Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.
I hear the rock soup is delicious.
It has been an interesting couple of weeks.
Normally, I tend not to discuss anything political or financial on teh Intertubes™, but the scene that’s been unfolding with our neighbours in America is, in a word, surreal. Between the baffling choice of the vice presidential candidate for the Republican Party, the inability of the sitting President to rally the House of Representatives to support his bailout plan, the rapidly mounting losses in the equity markets, the multiple bank failures, and the grandstanding by both Presidential campaigns amidst all of this is almost beyond comprehension. Of course, I’ve just had to watch it develop — partially out of an interest in American politics and finance, and partially to watch history unfold — and it will also make for interesting campfire stories when I’m cooking scraps in Bartertown.
As I’m not an American citizen or resident, of course I have no say in American politics or fiscal policy. However, when America’s domestic problems spill over into the world stage, and threaten to take down my country’s economy with it, I have to say something.
For any Americans who happen to stumble across this post, please believe me when I say I have a lot of sympathy for your plight. Whatever the base reasons are, in the end, a lack of financial oversight has allowed this to spiral out of control. And now, it appears that the 110th Congress is playing a dangerous game of chicken with not only with the American economy, but the world economy.
What is angering me is that there is nothing I, nor my country, can do except watch. The Canadian market has been doing what it always does: be boring and conservative. Our banks have almost zero exposure to the “toxic” debt, we’ve been balancing budgets for years and our federal debt is just fine, our domestic mortgage and housing markets are sane, and we run a continual trade surplus. In other words, we’ve been a very responsible country. But that means shit if America’s economy tanks. The grievous mistakes made by our neighbours are going to drag us into a recession regardless of what they do now, and if they don’t sort this problem out shortly, their economy will fail, and Canada will join them in an economic depression.
I really don’t want to learn how to make a shiv out of a chicken bone to survive.
Firstly, and most importantly, I love Blade Runner. It’s my favorite movie.
Things are definitely at a virtually unparalleled low. I live in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, which is an inner-ring Detroit suburb, and we’re feeling the hurt badly. Detroit has an unbelievably extensive dependence on the American automotive industry. Obviously, things for the U.S. automotive companies have not been good, and the hurt has been abroad. We have the highest unemployment rate of any state in the US. The only area that has eclipsed use in unemployment are Hurricane Katrina disaster zones.
Things are different in Toronto, I’m sure, but not as different as they may seem. Correct me if I’m wrong, but the Royal Bank of Canada, the Bank of Montréal, Scotiabank, and Toronto-Dominion are all run out of Toronto. Toronto has a large dependence on the finance industry, and it’s hard to avoid the presence of investment in these banks by U.S. companies, what with the two economies being so closely tied. It’s no wonder the US financial crisis is affecting Canada so badly.
However, I don’t think it’s quite time to get out the chicken bones. There’s still hope that something can be done, although I can’t imagine how to wade through the political soup of dilettantes, inept cowards, and competing interests that can’t come to a conclusion because they’re too busy bickering about pedantic garbage to move something through that will help solidify the world economy.
In an insomniac fit of insanity – I mean, late night blog reading – I saw this and thought you might appreciate. Or maybe not. I’ll let you decide. http://toddalcott.livejournal.com/227310.html
Also, I can show you some interesting shiv making techniques with cigarette butts if chicken bones aren’t your style. Don’t ask.