Metaneos

Trump promises 25% tariff on Mexico and Canada, extra 10% tariff on China  I've written prior on my belief we should return to a tariff system and do away with current trade agreements. I don't agree with a lot pundits out there calling tariffs "regressive" or whatever else. It's an economic system that benefits financial corporations at the expense of national industry and to protect Canadian labor, we never should've into the "Free" Trade agreements we had unilaterally imposed upon us by successive Liberal and Conservative governments. Anyway, the reality of Trump Tariffs is they're coming in. Canada will need to match these tariffs, because Trump is going to unilaterally impose them. Trudeau can't appear weak, so he'll have to match each tariff. And to offset the costs of tariffs, Canada will have to kill the GST/HST, which they're actually already doing, albeit temporarily for other reasons. But GST/HST were imposed upon Canadians...

 Welp, the Democrats lost big-time. Harris lost to Trump and it wasn't even close enough to bother with contesting it. Why? Who knows. There'll probably be any number of reasons developed: third parties, racism, and so on, and some of those reasons may even be relatively close to the truth. But what is true is Joe Biden didn't really do Harris any favors with his lack of action on combating inflation. He left it all up to the central bankers and they have exactly one tool for targeting inflation —raising interest rates— and this tool really isn't the best tool available for bringing inflation down in a hurry (it's taxes. Taxes are the best tool for combating inflation but no politicians ever speak about this). It basically took Biden's entire term for interest rates to finally go below 3%, and with that, Biden also probably would've lost the election, because average people are feeling the effects of the cost of living. It's basically a crisis out there ...

The BC NDP will possibly hold onto power in the province of BC. With a Confidence and Supply Agreement with the Greens, they should aim for four years of stable government. However, they should also look inward. They should take good lessons from this near-loss of power. The BC NDP wanted to take a "centrist" position —that they were "safe for business"— but have no idea that the further right the party tacks, the more this plays into the right's strengths giving parties like the BC Conseratives headwinds to go even further right. Rather than safe, the BC NDP needed to announce policies that would've been like swinging haymakers at certain business interests especially for rentals; businesses taking advantage of low wages for international workers; and universities taking advantage of international students. For current rent prices, this plays twofold against the NDP. Rent prices as they are now depress voter turnout for the NDP. People see the NDP as ineffe...

CTV News: Full B.C. NDP platform includes speculation tax hike, some free transit for seniors A quick analysis of this announcement doesn't move the needle much in my opinion of Elby. He's safe and largely ineffectual. I say ineffectual because his efforts at taking on the rich landlords and speculators that have driven up the costs of housing and renting have largely fallen flat. The prices haven't dropped nearly enough for the average voter to be able to afford anything. Prices have dropped from the AirBnB regulation and the data is too incomplete when it comes to the Vacancy Tax to draw any conclusion to measure it's impact. But the AirBnB price drop has only made a small dent in the affordability of the average unit price. When the newspapers declare that prices have dropped by 2% overall (around $50) and $150 from the AirBnB regulations, the average renter's just going to be left feeling frustrated because the average rent in Vancouver is still $2,600/month an...

 It seems inevitable now. What was propping up Canadian housing prices even through the worst of housing market crashes elsewhere were banking rules forcing Canadian banks to keep 100% coverage and investors fleeing into Canadian housing when all else was failing. The latter however now is ready to give. Canadian banks will likely be fine due to well-enforced banking rules, but the housing investors are done for. They've driven up prices so high in Vancouver and other Canadian cities that once the homes begin losing value, that'll be that. Value will sink like a stone into water and trillions of dollars will vanish overnight. Three quarters of the economy, at least. And that's probably the conservative estimate. There is exposure everywhere by a great many players of this financial game. All interconnected with a great many of these companies playing at being investment companies the same way Mom and Pop investors play at the game: without clue and context that they're ...

I cannot reiterate enough: Covid-19 is a killer virus. Its uncontrolled and unmitigated spread throughout the world is a mistake we'll regret for generations. Its insidiousness is in its ability to be asymptomatic or merely "mild" in its acute phase. However, it is a virus with terrible consequences over the short and long-term for the many who will catch it despite its seemingly asymptomatic or mild effects. Its ability to disable (https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/covid-autoimmune-virus-rogue-antibodies-cytokine-storm-severe-disease/) and dysregulate (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9568269/) the immune system is its greatest strength. It is a virus that shares much in common with measles, Hepatitis, and even HIV. Catching it once can and will likely wreck one's defence against other illnesses. Have you been sick more than once in the past few years? That is far out the ordinary. Prior to Covid, the average for people catching ill was once every fo...