I can’t really concentrate and there’s only a week to go until Christmas. What better time to grab some of the low-hanging fruit that headlines present. Here’s today’s: BoC chief says economic crisis will ‘end’ Insightful. End, he says –as all crises eventually do. What I really like are the quotation marks around “end”, whichcontinue reading
Upgrade time
Oddness may ensue for the next ten minutes or so. Go make some tea. edit — all done! Writers, you’ll notice the back end looks different. Look for the New Post button in the top menu bar.
Forward, Toronto!
Move bravely into the last two decades of the last century! One small step for the TTC is likely just that — one small step. But it’s nice to see anyway! And who knows what one-off goody 2009 may bring…
What nice teeth you have, Mr. Horse
From a Financial Post story on how consumers are using non-cash rewards to buy Christmas gifts: Of those polled by Air Miles, 40% said they were redeeming their points to get Christmas gifts for others, and more than 65% of those polled deemed it socially appropriate to give friends and family gifts that have beencontinue reading
Spreading like a rash
Diane Francis gets on the sales tax cut train: 3. The GST and PST should be eliminated immediately for purchases of cars that are fuel efficient. This would reduce consumer prices and help enhance demand for cars. Great idea. Of course, we already have a rebate program for buyers of fuel-efficient vehicles, it being onecontinue reading
This is your brain on online shopping
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
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