Category: Gradually Then Suddenly

Drowning In Debt

Gradually Then Suddenly It's Probably Nothing nannystate 25 Comments

Predictably, another pandemic style spending spree is already underway, this time premised on the idea that it is the role of the state to insulate everyone from losses incurred as a result of tax hikes in another nation. One thing that is clear in this election is that all levels of government, provincial and federal, will be going all-in on opening the spending floodgates. Any party that dared to argue otherwise would be pilloried by the electorate.

Ontario businesses will see select provincial taxes deferred for six months, which Premier Doug Ford says will give them about $9 billion worth of relief amid global economic turmoil in the face of U.S. tariffs.

Nothing To See Here

Gradually Then Suddenly Great Moments In Socialism It's Probably Nothing 9 Comments

Ron Butler chats about a story that is getting completely buried in the current election: the real estate crash in the GTA and Vancouver. That would not be a good look for a government needing to pick up seats in those regions, but I’m sure the media water carriers will see to it that the story remains buried.

“…we’re at the point now where a building will not close…somebody will have finished 300 units and 60%  of the people who bought the units pre-construction will say “I’m not going to close.” Yeah you can chase me but I’m not going to close because the media information is getting out there in a bigger and bigger way and once that happens nobody’s going to close…”

“We have a tremendous amount of debt to roll”

47 Gradually Then Suddenly 49 Comments

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent with Tucker Carlson – full interview here.

Zero Here We Come!

Gradually Then Suddenly Great Moments In Socialism It's Probably Nothing 20 Comments

Bad news is good news, or something like that. With business demand for capital sagging, any rate cuts will be needed just to keep the yield curve from inverting like a wet noodle.

Canada’s labour market lost a net 32,600 jobs in March, while the unemployment rate rose to 6.7 per cent, according to Statistics Canada data released on Friday. Economists say the worst jobs report in more than three years boosts the case for the Bank of Canada to cut its policy rate further.

“The wheels may be starting to fall off the Canadian labour market,” CIBC Capital Markets senior economist Andrew Grantham wrote in a note to clients on Friday.

Now Is A Good Time To Juxtapose

Gradually Then Suddenly Juxtapose! 33 Comments

Dan Knight- March Massacre: Canada’s Labour Market Cracks Under Tariff Pressure

The overall picture, however, is bleak. Nationally, Canada lost 33,000 jobs in March. It wasn’t a statistical blip—it was a full reversal of a trend that saw growth through late 2024 and early 2025. Worse yet, this decline was driven almost entirely by full-time employment, which plummeted by 62,000 jobs. That’s not people losing side gigs—that’s heads of households, tradespeople, and career workers getting cut loose.

NBC- U.S. added 228,000 jobs in March, beating forecasts

The U.S. added 228,000 jobs in March, far more than the 140,000 economists had expected. Unemployment ticked up slightly to 4.2% from 4.1% the month before.

Zero Here We Come!

Gradually Then Suddenly Great Moments In Socialism 13 Comments

A slashing of interest rates is all but inevitable at this point, but the Bank of Canada is unlikely to do anything that might set off alarm bells and upset the political fortunes of a previous boss, apparently.

Nonetheless, they write, with Canada’s economy in “decent shape,” the BoC has the “luxury of waiting a bit more” with an election at the end of April that will help determine how the trade war plays out.

As the central bank has noted, it has limited capacity to push against a policy shock of this nature. Don’t expect a substantial drop in interest rates, but there is room for at least 50 basis points of cuts to ease financing costs.”

Gradually, Then Suddenly

Canada’s Bolsheviks Gradually Then Suddenly 31 Comments

Dan Knight: B.C. Credit Downgrade

S&P cut B.C.’s rating from ‘AA-’ to ‘A+’. Moody’s dropped it from ‘aa1’ to ‘aa2’. That’s the fourth downgrade in four years. Four. This is a province that used to hold AAA status—the financial gold standard. That means British Columbia was once considered one of the most fiscally stable jurisdictions not just in Canada, but globally. Not anymore.

Even more alarming? S&P didn’t just hit their long-term rating—they downgraded the short-term rating too, from ‘A-1+’ to ‘A-1’. Why? Because even in the short term, B.C. is starting to look like a risk. A liquidity risk. That means the money might not be there when it’s needed. That’s a red flag for anyone with a calculator and a memory longer than five minutes.

This is not some vague bureaucratic move. This is a direct indictment of the NDP’s economic policies in British Columbia. This is what happens when you treat taxpayers like an ATM machine and the economy like a social experiment. And now, international financial institutions are officially saying what a lot of people have been screaming for years: B.C. is in serious fiscal trouble.

Leaving the left coast: Seattle taxes itself into a $47M revenue shortfall and now the state is considering doing the same.

Done Like Dinner?

2025 Federal Election 47 Gradually Then Suddenly 79 Comments

Ron Butler lays it out for Canada in this podcast: “We’re f***ed!”.

“…you don’t have to move the assembly plant at all; you just have to work out how to produce the same cars in the United States. That’s a big tooling shift [that] could take a few months but in some cases they just may let the that brand run out. Like if we’re making nothing but…Lexus here maybe they just let that brand run low for a few months and then they [move] the tooling [to] Kentucky and away they go.”

