What's with the huge increase in the price of Fallknivens?

[Huntsman Knife Co. LLC.]

It seems like over the past year or so they have gone up drastically in price, especially the larger models. What gives?

 

[bearcut]

(( Leave politics to the Political Arena. ))

 

[Macchina]

The Swedish Krona is valued at .1587 US$ today. It peaked at almost .17 US$ in 2008, but has been as low as .11 (2009) and has averaged about .15 over the last 8 years. The change is not much, but the Krona is rising in value right now. The weird thing is, prices should be the exact same as they were in 2008...

 

[Esav Benyamin]

What does the value of Swedish currency have to do with a knife manufactured in Japan?

Also, the value of one currency compared to another doesn't say anything about inflation in costs in a specific industry.

 

[Shawn B.]

It could be global inflation.

 

[Samael]

It could be global inflation.

We have a winner!

I don't know how to respond to this without touching on political issues, but the feds adusted the way the inflation rate is measured in 1980. By pre-1980 measurements, we're at a 9.6% inflation rate right now, or in other words, dangerously close to Jimmy Carter's "double-digit inflation."

This is true across the boards for all knifemakers, and even more true if you go to the grocery store.

 

[RevDevil]

Maybe it has something to do with that 9.0 Earthquake that seemingly changed the landscape of Japan?

 

[arty]

The dollar has tanked against the Yen, and the knives are made in Japan. That raises the cost for Fallkniven, and then for the rest of us. A few years ago, a dollar was about 120 Yen. Now, it is about 81 yen.

 

[mongomondo]

Maybe it has something to do with that 9.0 Earthquake that seemingly changed the landscape of Japan?

Prices increased long before that happened

 

[helobite]

Maybe it is due to the rise of the Japanese Yen to the Swedish Krona

http://www.x-rates.com/d/JPY/SEK/graph120.html

 

[Pilot1]

Two main reasons:

1. Global devaluation of the U.S. Dollar

2. Vast inflation in commodities market, especially metals.

 

[Dagon]

The interesting side effect of all this is, thanks to the low dollar, it's a pleasure for us European to order American products, not just knives. In my case, an american colleague will soon bring a shiny new ipad 2 over, the price difference is huge.

 

[Wunderbar]

The Swedish corporate tax rate is currenty at 57%. If you read about Swedens government spending large amounts of money. I always blame the government when they are out of control.