated, my understanding is the Canadian dollar is linked to a lot of primary industries, so things like, say like, oil or mining or timber from like forests and right now I think there's a high demand for those kind of products, so because of that it's pushed the Canadian dollar up. But also I think many other currencies have gone down a bit, like the American dollar has dropped a lot.
Fanny: Really. OK.
Brian: I don't follow the currency markets too closely.
Fanny: OK, I see.
Brian: But I think because the American dollar has gone down as well, that means that, you know, it doesn't take as much Canadian money to equal the American money now, so I think those are probably two of the reasons why it's been strong.
Fanny: I see. I know that Canada is a country which is really rich in the natural resources, but are there still a lot of natural resources left now.
Brian: That's another good question. I think that there are still quite a lot of resources.
Fanny: Oh, nice.
Brian: Which is, you know, is good but some of them are decreasing quite a bit.
Fanny: I think so, because of consumption.
Brian: It's too...
Fanny: Too big.
Brian: Right.
Fanny: Yeah.
Brian: And we export a lot of our resources too, so, you know, the Unites States is always taking a lot of our resources so that's like a huge market right there, but I think there's still lots of oil but maybe the... some of the trees, you know, they cut them down pretty fast and they take a long time to grow back, so you have to watch out there.
Fanny: OK, I think that's a very reason for the strong Canadian dollar.
Brian: It could be but you probably should ask an economist. Maybe they can tell you a bit more informed insight than I can.