Weak US Dollar Means Nintendo Favors Europe For Now 588
timeOday writes "The LA Times is reporting that the new Nintendo Wii Fit is hard to find on US shelves, due not only to strong demand but also the United States' declining status in the world economy: '"[Nintendo] is also is shrewdly maximizing its profit by sending four times as many units to Europe, reaping the benefits of the strong euro," says Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities. "The shortage demonstrates one consequence of the weak dollar. We're seeing companies ignore their largest market simply because they can make a greater profit elsewhere."'"
Bah Humbug (Score:5, Informative)
Rarely do we ever get a title released here first, even titles that were developed here tend to get released in the USA first.
What's more, Nintendo, Sony AND Microsoft have all indicated that they don't care for Europe.
Sony is probably the worst offender, by giving us a stripped down PS3 at nearly twice the price as the US and Japan (There's only so much "tax" and "import costs" can account for).
Rock band is actually cheaper to import from the US than it is to buy in the shops (it's almost twice the price when you buy the set and the game!). This is really nothing new, but it's still infuriating the way we get treated.
Re:Cost of localisation (Score:4, Informative)
Sorry. US Market no longer leading Europe (Score:5, Informative)
I hate hearing the whining of the article repeated elsewhere: "We're seeing companies ignore their largest market simply because they can make a greater profit elsewhere." That link I just posted says Japan is #1 in sales at $11.5 B USD, Europe is #2 at $11.4 B USD and US only pulled in $10.7 B USD. So companies aren't ignoring their largest market; they're giving the leftovers to the third largest market. Deal.
Re:Bush (Score:5, Informative)
Re:It's not just a weak dollar issue.... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Oh the humanity (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Language barriers (Score:5, Informative)
This depends on what country you're in, here in Sweden most people speak english well enough that until recently few games were translated to swedish, to this day many of the big titles (guitar hero, gta series, WoW and lots of others IIRC) are not available in swedish versions, yet we have to wait until the release of the versions of games translated to german and french before they're released, in english, here.
/Mikael
Re:Language barriers (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Oh the humanity (Score:3, Informative)
Here is a pop quiz that may be of help to you:
1) In what year did U.S. Manufacturing output reach its all-time peak?
a. 1966 b. 1976 c. 1986 d. 1996 e. 2006
2) In what year did U.S. Manufacturing revenue reach its all-time peak? (inflation adjusted)
a. 1966 b. 1976 c. 1986 d. 1996 e. 2006
3) In what year did U.S. Manufacturing profits reach their all-time peak? (inflation adjusted)
a. 1966 b. 1976 c. 1986 d. 1996 e. 2006
4) In what year did U.S. Manufacturing exports reach their all-time peak? (inflation adjusted)
a. 1966 b. 1976 c. 1986 d. 1996 e. 2006
5) Average annual compensation (wages + benefits) for US manufacturing jobs is
a. $36,000 b. $46,0000 c. $56,0000 d. $66,000
6) What are the relative sizes of the US and Chinese manufacturing sectors?
a. China outputs 2.5 times the US b. Equal c. The US outputs 2.5 times China
7) Which country produces the largest share of total world manufacturing output?
a. China b. Japan c. Germany d. France e. US
The answers if anyone cares about facts: 1-e,2-e,3-e,4-e,5-d,6-c,7-e
Re:Heh. (Score:3, Informative)
Here is a question for you - why is that Houston,TX which lacks zoning laws restricting industrial, commercial and residential construction to specific neighborhoods, did not [dallasfed.org] experience the boom/bust in real estate that other major cities did? And this in a city where population growth was among the highest in the nation?
Just because you think something is a good idea does not mean it is. No one person can have enough information to know what the most productive use of a resource is. It takes collective wisdom in form of people exchanging resources freely with the price system transmitting the information to get the most productivity out of a resource.
Re:Oh the humanity (Score:5, Informative)
Ah, but European developers give better plots! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Bush (Score:5, Informative)
Well look at it this way.
