Don’t give the airlines any ideas.
Yes I was talking about Terry Fox. I was 10 when he was running the Marathon of Hope and it is something I vividly remember. Hope feels in short supply these days.
We are having good numbers out here in BC and that is making me feel some hope. This is all so surreal and hard to get my mind around.
Over the weekend, a local police officer died in the line of duty (car accident) and they just reported on the news that a grade-school aged boy in another state ran a mile in his honor, something he does every day in the memory of fallen First Responders.
Just watching Governor Cuomo eviscerate Trump, regardless of the weak Trump tweet backs. It is nice to see a US politician who knows exactly what he is talking about and without referring to the words “powerful” and “never seen before.” Cuomo left no doubt as to who would be deciding on when to open New York. Not Trump.
Cuomo said what I have been thinking, re-opening without a vaccine can only be done with mass testing. Multiple frequent tests for every person exposed to the public. Trump needs to come up with such a program, as it can only be done nationally. Trump is about a month past saying every American who wants a test can now get a test.
The point Cuomo made is that they currently calculate the infection rate in their state in New York at .9. That means one infected person infects less than one other person. And the curve goes down. A reinfection rate of less than 1 seems to be the magic number.
Do we know the reinfection rate for Canada and the provinces?
The numbers of infections in Alberta have gone up, and gone way beyond BC, a similar province. However, this is stated as a good thing, as it reflects a surge of testing in Alberta. Less testing just means less discovered cases. What do you think?
Wages have been stagnant for a long time. Inflation has eaten those wages up badly. Personal debt has increased steadily. Official inflation figures are highly selective and change regularly. It is obvious that when a large factory is moved overseas, those jobs go there too. No new factory is built here to replace it. Those jobs are gone. Employment rate is a raw figure. It does not show the quality of the employment. More new jobs are of low wage and quality. Also not full time or long term. The government lowers interest rates so people can borrow more to maintain a standard of living. In the short term. The low rates create bubbles here and there that increase inflation. House prices for instance. Inflation figures often exclude house prices and other things. And when crunch times such as these come. We must depend on the kindness of strangers. Free trade benefits a small, already very wealthy portion of the population. A lot of those people and businesses may not be in your own country. Not paying taxes or providing jobs.
China and the U.S. have recently demonstrated that free trade is used by them only when convenient and profitable. When they want stuff for themselves, trade is halted, even pirated. When they want you to toe their line, free trade becomes very less free.
Also. Most gains in wealth/wages has gone to the top 10 or less percent. Check figures of the wealth / wages excepting that 10 percent and it is even worse. Up to 25% of wealth and wage increase goes to the top 10%.
Well, here in Edmonton cases have been flat for days. The same for all the other regions of the province except for Calgary, which appears to still be on an exponential growth curve. Over 70% of all cases in Alberta are from the Calgary area.
The difference between Calgary and the rest of the province is dramatic..
From what I can tell, no one really knows why. Calgary has a major international airport but so does Edmonton, albeit with fewer international flights. Some speculation that people aren’t social distancing as much, but I don’t know if there is evidence of that.
According to Alberta Health, only 37 people in the province in total have needed the ICU for Covid-19 related issues. We have something like 600-700 ICU beds available. Today there were no new deaths. And apparently Alberta now has the highest per capita testing rate in the world.
This was originally inspired by our lack of ppe equipment and the means to manufacture that equipment. In case this late reply is confusing. And The U.S. denying shipments. Also diverting shipments.
Yes, Sam Stone, I could have said Calgary instead of Alberta, Calgary’s rate of growth in new reported infections is high.
I take some selfish comfort in that the specific area I live in has about 7 active cases and they are isolated. But it seems every time they test, they find another 2% or more of new cases. That would mean 100s of infected people in my area who do not know it. Could be me, although I have no symptoms.
The growth is frustrating as we have been isolating for 3 weeks, it should be having an impact.
I have seen Edmonton’s numbers and the rest of the province, and they look flat.
Where are you at? How bad are the shortages in your area?
In AB. We are actually well stocked.Sending supplies to other areas in Canada.
Of course we can’t produce everything in Canada. But I am particularly miffed that our public tax supported health system isn’t supported as much as possible by in Canada manufacture. We pay for the services, but export so much of the financial and social returns. They could be reinvested via taxes on the production into the system.
There are graphs here - https://covid19stats.alberta.ca/ - that show there are a lot of new cases (mostly in Calgary), and that most new cases are from a known exposure. A known exposure means they can trace where the case probably came from, ie travel or family member or event. Why are they just now still testing people with known exposure?. Surely those people should have been traced and tested previously. Alberta has the capacity to test about 7000 per day, and is maybe testing 3000.
Wages prior to the pandemic were the highest they have ever been, even accounting for inflation. That’s fact. You can claim inflation is somehow higher than any measure, but it’s on you to prove that rather amazing claim.
Prior to pandemic, the unemployment rate was very low. That is just a fact.
There is no way to square this claim with the plain facts; wages were the highest they have ever been and unemployment was low.
The government does not control interest rates.
If you want to discuss the benefits and drawbacks of a given economic policy, you need to acquaint yourself with the facts and how things like interest rates work.
Not directly, but the Bank of Canada does. The BoC is a Crown Corporation and the Governor is chosen by the board of directors based on the recommendation of the Finance Minister. Government direction certainly influences the BoC.
“Not directly” is a hell of a modifier. The BoC and the government of the day have quite often worked at cross purposes, which, of course, is by design.
If you think the bank of Canada is of some reliability. Here is wage information from them. Drag the slider all the way to the left. It statrs at about 3%, ends at about 3%
Employment in Canada.
From a somewhat right wing news outlet at that.
I am not going to post anymore about the negatives of free trade in this thread. It is quite a bit off the main topic. But I encourage folks to look up all the negative facts. They are many.
To you, does the fact that it starts at 3% and ends at about 3% mean that wages are stagnant?
Could you point to the specific quote/number/data that shows that “More new jobs are of low wage and quality.” compared to previously? It says there is part-time work but I’m not finding where it says there has been an overall shift from full-time to part-time. From what I can see, the article doesn’t compare working in Canada in the past/before free trade to working in Canada now, it compares working in Canada now to working in the US now.
Just giving a cite isn’t enough, you need to explain how the data supports your assertion that “Wages have been stagnant for a long time. Inflation has eaten those wages up badly.” and that “More new jobs are of low wage and quality.” unless it’s patently clear which isn’t the case here.
It’s actually easier to find more data on the similar U.S. situation.
They are suffering the same problems due to losing production to other countries. And it is very important to consider the distribution of income and profits. Not just the average plus or minus over time. Also look into how the inflation calculations have changed over time to make it look better than it is. Hedonics and substitution being a major way to make things look better. Also just excluding things from the calculation.
Overall. Inflation has been higher than reported. Unemployment is under reported. Underemployment is under reported. Increases of income and profits has been going more to those already in the higher income brackets. Start here.
http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data
Read some of Matt Taibbi’s articles or books for info on government and high level business screwing us.
From Forbes. Not a left wing institution.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2019/11/25/the-frightening-rise-in-low-quality-low-paying-jobs-is-this-really-a-strong-job-market/#5e2268d74fd1