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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: cardcounter who wrote (30953)	8/12/1998 3:32:00 AM
From: Earlie	Respond to of 132070

Card Counter: ROTFLMAO ! Nothing I enjoy better than observing a well delivered, (and much deserved) but humorous shot to the plexus, even when its aimed at an elderly, innocent bystander like me. (heh, heh, heh). (g) Watch yer back kid,...revenge is already being plotted (g) Your comments in both posts relating to Canada were bang on, (and this from a Canuck). Offshore, the view is "resources", so the Looney's tail feathers get clipped.. (Wish they would come and sample Toronto rush hour traffic: the 401 becomes a 16 lane wide parking lot at rush hour. A few do toil at other than digging holes in our beloved North or cutting down trees). And the Japanese love affair with anything Canadian may be waning (I can't utter this without a grin in Vancouver), so the flight feathers are plucked a tad. Canada's former ugly deficit picture at both the provincial as well as federal levels used to require a solid premium to the equivalent U.S. paper, but the last few years have seen rather remarkable progress at reducing deficits and the premiums have declined. A Canadian interest rate at or below the equivalent U.S. rate does push the envelope a bit too aggressively, so the Looney takes another bruise for that one. Don't blame the Japanese for not rolling over into newly minted but lower interest Canadian paper, but it does reflect the cleanup program underway up here. Our eternal marital bickering also costs us a penny or two when it flairs up in public, but the marriage has lasted a long time and is really quite comfortable. I don't think the longer winters are actually reflected in the currencies (g) While our Looney has taken some lumps vis-a-vis the U.S. dollar, it has held up well against most other foreign currencies. The view I get most of the time from fellow Canucks is that "There will be no vacation in Florida this year" as well as some mild grousing about the conversion rate. The emotion level bespeaks mild irritation more than anything else. Either we're still mellow as a result of the longest, warmest and nicest summer that I can remember (sorry MB and others from the South) or the confidence level has notched up as nasty deficit programmes start to provide visible results without the cratering forecast by those with a more socialistic bent. The Canadian banks are loved (for their apparent super conservative balance sheets and propensity for keeping them relatively healthy) even as they are hated by their clients (for "feeing" us to death). Most see them as sterling in comparison with many of their peers, but I suspect they will take their share of derivative hurts. They were pasted a few days ago on an earnings warning. Sound familiar to our Yankee cousins? (g) Best, Earlie