Actual Facebook status: Bob Rae is listening to President Obama “the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose a job” and shouting “Rae Days”!8 hours ago (H/t Beyond The Commons)
Divide and conquer
For the sake of the tens of thousands of students who are the hostages in the York strike, let’s hope that the government-mandated vote on the university’s offer doesn’t go the way the executive of CUPE 3903 believe it will. It’s possible that there are enough strikers at this point who simply can’t afford tocontinue reading
Meanwhile, in a galaxy far, far away
Home sick last week, I spent some time listening to the radio, where coverage alternated between Obama inauguration previews and the recession. Two days in a row, I tuned in midway to interviews with economists opposed to fiscal stimulus. Both interviewees were upbeat about the prospects of Canada, touting its stronger, more stable fiscal outlookcontinue reading
Easy come, easy go
Or why letting your developed country slide into being a one-trick, resource-exporting copy of a developing one is a poor idea: The November surplus of $1.3-billion is the smallest since October 1997, and analysts warn that Canada is quickly heading to the land of dual deficits – both for the current account and the fiscalcontinue reading
Unfortunately we can’t recommend everything…
I bought a bottle of the Hillebrand Winery Trius 2004 Cabernet Franc (VQA Niagara) this evening, partly on the strength of having enjoyed the 2002 version and partly because it was, er, conveniently available where I was buying the wherewithal for dinner. J. nicely deconstructed (or perhaps reverse-engineered) the label as broadcasting a sort ofcontinue reading
Even a boomer is impatient with the boomers
From an interview with Clay Shirky in CJR: CS: I mean, really, I’m just so impatient with the argument that the world should be slowed down to help people who aren’t smart enough to understand what’s going on. It’s in part because I grew up in a generation that benefited enormously from not doing that.continue reading
Spinning for the city he disdains
Goodbye, so long, and enjoy your visit to the dark side. Yes, putting us all out of the misery of his whiny, self-referential, tiresomely negative screeds in Toronto Life and elsewhere is Philip Preville as (according to newsletter Inside Queen’s Park, not online) he takes on the role of Director of Public Affairs at thecontinue reading
A deconstruction after my own heart
Courtesy of McSweeney’s — CRITIQUE OF YOUR POWERPOINT PRESENTATION TITLED “SALES FORECAST, THIRD QUARTER.” Another highlight was your complete rejection of Tuftean convention through the use of colors without meaning, location without purpose, and position without movement. How daring it was to represent the quarterly shortfalls in revenue with the color purple—the color associated notcontinue reading
The new normal
After the barrage of happy-happy new year stories on the turnaround that’s no doubt just around the corner, some bracing blasts of common sense from some of the best financial bloggers around. From the Cassandra Does Tokyo blog, an excellent rant about the “when things get back to normal” school of thought. When massive shiftscontinue reading
Your call is important to us
The Financial Times has announced the 2008 winners of “twaddle” awards for ludicrous business phrases and practices — they’re all good, but this one is truly outstanding: Third is the award for Most Aggravating On Hold Message, which in 2008 was as hotly contested as ever. However, the clear winner was the UK’s Driving Standardscontinue reading