Category: It’s Probably Nothing

The Vibe Economy

Gradually Then Suddenly It's Probably Nothing New Governor 7 Comments

It’s my sense that interest rates are going to head down, not up, as the economy sours. While energy prices might be going up, their effect can be offset by slumping demand as businesses halt energy intensive projects. But in any case, David Rosenberg is spot on about there being no “vibrancy of demand” in the Canadian economy.

“But we are in a totally different orbit than we were back then,” Rosenberg said. “Where is the vibrancy of demand growth in a Canadian economy? It is nonexistent.”

First-quarter growth will likely come in below one per cent annualized, according to the latest gross domestic product data, well off the Bank of Canada’s forecast of 1.8 per cent, and core inflation has inched ever closer to the central bank’s two per cent target, though headline inflation is expected to accelerate on higher energy prices.

 

A Meaty Problem

Gradually Then Suddenly It's Probably Nothing New Governor 20 Comments

On a recent trip to Golf Town I noticed that new clubs are now locked in place so you have to get a clerk to get one out for you to examine. How long will it be before grocery stores are doing the same thing for steaks and roasts?

Police in Richmond, B.C., are investigating after a series of meat thefts from retail stores that they say may be “organized” crime.

RCMP say that there have been 39 cases of reported theft of meat from stores across the city since December.

Making History

Canada’s Bolsheviks Gradually Then Suddenly nannystate New Governor 24 Comments

This is not the kind of history that any level of government should be making. But I guess it’s okay, as long as we call the spending “investment”.

The New Brunswick government says its investments in health care have helped push the budget into a record deficit. Introduced on Tuesday, the budget’s $1.4-billion deficit is the largest in the province’s history, according to Finance Department staff.

Speaking of investments…

The federal government is putting $200 million toward a Canadian-owned launch pad so it can send satellites into orbit without the assistance of other nations or other foreign third parties.

 

Adventures in AI

AI It's Probably Nothing 7 Comments

As a self-employed software engineer, I use AI daily to help with my work. But I use it in a very targeted way and with a heavy skepticism I call “Don’t Trust and Heavily Verify”. This is the opposite of “vibe coding” where the developer is simply typing sentences into the AI and getting it to do everything behind the scenes with little to no verification of the resulting code.

So, while I do appreciate what modern AI is capable of doing, I also realize that it’s a magic trick of sorts; a very impressive magic trick to be sure, but one must understand the limits of AI and realize that it’s not actually thinking. In fact, it doesn’t actually know ahead of time what the next word in its response will be displayed. That is determined on the fly by a huge probability tree.

There are two new videos on this subject that are well worth watching but, for some background, please read about the recent failures of AI at Amazon.

Here’s the first video and here’s the second.

Private Credit Woes

Gradually Then Suddenly Great Reset It's Probably Nothing 5 Comments

Ron Butler asks the tough question: are the problems in Canada’s private credit market an indication of a financial contagion?

We have Easy Financial. The stock price fell 50% in one day. Is this the private credit contagion?

Um, they’re restating earnings from over a year ago. What? What? What? What sense does that make?

I think something is wrong because you don’t want to see the CEO of a independent financial lending organization both quit within the same two year period.

Iranian Assassination in British Columbia?

It's Probably Nothing Vast Right Wing Conspiracy 18 Comments

On February 2, 2026, an SFU professor went missing. A man and a woman have now been charged with his murder:

First-degree murder charges have been laid against two people in connection to the death of Masood Masjoody, a former SFU instructor and outspoken critic of the Iranian regime.

The charges were laid against 48-year-old Maple Ridge man Mehdi Ahmadzadeh Razavi and 45-year-old North Vancouver woman Arezou Soltani on Saturday morning.

The pair is accused of killing Masjoody, 45, who was reported missing on Feb. 2.

Burnaby RCMP launched an investigation after “receiving reports from concerned neighbours,” and soon determined that Masjoody’s disappearance was out of character and involved criminality, according to a news release from the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team Saturday.

Just another terrible murder to the casual reader. But Mahyar Tousi, a well known Iranian ex-pat and podcaster in Britain, is reporting that Masood Masjoody was assassinated. Watch and decide.

Related: How come Mark Carney and the Liberals are welcoming so many alleged IRGC members into Canada?

I Want A New Country

Alternative Subsidy Gradually Then Suddenly New Governor Western Separatism 39 Comments

“$9,000 for every single Canadian family of four across the country”

Construction of regional high speed rail is a $90 billion catastrophe for taxpayers, says an MP whose constituency is on the route. Conservative MP Scott Reid (Lanark-Frontenac, Ont.) yesterday warned of “ruined lives” and wasted billions as the Commons passed the High Speed Rail Network Act: ‘Why on earth should people in British Columbia, Alberta or Newfoundland pay for this?’

Fire Them All

entitlement generation Gradually Then Suddenly nannystate Protected Class 12 Comments

Here’s hoping that Javier Milei’s labor market reforms continue to gain traction. Notice how the news item is framed in such a way as to draw no connection between the undeserved power of Peronist labor unions and “frequent economic shocks”.

The bill, which grants employers greater flexibility in matters of hiring, firing, severance and collective bargaining, has drawn fierce opposition from labor unions and their Peronist allies, who argue it would roll back measures that protect workers from abuse and Argentina’s notoriously frequent economic shocks.

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