TSX down 488 points today!

[Visionseeker]

As you already know by the title:

TSX Down 488 points in commodities collapse

As alluded to in the description:

OPEC cuts production

Coming in the wake of the US government's seizure of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, these two events will have lasting consequences.

First, the Mac and Mae development tells us that foreign underwriters are giving up on bolstering the credit driven nature of the US economy. Second, with the collapse of the commodities market, we see that China is curtailing its appetite. Third, the OPEC cut is nothing more than an attempt to push up prices in the face of declining demand.

The global economy is broken my friends. The scramble has begun. Harper may be wishing tonight that he'd called an election earlier. Because the bad news is going to get worse almost each and every day until October 14.

Personally, I don't blame the PM. For I understand economics much better than he does and knew this day was coming when the Republicans killed important financial safeguards in 2002. It was only a matter of time.

Nevertheless, Harper will be facing more and more dire economic news while he runs for re-election. While a certain measure of coordinated spin could save his minority, he should forget any idea of a majority. The possibility of the Conservatives losing has gained significant traction.

[Riverwind]

Coming in the wake of the US government's seizure of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, these two events will have lasting consequences.

You should do some research on the savings & loan crisis in the 80s. This too shall pass.

[Ontario Loyalist]

Harper's not to blame but people like him are because they are they ones who orchastrate our role in the global economy; yet more than likely Canadians will probably still blindly elect him back into office.

[Ontario Loyalist]

You should do some research on the savings & loan crisis in the 80s. This too shall pass.

We're not living in the 80s. The situation is very, very different now.

[August1991]

My US corporate bonds and US tech stocks are up. Things go up, and down.

Oil prices are going down, and you think that's bad for the global/Canadian economy?

Harper's not to blame but people like him are because they are they ones who orchastrate our role in the global economy; yet more than likely Canadians will probably still blindly elect him back into office.

Harper, Bush, the US government, the Canadian government and even the Saudi government does not "orchestrate" the world price of oil.

It is we, the six billion people around the planet, who collectively decide the world price of oil.

Too many people, particularly on the Left, do not fully understand this idea. They cling to the idea that someone, governments "run" the world. The idea that we the people can collectively decide something is beyond their ability to comprehend.

Well, we all collectively decide the price of oil.

----

Now then, returning to the OP, if six billion people decide collectively somehow that oil is worth less than 60 euros a barrel, is that good or bad for most Canadians?

Offhand, I'd say that it's good.

Edited September 10, 2008 by August1991

[Riverwind]

We're not living in the 80s. The situation is very, very different now.

Of course. History never repeats. Cycles do not occur. And only doom awaits us in the future. People said that is past too. They were wrong.

[blueblood]

My US corporate bonds and US tech stocks are up. Things go up, and down.

Oil prices are going down, and you think that's bad for the global/Canadian economy?

Higher oil prices are good for the Canadian economy. That is true. I'm waiting till midwinter before I start panicking. I think commodities will pick up again in the winter.

[jdobbin]

You should do some research on the savings & loan crisis in the 80s. This too shall pass.

After some arrests?

[Ontario Loyalist]

Harper, Bush, the US government, the Canadian government and even the Saudi government does not "orchestrate" the world price of oil.

How did "our world in the global economy" become "the price of oil"?????? What I'm saying is that certain elements in our political spectrum have succeeded in making us so dependent on the global economy that when it backfires it is going to hurt bigtime. For one thing, these last forty years or so could have been spent implementing alternative energy initiatives, but the Liberals and Cons just had to bend over to Big Business and maintained the status quo...