Higgly

ROTFLMAO!

OK. Then who was he? If I didn't read it, why comment? This is why... I don't come here to read other people's research. I come here with my own research to debate other views of the world. Read your own bloody sources and then explain them to the rest of us. If I doubt that you have quoted your source correctly, then I might read it. Otherwise I am busy enough trying to keep up with my own sources thank you very much. It is your job to convince me that your sources and opinions are right. This is a debate, not a civics class.

Any country's currency is a commodity. Its value is what the market is willing to pay. The market buys currencies when it buys bonds, stocks, real-estate, and other currency-denominated assets. When the value of those rises, so does the currency. Hence the rise in the Loonie with the rise in the value of natural resources stocks and the decline in the national debt. The loonie is not rising because the US dollar is sinking. It is rising because our country has something of value to sell into the world market. It is currently a good thing to hold assets denominated in Canadian dollars. This is why there were recently so many bidders for Inco from all over the world. Gold is really out of the picture unless you are counting on a complete economc collapse. In that case, you may be better off holding cans of tomatoes, which people can eat, although sooner or later you will need a currency - how, for example, do you trade canned tomatoes for bolts of cotton? This is the reason why gold has its greatest value in countries with primitive economies - and especially with those who have little other esources to offer - India, China, ... It may very well be that the economies which most value gold are the ones that are the least stable. The central bank makes currency more expensive when it raises interest rates. It is staking this power on a trust that it will not print money to solve economic problems, which is why inflation becomes such a bugaboo. When inflation rises, it is because the money supply is growing faster than the supply of goods and services, so the value of the currency falls. The central bank then must raise rates to prop up the currency. Sooner or later, you are running faster than your feet can carry you. The international money markets help guarantee that nobody can ever get away with anything, or at least it can let us know who is trying to. A central bank loses power rapidly once the currency starts to decline beyond control. At that point, extraneous resources have to be brought in to lend assets (in the form of a large loan denominated in a credible foreign currency) and prop up the system. The major source of loans to countries in the west at the moment is the World Bank (now controlled by Paul Wolfowitz - the architect of the Iraqi invasion). Wolfowitz was appointed by George Bush junior. Wolfowitz's appointment was particularly troubling because it showed that the US was leaning more towards political and military, rather than economic, exigencies in the operation of the World Bank. Because the US provides most of the money that the World Bank loans out, this is important. If the US economy declines rapidly, or goes into collapse, the World Bank will become useless and the entire western economy will lose its backstop. This is one of the reasons that I feel George Bush is a very serious threat to our way of life. The World Bank frequently imposes great hardship to right any given country's economical ship. Once the World Bank comes in, it is time to get out, or preferrably before that, because the World Bank may just bring about a freeze on bank deposits in which case, you lose everything you have, such as has happened on more than one occasion in Latin America. In Europe this is done by the IMF, or International Monetary Fund. In Asia, it is supposed to be done by the Asian Development Bank. In summation: a country's currency is that country's stock on a world-wide stock exchange. It goes up because the country's economy and prospects are rising, and it goes down because they are in decline. You can try to cheat the system, as Malaysia did in the 1990s but sooner or later some son-of-a-bitch like George Soros comes in and makes a killing off of your stupidity.

I read your post (but not the link). Who is the strategist? Some guy selling turnips in the market? A witty bon-vivant biking along the canal? A tipsy clubiste on an Elgin Saturday night? Enquiring minds want to know. I would of course expect nothing less than the unvarnished truth from the National Post.

Hmmm. This was a federal post, Seinfeld. Are you saying you would invite the US Military in to police things?

The problem is not the lotto corp - it is thousands of store owners that sell tickets. Furthermore, there is a simple thing that anyone can do to protect themselves against this kind of fraud: write their name on the bakc of every lotto ticket they buy. Good point. But aren't the store clerks acting as agents for the OLG? This should have been obvious. You have the lowest paid people in the province being handed pieces of paper worth hundreds of thousands of dollars... You are right about writing your name on the ticket, though. I know I certainly will in the future!

How about the Jamma Jamma case? Who else are you gonna call who has a gun?

Yes, but if you were being mugged, you would call out to anybody who might help. I agree with you about 'true' police corruption, though. There are many places in the world that are much, much worse. However, a cop sending someone to jail on false testimony is bloody awful. An innocent person whose life is destroyed by a lie. The liar goes home to dinner, the accused goes to jail and lives a life of reduced expectations. Unacceptable.

The poll questions did not register properly. Please do not repond. Admin, please delete the polls. Thanks...