The government is the only entity that can effectively control the amount of currency in circulation. It is the only entity that can create and destroy money by fiat; it can print currency, it can create funds to lend to central banks, and it can destroy the money it created.
The government takes money from you every year in April. Someone has to repair roads, pick up garbage, provide for the common defense etc. Asphalt, garbage trucks, and missiles cost money. The government prints this money and spends it. It's all OK because it picks your pocket, pulls out dollars, and destroys them to account for it. And you shouldn't complain because you get to drive on nice roads with no garbage or foreigners.
What if they didn't take your money? That's what George W. Bush did. He figured you'd like him more if we skipped the part where the money comes out of your pocket and gets burned up in order to close the books on the services you receive from the government. So the money escaped your pocket (or at least your $300 consolation prize did), and suddenly all this money that had been spent paving the roads and collecting garbage was suddenly appearing at Wal*Mart for its second life, and it got spent a second time to buy more garbage, predominantly imported crap from overseas. Basically the government printed crap dollars, we spent them on imports, giving sellers overseas dollars that they promptly exchange for their own currencies. The currency exchange markets are quickly overwhelmed by dollars. These quickly end up parked in immense T-Bills held by foreign banks, who would like to unload them but cannot risk damaging their value by flooding the dollar markets with their own holdings. But the value of the dollar is deteriorating anyway, much to everyone's dismay- because dollars are the most widely held currency in the world. And we owe them to everybody. You see how awkward this is.
Let's say now you're sitting on a loading dock with 500 Nintendos on pallets. Do you want to turn them into dollars? Heh heh heh heh heh.
But the invisible hand has a way to correct everything. Maybe someday we can make our own Nintendos.
Re:Oh the humanity (Score:1, Informative)
Snopes:
http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/lemmings.asp [snopes.com]
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Heh. (Score:3, Informative)
Shouldn't that have increased prices in Dallas more than the other places like Phoenix, Florida and California? Why didn't that happen?
But consolidation in the last decade has hurt the abilities of the markets to function the way they are supposed to.
Can you give a few examples of consolidation and what aspect of the workings of markets that it has hurt?
Re:It will all end on Jan 20, 2009 (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Bush (Score:1, Informative)
sigh.
the source of knowledge doesnt invalidate the knowledge. if tomorrow every english math book says 2+2=5, and i find a hitler youth math book that says 2+2=4, should i flat out reject the information based on the source?
the fact of the matter is, you can find tons of good and true information from tons of different sources, and to say that one source is ALWAYS incorrect is almost always wrong (notice my 'almost'?)
if one website i find says 2+2=5, i can do a little research on my own and find out if that holds true or not.
and by the way, being a student of economics of course you wouldnt see it as being that 'simple'. the end effect is the same, and your education may actually be a stumbling block preventing you from seeing that.
anyway, why am i even wasting keystrokes on
there are bigger issues at hand, and most of this is being done to keep you from seeing what that is.
"Other thing is that debt is kept pretty stable in proper economy, it's wars and such that imbalance it."
my friend, it is you that needs to do some reading.
if you would like a history lesson on how our banking system was created and who it benefits:
http://www.pacinst.com/terrorists/preamble.html
if you would like to actually read something that matters and has broader implications for your life:
http://www.pacinst.com/efh/preamble.html
Re:Oh the humanity (Score:5, Informative)
Yes China's situation is a bit different as a developing nation but it is rapidly becoming normalized with the rest of the world as they are starting to develop their own "imaginary property". They are now a member of WIPO, the Paris convention, the Madrid Agreement and have a State Patent and Trademarks office. While enforcement is spotty the trend is obvious.
Any claim that the US economy isat a disadvantage due to IP laws is hooey.
