Thursday, August 16, 2007

A thing of beauty



Look at that. The Aussie dollar has lost over 5 cents to the US dollar in a matter of days. It almost brings a tear to my eye.

Something seldom discussed, I think, in relation to the comics biz, is the fact that although most of it is US based, many artists and writers are not. Lately, folks in places like Australia, the UK and Europe have been doing it pretty tough with super lousy exchange rates as the US dollar plummets ( I am beginning to call it the US peso these days )...when the dollar goes down 30% that generally means so does income. So imagine my surprise when this lovely global credit crunch makes a lot of the currency speculators cut and run from the aussie dollar, sending it way down from it's 18 year highs against the greenback. ( Yeah China figures into the equation somewhere too with the distortion of the Yaun. )

But this is a thing of beauty my friends. Instead of earning 30% less than a couple years ago...it's not only 25% ( or so, roughly right now ). Of course in the US a dollar still equals a dollar, notwithstanding inflation, which seems on the rise everywhere. And I do, of course hope it's not hitting the mortagages of people I know too hard. Looks to be a bumpy ride.

I hope this is also good news for the creators in other countries who also get paid in US dollars. I know it's probably been killing My Master, Mr Ellis lately, among others.

Now, I just need to get paid in general!

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