A Little Bit of History Repeating

It’s been almost a week since the outing of Bernard Madoff’s investment firm as a gigantic Ponzi scheme. Apparently the day before his arrest, Bernie told his senior employees his firm was "all one big lie" which managed to bilk investors out of $50 billion. (Here’s the wikinews article on his arrest.)

As the Globe notes in it's coverage of the Madoff probe, the timing on this couldn't be worse as "the Madoff scandal has further weakened already-battered investor confidence in securities markets and has raised more troubling questions about the effectiveness of the regulatory system."

Sometimes the parallels between now and events of the late 1920s are a little spooky. For instance, John Kenneth Galbraith in The Great Crash tells the tale of Clarence Hatry whose fall from grace is one of the events that, along with the collapse of the stock indexes, pricked the investment bubble:

In England on September 20, 1929, the enterprises of Clarence Hatry suddenly collapsed. Hatry was one of those curiously un-English figures with whom the English periodically find themselves unable to cope. Although his earlier financial history had been anything but reassuring, Hatry had built up an industrial and financial empire in the nineteen-twenties of truly impressive proportions. The nucleus, all the more remarkably, was a line of coin-in-the-slot vending and automatic photographic machines. From these unprepossessing enterprises he had marched on into investment trusts and high finance. His expansion owed much to the issuance of unauthorized stock, the increase of assets by the forging of stock certificates and other equally informal financing. In the lore of 1929, the unmasking of Hatry in London is supposed to have struck a sharp blow to confidence in New York.

It's funny that not only are these two frauds linked in the ill-timedness of their unmaskings, but also in the humbleness of their origins: Hatry started out in vending machines, Madoff's initial investment stake was earned working as a lifeguard and sprinkler installer.

It's also funny that while Hatry was notorious in his day, he doesn't even warrant a wikipedia entry of his own now. I wonder if we'll find a way to conveniently forget Madoff in time for the next big speculative mania?

If the Shoe Fits

If there's one skill that soon-to-be former U.S. president George W. Bush is going to need in the years to come it's the ability to duck. Judging from a recent incident that occured during a news conference held as part of a pre-Xmas trip he made to Iraq to bolster troop morale, he's already mastered the ability, like Neo in the Matrix, to dodge projectiles directed at him. Don't know how well he'll fare though at ducking responsibility for all the ill-fated policy decisions made during his two-terms in office that have placed his country, and the world at large, in such peril environmentally, economically, geo-politically, etc.

Panic in Detroit

One of my favorite sports blogs is The Wayne Fontes Experience, run by a Detroit Lions fan -- yes, they're still fans of an 0-13 football team. It's well written, insightful, and his live-blogging of Lions games reminds me of my state of mind when the Saskatchewan Roughriders sucked and were so incompetently managed that I despaired of ever seeing competitive football at Taylor Field ever again.

But it's not just the disastrous state of Detroit football that's on his mind: it's also the disastrous state of the Detroit economy, thanks to the Big Three meltdown and the outgoing Congress' 'let them eat cake' attitude. And -- surprisingly for a sports blogger, he provides a glimpse into the state of mind in Detroit's coffeeshops, bars, and hangouts. (Might not be entirely safe for work).

My anger at the southern GOP, led by DICK Shelby, is palpable. Their
grandstanding is going
to affect every single one of us who lives in the Midwest, the Rust
Belt in particular, and not in a good way. Personally, I'm scared to
death for my family and friends who work in the auto industry, and
thanks to union busting politicians, like DICK Shelby, it's going to
get ugly for them.

He also links to a column from a Michigan newspaper. Oh boy. Jim Bunning, former pitcher for the Detroit Tigers was supposed to be at an autograph-signing thing in Michigan. Except that he's now a Tennesee GOP senator -- and voted against the federal bailout package.

Lazy Sunday Pop Culture Post

Technically I should be working right now so, naturally, I instead decided to write a post promoting the podcasts I like and think more people should pay attention to. I considered submitting this to the prairie dog proper but figured it was too slight and self absorbed even for that (types the guy who recently had published a Top 6 Comic Book Plot Devices). Plus I can't get it up to six items needed for a Top 6 because in all honesty I only regularly download five.

So, without further ado, here's my...

Top 5 Podcasts I'm Following These Days

1. Skeptic's Guide to the Universe
A weekly science news show that focuses on debunking all the nonsense and pseudoscience to which we're subjected on a daily basis. Sure, call me a nerd, but I find it somehow cathartic to spend an hour each week listening to five people mock creationists and climate-change deniers.

2. Tiki Bar TV
A monthly comedy vidcast made, up until recently, in a Vancouver apartment done up to look like a tiki bar. Each episode Doctor Tiki, Lala and Johnny Johnny encounter some crisis that is eventually solved by a cocktail. What I've described here rather clinically is actually very funny and cleverly written. Yeah, I've mentioned this show in stuff I've written in the paper before but I reckon it's worth repeating here because a) it's Canadian and b) it's just that good.

