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Post by ---@1--- on Oct 6, 2008 17:48:05 GMT -8
Just out of couriosity how is Canada ( or other US area's) doing right now considering the US, Europe and Asain markets ( Housing and Stocks) are diving like a pair of concrete shoes ? Our county housing market in Washington State is only down maybe 5%. We have about the same amount of houses for sale as last year but sales are moving much slower, but still moving at least. How about your area's ? Just courious  |
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Post by KAZ_Few on Oct 7, 2008 12:24:24 GMT -8
Housing has stopped increasing and unemployment is still just below 3% BUT everyone is all freaked out becuase the sky is falling.....
The Easterners will feel it much more than us proper western Canadians.
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Post by ---@1--- on Oct 7, 2008 18:29:54 GMT -8
It's funny all the news reports never include Canada's economy around here or even on the internet. If it hasn't started getting tight for loans up there and your thinking about taking one out in the next year, you might want to do it now just in case the lending tightens up. I know when we refied to buy our property last year there would be no way we would be able to get the same loan now because banks are freaked ! Hopefully it stays steady for you guys up there but you may want to be cautious with your money for down the road. In some places the sky is falling LOL ! |
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Post by Humpa_Few on Oct 8, 2008 22:46:04 GMT -8
that's because the US has put up a wall to keep any outside news , information ,art ,opinion and anything else that isn't all american out. Our tv and news papers are chock full with your political coverage , crime stories , floods , fires , and anything else that sells but when I travel in the states I buy news papers and watch the news and it's pretty much all US and nothing else. The economy in BC is probably going to weather the storm a little better because of the winter olyimpics in 2010 and unlike toronto in the early 90's there won't be a mass exodus out of the province to find work else where partly because things will be bad all over and most people who move to the west coast don't really want to return to long cold winters back east
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Post by Humpa_Few on Oct 8, 2008 22:48:14 GMT -8
and you can hump outside year round
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Post by ---@1--- on Oct 9, 2008 18:10:39 GMT -8
I was actualy thinking about the Olympics and how much money Canada was spending on getting the infrastructure put in. Are you guys paying for it now in taxes or will it hit you later ?  As for the US not covering Canadian News your right ! Unless you get Sunami's, Hurricanes, Train wrecks or blow something up really good chances of coverage are slim. Hell even the internet has forgotten about Canadian news , Right now you guys should be proud of yourselves because you haven't fucked anything up to become news ! ;D GO CANADA !!! |
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Post by Mepps_Few on Oct 9, 2008 22:25:59 GMT -8
I was actualy thinking about the Olympics and how much money Canada was spending on getting the infrastructure put in. Are you guys paying for it now in taxes or will it hit you later ? Yes and Yes! |
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Post by Mepps_Few on Oct 9, 2008 22:53:13 GMT -8
....And our dollar is dropping ($0.89 today) which is good because now you guys stateside will buy more of our trees, electricity, minerals and beaver pelts. That's good for our economy (not so good for the beavers). Oil and gas is pretty much an inelastic commodity and you'd buy that stuff anyway (and pay less for it at the pumps than us canucks).
Our economic well-being is hugely dependent on our US exports and US investments and we should be OK as long as you guys throw us a bone every now and then.
"America, buy lots of Canadian beaver...and other stuff from up here!"
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Post by Humpa_Few on Oct 10, 2008 2:16:55 GMT -8
oh and we are having a national election soon that's when a dozen or so of us decide who's gunna be in charge of the lodge fer a few years and he sets the price fer them beaver pelts
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Post by Humpa_Few on Oct 10, 2008 2:32:27 GMT -8
oh and nobody ever makes coin throwing on the olympics but it will pump millions into the local economy and the positive effect it will have on tourism lord knows those fish and tree industries ain't what they used to be mepps, and the deregulation of the US power companies cost us billions in upaid electric bills oh well I geuss we'll always have that other BC hydro
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Post by Mepps_Few on Oct 10, 2008 23:03:51 GMT -8
That's what they said about the Montreal Olympics. They may still be paying for that "Big O".
I'm sure the 2010 Olympics will stimulate the local economy of the lower mainland, but I doubt if I'll ever get to take advantage of any of this infrastructure or tourist dollars.
Yeah....you'd think we would figure out that when dealing with the states you've got to ask for the cash up front, because they do have a bad habit of stiffing us for the bill (electric power, softwood lumber, etc.). But what other choice do we have but to sell to these guys??!?!
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Post by ---@1--- on Oct 11, 2008 6:48:45 GMT -8
I'm sure your selling to Japan and the rest of the world too. If the money we're better somewhere else I have no doubt in my mind that the product would be going there instead.
