It's Probably Nothing

Imagine this chart if Dion was prime minister, propped up by Layton and Duceippe

Quick Look at that chart indicates we have not much to brag about in the financial stability area.

Thanks Liberals.

I know a lot has been bantered around about this already, but it’s Saturday morning and prime-time for my additional two-cents’ worth. Fiscal responsibility has always been a hallmark feature of a Conservative government. Lamestream Media has a huge majority in the Lefty coverage, so I'm grateful for such forums where the scales can be better balanced. It’s no small coincidence that we have two star-crossed media gems in our face –> The muted reaction to Mickey G’s prorogue parachute AND the Left-wing biases of the U.S. MSM machine so glaringly evident in Debate #2 under the direction of the not-so-eye-Candy moderator.
It’s a wonder the Righties can ever win anything, when you realize the firm promotional grasp the Mainstream Media has on Left-wing ideology. I realize the argument could be made that this little essay in The Sun comes from a mainly Right-wing newspaper, but, casting that aside, it stands as an illumination of fact, and is an “O-bama-Nation” for both of our countries. Pretty soon we could have the wet-behind-the-ears, big-Daddy-famous Trudeau Junior running Canada, alongside another Lib-Dem in the United States. Together, we would “go down” in history. Not that I want to die young (or I mean, soon…), but I was rather hoping this scenario wouldn’t take the stage in my lifetime…

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/10/17/medias-left-turn-signal-stuck-on

Have a listen to Charlie Daniels' thoughtful and patriotic tune...>>
http://mrcaction.org/contribute?utm_source=mrcaction&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1020

However, we are in fairly good hands at the moment and there is hope that the Harper government will improve the nation's finances by reducing the overhead of government expenditures and size of the civil services.

The chart shows that the rating agencies like us. It shows, also, that the federal government is outperforming the general populace.
That certainly accords with my observations, that many people have gone to the left and are just waiting their chances to vote in the NDP.

I will not soon forget the smug self-satisfaction at my polling place in the last Federal election. Yes, they were not going to vote in any Conservatives!
There was some consternation when it was realised that the rest of the country felt differently. So NL ended up with one Conservative member,
who has been subjected to the usual leftist sliming ever since.

It took years for the effects of Justin Beavers PaPa to kick in. It will also take time for P.M. Harper's changes to kick in.

Right now Canada's main strength is a stable Government and stable Banks. As other countries melt down with austerity programs and silly shit like 75% taxes, people who can will leave and
Canada will be one of the places they go.

The Rest of Canada will benefit from the nuts running Quebec as business seek saner places.

The biggest thing P.M. Harper has done is to stop following the U.N. and their we are the world quest.

Canada has been riding the commodity boom for a couple of decades now. When the crap hits the fan next year I do not expect Canada to do much better than those countries with more of a manufacturing base. Just mulitply Ontario times the other provinces.

Our federal government is taking the same gamble that most western governments are. That consumer demand will miraclously reappear and save everyone's bacon. Obama is forecasting GDP growth of 4% with no plan on how to achieve it. Romney is doing the same but suggesting cutting taxes to promote growth. They both use the same numbers because they have to to make their plans work.

In Canada I see no revelation by citizens that entitlements have to be reduced. In fact personal debt in Canada is growing unabated. My CPC member goes around the riding soliciting projects that he can fund. This is the reality instead of PMSH or Finance Minister Flaraty(?) making a concerted, ongoing, effort to engage the population in some financial reality conversation.

Flaherty

The amazing part of this chart is the US still has a top (though negative outlook) credit rating, meaning they have plenty of future borrowing capacity.

For now, check out Greece, the future if Obama/Dems get entrenched and continue their pilferation of the treasury with borrowed yuan. Yes, Romney is quite the spender himself, but who would you rather have holding the purse strings when things get ugly?

As for Canada, yahoo, except for our alarmingly high personal debt with public debt not exactly worth crowing about. Yes, we're going to get a double whack with our declining productivity v.v boomers and a slowing world economy, demographics work out for us on the latter.

Yes, the US and Europe (how does Greece get through that?) have similar demographics, but Canada has plenty of resources, and other goodies, to service the burgeoning middle classes of Asia, especially China. Japan shows what happens when an economy implodes, and is a living example of government/private sector parterning. As Jane Jacobs says don't let the private and public elites live in the same neighbourhoods or attend the same parties, let alone be economic partners.

The US faces a similar danger and if they try to hold interest rates down much further (Canada, in better shape has already been given signals of rate rises) they risk becoming a hybrid Japan/Greece economic collapse, though I'm unsure even the technocrats can bring down this diverse, large and still powerful economy. But then again there's Japan.

I think the money starts getting made now. As interest rates rise and economic news turns sour, a great buying opportunity beckons, right here in Canada, in blue chip high dividend yielding resource and financial companies (only the good ones) and leveraged real estate for rental income.

Rates remain low here for the short term and residential real property markets continue to drop creating a great opportunity for saavy value hungry buyers. Lock in low carrying costs and wait for rents to rise with inevitable inflation.

Canada is where the smart money should be right now IMO, well insulated from the economic fog to soon engulf us.

Looking at this I say it the chart indicates we have the highest percentage of immigration of the bunch and hopefully it is coming from the 3 (Germany, Ireland and Japan) with the greatest emigration.

