Weak US Dollar Means Nintendo Favors Europe For Now

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."'"

Oh the humanity

I feel like a Canadian

how long until US quarters get stuck/rejected by Canadian vending machines and laundermat washing machines

Re:Oh the humanity

Wait... your initial point made sense... but your last half is some ridiculous rant against environmentalism. What says we can't save the Spotted Owl AND Increase our industry. We can be environmentally conscious as well as industrially advanced. The problem is that industry is lazy and would gladly steamroll the environment to save a buck.

I consider myself to be an environmentalist... MOST environmentalist don't say "Don't chop down trees" they say "Chop down what you need and reseed the forest, using technology that limits the impact on the surrounding earth". We can have both strong environmental policy as well as a powerful industry.

Re:Oh the humanity

We no longer manufacture things in the US, basic big stuff like steel, etc. We just depend on buying it cheaper overseas....

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:Oh the humanity

Well, the data I have is from 2006 and I'm too lazy to look up newer data.

Re:Oh the humanity

In his figures, a single copy of Windows Vista counts more towards "manufactured goods" than does a mid-range stereo receiver... one copy counts as more than a dozen shovels.

When you count Britney Spears CDs, Windows, Bewitched and Gilligan's Island DVD box sets, etc. as "manufactured goods," yeah, we turn out a lotta shit.

TVs, electronics, appliances, clothes, shoes, tools, household goods, various other hardware - not so much as we used to.

Re:Oh the humanity

And where do those raw materials, or even parts for those jet engines come from?

You are correct, the USA should immediately cease producing value added goods and produce iron ore and silicon.

Where to begin!?

Your post is so reactionary and simple-minded that it certainly seems to have been written by an American, short on rationality as it is. In fact, in the last day or so /. has had several posts like yours modded up because they say absurd things such as the high cost of oil is due in part to the restrictions on domestic drilling.

If you think the US economy is in the shitter because of environmental protections you are an embarrassment to the genetic legacy your ancestors have bequeathed you.

The US economy is in the craphole because of the massive debt that has been leveraged against insolvent debtors. This came in the form of the mortgage crisis and its effects have reverberated and multiplied through the banking system. This has led to a crisis in commercial credit which has taken away the ability of consumers to fuel the economy which further erodes the ability of the banking system to maintain solvency. The causes of the credit crisis caused by the tanking of the mortgage system has not yet finished and we are likely to see much worse before it stops.

Regarding the offshoring of manufacturing and environmentalism, the real impact of environmental legislation in the United States is not to preserve non-human species, but to protect humans themselves. Look at the places where mining companies, steel refineries, chemical manufacturing plants, and pulp mills have operated and what you'll find are poisoned water tables and insanely elevated cancer rates. Additionally, the relative low-production of minerals from mining is due mainly to evisceration of the lands where valuable resources once existed, not due to the governmental restrictions on development.

For you to say something like "the tree huggers over her taking so much power" is laughable. Opening all the protected lands in the US would to natural resource exploitation do virtually nothing to fix the GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS let alone the paltry problem of the US economy stumbling against the stronger European economy. The kind of neanderthal thinking that bad economic times can generate amongst people is amazing and your post is an example of such stupidity.

Environmentalism has not caused the US economic crisis. Bad banking practice has.

Re:Oh the humanity

Also, while our European governments steal all our money for taxes, we use it for better things than throwing bombs at some desert...

Re:Oh the humanity

Is this a joke?

In a post that is riddled with historical inaccuracies and plain daft statements, this stands out:

"Of course, typical Americans; cleaning up after europe shits all over the place. Abolishing slavery."

WTF? That's a party you were particularly late to (just like both World Wars). You might want to check on the dates for European countries abolishing slavery (hint: generally before you). And as for reinstating civil rights, of course you remember what happened about 40 years ago, right?

Congratulations on making yourself look like an ass and giving your fellow Americans a bad name.

Bah Humbug

I hate how Europe always gets shafted, especially when it comes to gaming.
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

I've no idea, but there's no real reason to hold a title back from the UK just because they haven't translated it into French, Italian, German and Spanish (assuming it's not one of those titles with a language select in it, which are rare these days).
It wouldn't be so bad, but they never bother to translate American English into British English, so really, what's the point in waiting?

Re:Cost of localisation

Yes, at least in here in Poland it's a regular practice. What's totally fucked up is that english ones usually cost up to twice as much as the localised ones. Add that we aren't used to this kind of translations (movies in cinema are almost exclusively subtitled and TV uses voice-over via Gavrilov translation [wikipedia.org]) and it just feels wrong to hear our language used by Stroggs and other alien invaders.

