152 comments on DrumBeat: December 16, 2008
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152 comments on DrumBeat: December 16, 2008
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Canada flirts with depression:
PM's economic flip: 'I've never seen such uncertainty'
Financial Uncertainty: My rational mind tells me how bad things are but I refuse to believe they are that bad.
Wishful thinking, optimism and hope will make the credit crunch disappear and than we can renovate the kitchen, 20 inch rims for my hot ride, big screen HDTV with surround sound, blackberry, all you can eat luxury cruises and that trip to Venice!
It's not really a "credit crunch" this is too benign a phrase and doesn't really indicate the shear scale of the crisis we are experiencing. I think "global financial meltdown" is closer to the truth, follwed by a deep and profound economic depression lasting for years.
"Hard to read" = "Unwilling to accept"
As I mentioned previously, the PTB are preparing us for the real situation. This is why Harper called the election in October. He already knew. After a conversation with an old friend downtown I am bot reassured and even more concerned. While people seem to understand disaster is looming and there will be a need for collective action, more and more iI am convinced that collective action will be fascism with all its scapegoating and false promise. I expect harper to win a majority next time.
What do you think is the "real situation" that required calling the election in October? Harper "already knew" what ???
I'm not being sarcastic or anything, I just honestly don't know what you are talking about. I understand the creeping fascism part, but I mean specifics - is there some sort of event or something you are anticipating?
I was commenting on Leanan's quoted piece on Harper where he is admitting the possibility of a depression. The government knew how bad the economic outlook was and called the election to make sure the vote preceeded any bad news about the economy. Note that in the campaign they were still talkin g budget surplus and lots of other good news stuff. The opposition wasnt any better. All parties shied away from saying anything meaningful about the economy during the campaign. I am afraid Canada is served no better by our political class than is the USA. Perhaps we are served worse in that we are a much more docile and pliable group than are the people of the USA and therefore bestow more implied responsibility upon our leaders. We are more likely to accept fascism I think. No I don't expect a one event catastrophe like hitting the ice berg but I think a gradual but rapid deterioration and with it an increase in fear in the population.
Conservatives keep big lead in the polls.
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=1072845
Canwest News Service and Global National poll said the Conservative party would garner 45 per cent of the vote and score a majority victory if an election were held today. (Dec 13) The poll showed 65% wanted Ignatieff (new liberal leader) to work out a compromise with Harper
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Public+wants+compromise+coalition+poll+find...
Shaping up as either a likely Conservative majority or the coalition chickening out.
Yes the polls are squarely for BAU. I think we will see either a strengthening of this poll trend or something really wild by the time parliament reconvenes. If January does turn out to be full of bad economic news and lay offs opinion will really be in flux. Harper might have been smarter to let the coalition be in charge for a few months of economic disaster and let them take the blame. The coalition parties havce not made any proposals that seem to be effective. It is likely that an automotive bail out will hold the balls in the air for a few extra months. But a few billion dollars will get burned up fast and then what? It isn't even guaranteed that "loan guarantees", the method that the Canadian gov't is proposing to use to help the companies will even work. Up to now the MSM have been saying that banks won't lend because they are afraid the borrowers wont pay it back. What if the real reason is that the banks need to hold the cash to pay off their own obligations near and mid term? They wont want to lend the cash even if repayment is guaranteed if they need the cash sooner. It will be interesting over the next few weeks.