Wednesday January 07, 2009
Stimulus spending? Foreigners beware: China's been down this road before
China is counting on planes, trains and automobiles to carry it through the economic hard times. Chinese leaders have indicated that about 45 per cent of their massive stimulus package - at more than $700-billion, the biggest in the world so far - will go toward the building of airports, railways, roads and other infrastructure projects. That will pay for a lot of rail and tarmac. But will it keep the Chinese economy growing? Of even more direct interest to Canada, will it be a boon for overseas infrastructure firms with interests in China? The jury is out on both questions.
Wisely or not, investors ride wave of optimism and take plunge
Tony Demarin has no idea whether this is a bear market rally or the beginning of a new bull market. But the president of BCV Asset Management in Winnipeg isn't waiting around to find out.
Why governments can't stop market crashes
Vernon Smith, the American economist who won a Nobel Prize in 2002 for his laboratory scrutiny of abstract economic theory, demonstrated that you can't end market crashes by imposing more government regulations. Born to a poor Kansas farm family on Jan. 1, 1927, he turned 82 last week. His early life was inextricably shaped by the Great Depression - by hardships that provided an enduring incentive to succeed. (As a child, one of his chores was to keep the woodstove in the kitchen supplied with dried corncobs and dried cow chips.) ''Like many of my generation,'' he says in his unassuming autobiography, posted on Nobelprize.org, ''I am a product of strange circumstances of survival and of successes built on tragedy.''
Worst is yet to come, Fed acknowledges
The world's largest economy now faces an even deeper downturn than previously forecast, with soaring unemployment in 2009 and perhaps years of trillion-dollar deficits.Ben Bernanke and his Federal Reserve Board now expect economic conditions to worsen substantially this year with no hint of recovery until 2010, according to minutes released yesterday of the Fed's Dec. 16 monetary policy meeting.
'A manly nation requires manly games'
In December of 1862, The Globe ran a letter to the editor complaining about a group of rowdies who bullied skaters ''of respectable appearance'' on the Don River in Toronto while engaged in a most curious pastime with curved sticks.
Gold-medal game sets viewership record
If there was any question about which sporting event rates as TSN's franchise property, the audience for Monday's gold-medal game between the Canadian and Swedish juniors answered it.
New environment, new reality surround PGA Tour
A person highly placed in the golf world sat down for lunch yesterday, requested anonymity and started to talk. With the new PGA Tour season starting tomorrow, he proceeded to offer some provocative observations about the game - a distinction he would emphasize.
Player's death was an accident, but it wasn't random
People like to watch other people fight.Not all people, and not in all circumstances. But the history of humankind would suggest that the old schoolyard instinct is powerful, and nearly impossible to suppress.
Time to sober up, people. We've been having too much fun
We've been having too much fun this week.It's time to sober up, reassess and acquaint ourselves with a) the lowbrow tastes of most U.S. TV viewers, b) murder and death, and c) the dismal lives of the wrongfully accused and their families. Gird your souls.
The key to weight loss: portion control
If you've resolved to shed those extra pounds this year, forget about counting grams of fat, carbohydrate blocks or even calories. And disregard the notion of a magic bullet.
