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

But Brooklin is booming!

Could the communications team at the Toronto Real Estate Board be the worst in the city? Granted, TREB is the lobby group representing realtors, know most for erratic capitalization and repeated punctuation marks. And, OK, it’s hard to put out press release after press release about a deflating market after years of hyperbolic boasting aboutcontinue reading

Real Estate Ad of the Week

From today’s Globe. It seems the identity of the seller is more important than the property — which doesn’t say much for the property. I’d imagine this sales pitch appeals greatly to a specific type of southern Ontario Anglophile, though: BRITISH HEIRESS Due to declining years wishes to sell country estate, 1 hour from Toronto.continue reading

From Great Unwind to Greater Depression?

While thoughts of deflation are rippling through the Anglosphere, the European Central Bank is still more concerned about rising prices, hiking interest rates again today. There are a couple of reasons this makes sense: one, the ECB’s only mission is to contain inflation, while the US Federal Reserve, the shadow of which hangs over allcontinue reading

Anglo agony

You’ve probably been ignoring it, enjoying the summer instead, but in case you’re wondering how the economy in the Anglosphere is looking these days, on this first business day of the second half in Canada, and first official day of a bear market in the U.S., two words: pretty bad. Here in Canada, even BMOcontinue reading

Fraser fantasies

I can’t believe I’m bothering to quarrel with a report from the Fraser Institute, but sometimes it’s just too tempting to resist. The right-wing think tank released a survey yesterday that will be the foundation of its urban policy research agenda, headed up by that champion of cities, former Ontario premier Mike Harris. Among thecontinue reading

And if you like world class cities, go live in one

Ever-wise city councillors vote to kill street life on Bloor. I guess they’re hoping this will transform the exciting line-up of nondescript architecture, inexpensive European chain clothing stores and discounters into Toronto’s own answer to the Magnificent Mile. If you’d rather be able to buy the occasional hot dog, well, perhaps you should just move: Councillorcontinue reading

Peaking skepticism

A recent Economist article highlights some of the questions over whether we’re experiencing peak oil now or not. There have been a number of stories recently alleging that oil prices are artificially high right now in part because there are vast quantities of crude sitting on ships offshore. Another issue is limited refinery capacity. Accordingcontinue reading