A Few Good Signs

It looks at this point as if the Europeans may have gotten their act together (for the moment). I choose to take joy from small victories.

However, I am not confident in our own government. They are talking the same way they were talking in late 2008, as if everything is normal and deficit fighting is job one. People forget that the one and only reason the Harperites changed their minds about stimulus the first time round was because the opposition held a gun to their heads. Well, the opposition have no bullets this time. The Harperites are in absolute control. If they stay on their present course and we do head into a recession, Canadians will suffer needlessly. I am not hopeful that the Harperites will give up on their deficit mania. It is imprinted in their DNA and no one can stop them. It is going to be a very bad few years (of blaming teachers, doctors, and civil servants for the world's ills).

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As We Drive Perilously Close To The Edge Of A Cliff

Jim Flaherty says, "Drive faster!". Flaherty is, of course, utterly wrong. And we are totally fucked.

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Poor Paul Krugman

I rely on him for accurate economic analysis. I may have to stop going to his page though. It is hard watching someone you admire, sink into despair. That is the problem with actually seeing what's going on, but being powerless to stop a coming disaster. And it is going to be a disaster on a scale we haven't seen in 80 years.

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QOTD

From Krugman, who else:

And don’t believe the nonsense about the benefits of spending cuts that has taken over much of our public discourse: slashing spending at a time when the economy is deeply depressed would destroy hundreds of thousands and quite possibly millions of jobs.

Of course, our government will ignore this and we will suffer, and the rich will just keep getting their tax breaks.

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Sure, It's A Great Time To Cut Government Spending

Just before the housing boom goes bust. Start hording food supplies, this is going to get ugly.

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This Break

May allow Canadians to judge the efficacy of waiting (Harper's preferred option) to stimulate the economy. Of course, in two months, Harper will have spent untold millions on ads saying that he would have stimulated the economy sooner, if not for the power grab by the opposition. The fact that this is a lie, will not deter Harper in the least. Oh, and I am sure that if a major event happens, like say the bankruptcy of a car company, happens during the break when recalling parliament is almost impossible, will be blamed on the "socialists and separatists" too. If nothing else, the Harperites are very good for the advertising and broadcasting industries.

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Overthrowing Ideology And Gotchaism

If Krugman is right (and hey, the guy just won a Nobel), we are going to have to spend more government money to get us out of the mess the private sector has gotten us into. This means the Harperites are going to have to spend money they don't have and the rest of us are going to have to not carp about deficits. The worst thing the NDP and Liberals can do at this moment is complain about government spending. This will only serve to reinforce the Conservatives' ideological fall back position that government spending is evil and must be kept small at all costs. If this happens, the pain being felt by Canadians will be more prolonged and severe than it needs to be. Our politicians on all sides had better think before they speak over the coming months. We are entering times when the welfare of the Canadian people should trump partisan advantage. I doubt our politicians are up to the challenge, but they need to give it their best shot.

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