Author: Dennis

Maybe the jobs will just create themselves

Great Moments In Socialism Wuhan Flu 4 Comments

Once these latest stats sink in, we’ll probably hear more calls for “stimulus”. In reality, it’s precisely this “stimulus” that results in an avalanche of government borrowing that hoovers up and destroys capital that could have been otherwise used to refit aging industrial infrastructure. Covid theater is taking a huge toll as well.

Canada’s labour market lost 207,000 jobs last month as a spike in COVID-19 variant cases led to renewed public health restrictions and raised concerns about longer-term economic consequences from the pandemic.

The unemployment rate rose to 8.1 per cent from 7.5 per cent in March, Statistics Canada reported. It would have been 10.5 per cent had it included in calculations Canadians who wanted to work but didn’t search for a job.


(Addendum from Kate — In mostly open Saskatchewan, employment increased by 9,500 (+1.7%) and the unemployment rate fell 0.7 percentage points to 6.6%. Oddly enough.)

Covid: the political virus

Protected Class Unsettled Science Wuhan Flu 42 Comments

Will the province of Manitoba issue arrest warrants for the organizers of this rally as they did for an anti-lockdown rally last week? That’s not likely to happen if past experience is a guide. It would seem that the science is settled: Covid is not a threat when gatherings are in support of an approved political cause.

The organizers said they would not grant interviews — they included justifications for holding the rally in the midst of the pandemic in the social media posts.

When asked how the no gathering rule will be enforced at the rally, a provincial spokesman said nothing official is on the books — but the public health order is clear.

The story paywall goes up in the next 24 hours.

Maybe the $24 million dollar cabin will pay for itself…

Great Moments In Socialism Great Reset 18 Comments

As asset prices rise thanks to zero percent interest rates, this was inevitable. Unless pandemic-induced isolation leads to higher incomes for some reason I’m unaware of, these buyers will eventually find themselves owning assets that they actually can’t afford.

Sales in Muskoka increased 267 per cent in April from a year earlier, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association. The median price for waterfront properties, at the same time, rose more than 70 per cent to $890,000, although Harding said listings tend to begin above the $1-million mark.

The desire for waterfront properties grew among Canada’s wealthy as pandemic-induced isolation measures kicked in. Both Harding and Richard Scully, the agent selling the $24-million lakefront property, said it’s normal to have anywhere from five to 25 offers on a property. Cottages tend now to stay on the market for no more than 10 days, when it used to take 40 to 50 days to close a sale, Harding said.

Another story you won’t see in the Canadian MSM

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The good doctor at Johns Hopkins weighs in on the herd immunity issue with some sound advice.

Makary criticised “the most slow, reactionary, political CDC in American history” for not clearly communicating the scientific facts about natural immunity compared to the kind of immunity developed through vaccines.

Dr. Marty Makary made the comments during a recent interview, noting that “natural immunity works” and it is wrong to vilify those who don’t want the vaccine because they have already recovered from the virus.

Butter made from coal….mmmmm…sounds yummy….

Great Moments In Socialism Historical Events 13 Comments

As we stumble through week 78 (or close to it) of the Covid crisis, it’s important to put our current experience in perspective. When you erase price signals from a sector of the economy, dysfunction becomes a feature, not a bug. Central planners will blame everything for their failures with the exception, of course, of central planning.

The video below is from an enterprising former retail sales worker turned citizen historian who goes by the name of TIK (The Imperator Knight) who now makes a living producing Youtube videos on military history and economics. In this video, he analyzes the failures of central planning in Nazi Germany in the coal and railway industry. You can see some important parallels that apply to our response to Covid.

TIK’s videos are extensively researched and informative. His ongoing analysis of the battle of Stalingrad (now up to 23 episodes) is well worth watching.

Move those goalposts!

Let Them Eat Taser Wuhan Flu 53 Comments

The only thing worse than Stockholm Syndrome (as discussed in an earlier post) would be for the authorities to allow a hostage situation to continue until all of the captives publicly express agreement with the goals of their captors.

But vaccine targets are at least partially arbitrary. The threshold needed to achieve population immunity against SARS-CoV-2 is still being debated, the goalposts ever-shifting. Once 60 per cent, now 70 to 80 per cent — and maybe higher. “What if we get stalled at 78 per cent,” said Peter Loewen, professor of political science, global affairs and public policy at the University of Toronto. “Do we just keep holding off? When do we round up?”

Right minorities and wrong minorities

More Pavilions At Folkfest 37 Comments

This football coach of Korean heritage found out what it’s like to be on the “wrong” side of diversity when he applied for a job with an unnamed NFL team recently.

