The strong Canadian dollar, currently trading in the 97 cent range, could actually slow the recovery of the Canadian economy. Sure, it is fantastic for all of us vacationers looking to get out of here for a few days and head south to warmer climates, but there is a strong, potential negative side to this as well. A higher dollar translates into a high cost for exports, and the foreign community may not be up to paying these costs. If Canadian companies suddenly find that their product pricing cannot compete with those from other countries, the economic recovery could be severely slowed.

The last time that the Canadian dollar reached parity with the US, the manufacturing and tourism industries suffered. Now, that being said, the tourism industry will likely be fine in the short term, largely due to the Olympic Games in just a few months. But how does one save the manufacturing industry from demise when there is simply nobody that can afford to buy materials from Canada? In 2008, it was cheaper for companies in the oil sands to purchase steel and completed pre-fab modules from China, ship them across the Atlantic on freighters and float them down the Athabasca River on tugs than it was to buy steel from plants within Canada. If even our own country stops buying materials from within its own reserves how do we convince the rest of the world to do so?
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“It’s very quiet now”, the agency receptionist told Ben, while pointing to a book to enter his details. “Please call me when anything comes up”, Ben replied, shaking his head from left to right as he enters his information into the agency diary. This is the common response Ben got when he went job hunting last week after unsuccessful job search online and having his email account flooded with the reply; “Unfortunately, we found a more experienced candidate, we are unable to offer you the position at this point in time. We will keep your information …”

However, whether Ben was qualified or unqualified, job shortages or losses are not limited to temporal and part time jobs as house hold names like General Motors, Chrysler and Canadian Television (CTV) also answered present in the job loss roll called with even far reaching implications.
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Remember when you used to trade marbles? Or baseball cards? Or whatever else you had that someone else saw value in.

How about carbon credits?

Bartering is still going on between countries though you don’t hear much about it. Probably because it falls outside the realm of the global financial order i.e. the IMF, OPEC, and other oligopolies and their various taxing authorities. They probably would not be amused at the growth of the bartering concept.

Recently I was speaking to some college students. We were talking about global bartering as a possible solution to unlocking the stuck banking system that is fueling the recession. After all, a small business can barter just about any product or service on the internet now. Why not countries?
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I don’t like economics. I don’t like the recession. It feels as if the media has latched onto a new hot-button issue and won’t let go. Every day it seems like another statistic related to the recession is being discussed without an ounce of optimism for an entire newscast. Keep in mind, I live in Alberta and we’ve yet to face the brunt of the recession. However, let’s be realistic and look at the Petro-Canada/Suncor merger as an example: did anyone talk about the jump in the markets? Not really. Why not? What have we got to hide? Looking forward to today with the G20 meetings, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of optimism. How are we going to face the biggest economic crisis in six decades? It’s obvious we can’t fix this over night but someone has to take a step in the right direction. I like the G20 event, I also noticed the markets have rallied around it (for a third day in a row too), why hasn’t anyone emphasized this? I think we just need some optimism to get the ball rolling.

Remember when you used to trade marbles? Or baseball cards? Or whatever else you had that someone else saw value in.

How about carbon credits?
Bartering is still going on between countries though you don’t hear much about it. Probably because it falls outside the realm of the global financial order i.e. the IMF, OPEC, and other oligopolies and their various taxing authorities. They probably would not be amused at the growth of the bartering concept.

Recently I was speaking to some college students. We were talking about global bartering as a possible solution to unlocking the stuck banking system that is fueling the recession. After all, a small business can barter just about any product or service on the internet now. Why not countries?

One of the students is Venezuelan. He pointed out that their notorious leader Mr. Chavez was already well into the international barter game. Apparently his country’s oil barters Cuba’s advanced medical services along with a few other key necessities from other South and Central American countries. Makes sense to me.
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A day doesn’t pass by without a media report relating to the economic downturn. Irrespective of its origin, architect, beneficiary or solution, a quick and robust solution to reverse this trend is inevitable. In this respect, governments around the world have been busy designing economic stimulus packages, necessitated by the unprecedented loss associated with this dire situation.

In a world of growing demand for energy and rising prices, the Canadian energy sector, a top five world energy producer, generated 5.6% of its national GDP in 2007. Canadian energy exports fuels a great deal of US energy imports, directly and indirectly breathing livelihood and economic sustenance to Canada.
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With the CBC facing a $65 million revenue shortfall, the federal government shows no signs of offering a lifeline – and that has me both worried about the fate of the CBC and disappointed in the Canadian government.

According to CBC president Hubert Lacroix, the corporation is facing the shortfall due to decreased advertising revenues and increased programming and administrative costs – not to mention the prospect of reduced revenues from licensing and rebroadcasting rights.

The CBC has requested a loan, or an advance on their funding, to cover the shortfall but Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has argued that the CBC already receives $1 billion in funding, along with $60 million in non-recurring funding.
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History is filled with change. Hopeful ideals have led the way to not only different philosophies and political regimes, but also radically progressive ways of thinking. From the French revolutionary period to the American revolution and even the baby boomer’s sexual revolution, certain instances have popped up where those young and old banned together to challenge the status quo put forth by those in power. We are now currently going through another of those times.

The baby boomers are slowly retiring giving way to new generations with different ideologies, separate perspectives, and new goals to reach. Cynicism can no longer be tolerated; where there is a will, there is always a way. Our guiding light throughout these times must be the hope we all share for a better tomorrow. The tomorrow we seek will be different from yesterday’s, but to understand the steps it will take, we must first look back and carefully analyze certain catalysts for today’s world. By doing so, we will not only understand where our society has gone wrong, but to what direction our path must be laid in order to reach the goals we all so desperately need.
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Now that President Obama has signed his massive stimulus package into law, many Americans are breathing a sigh of relief. But not necessarily the entrepreneurs.

A few days ago, I had the pleasure of running into a former client who I had not seen for about five years. He is a Canadian who made the decision to move to the USA for business reasons i.e. he wanted to make some real money. When I first met him, he was all optimism – buoyed by the fact that he had indeed made more money in his first three years in the US than his previous ten in government-dependent Canada. He enjoyed an upscale lifestyle in Boston with his New York born wife – also in business. And chirped “I’m never looking back to Canada.”
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At a recent G7 meeting in Rome, finance ministers and central bank directors from the all seven nations agreed for the need to “take measures” in order to address and slowly reverse the current economic downturn, but also pledged to avoid protectionist policies within their countries.

Jim Flaherty in particular was critical of any shift toward protectionist policies, saying that it is “populist politics” to cater to short-term interests with policies that will discourage foreign ownership, tariffs, and quotas on imports as a method of stimulating economic activity domestically. Flaherty stressed that any policies that will interfere with the global free market would only lead to more severe consequences in the future, and explained that he made this point very clearly during the meetings in Italy.

For starters, Flaherty’s use of the word “populist” to describe protectionist policies is incredibly typical of Conservative party rhetoric. Dismissing anything that strays from their narrow ideology using extreme language is a favourite tactic of Harper and Co. We need only look at the proposed coalition government of late 2008 to see how intraparty letters instructed MPs and officials to refer to the NDP as
“socialists”.
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