[Flofocus]

Few dodge vipers going for 35-40K US.

hmmmmmm...

[OAC_Sparky]

NefCanuck,May 31 2007, 11:55 AM Wrote:You'd be surprised Anthony, heck, I even remember the last trip to Buffalo and going into a grocery store (Tops IIRC) and they had stuff I hadn't seen in Canada for years because our market is too small to sustain the sheer number of products.  Heck, they had ethnic food sections in that grocery store I would kill for to get up here <_<

NVM, the different models of consumer electronics that never make it up here, for the same reason :( [right][snapback]240011[/snapback][/right]

Actually, believe it or not, it's not that the market is too small per se, it's because the red tape that erodes profit.

75% of the problem is that damned French labelling requirement, 20% because of CSA approval.

I have a Whirlpool Gas stove that I physically went to Niagara Falls NY (Rosa's) to pick up because it wasn't available in Canada. At all. They sell every appliance in the Whirlpool Gold line here except a gas stove in black.

Yet it was made in Canada, has a CSA label.
No French labels or manual though.... Go figure.... <_<

[2001 ZTS]

few things:

-US election in 2008, the $CN will reach parity in the Q1-2008 if not sooner, probably pass the $US and once GWB is out in Nov 08 the trend will reverse. Iraq and oil policy to play a part.

-When the $US is "low" that is a good time to buy gold

-get used to $1.00+tre fuel

-I renewed the mortgage in Jan 07, I don't think the timing could have been better to go long and fixed.

-The housing bubble will not burst but will slow. Owners of normal single family homes will not feel a thing no matter what and they will still increase at average rates or better depending where one is*

Thats my outlook through 2008.

*Longer term, the real estate trend is "moving back to the city" (from suburbia). It has already started. I could write a VOLUME on this and why.

[Aka]

OAC_Sparky,May 30 2007, 09:53 PM Wrote:

Aka,May 30 2007, 09:48 PM Wrote:OAC_Sparky, you sound like my grandpa. He's been telling me a depression is on the way since I was born.
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You should listen to your grandpa. His track record for making it through life is longer than yours so far. ;)
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OAC_Sparky,May 31 2007, 12:51 AM Wrote:Hey, I'm not saying don't live your life, I'm saying "Be Prepared". Sooner or later, Aka's grandpa will be right.  :blink:
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I'm not saying either of you are wrong. I'm just saying if you predict a depression for long enough, you're eventually going to be right. I'm just tired of the constant dooms days scenario is all.

I could be just as right as him and say, after the depression, we're going to prosper for a bunch of years. Look forward to it etc... If I said that for enough years, eventually I'd be right too.

[OAC_Sparky]

Not sure how old you are Aka. And I'm not quite an "old man".

The truth is though I've been through a stretch of bad economy in my life, and there's something that I see a lot of sub-35 year-olds, especially those that I work with, that never been through true tough times and seem to think that we're talking out our asses.

I remember back in the late 80s when I had to park the car in the middle of an industrial complex (because I needed to save the gas), walk door to door with a stack of resumes looking for work with a college diploma.

We've been in an extended cycle of good economic times; yet a lot of people have still overextended themselves and live paycheck to paycheck. They've put nothing away even though they still live in their parent's basements, have 3 computers, 2 cars (neither paid for) and a 50" plasma screen and feel that because the bank is willing to lend them more money that they're in good shape financially.

I don't wish hardship on anyone, I'd like good times for plenty of years to come. We can all make statements like "someday there's be a depression" etc. and yes of course there will be. And periods of prosperity will follow. The question is, "Are you ready?"

Ask those that were teens in the late 50s, early 60s. They were in the same boat. A long period of relative economic boomtime. A lot of those same carefree "flower children" literally walked away from homes bankrupt in the 70s when the interest rate skyrocketed to almost 20%.

Can it happen again? What do you think?