The way I see this election playing out is as follows: whoever wins better hope they get a majority because they won’t want to face the voters anytime soon after they cave in to all, or nearly all, of Trump’s demands.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX-NpxA18d4

It’s Probably Nothing

Gradually Then Suddenly Great Moments In Socialism It's Probably Nothing 15 Comments

Maybe when the government buys all the cars to bail out the auto industry, it can buy all the unsold houses too.

Only 400 new homes and condos were sold in the Greater Toronto Area last month — while nearly 22,000 units sat on the market untouched — marking the worst February on record for the sector, according to a new report.

The Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) released its findings Thursday and said the sales, which included 152 condominium apartments and 248 single-family homes, mark a 50 per cent drop from last February. Compared to the 10-year average, those 400 sales represent a decline of nearly 85 per cent, it said.

Down The Primrose Path

Gradually Then Suddenly Great Reset Ukraine 21 Comments

Talk is cheap.

European leaders have gotten the message from Washington about doing more for their own defense and for Ukraine, too. They are talking tough when it comes to supporting Ukraine and about protecting their own borders, and they are standing up to a demanding and even hostile Trump administration.

But there is an inevitable gap between talk and action, and unity is fracturing already, especially when it comes to spending and borrowing money in a period of low growth and high debt. […]

Kaja Kallas, the former prime minister of Estonia who is now the chief foreign and security official for the European Union, has been a forceful advocate for supporting Ukraine as a first line of European defense against an aggressive, militarized Russia.

But it has been a rocky start for Ms. Kallas. Her effort to get the E.U. to provide up to 40 billion euros (more than $43 billion) to Ukraine through a small, fixed percentage levy on each country’s national income has gone nowhere.

Her backup proposal, for an added €5 billion as a first step toward providing Ukraine two million artillery shells this year, was also rejected by Italy, Slovakia and even France, an E.U. official said, speaking anonymously in accordance with diplomatic practice. The countries insisted that contributions to Ukraine remain voluntary, bilateral and not required by Brussels.

Via Wretchard T. Cat

Given this information, it’s pointless asking Europe to contribute naval assets to keeping their Red Sea lanes open. Maybe we should face the facts: the Global World is a luxury we can’t afford because the global citizens won’t pay to manage entropy on a planetary scale.

Perhaps the New World will look like an updated version the Old World we used to live in. A world of relatively culturally homogenous countries surrounded by tariffs with defended frontiers. It’s what we can afford.

Buyer Of Last Resort

Canada’s Bolsheviks Gradually Then Suddenly 18 Comments

Having the government buy a bunch of cars will fix everything, I’m sure.

Carney, speaking to a televised press conference in Windsor, Ontario, also said his government would work with industry to build more car parts in Canada and limit the number of parts that cross the border with the United States during production.

When it came to buying official vehicles for official business, a Liberal government would focus on buying autos that were made in Canada, he added.

 

Socialized Credit

DigitalCurrency Gradually Then Suddenly nannystate 31 Comments

If anyone believes that you are “sticking it to the man” by withdrawing all the funds from your bank account in “cash”, think again. Our fiat currency system has got you coming and going. It’s not a bug; it was designed that way.

In fiat, your only real choice is this: if you wish to access credit at all, you must participate in a system where the coercive extension of credit creates an exponentially rising debt doom loop that all must shoulder the burden of.

The final collapse of fiat will occur when the burden of debt exceeds the ability of any debtor, no matter how large their balance sheet, to service it. When lost capital can no longer be replaced with fresh capital from a more creditworthy institution, one can arrive at a situation where bank notes are literally backed by nothing. A bank note backed by nothing can purchase nothing. It will not matter how many are released into the economy at that point. They will be worthless. It will be the Zimbabwe solution in spades.

That Sinking Feeling

Gradually Then Suddenly It's Probably Nothing 28 Comments

Maybe a “buy Canadian” program will turn things around. Probably too late, by the looks of it.

Hudson’s Bay is still waiting to see if it will be granted approval to liquidate stores as the retailer requests more time to work out some of its differences with its myriad of landlords, lenders and other partners.

Despite requesting permission from the court to move forward with the liquidation, the company is holding out hopes it can avoid the merchandise sell-off by finding enough financing to keep it alive in some form.

The $23 million it has garnered so far is not enough and necessitates a full liquidation of the business, putting 9,364 jobs at risk…

Great Success!

Canada’s Bolsheviks Gradually Then Suddenly 27 Comments

Blacklock’s- $42M Relief For Pot Dealers

“The cannabis industry is facing economic difficulties which threaten a key objective of the Cannabis Act which is to provide for the legal production of cannabis to displace the illegal cannabis market.

The Competition Bureau in 2023 estimated two-thirds of licensed marijuana dealers were tax delinquents. “The total amount of unpaid cannabis excise duties has continuously been rising since legalization,” said a report Planting The Seeds For Competition.

Blacklock’s- SOS For Tax-Funded EV Plant

“There is an existential crisis,” said Champagne. “I hope the project continues. I can assure you we are working hard on finding new partnerships.”

The Backfiring Sparky Car

Canada’s Bolsheviks Climate Cult Gradually Then Suddenly It's Probably Nothing 16 Comments

Many more such incidents resulting in “lost value” and there will be no economy left capable of generating any value at all.

The Legault government has poured $270 million in Swedish parent company Northvolt AB, and Fréchette confirmed this sum “has lost its value.” The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec has also invested $200 million in the company.

Quebec granted Northvolt a further $240 million for the purchase of land in the Montérégie region. This sum is secured by collateral on the land and assets of Northvolt’s North America subsidiary, Fréchette said.

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