Three dollars, one value

The US dollar, the Canadian dollar, and the Australian dollar are all within a penny of the same value.

A U.S. dollar note (bottom) is pictured alongside an Australian 10 dollar (L) and 20 dollar bill in this photo taken Oct. 14, in Washington. The U.S. dollar index hit the year's low on Thursday as most major currencies gained against the struggling greenback. The Australian dollar, which boasts the highest yield among major currencies, soared to a 28-year high at $0.9994, and poised to near parity.

Photo illustration / Jason Reed / Reuters

October 14, 2010

Right now we have the interesting situation that the three biggest dollars in the world-the U.S., the Canadian and the Australian, have almost exactly the same value. As of this writing, the U.S. dollar was valued only 0.06% higher than the Canadian dollar, and only 0.42% higher than the Canadian dollar.
Right now, there are only three major currencies with a higher value than the U.S. dollar: the British pound, the euro and the Swiss franc. With the Fed pushing ahead with "quantitative easing 2" while the Bank of Canada and even more so the Reserve Bank of Australia are tightening monetary policy, it seems likely that the pound, the euro and the franc will soon be joined by the dollars of Canada and Australia.

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