Monthly Archives: December 2004

In Macro 101 they teach you that when your currency drops, exports become cheaper, so they increase — this is one of the major factors that works to stop currency free fall. But here's an I hope unusual account of a circumstance in which one sort of export, albeit one based largely on imported parts, shrinks as a result of a currency decline:

Boing Boing: Danger, high voltage: It's common for people living in Europe to buy computer hardware in the US where prices are lower and the Euro is strong. Just don't try it with the new iMacs. An article in today's International Herald Tribune points out that the G5 iMacs sold in the US are strictly 100-110 volt, unlike every other Apple machine on the market with the exception of the eMac. Plug a new iMac into a standard 220-240 European outlet without a transformer and your motherboard will fry. From the IHT article:

It was a sudden, unexpected and little publicized change for Apple…

I asked Apple why and have not received an answer. Postings on Internet discussion boards are thick with speculation. The most likely reason is that limiting the reach of U.S. and Japanese computers is meant to help preserve European sales, where PC sales are relatively strong but the economy is weak. A company also gains if its revenue is in a more valuable currency than the one its costs are in.

Link.