Vancouver Secrets

What Aren’t They Telling Us?

photo credit: Cayusa

The loonie is on it’s way to 75 cents, oil to $50, home prices are falling… and the TSX has lost 40%.

The good news is that thankfully Canada has the world’s soundest banking system.

So why am I suddenly feeling the worst is yet to come?

With the election being days away, I am becoming certain that Canadians will vote in another minority government even though it will hurt the country.

As the crisis deepens and the economy slows, Harper’s hands will once again be tied by two bumbling idiots.

So do you buy, sell, hold, or panic?

Barney Frank Gets His _ _ _ Handed To Him

Finally, someone accurately accuses and challenges a member of Congress over his involvement in this current financial crisis.

Barney Frank, the failed Chairman of the House Services Committee for his role in the Fannie Mae-Freddie Mac, gets taken to task, finally.

One other point that isn’t made very often:

When the Democrats took over the House of Representatives and the Senate in January of 2007, the Dow Jones was at an all-time high of 12,400 and gas prices around $2.15 per gallon. The Republican-led Congress of the previous 4-years had left a strong-economy in the hands of Democrats.
In two years two years, under Democrat-controlled Congress the Dow Jones hit a 5-year low of 10,485 and gas prices loomed near $4 dollars a gallon.

This Congress is the worst in history and not enough attention has been paid to this fact.

Love him or hate him, O’Reilly serves a purpose.

Is The Media Really That Biased?

photo credit: ♥♥peppersmom♥♥

Welcome To The Harper Derangement Syndrome.

Search Google news for Stephen Harper and you’ll see exactly how biased the media is against him.

The top of the Goggle results start with this quote:

“Last night, Stephane, you panicked,” … “Your platform says we will spend billions of dollars we don’t have and go into deficit. (You) will raise taxes that will kill jobs”

Keep in  mind that most people don’t read the story - just the headlines…

The media is actively campaigning against the Conservatives and Harper - giving the equivalent of millions of dollars of advertising to the other parties.

I expect this in Vancouver where we have two newspapers owned by the same company… but you’d think that there would be one newspaper in Canada that isn’t far left.

Which leads me to question:

What are the papers in Canada so afraid of that they would compromise their integrity this way?

Isn’t the media supposed to balance coverage of the parties?

The papers are partisan hacks, and lack the balls to objectively look at what’s best for the country.

The NDP will crush the economy, the Liberals would return Canada to cronyism while holding us back through socialism, and the Green Party would take us back a century.

The Conservatives will move Canada forward globally, get government out of legislating behavior, and open Canada for business… I don’t see that as a bad thing.

Or, is it because Harper is from the west?

Look on the bright side…

photo credit: 96dpi

Canada’s economic outlook downgraded

The OECD has cut Canadian growth forecasts and now predict growth of less than 1 percent for the year:

Canada’s economy will expand by just 0.8 per cent in 2008, down from the 1.2 per cent forecast last spring, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development projected in a revised economic outlook Tuesday. That’s also less than the 1.1 per cent now projected by the Finance Department.

The U.S. economy, however, will expand by 1.8 per cent, up from the 1.2 per cent projected in the spring, and the G7 countries will grow on average by 1.4 per cent, unchanged from the spring projection.

The only G7 country that will post weaker growth than Canada is Italy, now projected to expand by 0.1 per cent.

Big drop in Lower Mainland home sales

‘This summer, sales went off a cliff,’ says urban economist
Derrick Penner, Vancouver Sun

The turn of the Lower Mainland real estate market’s cycle has been more dramatic than expected with real estate boards reporting another drop in sales and slide in prices at the end of August.

In Greater Vancouver, August Multiple Listing Service sales were down almost 54 per cent to 1,568 units, compared with 3,348 units in the same month a year ago.

Lower oil, home prices and pressure on retail prices… all the things that may let Vancouver fall back in line with the rest of the country.

Now’s the time to start putting away cash, and this time next year there may be real deals out there.

Good thing the Olympics are almost here to save the day.