Interesting read....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/stephanieflanders/2009/03/the_best_prepared_awar.html

I am indeed flattered. But time to stay on the ground. I can't say much about Banking sector, but with the shape of things as far as unemployement is concerned, I must say I am not quite optimistic. Housing sector, if not going down the drain, showing a great decline. Ask the people who bought houses during the last one year.

Keeping my fingers crossed for yet another year of slowdown and this darn word 'recession'. I hope and pray for things to improve in 2010 - as everybody is predicting these days.

1. All the rosy stories being spread by the govt are nothing but a pack of white lies. Harper has a PhD in mouthing lies with a straight face.

2. Canadian banks did indeed had 3 bailout packages between Oct 2008 to March 2009 totalling $80B. I dont have the source at hand, but will dig it out and post here.

EDIT :
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12007

3. How does having strong banks make the recession any easier for the country?

The banks here are all about profit making, blood sucking without any ethics for healthy business practises. Whats the use of having billions of $$ in profits and reserves if they are not willing to lend at competitive rates to eligible people or businesses? Infact there are many profitable businesses who could help a good credit from bank at attractive rates to expand and take over cheap businesses in US and all over the world. Are the banks interested to loan? NO. On the other hand they want to use that cash to increase thier own assets - thats not helping the economy, just helping thier shareholders.

2 years from now, with hardly any manufacturing around, many of the experienced & skilled immigrants having returned back, with sky high inflation and budget deficit, reduced demand all over the world, especially in US, Gas at approx $150~$200 / barrel, disputes over producing oil from sands of Alberta, Sask (due to environmentalists), depleted $$ (or probably Amero), 10s of 1000s of bankruptcies - how can we come out of it so soon?

The fed and prov govt dont even know how to handle the auto bail out scenario in a proper fashion - the idiots are negotiating/fighting over each other to lend money to GM and Chrysler without even looking at the efforts/approach of US govt... Common sense would put all negotiations on hold till a concrete decision has been made in US about the viability of the parent companies before lending any tax dollars to subsdiaries in Canada. CAW can jump as high as they can and stay as stubborn as they want, if the US govt pulls the rug under GM and Chrysler all thier 'excellent' contracts are just pieces of paper.

All these rosy stories planted in the news papers by the govt are to encourage people to take long term buying decisions and keep the cash flowing from your pockets. Keep a bag of salt handy, we will need it many times in the next 2 years.

Cheers,
Hiren

Well said Hiren. You hit the nail on the head. Reason why Canada is not talked about in the recession is solely because noone in the world cares about it as much as the US, UK, Japan, and Europe. I would be surprised if someone even notices even if surpass US and any bigger economy or goes bankrupt in a downward spiral.

I completely agree that Canadian Banks are only filling their cofers, and are less interested in stimulating the economy by providing credits to the worthwhile businesses. As a result, they are cash rich as compared to the Banks in US, UK, or Europe per se. Even then, they swell their mouth wide open when Govt. announces any stimulus.

In my personal opinion, US and Canadian Govt. should and must let GM and Chrysler go bankrupt. I strongly welcome Obama's statements yesterday vis-a-vis Auto Bailouts. No free lunches anymore. Govt. should rather divert these billion$ to increase the employment and give already successful businesses a boost. Only then it will be a real stimulus and not just an 'over-stated' and 'over-advertized' terminology.

As for the housing sector, joke is out on the streets. Even after the interest rates and house prices being all time low - noone's interested in buying the house. Just an uncertainty looms over.

Let's standby and see, how it goes in coming months <sigh>