We are so screwed.

Don sent in this bit of bear food from Business Insider in case you’re running out of things to worry about in the global economy:  We are so screwed.

“Our immersion in the details of crises that have arisen over the past eight centuries and in data on them has led us to conclude that the most commonly repeated and most expensive investment advice ever given in the boom just before a financial crisis stems from the perception that ‘this time is different.’

“That advice, that the old rules of valuation no longer apply, is usually followed up with vigor. Financial professionals and, all too often, government leaders explain that we are doing things better than before, we are smarter, and we have learned from past mistakes. Each time, society convinces itself that the current boom, unlike the many booms that preceded catastrophic collapses in the past, is built on sound fundamentals, structural reforms, technological innovation, and good policy.”

This Time is Different (Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff)

For more crisis fear read the whole article here.

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SD92129

Dave, 1) world class universities: take a look at our faculties here. why do all the top professors have training in the top US and European insitutions. Why dont they Phd at SFu and do a postdoc at UBC and get hired on. Sure, there are a few exceptions, but the top people in most fields are coming out of harvard, mit, stanford, columbia, etc… quantitatively, you can see where SFU/UBC measure in terms of research impact. I just checked, UBC ranks 35-36 in the world. SFu does not crack the top 100. to put that in perspective, UBC is like UC, Santa Barbara. Do you consider UCSB world class. Generally, the top scientists in the world are not looking at UBC as the #1 choice to do a fellowship. 2) Diversified: We have a weak medical research and biotech… Read more »

Disbelief

I guess we all know what Dave's job is now. The cat's out of the bag. Thanks Arit tjiscexplains a lot. A fat pimple faced loser in his mama's basement.

arit

In governments decision making, the decisions are heavily influenced by lobbyist, or whatever other names you wish to call them. These are people with an interest in the outcome of a political decision who are paid to influence the decision makers. After the "invention" of the internet (by Al Gore), the new open forum, or blog, or tweeter, or facebook or comment section was born. It is a tool to influence people. The main adgvantages of this kind of tool is twofold: 1. It is free. 2. It's anonymous. Soon some corporations discovered the power of these tools. Today, many a corporation employ full time commenters/tweeters/facebookeers and bloggers. These people come to work just like you and me. The difference is that while YOU are slacking by visiting Vancouver Condo Info, these people are PAID to visit Vancouver Condo Info.… Read more »

Disbelief

Dave sounds more like Gordon Campbell ewwww. Hopefully both of them will fall of the earth. That everything is beautiful speech is relatively true. The bottom line is the price is not consistent with value and both Dave and that blowhard Premier of ours will one day get it unfortunately both of them will be long gone by then.

[…] federal debt, and the high likelihood of increases in taxes going forward. At vancouvercondo.info tincup (11 Feb 2010 8:08 pm) pointed out that the editorial reads “like a grade 8 english essay.” […]

[…] increases in taxes going forward. Overall the editorial is a naive shambles. At vancouvercondo.info tincup (11 Feb 2010 8:08 pm) pointed out that it reads “like a grade 8 english essay.” […]

Drachen

Maybe Dave's day job is 'writing' for the Sun.

(I put writing in quotes because it's 90% cut and paste from press releases)

Chilled

@FORREST:

17

X FORREST Says:

February 11th, 2010 at 12:26 pm

11:24 am – You heard it first. CNN Until recently the sea to sky highway was “one little logging road”

++++++++++++++

And what do they do after spending 1 billion dollars to make 2 lanes 4 lanes?

Ans: They close 2 lanes.

Pure genius. After the Owelympics the government will do with the new highway what they did with the new ferries, take a couple of lanes out of service to save money.

mino3

Wow, that editorial is a new low for Vancouver Sun. Lower than I thought it could ever go. It's even lower than Dave!

rp

The Vancouver Sun editorial is by this guy:

http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/

pricedoutfornow

@taylor192: Oh noooo…this couple has a mortgage of a whopping $135k and are facing losing the house!!! My oh my…what will happen when people have mortgages of $700k and face the same thing? You know, I had the chance to watch some satellite tv last week, and I noticed that shows like "Till Debt Do Us Part" and other financial shows appear regularly on Global-Saskatchewan and Global-Alberta but are not to be found on Global-BC. Why? Because it would actually ASTOUND people in BC to realize that having a mortgage of $300k is actually a HUGE amount, nevermind $700k. It's pretty obvious what that nasty host (ok, she's not that nasty, but she's pretty tough on people with debt) would say about families with $120k income taking out $700k in 35 year mortgages in our fair city. Guess Global realized… Read more »

bestplaceonmeth

BC's "well diversified" economy consists of pulling shit out of the ground and selling weed & real estate.

