Re the North American Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) and the Canadian grumbling that is appearing about this program, I'm curious to enquire of any Canadians what they think the odds are of this sentiment gaining enough traction to alter or thwart this usurpation of the Canadian people's sovereignty?

Here in the states we already know such a possibility WRT a popular disenchantment of this whole arrangement is pretty useless even if there was enough awareness, which there isn't.

On the financial front, I'm reading Kevin Phillips "Wealth and Democracy" and enjoying it. The parallels he shows between prior Gilded Ages of financial excess and today are not surprising, nor the collapse denouement yet to occur. Of course what is different this time is the additional hyper vulnerabilities of greater social atomization & political cynicism (and likely greater social unrest to follow an upcoming bad time), PO, CC, and many unresolved major Geo-Political risks.

Things should get a lot more interesting after we've wallowed through the summer doldrums, eh?

Perhaps I'll take the time to investigate immigrating to Iceland! With a little more time & effort spent at the beach my sandy blonde hair could be sun-bleached to fit right in the land of the midnight sun!

I'm curious to enquire of any Canadians what they think the odds are of this sentiment gaining enough traction to alter or thwart this usurpation of the Canadian people's sovereignty?

Personally, I think the odds are very low, but I think it's worth trying to raise awareness anyway.

On the financial front, I'm reading Kevin Phillips "Wealth and Democracy" and enjoying it.

I have that one, but I haven't read it yet. My stack of reading material gets taller by the day - I'll promote Phillips' book up the list.

Things should get a lot more interesting after we've wallowed through the summer doldrums, eh?

That's certainly what I'm expecting - fireworks in the fall.

Perhaps I'll take the time to investigate immigrating to Iceland! With a little more time & effort spent at the beach my sandy blonde hair could be sun-bleached to fit right in the land of the midnight sun!

I thought about it at one point, but the family and I don't speak the language. I love the land of the midnight sun and still remember climbing a mountain one sunny night near Tromso (different land of the midnight sun of course). My name is from Old Norse and certainly wouldn't be out of place in Iceland, but I'm dark-haired :)

I don't post much but read your posts.

As American I find it mind boggling that Canadians would roll over and play dead on this integration issue.

One would expect it to be as utterly unacceptable as it is to us to accept any further association with mexico.

As of now I'm 50/50 on whether I will stay in the US or not, but if this union thing is anywhere near passing I'll be gone in a New York minute.

I don't post much but read your posts.

Nothing personal, but don't you find that a bit strange?

Would you leave that same comment for Leanan at the Drumbeat?

It's obvious to anyone, going through the list of articles here, that it takes time to gather all that. It's equally obvious that if only 3 people show their appreciation, that's not a lot. As in compared to that time.

Over at the Drumbeat, people won't stop talking/writing/posting, but Stoneleigh, who posts news that's at least as interesting, can't get people to post more than a handful of responses for all that effort. And that's just because this is Canada?! The largest single source of US oil and gas?

If you think she does it wrong, or you don't care about financial news, or about Canada, or something else, whatever it may be, I'd say that it's really important for her that you let your presence here be known.

Sure, at the Drumbeat more people are reacting, so it's more of an ego booster for y'all, but the first step there is YOU writing a comment, isn't it?

I find the compilation of economic posts very interesting, in fact IMO economical factors will precede peak oil factors even though they may somehow interrelate based on event timing.

I know very little about Canada on a personal basis as I was never stationed there, one can only pick up so much on vacation. So, I'm not really qualified to give opinions on Canada as I don't have the first hand gut level feel for the street there.

The intent of my post was to acknowledge Stoneleigh's work. I guess I'm not a sweet talker and the post didn't come out to your liking. :-)

Thanks :)

For other readers - you don't have to know anything about Canada to post here. TOD:C covers the Canadian energy scene, but also (as you can see from above) the huge problems in the credit markets, the inexorable progression towards a North American Union, climate change, relevant international occurrences etc. The focus - energy and our future - is quite broad.

IMO economical factors will precede peak oil factors even though they may somehow interrelate based on event timing.

This is very much my view as well. A financial crash can proceed with lightning speed once it gets going, and this one appears to be hitting the fan right now. The biggest concern is the potential for a cascading effect - a string of exploding hedge funds leading to bank runs and a crash of the money supply.

I wish you were right. If you are not we change plans. :-)

I have no scientific training but I have well developed knack for watching people and reading tea leaves.
I would expect the market to suffer massive losses sometime soon, and as always they will halt trading to allow the well connected to mitigate losses. This should bring a very temporary parallel collapse of commodities.

Then it's off to the races.

If they manufacture another 9/11 in order to attack Iran it will just happen faster.
Hey!!!, the economic collapse is the fault of the "tererists".

All we can do is sit in the recliner by the side of the river and watch the bodies of our enemies float by.

I would expect the market to suffer massive losses sometime soon, and as always they will halt trading to allow the well connected to mitigate losses. This should bring a very temporary parallel collapse of commodities.

I would expect halts to trading simply becase the electronic exchanges will be overwhelmed with sell orders. That happened on a small scale in February, when the DJIA fell over 500 points in a short space of time. It also happened in 1929. If we have a real rush for the exits then there's no way orderly trading can proceed. It doesn't require a conspiracy of the wealthy for trading to be disrupted.

For that reason I wouldn't recommend trying to be clever and shorting into the teeth of a crash. Trading gaps and counterparty risk could make that a very risky strategy, even if you're right about the direction and the timing of a move. Better to cash out early and sit on the sidelines.

I am expecting a parallel commodity crash - indeed a crash of all asset prices across the board relative to cash, but as you say, I would expect any resulting glut of essential commodities to be temporary.

Better to cash out early and sit on the sidelines.

No worries. Hard assets in hand or nothing, I can spit a cherry stone a lot further then I trust these guys.
The only problem is that very liquid positions slowly erode, but the real game will start soon enough. Sort of like the cost of doing business.

What would your view on this be?

"I just happened across [snip]

Still, thanks to the Fed report, looks like securitized real estate loans are $1,252.1 trillion and MBO's they track are $924.6 worth of MBO's.

Here
http://www.urbansurvival.com/week.htm