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This may be of interest to all who are seduced into the latest molded, bolted & extruded piece of steel - yes, there is more than their fair share of plastic in them as well! Unfortunately, I'm as guilty as any other.
I've been keeping a record of the price changes in spare parts for the last 3 years. The shopping basket is a standard set of belts, knife sections, guards, chains etc. etc. for a very common green model.
Those of you in the US will be pleased to know that prices for this same shopping basket of parts have increased - yes that is, increased on average - 9.49% for the year.
That's OK you may say but hold on. Wasn't there a decrease in the world steel price by more than 50%? & wasn't there also a very large decline in the oil price? Was there also some talk of interest rates being very low - could they be described as being at "record lows"? There was also some talk of a global decline in asset values? I may be drawing a long bow - but I thought in a world where the market rules, prices would have - should have, come down?
It may also be of interest but I have kept a list of the same basket of goodies in Australian dollars.
From 2007 to 2008 average price increase for the same basket of parts was kept to a paltry 22.25%.
If you convert those parts prices from $US to $A with the currency exchange rate of that day - Aussie farmers are pleased to know they are being charged on average a mere 52% more for the same parts.
12 months later, the $A has appreciated 38.5% - yes appreciated, so that means all imported goods would be cheaper - give or take a few dollars - see freight has halved in price in the same period, air freight has had a similar fall in price, raw commodity prices have fallen dramatically, wages have affectively fallen etc. etc. - so you would be right in thinking that prices would/should have come down? Well sort of.
If you compare the same basket of parts from 2008 to 2009 in $A, they have fallen by an average of 8.27%. I'd guess you'd have to call that a small fall in prices.
However, if you again compare the same basket of parts in $US & convert that with the exchange rate of the day you find a little bit of a different story. As someone used to say: "surprise surprise" , Aussie farmers are paying - wait for it - an average of 88.40% higher - yes, that is 88.4% more, for exactly the same parts as US farmers pay.
Is there a word that is used to decribe this situation?
I've been keeping a record of the price changes in spare parts for the last 3 years. The shopping basket is a standard set of belts, knife sections, guards, chains etc. etc. for a very common green model.
Those of you in the US will be pleased to know that prices for this same shopping basket of parts have increased - yes that is, increased on average - 9.49% for the year.
That's OK you may say but hold on. Wasn't there a decrease in the world steel price by more than 50%? & wasn't there also a very large decline in the oil price? Was there also some talk of interest rates being very low - could they be described as being at "record lows"? There was also some talk of a global decline in asset values? I may be drawing a long bow - but I thought in a world where the market rules, prices would have - should have, come down?
It may also be of interest but I have kept a list of the same basket of goodies in Australian dollars.
From 2007 to 2008 average price increase for the same basket of parts was kept to a paltry 22.25%.
If you convert those parts prices from $US to $A with the currency exchange rate of that day - Aussie farmers are pleased to know they are being charged on average a mere 52% more for the same parts.
12 months later, the $A has appreciated 38.5% - yes appreciated, so that means all imported goods would be cheaper - give or take a few dollars - see freight has halved in price in the same period, air freight has had a similar fall in price, raw commodity prices have fallen dramatically, wages have affectively fallen etc. etc. - so you would be right in thinking that prices would/should have come down? Well sort of.
If you compare the same basket of parts from 2008 to 2009 in $A, they have fallen by an average of 8.27%. I'd guess you'd have to call that a small fall in prices.
However, if you again compare the same basket of parts in $US & convert that with the exchange rate of the day you find a little bit of a different story. As someone used to say: "surprise surprise" , Aussie farmers are paying - wait for it - an average of 88.40% higher - yes, that is 88.4% more, for exactly the same parts as US farmers pay.
Is there a word that is used to decribe this situation?
