if the cap fits,

let him wear it



Wowza!

Did I hear someone say;

- The TSX closed at 9600 - down 4.5% on the day? That is just a measly 1/3 from the peak. Oil down, and the dollar down.

Batten the hatches, this is just the leading edge of the storm. The market was as over-valued when flirting with 15,000 as the RE prices were last May, so it is no big surprise. I feel that if things hadn't been messed with so much by scoundrels and fools, the TSX is about where it should have been. But it will see 6,000 or less before it turns back. (It might not ever do that.)



- Harper say to Peter Mansbridge that there are good buying opportunities in the stock market? For who? His mother? Does he not read newspapers? Have advisors? If he does read a paper, it must be The Stars and Stripes. His advisors must want to see him fail. Who calls an election without having a platform?

Harper is completely out to lunch, and it seems to be showing in the public sentiment. What foolishness will he utter next? Let them eat corn flakes!? His narcissistic nature leads him to believe in the Noble Lie, and that he is smarter than everyone else. He is clever, but that ain't smarts. Duceppe pinned him down in the debates. So did May. Layton openly laughed at him. Dion made him look like a chump.

When Mansbridge interviewed Harper, he swallowed hard a few times when Mansbridge threw the truths at him. Harper forced this election because he knew that the sheet-storm was coming, but it caught up to him, and he has blown it. $300 Million so that he could have an even smaller minority than he had, and my bones are starting to say that he might not even get that (so are some other commentators, I believe). There are around 20% of voters undecided the last I read, and I doubt they will go Cons. A coalition of the left is starting to look like a strong possibility.

- That 230 Canadian economists, teaching at Canadian universities, say that a carbon tax is what is needed at this time - even without the tax cuts? The Greens' plan would be even better, in that case.

What a sham. Harper looks the complete fool in this one. Cold, hard irony. Whap!

talkies

BREAKING NEWS - 12:56 PM Monday,Sept. 29, 2008

The bail-out package has been rejected in Washington. TSX crashed 900 points today.

Make sure that all of your deposits are covered by CDIC. The shite is hitting the fan - now.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Back to testerday's post...

There are lots of media to speak, so I'm cutting short my rants, and will try to entertain you instead.

First viddy is Rick Mercer on the Cadman scandal. (2:10 in length)

The second (2:52 in length) is Stephen Harper, in his own words, regarding the "financial considerations" that were offered to Mr. Cadman.

Mr. Ignatieff asked: "Is it the prime minister's position that the people close enough to Chuck Cadman to know are lying, and if so, how are Canadians going to believe that he alone is telling the truth?"

CPAC-Nanos Tracking CP 36, LP 27, NDP 19, GP 9, BQ 9

With their 15 point margin last week, the campaign was looking like a runaway freight train for the Harper Conservatives. However, a number of new factors have diminished the Conservative lead, which is still comfortable, to 9 points.

First, Harper’s culture comments renewed BQ support in Quebec. Combine the Richardson comments related to immigrants causing crime and Harper’s comments asserting Dion wanted the economy to perform poorly and the gap narrowed from 15 to 9 points. These two comments represent a tenuous lifeline to the Liberal campaign.

I hope that trend continues.

Harper tried to ridicule "the arts" and cut funding. The CBC was once a great Canadian institution, and now is just a shadow of what it was. We have tens of thousands of people directly employed in BC's film industry. A lot of our clients work in it, and are already hurting. They (and we) won't be turning on the TV and getting pissed off with elitist galas, because things like cable are the first to go when money is short.

Speaking of elite galas;

Harper at an 18 course dinner (just hours after a 14 course lunch) at a conference on the global food crisis (exacerbated by ethanol production). (Too bad he doesn't have the class to keep his elbows off the table. My Grandma would straighten him out!)

Summit that's hard to swallow - world leaders enjoy 18-course banquet as they discuss how to solve global food crisis

Laureen Harper at the Gala Juno Dinner


Then there is the elite Conservative caucus, and Laureen Harper rubbing shoulders with every-day Canadians at a literary gala; H/t to James Curran
Laureen Harper at literary gala with Minister of Environment John Baird in background

Minister Jay Hill (and House Speaker Peter Milliken) at the same gala with Julie Couillard (she sure gets around...)


Minister Jasob Kenney and his "date" (well, he doesn't have a girlfriend, or wife.) He seems to like terrorists too. Tory MP attended rally for group on terror list


And here is the very elite Vic Toews (and his son - who's evening you paid for!) at that same gala.


In my riding (Van.-Kingsway, it looks as if the NDP candidate is the only one who actually lives here, and is involved. It looks as if the Con. candidate is not attending - he needn't bother anyhow, he hasn't a hope in hades. I have some questions to pose at the all-candidates' meeting. Are you going to your local meeting? Ask them how long they have lived there, and whether they were nominated by the riding association. I'll bet that most Con. candidates will not be present. Try sending an e-mail, or calling them. See if they will answer your questions.

dizzy

These are very strange times. I am concerned.

Today oil spiked above $101/bbl. That in itself does not concern me so much as the reason why.