With the US dollar this weak...

I'd have expected the headline to say "Nintento Favours Europe"

- RG>

Repeat after me...

There is no correlation between a weak dollar and the strength or status of the U.S. in the world economy. A weak dollar is not inherently bad either as it makes our exports more attractive and competitive.

It always amazes me. When the dollar is strong everyone says the U.S. is loosing economic power because of trade imbalances (weak exports). When the dollar is weak and trade exports are much higher, then people claim the U.S. is loosing economic power because of the weak dollar. Obviously neither interpretation is accurate. A strong dollar can be good and bad, a weak dollar can be good and bad. In this case American video game exporters are probably benefiting from less competition from Nintendo.

Such simplistic interpretations remind me of mercantilist theory, which is similairly idiotic. Carry on.

Re:Repeat after me...

b-b-but... they took er JERBS!

Re:Heh.

So, the *Wii* sucks because employees at your local department store buy them all up against the agreement Nintendo made with the store?

Re:Heh.

Nintendo is trickling just enough Wiis (yech) into the US sales channels to keep up interest while feeding markets that are actually making money. Unfortunately, the citizenry of the US rested on its laurels and consequently our nation has been conquered from within in the name of profit, and our economy has successfully been attacked and destroyed. The effects are only now starting to become apparent, compared to what's coming. The point is, the Wii isn't a joke, the US Economy is - and it's going to take a lot of sweat to correct it.

Re:Language barriers

Or how about just initially releasing it in English for the vast majority of gamers who simply want to play the game? Even weirder is how the games are delayed even in those European countries that don't get a localized version.

Re:Language barriers

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

I've traveled quite a lot in Europe over the last 25 years, and yet I've never had a problem finding people who speak English everywhere I've gone. Now, if they don't like you they might not want to speak English to you, but the trick to avoid that problem is to not act like an arrogant prick, and ideally to try to speak the local language, however limited your skills are, first. I find trying to speak the local language works everywhere in the world - when you do people tend to fall over themselves trying to be friendly and helpful, and suddenly people put a hell of a lot more effort into speaking understandable English to you.

It's been 15 years since I last came across anyone in mainland Europe that didn't speak any English at all - a very helpful French shop owner in a tiny town in Provence that, when he realized we were talking past each-other with my limited French, stopped a couple of random people who were passing by his shop and got them to translate.

On my last proper visit to Paris a couple of years ago it had been 12 years since last time I'd spent any amount of time there (I'd been on a couple of business trips where I spent 3-4 hours in town and then went back to London) in fact, I find it hard to practice my French as contrary to my last holiday there every French person I came across switched to English the second I had problems finding the right word, or butchered their language too much (my French teacher used to say that the one thing you should always make sure to get right in France is the sounds - if you pronounce things correctly you'll get away with almost anything - so far I think she's been right)

Re:Bush

> All bush did was speed up the process

That is a very nice way to say "he doubled the national debt within few years".

Re:Bush

Cynicism is no substitute for insight: http://zfacts.com/p/318.html [zfacts.com]

Re:Bush

> Maybe I won't have described the process perfectly correctly

ALL money based on an arbitrary valuation is inflationary. Backing it with a shiny metal provides something of a natural cap to inflation, but it's not like there wasn't hyperinflation when our money was "good as gold". In fact, banks were collapsing left and right throughout the 1800's when we were solidly on a gold standard.

> Check out money as debt on google video.

Certainly do so just for edification, but it's eye-rollingly bad stuff. Full of ominous conspiratorial whisperings, and a general emphasis on how evil the whole notion of debt is. How about thinking of it this way: debt is an added valuation on time. And time is about as universal a commodity as it gets.

Re:Bush

It's "slightly" more than your Money as Debt on youtube. I've passed through 2 tough years of economics, so I can assure you it's not so simple. Other thing is that debt is kept pretty stable in proper economy, it's wars and such that imbalance it.
I suggest you start from Economics for Dummies as definitely you lack some knowledge.

BTW: all references to "educational" materials on youtube should be classified the same as kittens on treadmill...

Re:This does not make sense

Good question. Nintendo is losing quite a bit of money by not raising the price of the Wii to match market demand. I think in the U.S. people are too used to seeing the price of electronics fall yearly, but with our rapid inflation rate, that's not going to happen anymore.

Nintendo should just go ahead and silently raise the price a little. Sure, there will be some anger but I don't think it would hurt their brand very much. They could always just say "because of the weakening U.S. dollar..." and I think people would get the point. Heck, even U.S. companies are doing that now.