Megapundit: Canada—still not a serious country

By selley - Tuesday, November 11, 2008 at 3:42 PM - 4 Comments

‘Round Ottawa
Pundits take on the tanking economy, the woebegone Liberal party, and the tragedy of Canada’s portrait gallery.

The Globe and Mail’s Jeffrey Simpson suggests the Liberals may be hoping “to improve their fortunes” in British Columbia by holding their May convention in Vancouver, provides no evidence to support this suggestion, and then explains what just about everyone could have figured out for themselves based on very recent precedent: it won’t work. This bit of weirdness leads into a handicapping of the leadership race among the B.C. delegates, in which Simpson has Michael Ignatieff ahead of Bob Rae by virtue of having “signed up the largest number of big-name … organizers.” He also predicts this will be the last delegated convention in Canadian history.

The Toronto Star’s James Travers applauds the prime minister’s and the premiers’ willingness to embrace “job-generating infrastructure spending,” and suggests numerous other economy-boosting measures they might consider in their newfound spirit of collegiality: hiking E.I. benefits, “declar[ing] a sales tax holiday to stimulate comatose retail sales” or harmonizing provincial and federal sales taxes. But that newfound spirit is the most important point, Travers argues, in the tough times ahead. “If not much else good, the financial crisis is at least creating preconditions necessary for closer co-operation.”

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Megapundit: Yes we can (do our best)

By selley - Monday, November 10, 2008 at 1:49 PM - 14 Comments

Must-reads: Daphne Bramham on child abductions; Scott Taylor tours the Caucasus.

Down to business
In which the audacity of hope meets reality, and a bunch of know-it-all newspaper pundits. Phooey!

The Globe and Mail‘s John Ibbitson looks at the delicate politics of dealing with the ongoing financial crisis when only Barack Obama’s plans really matter, but George W. Bush is still president, and Obama wants nothing less than to be seen to be cozying up to Dubya. “It is the president-elect who has a clear agenda to solve an economic crisis”—i.e., a stimulus package likely costing $100 billion or thereabouts, coupled with bailouts for crappy American automakers—”and who must convince a lame-duck Congress to pass it, and a lame-duck President not to veto it,” Ibbitson observes. And thus far, he says Obama has looked very “presidential” in handling the crisis. But events will dictate whether he’s able to use the recession “to justify strong measures in energy conservation, infrastructure renewal, reform of financial regulations and improvements to health care and education,” or whether he gets swallowed by it whole.

Obama faces much the same economic situation Bill Clinton did when he became president-elect, Terence Corcoran argues in the National Post. “Harold Poling, then chairman of Ford, called on Washington to bail the auto industry out of its health care costs by setting up a national health care system;” some economists demanded a stimulus package, while others urged restraint; and “environmental activists called for strategic taxes on investment to encourage capital to flow into energy efficient and waste-reducing activities.” What happened instead during the Bush-Clinton interregnum was that simple messages and solutions became burdened with complexity, doubt and conflict amongst experts. It “drown[ed] out any Yes We Can belief that solutions are simple and at hand and all that’s needed is a decisive can-do attitude,” says Corcoran. And he sees much the same fate befalling Obama.

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So a banker walks into a bar… II

By Jason Kirby - Friday, October 24, 2008 at 4:54 PM - 1 Comment

There seems to be quite a bit of demand for levity these days, judging by the interest in my previous post about humour amidst the financial crisis. So here are some more jokes and cartoons to help ease the pain.

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Two DC papers weigh in on Canadian economic policies

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Monday, October 20, 2008 at 10:31 AM - 10 Comments

The Washington Times argues in an editorial that Stephen Harper “is proof that fiscal conservatism works.”

Meanwhile, the Washington Post on Thursday reported that Canada has remained “relatively insulated” from the worldwide financial crisis, in large part because Canadian banks “are more tightly regulated, more liquid and less highly leveraged.” The Canadian example is now popping up in arguments over whether too much or not enough regulation is to blame for the crisis. Here and here.

"Their savings"

By Andrew Coyne - Thursday, October 9, 2008 at 12:15 PM - 98 Comments

“Mr. Dion said that unlike the Conservatives, the Liberal Party understands that Canadians are worried about their savings and pensions….” – Only the Liberal Party can stop Harper’s government, Liberal press release.

“Ordinary families are very worried about their savings, their pensions, their homes and their jobs,” Mr. Layton said…” — Harper denounced as insensitive, National Post

Meanwhile, back in reality…

Canada rated world’s soundest bank system:

Canada has the world’s soundest banking system, closely followed by Sweden, Luxembourg and Australia, a survey by the World Economic Forum has found as financial crisis and bank failures shake world markets.

But Britain, which once ranked in the top five, has slipped to 44th place behind El Salvador and Peru, after a 50 billion pound ($86.5 billion) pledge this week by the government to bolster bank balance sheets.

