33 Replies to “Our Biggest Trading Partner”

  2. The longer this ran, the more I thought this was a beautiful sunset!
    Then I remembered that it gets dark from east to west. This reminds me of the ending of those old Mickey Mouse cartoons with the screen going to black from both edges of the screen.
    Does this now mean that the US is becoming the new “Dark Continent”?

  3. What is also concerning is statistical play – in other words, sometimes people who can’t find jobs and give up and seek social assistance are no longer viewed as “unemployed”, and also those who are working part time and wish to work full time.
    I wonder what the real rate of unemployment is?
    MSN Money says over 15%

  6. compare that to the map showing which states drank the Barry Kool-Aid.
    Very close match, so they can thank Obamasiah for their new found hopey-changey-no-jobey thingy.

  7. Erik,
    According to the description below the map, it does include those working part time but looking for full time and those who have given up looking for work.

  9. Quick! Fire up the printing presses – MORE STIMULUS!!
    This is just the first phase of what could be a decade long recession-depression punctuated by stag-flation.
    Thank the economic genius who inflated the G3 currency supply to calamatous levels to back bank failure bailouts and stimulus payola – then signed onto a G20 agreement to take the greenback out of favour as an international trade and reserve currency, to be replaced by some IMF currency, – then strap remaining domestic productivity with climate tax and energy consumption taxes – dhuhhhhh.
    It’ll take at least 2 years to remove this economic hell storm from office and at least another 18 months of corrective action (including contracting the currency supply) to get back on track, then another 12-18 months to see a turn around. Long reccession is certain.
    Of course the corporate media will blame everyone but the culprits.

  10. Fred; it’s certainly gotten worse since ‘Hopey-Changey’ but this was forecast long before he had any influence. Nobody wanted to hear about the massive Federal debt load. Nobody wanted to restrict consumer credit to what people could actually afford. As long as the GNP was flying high all was rosy; never mind that the production jobs were all moving offshore. Now the service sector is following.
    Copenhagen will be the icing.

  11. Anne from Cornwall – thank you – it reminds me to read more carefully, thanks and cheers

  12. Again a reminder to those who blame the previous administration for all this:
    There is the matter of the subprime mortgages pushed by a certain political party.
    So people with little or no credit-worthyness could get in over their heads, and default on their loans.
    It all started here.

  14. There are so many artificial props in place just to keep the situation from being worse – and it very well may become worse anyhow.
    Be grateful in Canada that you live in a nation that, in spite of your own travails, still generally operates with values of integrity and honesty.
    Here in the States, it has become one big “game the system” fiesta. The end justifies the means. As long as I can get mine, screw you. etc. etc. etc.

  16. I think there were two tiny “bright spots” in Montana. Every unemployed US citizen should move there.

  17. Notice how the unemployment accelerates at the end?
    That is the visual effect of Obama’s policies taking hold.

  18. As soon as Obama took over it went over 6% and kept climbing. But of course it is all Bush’s fault.

  19. Oz – it’s not Obama’s policies per se that are causing this, it’s the longstanding American practise of borrowing beyond her means to sustain unsustainability

  20. All one can say is ‘scary’. A friend of mine said that ‘USA’ will start pulling out of the recession 1yr 2011 11 after ‘Canada’2010 11.

  21. That will teach you to allow outsourcing to the 3d world communist regimes. Will it? It should.

  22. Sort of reminds me of those pictures I made in early elementary school by cutting little squares from coloured construction paper and glueing them.

  23. The US will not pull out of this, until they start manufacturing their own products, again. 300 million people cannot sit at work stations.
    Canada is on its way to the same situation. We’ve been convinced that building things is so 20th century, and the future is in managing information. BULLSHIT. Why would countries that manufacture everything, from TVs, to underwear, need another country to manage their information? I use an accounting firm to handle all my book keeping. If I grow the company, I’ll hire my own book keeper.
    China doesn’t really need us for anything, anymore. They’re just keeping us alive, so they can drain the last drop of blood from us. Once we’re used up, they’ll simply harvest our raw materials, and move on. It will probably take less than 100 years, which means Canada’s lifespan will be shorter than the average nation’s

  24. Watching that reminded me of the progressive march of locusts across a crop field, or even a virus/bacterium through healthy cells leaving a dry, burned out husk behind.
    What happens when it all goes completely dark?

