There has been a revolution in US business practices. Several factors have combined to force significant change to the US economy, and the resultant changes on company production costs/techniques and location has forced a bifurcation of the workforce and the business community. The United States has been drawn into the world economy, and as such must compete globally for sales of its goods and services. So too, the labor force, once the highest paid and most respected in the world, has been forced to compete with lower-cost labor sources worldwide. Add the economic malaise of 2007-2008, and the years 2006-2010 reflect an economic upheaval never seen before, or likely, since. This exercise tracks the exchange rate between the US dollar and the Canadian dollar over that period, and , the author believes, tracks closely the macroeconomic conditions between the two countries during the selected period of 2006-2010. This paper will show that a review of economic history, followed by a review of the exchange rates for the fund, (symbol FXC), will show a close correlation.

2006-2007 saw the end of boom economics for many Americans. Loose credit policies allowed stock and real estate prices to expand rapidly. Real estate speculators would execute options on new condominiums, only to flip those contracts to another purchaser for profit before the property was built. Several forces combined to threaten collapse of the US financial markets, from rogue traders making huge bets that threatened the existence of their companies, to job losses, to remarketed sub prime consumer mortgage debt and devaluation of home prices, often to values below the debts attached to them. Stock markets were threatened with huge losses, so much that stock trading was suspended in several countries around the world for brief periods. (1)

Also notable in October 2008 was the world currency markets fleeing to the US dollar and Japanese Yen, seeking save haven from currency devaluations elsewhere. (2)

Governments took action to prop up currencies, stabilize security trading, and restore confidence to the markets. These actions did not immediately take hold; in March 2009, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), which has long been the benchmark stock market index in the United States, had declined to 6,469 before beginning to rally, which was quite a drop from 14,164 on October 9, 2007. (3). The US DJIA did not return to an average exceeding 14,000 until February 2013. (4)