The United States, where some of Wall Street’s biggest financial names have collapsed in recent weeks, rated only 40, just behind Germany at 39, and smaller states such as Barbados, Estonia and even Namibia, in southern Africa.

When will this Prime MInister do something show he cares about protecting Canadians’ savings this frightening run of bank failures the demise of global capitalism ATM fees?

LATEST STOCK MARKET SHOCKER!!!!

By Andrew Coyne - Wednesday, October 8, 2008 at 11:42 PM - 50 Comments

The Dow Jones industrial average is down one-third from its high a year ago.

How does that compare with previous downturns?

The stock market lost almost 90 percent of its value during the Great Depression. During the most recent bear market, which lasted from March 2000 to October 2002, the market lost about 50 percent.

Since 1926, there have been 18 bear markets, a situation usually declared when a stock index drops more than 20 percent from its previous peak.

During the average bear market, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index has declined 36 percent, according to the Leuthold Group, a Minneapolis investment firm.

Coincidentally, on Tuesday the S&P 500 was down 36 percent from its high on Oct. 9, 2007.

[via ScrippsNews]

When will this Prime Minister do something show he cares about this unprecedented collapse more or less average decline in stock prices?

The only thing they have to fear

By Andrew Coyne - Wednesday, October 8, 2008 at 1:30 PM - 111 Comments

I didn’t care much for Stephen Harper’s accusation, earlier in the campaign, that the opposition were cheering for a recession. At the time, it seemed like a cheap shot. But the longer this goes on, the more I’m starting to think there’s something in it. The Liberals are now trying to make a “gaffe” of Harper’s perfectly sensible observation that the present panic on the stock markets presents a remarkable buying opportunity, for those with cooler heads. Stephane Dion, in particular, was quick to denounce the advice as “so insensitive.” 

I’m sorry? How? What would they have him say? Sell? Take your lumps? Do nothing? You can only call it “insensitive” if you are bound and determined that nothing should break the spell of panic that now grips the country — that no possibility of an upside should be allowed to intrude. Just so long as cooler heads do not prevail.

This is demagoguery of the worst sort. And I don’t just mean that nothing about the present state of the Canadian economy justifies lumping it in with the United States or Europe, still less invoking the ghost of R. B. Bennett. We have not suffered a real estate crash, nor are we likely to; we have not seen a single financial institution go under, nor is any likely to; we did not have anything like the sub-prime mortgage mess; nor do we have the institutional equivalents of Lehman Brothers or Bear Stearns — large, highly-leveraged, stand-alone investment banks without the backing of a chartered bank.

But that’s not what distinguishes the opposition demagoguery in this case. It isn’t that they’re fear-mongers: it’s that, having mongered such fears, they do not propose to do anything about them. Sensibly enough — the problems of the Canadian economy, such as they are, find their origins outside our borders, and will find their solutions there. But it’s the height of hypocrisy, whaling away at the government for doing nothing while offering precisely the same themselves. The 85 lefty economists who signed that letter demanding the government go into deficit and otherwise “stimulate” the economy might have been out to lunch, but they were at least putting their names on the line, and exposing their proposals to public criticism. The opposition are taking no such risk, or responsibility. Continue…

Not quite the conflagration we'd been banking on

By Andrew Coyne - Wednesday, October 8, 2008 at 8:53 AM - 60 Comments

I realize this will spoil a really great panic the opposition/press have worked themselves into, but…

Canada’s economy firm, RBC says

Economists at Canada’s largest bank have reduced their expectations for economic growth, while saying the domestic economy “remains firm.”

The Royal Bank of Canada now projects national growth this year of 0.9 per cent, down from its previous prediction of 1.4 per cent.

It cites “the persistent turmoil in financial markets and disappointing economic trends over the past two quarters.”

For 2009, the report released Wednesday sees a modest revival in gross domestic product with a growth rate of 1.5 per cent.

“The continued weakness in the U.S. economy is expected to dampen growth in Canada,” said Craig Wright, RBC’s chief economist.

“However, this pressure on our growth will be tempered by strong commodity prices which are contributing to robust export revenues and providing support to Canadian domestic spending via a boost to incomes.”

The report notes that Canada’s housing market “is showing signs of coming off the boil” after almost a decade of high activity.

“However, any weakening is expected to be more moderate compared to the U.S. experience as Canadian mortgage markets did not see the excesses that afflicted the U.S. housing sector,” RBC says.

It also notes “fatigue” in Canada’s labour market, with net job gains of only 87,000 in the first eight months of this year, after 320,000 new positions on average each year from 2002 to 2007.

How you can profit from the coming apocalypse

By Andrew Coyne - Wednesday, October 8, 2008 at 7:53 AM - 7 Comments

Much has been written about the global financial crisis, but for my money this is the only analysis to really plumb the issue to its full depths.