It’s amazing how self-reinforcing some concepts can be. For example, the idea that a GST cut is a stimulative action. It’s true that consumer spending in Canada hit new highs concurrent with the 1, then 2 per cent cut in the GST. Other factors, such as the wealth effect from a peaking stock market, ballooningcontinue reading
December 2008 Archives
The value of cynicism, and defunding the left
I’ve long thought that Thomas Frank, author of What’s the Matter with Kansas and One Market Under God, editor of the late, much-lamented The Baffler, and current WSJ columnist, was my psychic twin. Here, from his latest book, The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule, comes the proof: Now, I’m the kind of guy who believescontinue reading
Drinking up Niagara
We’ve now had a chance to sample (er, consume) most of the wines we bought in Niagara on the Labour Day weekend. We liked all the Niagara College Teaching Winery wines we bought, without falling in love with any of them. They all struck us (perhaps predictably, in retrospect) as somewhat textbooky, good examples ofcontinue reading
Another one bites the dust
Caves de Rasteau Tradition Rasteau, regularly available at Vintages, used to be one of our favourite bargain-ish wines (about $16.95). It comes from Rasteau, which if memory serves is a sub-AOC in the Cotes-du-Rhone Villages AOC. (It’s one of the Villages.) It used to be one of those fun southern Rhones with a lot ofcontinue reading
Don’t believe the hype
Someone the other day was quoted as saying “$25 is the new $200” — that is, the new outlier target for oil prices is now $25/barrel. With the price per barrel at $40.81 and continuing to fall, it doesn’t seem like a bold call. The tumbling price of crude has put numerous projects in thecontinue reading
They make no sense in Russian either
Anti-coalition protester in Ottawa holds up a hand-drawn picture of Stephane Dion as some kind of Communist commissar. Unfortunately, what is written on the sign would be a non-existent word pronounced “ee-oo-yot” in Russian. I’m guessing they were going for “nyet.”
Bloc solid
Almost a decade ago, I was charged at the last minute with taking two Bloc Quebecois parliamentarians to a series of meetings in Moscow. They were more or less an afterthought, which is why they were assigned to me — the MPs from other parties were taken around, to many more meetings, by senior embassycontinue reading
Wow
First poll on the coalition: 76% of Quebecois are in favour.