interested
Senior Member
re: US economy reference. Articles in the paper Globe and Mail article of a day or 2 ago (sorry don't remember exactly which but I believe article written by the big bear at Sheriff gluskin suggested that backing out the stimulus effects would have resulted in negative growth of the US economy in the 2rd and 3rd quarters of 2009 and even the 5+% which will be revised down for the last quarter would have been only slightly positive. what happens when over a trillion dollars of stimulus put in in 2009 is not replicated in 2010. Do we slip back into negative growth or minimal growth?
My speculation re interest rates: these are more my thoughts as to a logical progression tieing various data together. if things are good, inflation likely will pick up. If things are bad, they will not do so and interest rates stay down. Canada's competitiveness is a big issue and the higher the Canadian dollar (if we unilaterally raise our interest rates without the US following suit) the less competitive our industries become. I do not claim to know if things will improve and inflation return. I just think it is likely there will be a grouping of these events: If economy does well, we will see some escalation of the Canadian dollar (exports to US and BRIC countries(raw resourses) improve,prices rise, wage demands increase, and interest rates go up. If the economy does badly, Canadian dollar falls, production/manufacturing stall or fall, interest rates cannot go up.
Again, I am not an economist so please don't hold me to every prediction, I just think that certain logical conclusions should be expected to follow.[/QUOTE
Great analysis...we would be better off with the second scenario...and hope the canadian economy goes under, then interest will stay low and Canadian dollar low, Canadian business more competitive and sky will be blue...
Actually, I think I would much prefer the first scenario, that the economy does well. Overall, no country ever got ahead by devaluing its currency or having low interest rates because the economy is doing badly. Even if this means somewhat higher interest rates, I can assure you from reading history, mild inflation (2%/year is good: shows a growing economy) hi inflation is bad, deflation(think 1930's