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Hippo | July 1 - 7, 2010 | Page 34
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34
059360
L o w e l l S t .
061325
By John Andrews
jandrews@hippopress.com
The economic news was
abuzz recently with the
announcement that China
will allow its currency, the
yuan, to float.
I won’t pretend to fully understand money
supply and currency manipulation, but
the basic idea is this: rather than having
the yuan always worth the same number
of dollars, the two currencies will rise and
fall independently. For a decade, the yuan
appreciated slightly but was kept to a little
over eight per dollar. China officially
stopped this “pegging” to the dollar back in
2005 and started doing it unofficially again
in 2008, after the value rose to less than seven
per dollar.
We care because China buys an awful
lot of U.S. debt, and we buy an awful lot of
goods made in China.
Specifically, electronics.
If the yuan, as it has whenever it’s been
un-pegged in the past, grows more valuable
in comparison with the dollar, then our
gadgetry is poised for a price bump. Don’t
panic yet, though — even healthy appreciation
of the yuan won’t break our technology
addiction.
Take the iPad as an example. Research
firm iSuppli reported in April that each $500
iPad costs $260 to build. Much of that cost
is incurred, yep, in China: parts manufacturing
and labor to put it together. There are
plenty of costs not included there, not the
least being the considerable development
that went into the thing, as well as transport
to our shores, marketing, technical support,
yada yada.
WIFI HoTspoTs
NAsHUA
• A & E ROASTERY 131 Route
101A, Unit 2, Amherst, 578-3338,
aeroastery.com. Free.
• CARRiAgE HOuSE 230 Route
13, Brookline, 769-6004, carriagehousecoffee.com,
free
• CASTRO’S BACK ROOM 182
Main St., 881-7703. Free.
• J BEANER’S COFFEE HOuSE
AND CAFÉ 25 Route 101A,
Amherst. Free.
• MARTHA’S EXCHANgE 185
Main St., 883-8781. Free.
• MERRiMACK PuBliC
liBRARY 470 DW Highway Merrimack,
424-5021. Free
• NASHuA PuBliC liBRARY,
2 Court St., Nashua. nashualibrary.
org/WiFi_FAQ.htm. Free.
• NASHuA WiFi PROJECT Main
Street, Nashua. Free.
• NATHANiEl’S 537 Amherst St.
Free.
. PANERA BREAD 8 Spit Brook
Rd., 891-2133 and 590 Amherst St.,
821-6021, panerabread.com, free.
. THE PEDDlER’S DAugHTER
48 Main St., Nashua, 603-821-7535
• SHORTY’S, 328 Nashua Mall,
Nashua, 882-4070, shortysmex.com
• SKY MARKET 383 E. Dunstable
Rd., 888-7400. Free.
MANCHEsTER
• 900 DEgREES 50 Dow St., 641-
0900
• AiRPORT DiNER, 2280 Brown
Ave., 623-5040. Free.
• BEA’S WASH N DRY 478 South
Main St. 668-7110. Free.
• BillY’S SPORTS BAR &
gRill 34 Tarrytown Road, 622-
3644, billyssportsbar.com. Free.
• CASTRO’S BACK ROOM 972
Elm St., 606-7854. Free.
• CluB 313 93 South Maple St.,
628-6813. Free.
• DERRYFiElD COuNTRY
CluB 625 Mammoth Road, 669-
0235. Free.
• gOFFSTOWN PuBliC liB­
RARY 2 High St., Goffstown, 497-
2102. Free.
• HigHlANDER iNN Fusion Hotspot,
2 Highlander Way, 625-6426.
Free to guests.
• HOOKSETT PuBliC liB­
RARY, 1701B Hooksett Road, 485-
6092. Free.
• JEWEll & THE BEANSTAlK
797 Somerville St., 624-3709. Free.
• JilliAN’S 50 Phillippe Cote St.
Free.
• MANCHESTER CiTY
liBRARY 405 Pine St.. Free. 624-
6550 x 340
TECHIE
When will tech cost more?
I yuan, you yuan, we all yuan a floating yuan
If the Chinese currency goes up 5 percent,
and even if that affects the entire $260 hardware
cost, you’re still looking at just north
of a 2.5-percent increase in price. Considering
that final assembly labor itself is more
like 3 percent of an iPad’s cost (rather than
more than half for the hardware as a whole),
if individual components come from outside
China, this will affect prices even less.
In fact, one Foxconn plant in Shenzen,
where many Apple products are made and
poor working conditions apparently prompted
several suicides this spring, is increasing
salaries by a whopping 20 percent. Apple
is subsidizing most of that increase, yet the
net impact to the iPad’s retail price is nothing,
nada, zippo. They’re eating the increase
because it’s relatively small. So as important
as Chinese labor is for all the consumer
goods we enjoy, their financial reward isn’t
exactly handsome by our standards.
With the fast pace of technological development,
a slowly increasing yuan will
barely even dent the getting-more-for-less
curve we’ve come to expect as new products
outstrip their predecessors in features
and speed after a few meager months on the
market. The upgrade cycle might get a tiny,
temporary respite, but we’ll barely even
notice once the Playstation 5 or 6 is out.
And all this, of course, is just one small
part of a larger relationship between two
countries and between them and the rest
of the world. Whether a stronger or weaker
yuan would be good or bad for the U.S.
is a matter of considerable debate, but most
economists agree that a floating currency
is better than a manipulated one, because it
allows prices to reflect true value. If we end
up paying a few bucks more for flat-screen
TVs, we can probably handle it.
• NuTFiElD AlE & STEAK­
HOuSE 55 John Devine Drive, 668-
6110. Free for customers.
• PANERA BREAD 933 South Willow
St, Manchester, 627-2443, and 7
Colby Ct., Bedford, 641-0500, panerabread.com,
free.
• PATiO & PAviliON RESTAu­
RANTS Hilton Garden Inn, 101 S.
Commercial St., 669-2222. Free.
• PENuCHE’S gRill 96 Hanover
St., 626-9830.
• SHORTY’S, Northside Plaza, 1050
Bicentennial Dr., Manchester, 625-
1730, www.shortysmex.com
• TWO FRiENDS BAgEl &
DEli 542 Mast Road, Goffstown,
627-6622, twofriendsbagel.com. Free
to customers.
• vAN OTiS CAFE 341 Elm St.,
627-1611. Free.
• WilD ROvER PuB 21 Kosciuszko
St., 669-7722. Free.
• YOuR SAlON 18 S. Commerical
St. Free.
CoNCoRD
• THE BARlEY HOuSE 132
North Main St. 228-6363. Free.
• CAFFENiO 84 N. Main St., 229-
0020, free
• CENTENNiAl iNN 96 Pleasant
St., 225-7102. Free to guests.