Re:Oh the humanity (Score:4, Informative)
- Social protection, £159bn
- Personal social services, £26bn
- Health, £105bn
- Transport, £20bn
- Education, £78bn
- Defence, £32bn
- Debt interest, £31bn
- Industry, agriculture, employment and training, £21bn
- Public order and safety, £33bn
- Housing and environment, £22bn
- Other, £62bn
What those things mean is defined by the UN [un.org]. For the UK, most of 'Social protection' is social security benefits, i.e. money given to the unemployed, families, retired people etc.
For more detail than you could possibly want, see the HM Treasury Report [hm-treasury.gov.uk].
But I think you might have wanted me to say name other things I notice in daily life, other than healthcare, that I don't have to pay for. I'm not sure, since I haven't lived in the US and don't really know how life works there. If I lose my job, I can ask for "Jobseeker's Allowance", and I'll be given £46.85 a week (so long as I prove I'm looking for another job). Other things like that are listed on Direct.gov.uk [direct.gov.uk] (e.g. benefits, free travel, pensions, student loans,
Re:Language barriers (Score:2, Informative)
Re:which state? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:which state? (Score:5, Informative)
UK = England + Wales + Scotland + Northern Ireland
GB = Old fashioned term for England + Wales + Scotland
England = England
Commonwealth = lots of former colonies + UK
So you'd generally be safe using the UK where you would normally say 'England'.
Re:Oh the humanity (Score:4, Informative)
Re:which state? (Score:3, Informative)
great Britain = physically connected countries = England + Wales + Scotland
United Kingdom = England + Scotland + Wales + Northen Ireland
commonwealth = all the places we conquered (Australia, etc)
generally though nobody really notices the distinction between the 1st three even though the difference between GB/UK and England is becoming significant as Scotland gains more independence
Re:Oh the humanity (Score:3, Informative)
The British completely outlawed the slave trade anywhere in the British Empire in 1807 under the punishment of death and also took action against African leaders who refused to accept the abolition.
Re:which state? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Where to begin!? (Score:5, Informative)
The funny thing is that TFA also mentions an interesting tidbit which is preposterous:
"We're seeing companies ignore their largest market simply because they can make a greater profit elsewhere"
Now I've worked for HP for the past twelve years. I assume everyone knows that HP is from Palo Alto originally, and a very, very solid American company. Now since 1996 already the EMEA region has been responsible for 42% or more of the total HP revenue in the world, followed by The Americas and then APJ. Since China and India are ramping up economically, it wouldn't surprise me if the US is now competing for that second spot with the APJ region.
This notion is not just something that lives inside of large corporations like HP, but can easily be verified on Da Innerweb. If you add up the Gross National Product of member-state countries of the EU from numbers you find on CIA World Factbook, or if you simply look at wikis or reports on this, you will see that the EU has a GDP that is 15% higher than the US. Now since the US are ~300 million and the EU are ~400 million people, the GDP per capita is still a bit lower than the US', but this is also due to the fact that the newer member states such as Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Czech Republic, Slovenia and Slovakia are all former Warsaw Pact members who still have a bit of growing to de economically.
To cut a long story short, in 2006 the EU was already putting more value out there than the US. And the decreasing value of the Dollar might be good for the US' export position, but the bottom line is that the US are no longer the biggest market on the planet. It hasn't been. For years.
Re:which state? (Score:1, Informative)
Nintendo (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Oh the humanity (Score:3, Informative)
Even that's too charitable to us Americans. The Vietnamese took over Vietnam, needed to pick a government and economic system, and picked communism. As I understand it, it was more about ending colonialism (French) than establishing communism to them.
Re:Oh the humanity (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Where to begin!? (Score:1, Informative)
Typical American: low reading and comprehension skills, way too much aggression. As Chrisje wrote:
We can add Hungary to the list of former Warsaw Pact countries now in the EU. These countries total almost 100 million people whose standard living is far below the EU average. That is one reason why the EU's per capita is still slightly low -- as Chrisje noted and you failed to understand.