Instead,
Coach Outletthey were socked with a nasty side effect
Coach Outletof the China boom on Australia's manufacturers.
Coach OutletExports of metals and energy are so
Chanel Handbagshot that the nation's currency has soared, rendering
Coach Outlet their products less competitive. In a bitter turnabout, Hammer says, Australian miners tell him he can't
Chanel Bagscompete on cost and are giving contracts to Asian suppliers instead. Hammer has let
Coach Outlet Onlinego two-fifths of his staff and finds himself sometimes concocting make-work for the rest.
"You see those fancy shapes? I
Coach Outlet got them to cut those out
Coach Store Onlinejust to keep them busy." He points to plates of steel
Coach Outlet Onlineonto which
Louis Vuitton Bagsstylized silhouettes have been carved with a blow torch -- a vintage truck, an industrial crane, a lizard. "It's the
Coach Factory Outletsame people driving the dollar up that are telling
Louis Vuitton Bagsus we are too expensive," he says, shaking his
Coach Factory Storehead. "It's very, very frustrating."
AUSTRALIA DISEASE
Australia,
Coach Outletindustrialists here warn, has caught a bout of "Dutch Disease." The
Coach Factory Outletterm was first
Coach Outlet used to describe the impact that North Sea oil
Coach Outlet Onlinediscoveries had on the economy of the Netherlands in the 1960s. Energy exports surged -- but so did the Dutch currency,
Coach Factory Outletand much of the manufacturing sector was pummeled.
Down Under, the dizzying boom in exports of raw commodities to Asia has sent the Australian dollar up nearly 50 percent since 2006: It's at
Coach Outlet parity with the U.S. currency today, up from just 70 cents in 2006.