Interest rates will not raise anytime soon, despite protestations to the contrary. While Carney and pundits huff and puff their 'warnings', the stats continue to differ from the noise.
Inflation (published) remains in check. The real rate, is another discussion, and valid, much like unemployment figures.
Raising rates will further inflate the dollar too. There does not appear to be any appetite to artificially raise the value beyond market determinations. Too bad Flaherty isn't consistent there, as he is a nanny statist in regards to mortgage rules.
Rates may even decline further, if anything. The bond market is the biggest influence, and long-term borrowing rates are still dropping.
If Romney wins the election, everything could change. A vibrant economy will reverse the economic malaise we find ourselves in

And then the rest of the story:
"...But the official debts in the form of bonds do not include the often far larger unfunded liabilities of welfare schemes like - to give the biggest American schemes - Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

The most recent estimate for the difference between the net present value of federal government liabilities and the net present value of future federal revenues is $200 trillion, nearly thirteen times the debt as stated by the U.S. Treasury.

Notice that these figures, too, are incomplete, since they omit the unfunded liabilities of state and local governments, which are estimated to be around $38 trillion.

These mind-boggling numbers represent nothing less than a vast claim by the generation currently retired or about to retire on their children and grandchildren, who are obligated by current law to find the money in the future, by submitting either to substantial increases in taxation or to drastic cuts in other forms of public expenditure...."
Niall Ferguson http://bbc.in/RemjNg

Hundreds of trillions in IOU's, a vast ponzi scheme.

Compare the Government net debt for Canada and Netherlands, the only gray entries at 36 & 35, and then look at the corresponding Household gross debt numbers, 91 & 131. Low govt numbers and high household numbers. The German numbers are identical, but every other country is reflective of their governments penchance for spending other peoples money. Well, as Margaret Thatcher warned, we've run out.

Canada is not at all safe from what's coming our way. We are simply lucky to have a more competent government than most (or all) other nations.

Harper and Flaherty should be given a bit of credit for trying to engineer a soft landing on housing with their gradual tightening of mortgage credit conditions.

Harper's efforts to sell Canadian product as far and wide as possible are also good.

The fact that we have not destroyed our industry with green-ideology driven nonsense like the NDP or Libs would have done (like McGuinty did in Ontario) is good too, and stands in contrast to nearly every other western nations where countless billions have been wasted on foolish green projects that produce uber-expensive energy or just collapse.

But still... if the US goes full depression, and China's unsustainable boom collapses, a million jobs will be lost in Canada, and we will be in a big mess no matter what Harper does.

Still, I am grateful that in this time in world history we have the right guy at the helm.

Canada and other countries that are "well off" might just have to protect what they have , if some brave soul in power somewhere say's that's all folks we are broke.

I wonder if this country will be up for some tough decisions, and stand it's ground?

@ ct

It's not the Prime Ministers job to educate the public. Mulroney did that endlessly and people hated him for it.

Voters are dumb. Play within the frame. Win power. Do what's right.
That's the Harper method.

Jeff, absolutely. Let the congregation say 'amen'. The responsibility of the voter is to make intelligent decisions. If they act stupidly or from ignorance, the voter is to blame for the consequences he or she gets.

My second thought is imagine just how different things would have been if the Ignatief/Layton/Duceppe coalition had taken over. Two hard lefties and a spineless academic, and we'd look like Greece.

Jeff @ 7:15;
I have worked in enough campaigns and with enough politicans to know that voters have trouble getting the facts even if they do want them. I agree with you that voters have to take responsibilty but also realize there are interests at work to deliberately mislead.

When the Reform Party got going we used to have policy discussions at the riding level that did educate members. Those members took the message to others. When you have 1700 party members discussing policy and the rationale behind that policy within a riding it becomes a powerfull educator.

PMSH stopped that process as he felt a devisive message was confusing the public. Much of that confusion resulted from opposing parties and the media. Many Reformers went along with that decision as they realized that Harper's views were grounded in Reform.

I want Harper and Flaherty to educate the people of Canada more than they do because (1) they have the right to know from their leaders (2) the media in Canada have demonstrated for decades they either don't have the ability or the will to impart accurate info.

cgh;
Like any party the CPC has members who are there for their own benefit. They will steal from the taxpayer as quickly as any leftard. Since the CPC is primarily a fiscally conservative political effort (vs social conservativism) then the more reason for the Party to educate the voter. It is the responsibility of CPC members to monitor their elected members and get rid of the bad apples that every party attracts.

Jeff @ 7:15;
I have worked in enough campaigns and with enough politicans to know that voters have trouble getting the facts even if they do want them. I agree with you that voters have to take responsibilty but also realize there are interests at work to deliberately mislead.

When the Reform Party got going we used to have policy discussions at the riding level that did educate members. Those members took the message to others. When you have 1700 party members discussing policy and the rationale behind that policy within a riding it becomes a powerfull educator.

PMSH stopped that process as he felt a devisive message was confusing the public. Much of that confusion resulted from opposing parties and the media. Many Reformers went along with that decision as they realized that Harper's views were grounded in Reform.

I want Harper and Flaherty to educate the people of Canada more than they do because (1) they have the right to know from their leaders (2) the media in Canada have demonstrated for decades they either don't have the ability or the will to impart accurate info.

cgh;
Like any party the CPC has members who are there for their own benefit. They will steal from the taxpayer as quickly as any leftard. Since the CPC is primarily a fiscally conservative political effort (vs social conservativism) then the more reason for the Party to educate the voter. It is the responsibility of CPC members to monitor their elected members and get rid of the bad apples that every party attracts.

Like Ken said at 10:43 - I don't think any of the papers, certainly not the usual suspects put this amazing agenda on the front page, and then treated it like it may be, merely an opening for an attack of the poor snivel service. This would never have occurred if the NDP and Liberals had any say on the matter. As it is, they sit on their hands and pretend that it was somehow their agenda.