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Post by kittensinsanity on Oct 11, 2008 10:04:57 GMT -8
SAVE THE TREES , YOUR SELLING YOUR LIVES AWAY!!!! dumbasses
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Post by Mepps_Few on Oct 12, 2008 1:41:50 GMT -8
I'm sure your selling to Japan and the rest of the world too. If the money we're better somewhere else I have no doubt in my mind that the product would be going there instead. Canada generally has been very poor at expanding it's market. We've always relied on the states to buy our stuff. Canada's trying to grab a bigger share of the Asian market, but we're competing against the whole world over there. |
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Post by Humpa_Few on Oct 12, 2008 8:22:15 GMT -8
roughly 450+billion goes out in a year in exports 350 to the states 10 to england 10 to japan china is coming on but still only about 10 and the other 70 is mostly europe so you see @1 we are at your mercy so try to be a good president
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Post by Bubbles_Few on Oct 13, 2008 13:01:45 GMT -8
A major part of why things are different up here is the banking rules, which have much saner controls on debt ratio.
As for news--this has always seemed to be a crippling aspect of US society. People are great all over the world, but you can only act on what you're aware of. I've done tons of business and I have lots of friends in the US, but whenever I'm there I feel like I'm in a little box. There's virtually no outside news for a place that often envisions itself as the "leader of the world" (a definition I'm not aware that's shared anywhere outside the US). No Canadian news, no Mexican news, no European news, no Asian news etc. etc. That simply does not reflect the real world and the result is that too many very smart people are making decisions on very very limited information.
As for trade--whoever said it previously is right. Canada has been lazy in developing other markets. This was exampled when the BSC crisis hit our cattle and the US closing the door crippled the industry when really, those cattle could have been sold to anywhere. Like with anywhere, Canadians won't do much until the pain level gets too high. Once people are hurting then invention occurs out of necessity.
Bottom line, I hope everyone's surviving all of this fine. I've lived through several recessions now and, if I didn't have the news to notify me of it, I frankly never would have noticed.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
peace. bubs
PS I just noticed Humpa's tag line on the message previous to mine. It's a concise description of why I find the most successfully patriotic Americans are ones who intentionally seek greater context for their knowledge in order to ensure that it's accurate.
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Post by HuheyGroove_Few on Oct 14, 2008 13:31:29 GMT -8
$.89 - I can't wait to only pay $48 for a case a beer!!!
Olympics - CBC does a good job of coverage but don't think I'll be coming up.....
Banks - Us yanks can thank Slick Willy for deregulation.....and the foreign banks/gov'ts buying up all that useless paper that made it seem they were rich!
News...Yes, if you only subscribe to CNN news alerts, I consider you a moron. Then again I won't let the wife read/watch the news as it turns into a history lesson and I don't Teach. Besides, if I wanted to know about what caught fire today or who killed who, or what hippie was run over by a tank I'd read.....oh wait....those are things only CNN reports about. I need to create my own news filter again.
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Post by acow on Oct 14, 2008 14:11:16 GMT -8
from my point of view..
Canada is great.. making 200$ a night bartending.. beer is cheapish, gas has gone way down and soon il be able to buy a house in Las Vegas for under 20k
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Post by ---@1--- on Oct 14, 2008 18:04:36 GMT -8
I'm with Groove as far as watching the news, Like I said earlier if something hasn't completly gone wrong like sunamis, hurricanes, mass murders, plane wrecks and large explosions then the US news really doesn't cover it. That's why I asked in the first place Besides the best way to "really" find out how everything is going is by talking to the people who are there and not by the mass media who hype everything out of proportion anyways. |
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Post by Bubbles_Few on Oct 15, 2008 7:50:29 GMT -8
Don't get me wrong--just like the US, the news in Canada still trades in two things: fear and a little bit of titillation. That's their product. Many people don't realize that for those (or those of us who used to) work in TV media consider the "product" to be the ads. That's what pays the bills. The shows are filler. They have to be fear-inducing or titillating so the audience will stay for the all-important ads. And even the ads are either fear or titillation. Worry about your breath, worry about if your car is cool enough, know that if you use the right deodorant or drink the right beer, that girls will love you etc. etc.
US news is only worse because it's so much navel gazing that doesn't allow smart citizens the chance to understand context; and facts without context are useless. As amazing as it might seem, US news is literally as bad as communist media during the cold war era. It's so insanely biased toward it's own self-interest that it becomes useless. All news should use the Buddhist axiom, "To be truly wise, you must not only be prepared to love your enemy, but also to hate your friend." Which simply means, focus on the ideas themselves, and not their source.
BBC World is a good source for TV. On the radio, CBC radio has so many US listeners that they actually do their live tours through many areas above the Mason-Dixon. (There's some belief up here that the CBC is left wing, but it's more like the New York Times. It hates hypocrisy more than any specific group, which is evidenced by the fact that it was the CBC that exposed the Liberal sponsorship scandal and, in doing so, virtually guaranteed a Conservative win an election ago.)
Magazines are a well-researched antidote, but then you have to read from both sides of the table. If you read Mother Jones, you have to read National Review. Harper's is exceedingly well researched. And Jon Stewart's show is the jester pointing at the king, rather brilliantly. He's recently been picked up at MIPCOM (a huge international TV market) for all over the world, including Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Of course, the web is a great source if you troll a wide variety of quality sites.
If the US citizenry had a better idea of its context in the world it could really unleash the very best about itself. And that would be a good thing for everyone everywhere.
peace. bubs
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