  25. The strongest, most admired country in the world until just a few years ago is now a cautionary tale of the wages of sin and stupidity told to Chinese schoolchildren.
    Takuan Seiyo

  26. Love the map – can’t believe I live in colorful western New York hard by the Canadian border.
    As I said in a recent blog post:
    Unemployment figures released today show a slight drop in first time unemployment claims. This is supposed to cheer us – certainly it did the stock exchange. It means fewer layoffs.
    A few things to remember here. Not only those workers still on unemployment insurance but the more desperate former workers who have come to the end of the insurance payment period. And then the former workers who truly live in the shadows – those who have given up looking for work continue in their lives of desperation. Let them tell you how easy it is to get another job – even with lackluster Christmas hiring.
    As usual, when the government speaks, we only get part of the story. If we got the full scoop, we would realize that the great ship of state is still grounded on a significant sand bar and the new year may not be as joyful as predicted. Remember, the Holidays (whatever that means) have been a period when retailers and other employers have needed additional staff.
    See you all in January for an update!
    PS Please note that General Motors (Obama is the shadow CEO) has just ceded majority ownership of a partnership with SAIC, a Chinese auto manufacturer. It was a lucrative partnership. Now GM is junior partner.
    Obama is selling the US – and too cheaply, too.
    All of the above at samandimp.wordpress.com
    See you soon, Canada. Hope we don’t drag you down. You don’t deserve it. Where would I get my Laura Secord chocolates? Tell me, is her job – warning you that the Yanks are coming – still open? I would be interested.-

  27. Most American recessions were “V” shaped with huge instant jumps in unemployment and then quick recovery of the business climate followed by huge fast drops in unemployment. This is going to be much worse because Obama and his leftists have vastly overreached to ensure their socialist agenda is left with deep roots in the American fabric nationwide no matter what the cost. By bringing in high tax, complex items like Obamacare, C & T, etc, it is obvious that they intend to trash the American dollar into non-union sector “work money” and find ways of compensating themselves, their “friends”, and favored foreign creditors with something more acceptable. It’s going to be a rough ride.

  29. In the Toronto Sun today there was a release of new national employment this year. Almost half, some 54k were new government employees.

  30. There’s an e-mail request circulating currently, the thrust of which is Buy Canadian; the job you save may be your own. My late father was preaching that back in the ’50 s! He took it to the next level, being a merchant he made a policy of always buying from his fellow merchants in the same shopping area (South Granville, Vancouver) even if he knew he could perhaps find an item for less elsewhere. Not all of his neighbors reciprocated but certainly a large number did. The money stayed in S. Granville.

  31. DaninVan: Your father was most certainly a good neighbor, but that was then.
    Today, an item priced at $25 in a kitchen store on South Granville costs $16 at the Bay. A 50% premium just to be a nice guy is just a little too much.

  32. Kakola; more to the point, he was principled. The kind of guy you do business with on a handshake.
    The cost of an item in S.Granville is in large influenced by the hoity-toity boutique mentality of the current crop of merchants, and their staff.
    (Our sh*t may stink, but it’s a better class of stink…) 😉

  33. The manufacturing base is the key to better times. (Vain words I am afraid). There should be nothing more satisfying than seeing Canadians and Americans working at productive jobs. This would hopefully bring fair wages.

    Again and again I hear it said in this working class city of Sault Ste Marie, persons saying there isn’t any chance of buy Canadian anyway.

    Once in a while I pick up a North American product, I got a marvellous snow float made in Ohio from CTC. Durable and well made, had to fork out more for it of course.

    I even remember the garment industry in Quebec and how many people it employed. Now taking an awful beating.

    I worked at Rogers Majestic in Toronto, when I emigrated fifty two years ago. Sure it was repetitive work and low paid. It was on a television production line. It was a job though. Gone for ever, of course. At that time Asian scarecely knew what telivision was.

    Boys oh boys, now retired and ok, though not rich, I do feel bad. Unemployment I would not wish on my worst enemy.

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