Thursday, December 4, 2008

It's more of a Political "Crisis" than a Financial "Crisis";

As a consumer of mass media; at least I think I may be one I am wondering why our government is running around and simply doing nothing.

It's as if the political noise is drowning out the fundamentals. As far as I can tell two incidents have created the current debacle:

1. The Parliamentary Budget Officer released a report stating that there will be a $17 Billion dollar deficit.

2. The Progressive Conservatives stated that they wanted to avoid Deficit Spending and remove the $1.95 Tax break on votes for other parties.

3. The other parties ganged up on the Conservatives with no real plan regarding either the deficit or the economy (I have yet to see any budget's regarding the aforementioned Infrastructure and other Spending).

One note about infrastructure spending; it takes over 2 years for any infrastructure projects to be approved (Candian red tape with Public Works) so If I am not mistaken only currently registered suppliers to the public sector will do well. I'd move some of my money into them if I wasn't so busy paying down my tuition fees.

The Princeton word net defines the term "Crisis" as follows:
  • an unstable situation of extreme danger or difficulty; "they went bankrupt during the economic crisis"

Who exactly is in danger of going bankrupt here? Our banks are doing better than any other G7 country. No really they are;

Canadian Banks Best in the world


they complained about over regulation during the boom times and now the simple fact that they maintain above 7% capitalization is working in their favor.

Ed Broadbent went on record as stating the following:
(Harper's a Liar and Everyone else is doing it so we should too!)

CBC Story with Ed

Now the issue at hand is the fact that the coalition has essentially frozen any movement within our legislative assembly; IANAL but last time I checked we hadn't had to call in the Governor General into a real political fiasco in over a hundred years and the last time we did we ended up running them out of the country because they refused to observe the democratically elected prime-ministers legislative authority. This time it's because our government is just inept; incompetent or clueless; quite possibly all three.

According to a Recent article over at the National Post we are in a much better position to weather the slow down than our American counterparts:

Why we are immune!


So where the hell is this crisis that the Coalition is talking about? So the Auto and forestry sectors are not doing well; The Auto sector has no one to blame but the CAW; they consistently bleed their employers dry; to the point that they pay more for labor than raw materials; if we haven't spent so many years stating that we need to keep an economically un-viable part of our economy for so long well now it's another example of how government bailouts don't work.

As for the Forestry sector; when was the last time YOU read a newspaper? or didn't buy something that was not recycled? That and the slow down in housing means less demand for lumber and pulp.

So what I am wondering is where the hell is this crisis they are speaking of? All I've found so far is a report from the Parliamentary Budget officer stating that they will run a 17 Billion dollar deficit at current operational expenditures; which is normal when your economy goes into a recession; hell a recession is normal every 20 years; it's part of the cycle of capitalism. You cannot in any system ever sustain growth indefenatly without having periods of recession; it's just the reality of the markets;

Why is it we always return to Keynesian standards when the Lows of Mises, Friedman and Hayek come our way? We love the Chicago school for it's high's but when a downturn rears it's head we lose ours. So this is a Black Swan; and it's a different kind of downturn but really how can you estimate the amount of speculation in any market? I mean really? fundamentally there are quantitative and other methods but it's usually a very educated guess.

Warren Buffet once stated that "You need to be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful". Now we get to see how much fear and greed run both our markets and our government.

Now the last time I checked the Bank of Canada existed to determine and mediate growth and inflation in our economy I think it's their mandate and pervue; since our banks are strong in the middle of a Global Recession and economic down turn; I'd figure we'd leave them to do their jobs since they are doing a pretty good one: Instead of letting our government lie to us about a non-existent crisis on the basis of what's going on around the world, and the fact that they were about to lose their hand out, I've asked the liberal party for an explanation and position regarding this matter we'll see how long it takes for an answer (if any).

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