Tag: economics

January 4, 2009

Iceland: More from the economic ‘canary in the coalmine’

A couple of days ago, the traditional meeting of Iceland’s prime minister and other leaders was interrupted by protesters to the point where the PM cancelled the annual review on TV. Full AP story here . For me, Iceland feels like it’s the economic canary in a coalmine.  They have experienced a crushing economic defeat and will likely have to cave to a broad range […]

January 4, 2009

US in Depression

The Economist magazine has diagnosed that the US economy is in a depression , not a recession. While the throngs of journalists, publicists, politicians and other folks are loathe to confess that North America has entered the greatest recession on record, I commend the Economist for having the balls to finally show it like it is, even if they’re still very indirect about it. Now […]

December 20, 2008

Car Crazy

I’m getting sick of hearing about the plight of North American car companies. And now we’ve done it:  we’ve made a commitment to old-school, traditional businesses that speak nothing about the future that Canadians want.  Just today, Stephen Harper announced a bailout package for GM and Chrysler, something he could finally stomach after his lord and master George Bush did the same in the US. […]

December 14, 2008

Canadian Budget: Some Room For A BIG Cut

We owe it to Canadians to remind them that there’s no point in fretting about a couple of million here or there in terms of philosophical cuts like public finance for Canadian parties or holding off on Constitutional rights to strike if you’re a public servant. We have a fantastic opportunity ahead of us, but we need to mobilize lobbying efforts and encourage local politicians […]

September 15, 2008

International Price Hikes Coming?

In the past, I’ve tried to assess the impact that the declining US dollar has on international commodity prices.  Link 1 .  Link 2 .  Link 3 . At the core, I believe that we (as global citizens) are making a mistake by tying our commodity prices and products to the US dollar.  To quote the old adage "you don’t put all of your eggs […]