It seems that traders see oil as a currency hedge. The Fed is speculated to cut rates soon, which will mean a further hit to the US$. That will be a hit on the Americonomy, since it is based on consumption. More expensive goods mean less consumption - cut the rates - dollar drops - everything goes up... in flames.

It's a good article, and there were lots of things that I wanted to quote, but I liked this;

But the prospect that the Fed will reduce rates proved too strong, feeding a new buying frenzy, analysts said.

“This is all about momentum and driving [prices] higher right now,” Mr. Flynn said.

Despite the return of $100 oil, and now $101 oil, there are concerns that high oil prices — and the higher gasoline and heating oil prices they spawn — are sowing the seeds of their own destruction by contributing to the economic slowdown.

“The price gains raise questions about their sustainability in the face of eroding fundamental strength,” said Antoine Halff, an analyst a Newedge USA LLC in a research note.

emboldening mine - ah, just imagine the whole quote is in bold type. It is the same story as RE, just a different product.

So someone else's arbitrage means that your gas costs more (not to mention the 2.8 cents a litre carbon tax coming in July), so does your heating fuel, and food, and building materials, and labour, until no one can afford anything any more.

Still, oil is priced in USD, so a sinking dollar takes some of the edge off for Canada (imagine if our dollar was at $0.65), but that is cold comfort to the laid-off auto worker, or forestry worker, etc.

I don't know about you, but I am getting dizzy as this whole global economy, and beyond, spins ever more out of control.

will you be my friend?

This is kinda OT, but I can't help it. I'm feeling so lonely. I just gotta reach out to you all.

I came across the article exerpted below, and thought that it would be a diversion from the lack of action in the RE biz.

Calgary author says bloggers a lonely bunch unlikely to change the world - link

CALGARY (CP) - Bloggers are living in a world where emotions may be real but everything else is make-believe... But Michael Keren, who has written "Blogosphere: The New Political Arena," suggests individuals who bare their souls in blogs are isolated and lonely, living in a virtual reality instead of forming real relationships or helping to change the world. "Bloggers think of themselves as rebels against mainstream society, but that rebellion is mostly confined to cyberspace, which makes blogging as melancholic and illusionary as Don Quixote tilting at windmills," the author says.

Poor VHB, making up all that make-believe data because he's lonely.

Poor pope, kicked out of seminary school, and now believes that he has a billion-odd odd-balls that worship him. That's not quixotic, that's crazy!

And poor Rob Chipman. Sitting in his mother's basement, believing that he is a real estate agent. What's more sad, he believes that he is really Rob Chipman.

And uncertain buyer, uncertain that he even exists perhaps. It's ok uncertain, I am creating reality, and you do exist - just another of my make believe friends? I dunno, ask mohican (I made him up too).

What is really ironic, is that this guy wrote a whole book about how lonely people writing blogs are. How quixotic...

Gotta go and check my stats - to see how many people like me. Later!

stanley park and the crown jewel thief

Wow! What a difference a few days makes. That wind storm/hurricane that passed through on Friday has ripped the jewel of Stanley Park from Vancouver's crown.

Thousands of trees were blown down, ripped asunder, etc. I saw news reports in which people were in tears. The Parks Board does not have the money to carry out a clean-up, and there has been talk of logging companies being offered the wood for free if they come in and help with the clean-up.

It is ironic that I did a post a few weeks ago in which I suggested that Stanley Park be logged and developed to alleviate Vancouver's "land shortage", and not long after, in what seems a strange prescience, that is happening - right down to the logging crews, and talk on the radio (CBC today), of using the lumber to "help with the housing crisis"...

The area that boasts the train and concession stands was dense forest until 1962, when another fierce storm cleared that area. I had nothing to do with what has happened since. Honest! But perhaps my tongue-in-cheek idea is not so far-fetched now. It will be a good hundred years before Stanley Park resembles what it did until just last week.

The Parks Board is talking of community tree planting bees to "replace" what has been lost. The park is closed, and the public has been asked to stay away while the clean-up is carried out. I have heard mention of a year being necessary to do so.

It is known that many homeless people live in the park, and not all have been accounted for. It is possible that some lie beneath the wreckage, though that has not been confirmed.

Stanley Park is the heart of Vancouver - much as Central Park is to NYC (though Stanley Park was much more magnificent). Both parks have about 8 million visitors a year, with Stanley Park being slightly larger in area. Both are world-famous tourist attractions. Stanley Park will not attract so many now, I don't think.

What fierce wind will blow through the Vancouver real estate market and cause it to crash like so many trees did last Friday?

Images from various sources - Flickr, CBC, CTV. I have not had the chance to get down there and get my own photo's, and have not found too many on the 'net.

Update:

The latest word from the Parks Board, and the police, is that there are about 20 people known to be living in Stanley Park, and all have been accounted for.

Apparently, 9 of every 10 trees in the park were blown down (in the hardest hit parts. No word on what percentage of the park that is), or otherwise destroyed. It's a crying shame. The footage that I have seen reveals extraordinary damage. Entire sections of pavement along the seawall ripped up and blown away, landslides, etc.