Aussie Rising – Subs Falling

Posted by Stropp on October 9, 2007 In May 2003 I departed the sunny shores of the land of Oz for a couple of years of living in the strange lands of the USA. At the time the Aussie dollar was sitting somewhere around the 60 cent mark. I was quite happy about this, because I realised that if I saved a few quid while dodging bullets and violence on the mean streets of Baltimore, then when I returned to Oz, I would nearly double my money. Well, that particular foreign exchange fueled dream never panned out. Within months, the Aussie dollar started to mysteriously rise in value. I simply put it down to the messing about with the space-time continuum by that lout, Murphy. By the time I departed the city where the US Army sends its medics to the local hospitals to train in dealing with gunshot wounds, the Aussie was up in the high seventies. Why the reminiscence? It happens that in the news the other day, there was a mention that the Aussie dollar is now at an eighteen year high against the US dollar. The pundits are saying that it will reach 0.90 USD sometime in December, and will be at one dollar early in the new year. Apparently it's because there's a lot of metal under the ground in the Outback that is worth digging up and selling to other people. Now while this is bad news for Aussie exporters who deal with the US, it's great news for those of us who buy stuff from American business. Like say, game subscriptions from Blizzard, SOE, or NCSoft. While the Europeans have a big enough market to have the same subscription prices, Euro for Dollar, as US subscribers. Aussies have always as far as I know, paid for subs at US rates. This means that a US$14.99 sub will cost OZ$24.98 when the rate is 60 cents, and OZ$19.99 when the rate is 75 cents. When the Aussie reaches parity, we Antipodeans will finally be paying OZ$14.99 for our MMO subscriptions. Unless of course that mongrel Murphy decides to screw with the fabric of the universe again.