Obama has nothing better to do than listen intently to my opinions
First I thought it was odd enough that Lululemon Athletica started following me on Twitter (I don’t follow them). But then this email arrived:
Hi, -dj.
Barack Obama (BarackObama) is now following your updates on Twitter.
Check out Barack Obama’s profile here:
http://twitter.com/BarackObama
Best,
Uh…. thanks? I guess Obama wants to hear my thoughts about how cold it is in Calgary or how we should just lock up Ignatieff and Harper in a room and let them fight club it out to create the next budget.
I think my brilliant ideas for saving America and solving the “global financial crisis” might get lost in his 154,000 + followings.
BTW isn’t it odd that Obama is following 154k people while only 149k are following him? Looks like he really is listening to the public. (Maybe more than they are listening to him? That can’t be bad can it?)
Recession: no wonder it is so hard to say if we are in one or not
Also available on the Calgary Herald’s Q.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the recession we are currently in – or the one that is coming depending on who you are talking to – and one thing has struck me in some of the commentary I’ve been hearing. It seems the horrible nature of a recession or a depression comes not from the low stock market yields but more from the instability of said markets.
This makes complete sense to me. As an investor I sure don’t want to invest in something that isn’t going to increase in value, but at the same time if I can predict when something is going to go down in value I can better prepare my financial portfolio. Where things start to get hairy is when there is no predictability. The markets are up one day and down the next.
This is when people start keeping their money in their pockets because they are scared to spend it – they have no idea when they will need the savings.
This all came flooding back to me when I saw the following two stories come through my Twitter one pretty much right after the other last night:
Calgary charities worry as donations drop
Spirit of philanthropy is thriving
In addition, I’m seeing stories about Ballet BC and the Baltimore Opera folding under the pressure, while personally I’m hearing local arts groups saying everything is okay so far – they haven’t noticed a drop off in sales at all.
Seems how no one can agree on whether things are just as good as ever or that the world is ending. So I’m going to go out on a limb and officially call it: we’re in a recession.
One Crisis(es) After Another
I thought this was too good to pass up, so I’ll paraphrase Stephane Dion and Scott Reid from this past week. Maybe you’ll get an ironic giggle out of it like I do.
This past week Mr. Harper turned an economic crisis into a political crisis. He then re branded that crisis by turning it into a national unity crisis, before instigating a constitutional crisis to get out of the whole mess.
All that in just one week when he could have just worked with the other MPs to solve the first crisis.
You know, I don’t think I’d like to be Prime Minister if these are the only options put before me.
Here is what is going to happen now 2
My first prediction has come true and now we’ll have to see if the second one does too.
It is fair to predict the only way the Prime Minister will survive an eventual confidence motion in January on the budget is if it includes the significant stimulus package the Coalition has requested/proposed.
What appeasement will the Prime Minister accomplish in a month an a half that he could not have accomplished put putting his nose to the grindstone now and worked out before Monday?
He didn’t even try. He asked to prorogue Parliament today (Thursday) instead of getting his hands dirty and working his ass off trying to reach a deal until Sunday – when, if he couldn’t reach an agreement with opposition parties, he could have gone down this same road and asked to prorogue the House.
Regardless of who you or I voted for in the last election this just looks like pure laziness on behalf of the Prime Minister.
Here is what is going to happen now
Here’s the deal. Or at least my best guess at this point. (Isn’t constitutional guessing fun?!)
The Prime Minister will ask for a prorogation of Parliament tomorrow morning and the Governor General (to my dismay) will agree. She’ll agree because this is her best option – nobody wants the GG to disagree with a democratically elected Prime Minister.
They will prorogue for one week which will take us to the Holiday break, which is set to begin on December 13. I guess that’s not so bad; one week?
We’ll return on January 26 to… exactly the same situation we face now. But with cooler heads. But everyone will be just as angry. The budget will be presented on January 27 and it will be a confidence motion.
Why prorogue again?
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