The Dollar Rally -- July 1, 2018

From Baystreet, on Friday, ahead of the data:

For the second day in a row, the Canadian dollar is starting the day on a positive note.

What a difference a few days makes. USD/CAD soared to 1.3385 (74.7 US cents) after the text of Bank of Canada (BoC)Governor Stephen Poloz’s speech from Victoria, B.C. was released on Wednesday afternoon.

Economists and analysts were not in total agreement as to whether the speech and ensuing press conference were hawkish or dovish on the outlook for Canadian interest rates. Many mocked the governor for giving a speech on transparency which in reality wasn’t transparent at all.

To be fair, Poloz stressed that the BoC cannot make policy on headlines but must rely on data. To that end, the BoC will get a couple of key data points this morning. First April gross domestic product data will be released. The market expects a flat result (0.0%) compared to the 0.3% gain in March. The Raw Materials Price Index (forecast 1.2% vs April 0.7%)) and Industrial Product Prices (forecast 0.9% vs April 0.5%) are also due. If this data surprises to the upside, the Canadian dollar will soar. 

I'm not going to try to find that Canadian data, but this was the close for the Canadian dollar on Friday:

• 1:31 to 1
• or 76 cents (US) vs 75 cents the day before

I guess that soared by currency standards. A couple days ago you could have bought a Canadian dollar for 74.7 cents. Now you will have to dig a bit deeper to find 76 cents to buy a Canadian dollar.

Disclaimer: I understand absolutely nothing about currency trading. And my comments may be completely incorrect. If this is important to you, a) go to the source; and/or b) call George Soros. 

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The Geico Page

"Cut It Out." Where did that come from? Connect the dots to The Big Bang Theory.

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Costa Rica

Daughter and son-in-law recently in Costa Rica for a business meeting. Seriously.

For those who remember, Jurassic Park was filmed in Costa Rica.

Look carefully.

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Porcelain 

I continue to read Edmund de Waal's The White Road, c. 2015. I think I've been reading bits and pieces of this book for over a year now. I can't recommend it. But I love it. Brilliant. The writer packed more information than I ever imagined when I first started reading. it. It appears he simply took his journal notes and transcribed them with minimal editing and published the book. Clever. Poetic prose. Virginia Woolf did the same thing but de Waal took it to a new level, though Woolf was more sublime. Sublime. I love that word.

de Waal set out on a journey to visit the "three cities of porcelain." The granddaddy of them all, of course, Jingdezhen (China). Then centuries later, Dresden. Then Plymouth, Cornwall, England (p. 282).

Years ago, ....

.... holy mackerel ... pardon the interruption ... with apologies to Michelangelo and David, I once heard a [heterosexual] woman say that the female form is more interesting to watch / observe than the male. I looked up from where I was blogging here in Starbucks -- a most shapely, beautiful, statuesque 30-something ... but I need to move on ... where was I?

Oh, yes, Plymouth, Cornwall.

Years ago, while stationed in England I became fascinated with Wedgwood. My wife always dreamed of an entire set of Wedgwood. The dollar was very, very weak at the time; the set was very expensive. We still have it.

Sophia has a miniature Wedgwood Peter Rabbit tea set. It's out every day and she serves us tea every afternoon when she gets home from TutorTime.

So, where did Wedgwood get its clay? What made Wedgwood famous. This is simply incredible, how the dots connect.

Fort Prince Edward: the oldest fort in America? Again, from wiki:

Fort Prince George was constructed in 1753 in northwest South Carolina, on the Cherokee Path. It was named for the Prince of Wales, who would later become King George III of the United Kingdom. It was the principal Carolinian trading post among the Cherokee "Lower Towns".

The white earth of the Cherokees, unaker.

Chas' Town Bay. We lived just north of Charleston for a couple of years and never even knew of this story. Amazing.

Enough.

Two links that will sort this out:

• region's kaolin history nearly forgotten (thank goodness for the internet)
• NC clay made Wedgwood famous