Is Too Much Schadenfreude Bad For You?

It would appear that the denizens of Richistan are starting to figure out that things are screwed and they may not be able to afford the new solid gold deck chairs for their yachts.

"Money" (if you can call a runaway credit bubble that) is evaporating, China and Russia are threatening to bail on the U.S. dollar and things are unravelling as they should... or perhaps must is more like it.

The money quote:

"Forty percent of the world's wealth was destroyed in the last five quarters. It is an almost incomprehensible number," said Stephen Schwarzman, chairman of the leading private equity company Blackstone Group. "Business will be very different."

Read the whole thing here.

This makes me almost as giddy as reading about the Madoff scam.

Oh, and Linda McQuaig lets the banksters, as FDR dubbed them way back when, have it here, in a really interesting piece that ponders the immortal question: "Would the reaction be any different if unions had blown up our economy?"

And... it's always fun to watch a terrified neo-con sell his "convictions" down the river.

This really is better than Christmas. And I didn't even have to rack up the ol' credit card.

Not So Cold

Further to my whining posts yesterday, it is no longer colder than crap outside. It is, in fact, not bad. Minus 11, -20 w/ windchill. Better.

Also, better is this second cup of coffee. My first tasted a little too desperate or something. Mmm. Sequel-coffee.

Wednedsday, January 28

Good morning...well, let's make that afternoon. Here are a couple of brief thoughts from my living room the day after production (which we should probably shorten to just "the day after").

-Budget: Iggy's going to allow Harper's budget to pass. Yeah, it's all up to him. the budget isn't going to go ahead because of consensus in Parliament, it's not going to go ahead because it's just too good to vote against, it's going to go ahead because a deeply concerned, brow-furrowed Liberal leader (or is that king? I don't recall the leadership contest) has deemed it the best course at this time. He shall permitit. At this time. With caveats. Thank you, sire.

Also, I wish Jack Layton didn't sound like such a phony. I think he's far less a phoney than a lot of politicians, but he sure sounds over-scripted and soundbite ready. I heard him on CBC this morning and...I dunno. I expect more from the guy and his party. Passion. Honesty. A willingness to say unpopular things when they're the truth, sometimes.

More on the budget here and here and here and here.

An additional point: is anyone else getting offended by the phrase "working families"? First, a lot of Canadians live alone. Are we not citizens too? Second, many Canadians are unemployed. They're not important because they're not "working"? There's more to being a Canadiana than being a couple, having some kids and holding a job. There is more to Canada than "working families".

-The problem with print: far be it from me to put down my chosen medium but sometime it stinks working on an immutable two-week frequency. Case in point: last night as we're fininshing up tomorrow's prairie dog, Gwynne Dyer files a new column. It's great--an analysis of Obama's (supportive) position toward the so-called "War On Terror", in the wake of the new President's first air strike. Of course, I can't run it. We're on deadline (actually, cough, somewhat past deadline, as usual...). Also, we've already got a Dyer column in this issue that we promoted it on the cover. But it sure would've been nice to run a timely article on Obama right after he orders people killed for the first time. deadlines suck. I couldn't find it online but I expect it to show up here in the next 48 hours, for anyone who's interested.

That's all from me for now, I'm desperately due for another cup of coffee. Talk to you later.