bailouts

Alberta’s energy sector has yet to suffer anything like Ontario’s manufacturing job losses, so calls for an auto sector-style bailout for the oil patch are premature

Too bad, Saab. How can Sweden just let an industrial pillar go like that? That’s a complex question. The decision, like every decision any government anywhere makes these days, will strike many as wrongheaded. I’m not sure how much of Sweden’s employment is attributable to Saab; it may well be lower than the fraction of Canada’s (or Ontario’s…) employment that depends on the Big 3. But if Sweden’s centre-right government believes the country’s future need not look like its past, this chart may offer part of the answer:

Heritage Minister is reportedly considering lending a hand to Canwest after turning a deaf ear to the CBC

But, you ask, where’s my stimulus? Where’s my bailout? 

“I’m sorry for your situation, but it is difficult to justify giving trillions of US taxpayer dollars to a private company that is outmoded, headquartered offshore, and, frankly, imaginary.”

In The Know: Should The Government Stop Dumping Money Into A Giant Hole?

So the Bush presidency draws to a close, with a four-month barrage of economic recovery plans issuing forth from various parts of the US government, most of them improvised in great haste with little thought for their long-term consequences. Politico adds up the bill:

The precedent’s hardly been set, and already…

Last night’s shocking bail out of AIG hasn’t done much to calm the fears roiling through the markets this morning. It has, however, got me to thinking.