13 year old girls to Colby Cosh: Like, when did you steal our attitude?

Colby posts a little comment in wonder about the rising oil prices and corresponding rising CDN dollar:

I've always heard that when you're predicting the change in the Canadian dollar versus the U.S., you have to give energy prices the opposite sign.

A possible explanation for this counterintuitive result is that Canadian manufacturing tends to be more concentrated in energy intensive industries than that of its foreign competitors. The benefits of higher energy prices accruing to energy exporters might be more than offset by the negative effects on other sectors of the economy of higher energy import costs, a relative decline in the international competitiveness (particularly for Canadian manufacturers), and weaker export markets.

Has this finding been discredited? If so, when? And did I already ask this once before?

So I emailed him about the fact that this 'possible explanation' is quite limited and based on a zero sum, two variable theory.

The reason that oil prices have ramped up lately has been the weakness in the US Dollar. Oil prices are posted in USD, and any weakness in the dollar will ramp up the oil price. Yes, there are concerns about terror, capacity, etc, but in regards to the Canadian dollar, you can be sure that it's more of a currency situation.

Anyways, Colby (aka: character from 'Clueless') emails back:

You don't get from $25 a barrel to $55 just from the recent weakness in the US dollar, though. And it's not "my" theory.

Get the panties out of the knot, first off.

Secondly, you didn't refer to the $30 rise since 1998 (hey! was the CDN Dollar at 85 cents in 1998? Not a chance). I was referring to recent gains by both the CDN dollar and oil prices.

Anyways, I emailed this guy with a possible explanation to help him out, and for what? Some two-line dismissal from a guy who has never seen a supply and demand graph.

I love that attitude though: I don't understand, so you're stupid.

Anyways, Colby, if you're reading this, take note:

"The weak dollar is not increasing demand for oil but the price of oil is going up simply because it is priced in dollars," said a derivatives trader in New York.

"As the dollar gets sold off, so people are jumping on and are basically buying anything they can against it," agreed a proprietary trader at a European bank in New York.

Most dollar-denominated commodities, from gold to copper and silver to aluminum, are probing multi-month or multi-year highs in dollar terms this week.

Booyah.