3. Diggnation
Two guys sitting on a couch drinking beer talking about what people on the internet are talking about. Sounds dull but is strangely addicting. Plus, it's a great way for out-of-touch, aging hipsters to stay au courant with what's happening on the intraweb.

4. Wormwood
Bi-weekly (sometimes monthly) radio drama about an occult investigator and his adventures in the town of Wormwood. Similar in tone to Buffy the Vampire Slayer -- has that same blend of supernatural horror and comedy. Favourite moment in the series so far: reanimated decapitated heads making out on the floor of a morgue.

5. Search Engine
Probably not fair putting a show from the CBC up against all these amateur endeavours, but Search Engine has always been Mother Corp's bastard child (as evidence: it got pulled from a regular spot on Radio One and now exists only as a podcast). It's a tech and web culture show not unlike other fare on CBC. But, unlike most fare on the CBC, it's edgy and political.

Gee, Premier. Wall ...

You won't have to hurry that Senate election legislation, eh?

"Ottawa hasn’t functioned effectively since May, and isn’t likely to start working soon"

I generally regard the killing of trees to print Macleans magazine as an environmental crime, especially as its journalistic or literary quality has China Syndromed after former Alberta Report hack Ken Whyte took the job as editor in chief. There's one exception -- Kady O'Malley's 'Inside the Queensway' blog.

I don't normally include Paul Wells, mostly because, as befitting someone who attended the University of Western Ontario, he conducts himself with the snobbishness of a English peer. Watching him on TV, I think Wells could make Michael Ignatieff look like Red Greene. So it's more of a surprise that his latest column on Stephen Harper is - gasp! - eriudite and readable.

My favourite line ...

Stephen Harper spent his whole adult life complaining that the state
was no good for anything. Now, under him, it is so. Consistency at last.

Trouble in the Tory Henhouse

Norman Spector, in his Globe And Mail blog, says Stephen Harper is going to try to woo Quebec voters. Again.

After the events surrounding the coalition, it's impossible for anybody to read this with a straight face. Harper demonized the Bloc Quebecois and, by implication, all those who voted for them, in order to secure a majority of votes in Canada outside Quebec. Like them or loathe them -- and I'm not much of a fan of Quebec separatism -- the BQ were elected by the people of Quebec in a free and fair federal election, and have as much right to represent their constituencies as anyone else. Jerks such as Rob Anders probably contribute as much -- if not more -- to the stresses of Canadian confederation than Gilles Duceppe.

The proposed Dion/Layton coalition government was popular in Quebec, and Harper's attack on it was seen by Quebecers as an attack on that province's voters, as if to say that they had no right to express their opinion on government.

Of couse, we should note that the man Harper tagged as his Quebec "golden boy", Mario Dumont of the Action Democratique du Quebec, was gonged in the Quebec election. His socially conservative, return-to-Duplessis policies are pretty much dead. And so are Harper's shallow roots in the province.

It makes you wonder --- why do the Cons put up with Harper's two-faced bungling? For a story in an upcoming prairie dog, I interviewed U of R political studies professor emeritus Howard Leeson, who was a senior adviser to Roy Romanow during the 1981-82 constitutional talks and part of his kitchen cabinet consiglieri during Romanow's premiership.

We jawed for 20 or so minutes, and during our conversation Leeson riddled me this: what's so great about Stephen Harper? He's led the Cons in three elections. He lost one, and received two minorities in the face of the weakest, financially troubled and most incompetently led Liberal Party since Confederation. "If Joe Clark was leader, the Conservatives would have had 200 seats easily," says Leeson.

So what's next? Andrew Steele of the Globe & Mail has a few thoughts on his blog.

Test Post

Do not panic, do not run to your basement. This is only a test.
Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep

Filling The Other House

Neurotics build castles in the sky; psychotics move into them.

Renters Beware: Vacancies Down, Rents Up (Way Up)

The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation just released their 2008 Rental Market Reports for Saskatchewan. (You'll have to subscribe to get the free pdfs.) Things are looking pretty bad for Regina.

In the Queen City, the citywide vacancy rate is presently 0.5%, which is a 10-year low. (Down from last year's already very tight 1.7%.) Zones of note include the central zone which sits at 0.5% and the university area which is a grim 0.1%.

Rental rates have increased on average by $87 a month.

Up until now, city hall has been basing its decision making on the old figures, so it'll be interesting to see how this survey changes things in the days to come. A major shift in housing strategy maybe?

On the up side, the CMHC is predicting the citywide rate to go up next year as in-migration slows, but only to 1.2%.

In Saskatoon, meanwhile, things look a tiny bit better on the vacancy front. The citywide vacancy rate increased to 1.9% this year up from 0.6% last. This was achieved, however, while rental rates shot up by $129 monthly.