Here’s some thinly veiled self-promotion for the Manning Centre, which happens to make some good points: Americans invest more time, energy and money than Canadians do in preparing the politicians and supporting casts for their roles and responsibilities on the political stage. In the United States, there are scores of think tanks, covering the entire [...]
September 2008
I’ve added an econoblogroll to this site to show what I’ve been reading on the topic for the past few months. As I am an amateur with regard to economics and finance, I am deeply indebted to the insights and knowledge I’ve gained by following some of these blogs. I hope more people will take [...]
Andrew Coyne seems angry: You need Conservative MPs to make what happen? To ensure that “more” is done in the way of “delivering” for the GTA. Want more passport offices and bridges? Vote Conservative. This is the Prime Minister of Canada talking, you understand. The candidates for President of the United States debate the shape [...]
Along with dark matter and dark energy, astronomers can now add dark flow to the lexicon of cosmic mysteries. Researchers have discovered that 700 distant clusters of galaxies, gas, and dust are all being pulled in the same direction, apparently toward something invisible and possibly very large, confounding current cosmological models. So far, what that [...]
Based on composure and general impression, Obama appeared to be out of his depth in the debate. He seemed to lack confidence and was too defensive. Of course Obama isn’t out of his depth at all — not even close – and the debate was the first time in a month that McCain hasn’t appeared to be the weaker candidate. Based [...]
Ya, I “deactivated” my Facebook account — which in Facebook’s dictionary means we’re “on a break.” I can log back in anytime and I could have chosen to continue receiving notifications by email, ostensibly because I’d come running back into Facebook’s warm, welcoming embrace, wishing I’d never left, to see the details of an upcoming party (as if I’d want to go to [...]
Sometimes I worry that it’s presumptuous of me to even comment on the financial crisis, not to mention try to explain it and recommend solutions. I have no technical grasp of this stuff, and my own personal finances are about as unsophisticated as any 30 year-old’s could be. I rent a small apartment, I have zero investments (though I had [...]
When the child of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn, appeared, I bade my men on board and loose the hawsers. Then they took their places and smote the grey sea with their oars; so we sailed on with sorrow in our hearts, but glad to have escaped death though we had lost our comrades. A famous, and [...]
This is what really scares me: Beyond that, the United States and other countries have fallen too far into the fool’s paradise of the service economy. The U.S. GDP of $13-trillion is about half composed of worthless and non-productive effort, which yet engages the efforts of a large number of very skilled people. A trillion [...]
From Seth Godin on ”thinking bigger“: “How do you like the draft of the new brochure?” asks the boss. There are several responses available to you, in order of wonderfulness: It’s great. There’s a typo here on page 2. What if we changed the size of the headline? Are you open to considering different typefaces and [...]
Continued… Action without understanding is the cause of our problems (at least if we feel we must identify a cause). This editorial from Terence Corcoran in the Post makes some unpopular points, laying much of the blame on zeal for governance and accounting reform. It turns out that maybe imperialist leaders, insider boards, and mark-to-market [...]