The real estate part will be history shortly.

That leaves weed and the shit in the ground.

tincup

@Zowie: re:VanSun "no bubble here" article.

Oh, that is so sweet. I love how there is no author credited. I guess that is understandable, since it reads like a grade 8 english essay.

To paraphrase: "high prices aren't the problem, low incomes are! And they are low because there is too much tax!"

What an embarrassment that newspaper is.

Boombust

: BC has a very diversified economy and we are well positioned for the future.

You must be off your rocker.

Boombust

"I think it’s going to take years just to figure out what, if anything, is going to carry this province forward in the future. No other province has seen its industry wither to such an extent in the last decade." -Patriotz

Oh, absolutely! I couldn't agree more.

bestplaceonmeth

@Dave:

STFU, Dave.

Nobody is asking you why you're cheerleading, so don't ask people why they're protesting.

jiming

The bears get more pathetic by the day.

patriotz

@taylor192:

I wonder why the bank is asking them to so drastically reduce their amortization period… we the tax payer are on the hook for their CMHC backed mortgage.

Connect the dots, it's clearly not a CMHC insured mortgage but one of our homegrown subprime mortgages. Banks are quite happy to keep insured mortgages on their books because they can't lose.

Similar things have been happening with customers of Xceed Mortgage, which is calling loans because it's having trouble borrowing itself (gee I wonder why).

nero

@Zowie:

What a shocker – an article from the local rag that "debunks" the notion that there is a bubble here.

Note that there is no author, nor any contact info to whomever wrote it.

This anonymous author is somehow perplexed as to why the Big Six banks would press Flaherty to contain the "bubble" when there obviously is none.

And people wonder why we get our news and facts from blogs these days – "journalism" just isn't what it used to be.

neighbour

@Dave: BC has a very diversified economy and we are well positioned for the future. We have absolutely EVERYTHING here.

Dave, Dave, Dave, what a talent you are? Keep pretending to be mentally ill… Washington has it all you said + MSFT + Boeing + Costco + Amazon + American Seafoods Group + Jacobs + Nordstrom… list goes on and on… and they worry, they really worry about their future.

Dave

@anonymousAA:

Likewise, it follows that high prices do not imply a bubble because our real estate in underpinned by future economic expectations.

Dave

@BB:

I agree. They share many similarities and they are going to have a bright future as well. Definitely two of the best places in the World for opportunity.

anonymousAA

Just because BC is a great place to live with great opportunities for the future doesn't mean there isn't a real estate bubble.

'Nough said.

BB

@Dave: ……very diversified economy and we are well positioned for the future. We have absolutely EVERYTHING here. We are and will continue to be North America’s Gateway to Asia. We not only have geographic connections but significant immigrant connections. …. a very skilled workforce and great universities. We have plenty of resources including lumber, minerals and oil. And in the future, we are going to be a major source of fresh water for the US market. We have the ability to generate all sorts of clean energy from new large scale hydroelectric dams to run of the river power projects. We have lots of wind resources on the coast along with the potential of tidal power. We have lots of sun in the Okanagan for Solar. We have peace. We have beauty. We are [Editor: "IN"] … the World’s largest… Read more »

Drachen

@Dave:

Wow, what's with the sales pitch?

You're starting to sound like Bob Rennie.

All those things are true, sure. But, you say we're right next to the world's largest economy. An economy that was devastated by it's own Real Estate bubble, a bubble which was about half the size (or less) of BC's bubble.

If the largest economy in the world can't ride out the fallout from a comparatively minor real estate bubble what chance does our little backwater have? Sure forestry and mining and such will keep us alive but the economic engine for the past ten years has been real estate, the collapse will cause a lot of people a lot of pain.