Often Canadians like making it onto lists — best quality of life, most expensive cities, kindest and gentlest societies, that kind of thing. But then there are lists Canada is on but would prefer to be left off, like the Al-Qaeda target lists, or this one — super-bear economist Nouriel Roubini’s list of countries likelycontinue reading
Doomed to repeat it, slowly and ponderously
I’ve just finished a very funny book on how Wall Street works, published in 1940 and written by someone who worked in the markets through the crash of 1929. Where Are The Customers’ Yachts was reissued as a paperback a few years ago, and almost every page is relevant to today — perhaps even morecontinue reading
Bottle up and explode
As one among the 29% of Canadians who, really, couldn’t care less about the increase in prices at the pump, I read the Canwest story “Pent-up anger unites nation” feeling like I imagine separatists do when Canadian nationalists bemoan the possibly imminent departure of Quebec: According to a new poll by Ipsos Reid, carried outcontinue reading
Not sure who to credit for this one
The trouble with eyewitness accounts
..neatly summarized in one paragraph of the Star’s story on the shootings in the Annex: Marc Biginelli, 21, watched events unfold from Bloor St. He said a tall young black man wearing a black T-shirt and baggy jeans came at the group from behind, gun in hand, and that he was “very tense, very aggressive.”continue reading
The scourge of sunlight
I’m with Barry Hertz of the National Post — time for Toronto to calm the fuck down when it comes to heat alerts. He tracked the panic , visiting several cooling centres yesterday — as he puts it, “one of those perfect summer days we could only dream of last winter.” Some highlights of hiscontinue reading
V for Volatility
Last summer I drew your attention to the CBOE Volatility (VIX) index, which at the time was, like the Baltic Dry Index, a relatively low-profile stock market metric that had started to look very odd. (My own familiarity with the VIX index is the legacy of two years of early morning meetings with a acontinue reading
The blame game gets more interesting
Come October, the Toronto Real Estate Board will have a new bogeyman to blame for sliding sales: the federal government. The government is reining in mortgages, at least the insured ones it guarantees, scrapping the 40-year amortization period in favour of a maximum of 35 years, requiring a minimum credit score and downpayment and imposingcontinue reading
I love the Criminal Code, pt. n+1
From today’s majors: Gary Lynch, 45, of Toronto, is charged with: 1) Prowling by Night, (prowling on the property of another person near a dwelling-house) 2) Attempt Break and Enter, 3) Mischief under $5,000. Prowling by Night! What a most excellent charge. I do still regret the lack of Grand Mischief as a charge, however.
30-something: the cruellest age
Q. What’s the worst age to be? A. Mine, which in one week sees me both condescended to by a friend’s boyfriend’s late-40s/early-50s friends: “Nancy Pelosi — oh, she’s the…” “I know who Nancy Pelosi is, thanks.” “Senior advisor? What do [could] you [possibly] give advice on?” “Back when I went to McGill — acontinue reading