Despite a resume that includes 55 games of experience as an NFL offensive tackle – the first Asian American first-round draft pick in history – and 10 seasons as an assistant coach under Super Bowl winners Andy Reid and Doug Pederson, Chung was turned away.

“It was said to me, ‘Well, you’re really not a minority,” Chung told The Boston Globe.

Chung is Korean, as are both of his parents.

“That’s when I realized what the narrative was,” Chung said. “I was blown away, emotionally paralyzed for a split second. I asked myself, ‘Did I hear that correctly?’ ”

Tools the Canadian government won’t want you to use

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I ran across this handy Covid mortality risk calculator developed by the folks at Johns Hopkins. It only takes a few minutes to fill out, but it requires a zip code. I used Grand Forks, ND 58201 since that’s only about 100 miles away from me.

What follows is my risk assessment. Looks pretty low:

Further, based on the information available from pandemic projections in your state of residence, the tool estimates an absolute rate of mortality of 1.3 (95% CI: 0.5 – 3.3 ) per 100000 individuals in subgroups of the population with a similar risk profile to yours during the period of 05/15/2021 – 06/04/2021.

 

Central banks are puzzled by recent events….

Great Moments In Socialism Great Reset 30 Comments

I have to suggest a new title for this piece: “Arsonist alarmed at rapid spread of fires”.

The Bank of Canada doubled down on its concern over the red-hot real estate market, using its latest checkup on the health of the financial system to warn that speculation in some of the biggest cities has made the country more vulnerable to a debt crisis.

The central bank singled out the Greater Toronto Area, Hamilton and Montreal as experiencing worrisome signs of “extrapolative behaviour,” which is the way Governor Tiff Macklem and other policy-makers describe market dynamics that they see as out of line with the fundamentals of supply and demand.

Zero percent interest rates necessarily result in supply and demand becoming completely out of line. What other outcome did these functionaries expect?

Covid theater on the Manitoba links

Gain of Function Wuhan Flu 24 Comments

Unlike Ontario, Manitoba still allows golf courses to remain open. In the interests of virtue signalling, one supposes, they are trying to make golfing enough of a nuisance such that people will hopefully be dissuaded from playing.

“If an appropriate banner is in place, such as a plastic shield between the driver and the passenger, two people from separate households can share a golf cart.”

Most, if not all, golf courses in the province have suspended league play as a result of the edicts. The province considers league play a “team” sport even though the players rarely get within six feet of each other. However, league members are still welcome to show up and golf at the regular time at my local course. The only difference is that your scores will not be officially recorded.

Smart bug, that Covid. Who knew it could differentiate between players using an official score card and those that don’t?

Is the prevailing narrative losing momentum?

Great Reset Wuhan Flu 44 Comments

I have to marvel at the fact that this particular story actually made it to the front page of any mainstream media outlet, so maybe there’s hope for this country yet. If only Doug Ford and a few others would get this message and cut out their passive/aggressive posturing. If the op-ed is correct, it will still take a long time to undo the psychological, let alone economic, damage.

North America is now definitively entering the final days of COVID-19. Even in Canada — with ongoing third waves in both Ontario and Alberta — deaths remain way down from their January highs and mass vaccination is rapidly shielding whole sections of the population from lethal harm. But as our pandemic deliverance approaches, physicians and researchers are now warning of a new public health challenge: When normalcy arrives, many may refuse to accept it.

Now, as COVID wanes across the developed world, psychiatrists are warning of a wave of COVID-centric anxiety. “Those with severe health anxiety are likely to become abnormally avoidant, continuing to isolate and practise repeated hand washing, checking their body temperatures, respiratory function, and even testing their ability to smell … over and over again,” reads a paper on “COVID-19 health anxiety” in the journal World Psychiatry.

 

Coming to a province near you

Great Moments In Socialism Tommy Douglas: Not Dead Enough 25 Comments

If a doctor told you that the best way to treat alcoholism would be to drink even more, it’s doubtful that you would take him seriously. But that’s the equivalent of some of the suggestions being offered to deal with Newfoundland’s current budgetary, or should I say existential, crisis.

Finally, [the Greene Report] recommends a new federal loan facility be established to enable the province to borrow 10 and 30-year bonds at federal rates.

Sources say the plan is to get through the pandemic before turning to a comprehensive plan that takes in health transfers, child care, long-term care and pharmacare.

Unless such plans consider market solutions for these items, it would seem that a Zimbabwe style outcome is now within reach.

How come this debt isn’t paying for itself?

