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
Dalton48 Archives
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
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.
Teach your children well… especially when it comes to how a parliamentary democracy works
Apart from all the other issues raised by the demise (fingers crossed) of our nasty and brutish Conservative government, it’s clear that very, very few Canadians understand how our political system works. I’ve long thought that this is one reason for the anemic interest in politics in Canada, and the widespread feeling that there iscontinue reading
You knew it was coming…
The inevitable exhortation to go shopping — with a new twist. If you don’t pony up, the recession is all your fault, according to Premier McGuinty: “But if you don’t buy that car — even though you can actually afford it — if you don’t buy that fridge, if you don’t shop at Christmas time,continue reading