The CBC program Fifth Estate has uncovered, well, 'irregularities'....

The CBC program Fifth Estate has uncovered, well, 'irregularities'....

Pay down the debt. Damned straight. The day will come when debt free nations will call the shots and debtor nations will be screwed.

My problem with them is that once they lay a charge, they cannot back down. They have massive investigative and legal powers at their disposal, but unless the crown reigns them in, the accused gets a rough and very expensive ride through the legal system. I feel we need more civilian oversight. Toronto pretty much caved in to the police under Mel Lastman (mayor) and Julian Fantino (chief of police - and now head of the OPP). The city was in a budget crisis, swimming pools for kids were being shut down left and right, the streets were littered with garbage, the crime rate was falling, and yet Fantino was able to get successive budget increases, even though he was running a racist force that targeted blacks unfairly - something he refused to admit. Fantino was helped a lot by the local ambulance chaser channel (CITY TV) which devoted an entire half hour per week to a call in program in which the chief fielded questions from the public. The program is still on with the current chief. You don't see the fire chief or the head of public works showing up every week putching his agenda. One of the principles of democracy is supposed to be that the police answer to the elected officials. What ever happened to that?

Comments are welcome..... I feel that the police are inherently untrustworthy. It has nothing to do with their performance at any given time, but more to do with the power that they hold.

Well, you have a point, but he did try to negotiate and ended up backed into a corner. One could argue that this was a battle over spheres of influence, with the US going beyond their natural boundaries and Japan trying to secure its own. I will acknowledge that my reading on this is a bit dusty; I guess I should pay a visit to the library. I forgot that he was prime minister (yikes)

Maybe in the House, but otherwise, why not? Take a moment or two to listen to a little 'girl-talk'. I say dish it back, but only among friends and not to strangers, and certainly not to women !

With respect to Louis, I think you have your I and your V reversed. Why not cite the Spanish Inquisition as well? By the way, which country did Louis invade? Refresh my memory... Castro. Hmmmm. Which country did he invade? Cuba... don't they have universal health and dental care there? What would Cuba be like without the 40+ year long American embargo? Are Cuba's problems really Castro's fault? My theory is that it would be a much different place if the Americans had learned to forgive and forget. How much do you know about Cuba, and why the revolution occurred? Brezhnev. Well not a great guy, but why pick him? My favorite Russian asswhole has to be Stalin. Probably he greatest mass murderer who has ever lived. Saddam. Again, not a great guy; would more Iraqis be alive today if he had been left alone? Mussolini. Yes a clown. Il Dupé. I guess we can say he got his just desserts, can't we? Tojo. Are you familiar with tha way in which Japan was inveigled into entering the Second World War? Well, again, not a great guy, but a military man at the end of the day, just following orders. It really is the politicans who should be getting the blame. Why is it that still respect Rommel and revile Hitler?

Oh man. It just keeps getting better and better. B-I-G-O-T. What's that spell?

The state of West Bengal (Calcutta) had an elected Communist government for some time, and nobody tried to depose them. Fortunately India had no resources worth killing for at the time, unlike Chile or Iran. India sided with the Russians during the cold war. It was so poor nobody gave a damn about them, and it has literally pulled itself up by the bootstraps ever since. India is a miracle of modern democracy, and may be the best we will ever see. Forty years ago, people in India were starving to death by the hundreds of thousands. It was not unusual to see Aeroflot pilots and flight crews in the hotels of Bombay and Delhi in the 1980s and early 1990s. You could also spot Swissair crews around the pool at the Sun 'n Sand in Bombay or Air France, KLM and Lufthansa crews at the Hyatt in Delhi. It was very rare to see American or Canadian crews. India has been for some time left-leaning. India Rail is (I think) still owned by the government, as were the airlines up to about 1995. The railyards at Mysore were a marvel to behold only 20 years ago. Sort of like Jay Leno's garage but with steam engines. The Indians kept all of them running like tops. Trade unions have traditionally been very strong in India, but this has been giving way to education and high tech. I believe it will be a long time before India forgets its socialist roots.

Hee hee.

Too late Argus. You are toast. Attention needs be paid. Arthur Miller.

Must have been a Lib!

LOL

You know Argus, I can't ever recalling a woman saying 'Bow Wow.'. And I have known a lot of them in a lot of different places. Of course, your mileage may vary.... It does not sound to me, Higgly, as if you have ever known a woman other than your mother. Hee hee

I's be happy to pay $100 plus tax, and if society breaks down, I would be happy to pay a chicken if I am able to find one.