Great Moments In Socialism Great Reset It's Probably Nothing 61 Comments

A debt load of $47 billion for a province of 500,000? A new report is recommending that the Newfoundland government slash health care and education spending while selling off any number of government owned enterprises.

In order to rein in a soaring public debt and end the long pattern of deficit spending, Greene recommended a five per cent reduction in core government spending, and that operating grants for Memorial University and the College of the North Atlantic be slashed by 30 per cent, at a rate of five per cent annually.

Some of her sharpest points were directed at the health system, which accounts for 37 per cent of public spending. The province also spends 24 per cent more per capita on heath than the Canadian average.

Lest anyone think that Newfoundland is alone in this sinking boat, if every provincial government in this country were as honest as this lot when calculating their actual debt burden, most provinces would not be far behind. Most will wind up, eventually, as wards of the Bank of Canada.

Multi-generational unemployment for $200, Alex…

Great Moments In Socialism Let Them Eat Taser Wuhan Flu 28 Comments

Not to be outdone by Sleepy Joe’s faltering stimulus programs south of the border, Shiny Pony and his provincial counterparts demonstrated last month that they can destroy jobs at a blistering clip too.

Ontario, grappling with a vicious resurgence of COVID-19, lost 153,000 jobs while British Columbia, under its “circuit breaker” restrictions, saw a decline 43,000.

Pandemic restrictions that tend to limit high-contact services meant retail, food services, information, culture and recreation sectors were hit the hardest, losing a combined 169,000 jobs in April.

Common sense from south of the border

Wuhan Flu 50 Comments

Judging by what Canadians are allowed to read in the Mainstream Media these days regarding Covid, it’s as if the United States no longer exists. With cases dropping like a stone in nearly every state, one would think that journalists would be interested in finding out why. As Marty Makary of Johns Hopkins points out, the reason is that the United States has basically achieved herd immunity.

Look at the facts: About 57 percent of adults are vaccinated and approximately half of unvaccinated people have natural immunity from prior infection. That’s why US cases have been plummeting, down 31 percent over the past 18 days.

Covid policy in Canada is no longer about public health, if it ever was; it’s about narrative maintenance at all costs.

Hurry up and wait!

Gain of Function Wuhan Flu 23 Comments

To deal with the latest surge in cases, rapid Covid tests are finally being made widely available in Canada. About a year later than they should have been, but that’s how centrally planned systems function. Bureaucratic turf wars take precedence over satisfying obvious consumer demand.

The primary obstacle to implementing rapid tests in Canada has been the red tape provincial health authorities have put around using the tests — especially a rule that required the tests to be operated by health care professionals such as nurses. Such a rule makes widespread rapid testing effectively impossible, given Canada’s already limited health care resources.

Another zero percent interest miracle!

Great Moments In Socialism Great Reset It's Probably Nothing 16 Comments

In a normal, growing economy, each generation can expect a higher standard of living than the previous one. In Canada, we seem to be going in the opposite direction of normal. If the trend noted in this article continues, millennials will be lucky to buy a principal residence at about the time they would like to retire.

In the epicenter of the housing bubble, it’s particularly bad for an average income earner:

In Toronto, for example, where the median home price crossed $1 million in the first quarter, it now takes 278 months (23 years) to save up for a down payment. In Vancouver, where the price of a representative home is $1,381,274 and you need an income of $237,201 to afford it, you would have to save for 389 months (32.4 years) just for the down payment.

Buy a horse. You may need one someday.

Shiny Pony You Might Be A Liberal 9 Comments

Generally people think roadways when the topic is infrastructure spending. But if Shiny Pony has anything to say about it, such projects may be consigned to the environmental dustbin.

Ontario’s proposed new mega-project to build a highway looping around the northwest of Toronto has been designated by the federal government for special environmental scrutiny.

The federal government says the provincial project, already facing opposition, needs additional environmental oversight, a designation that will slow the massive construction project or, opponents say, kill it altogether.

Two days drive to get across the GTA? A small price to pay to protect the spotted burble frog:

….this project may cause adverse direct or incidental effects on federally-listed species at risk….

Bubbles in Cottage Country

Great Moments In Socialism It's Probably Nothing 23 Comments

It’s not just urban real estate values that are soaring these days. If an economic boom can be conjured up by encouraging people to spend more than they can afford to on a principal residence, think of how much bigger the boom can be when they do the same for a lakeside home.

The Grey Bruce Owen Sound region has seen prices for single-family home jump 33.3 per cent during the period to $432,100, compared to the same period last year, according to CREA. The average price of homes sold in March was a record $646,488, a 44.9 per cent improvement from March 2020.

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