Entries from January 2009 ↓

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In January I decided to close this political blog and leave the affairs of the state to others for the time being. May they serve us well in days of uncertainty.

In the meantime, I try to help my fellow citizens in other ways. With an understanding of the economy, and strategies to help us all cope with monumental changes and mounting dangers. Also with tools and knowledge which I think are vital. I will do this through my books, my speaking, my daily blog and through providing direct assistance.

Deceased, but not finished.

There is always hope, and reason to be optimistic. The greatest guide on the path forward is understanding.

For my daily blog on the economy, investment and survival strategies, go here.

For information on my books, including “After the Crash” and my public speaking schedule, go here.

For tools and knowledge to help you and your family, go here.

Long, long ago, before I’d met Stephen Harper, before I once again won a seat in Parliament, before anyone believed a Conservative government could lose $50 billion in four years, before I was kicked out of my own party live on TV, before I learned Conservatives were no longer Progressive Conservatives, before I became a refugee Liberal, before I lost my seat, before I understood it’s all about power and not the people, before I wasted three years and neglected my wife, before my Tory colleagues shunned and hurt me and my new Grit family embraced me, before I was dooced, before the crash and when I still believed passionately in the integrity and worth of individual democracy, I started this blog.

Now it ends.

As of today, this is an archive. In it are 1,854 articles, made up of 1.3 million words, the equivalent of 20 books. In addition, there are 144,610 visitor comments and over 169 MB of database content, plus dozens of hours of original digital video shot on Parliament Hill.

Since May 20, 2005, this site has received over 60 million hits. I felt every one.

Curious historians will read of a born-again politician, a democrat, who dreamed of marrying the role of member of Parliament with the technology of a newly-wired country. The hopeless and naive man thought by blogging about his job, his experiences and the way we are governed, he could improve it. He called it ‘digital democracy’, and took the unprecedented step of opening a new channel onto the floor of the House of Commons, where any citizen could speak out loudly, cast a ballot, be partisan or just honest. He hoped it would change the cynicism and repair the mistrust. Make us all the government.

Naturally, this led to disaster. Leaders aren’t fans of democracy. Within a week of being elected, the guy knew he was toast. Choose, he was told. And he did.

His story is here in 1,854 chapters.

 
To truly help your country never, ever stop paying attention. — Garth

Late Friday afternoon the big white Book Truck pulled up and a nice guy tromped through the drifts and handed me 16 cases. By quitting time at the post office, I’d arrived with a couple of hundred shiny new copies of ‘After the Crash’ signed, packaged, addressed. I handed them off to the clerks.

“What’s this one about?” I was asked. “The financial mess,” I said, “and how to survive it.”

“This is no mess,” one postie said, “this is a frigging disaster. But it hardly matters – I’ve got no money.”

So I went back to my office, where the other hundreds of copies were being readied for shipping Monday, and decided to help out my publisher by sending a few media releases (books take lots of promotion). An hour later I was staring at some bouncebacks – emails indicating key journalists I had known for years had just lost their jobs.

This, of course, happened on a day we learned 71,000 more Canadians become unemployed last month, as 524,000 Americans joined the unemployed. Last year 2.6 million people in the US saw their jobs evaporate, and the annual rate is now 6 million. This hasn’t happened since World War Two ended the Great Depression. In Canada we’ve shed almost 150,000 jobs in two months. It’s a disaster.

In fact, I checked out the day’s analysis by Mike Shedlock, of globaleconomicanalysis.com. “The official unemployment rate (US) is 7.2%. However if you start counting all the people that want a job but gave up, all the people with part-time jobs that want a full-time job, all the people who dropped off the unemployment rolls because their unemployment benefits ran out,” he writes, “you get a closer picture of what the unemployment rate is. That number is 13.5%.

Shedlock continues: “There is no official definition of depression. Here is mine: When the unemployment rate rises above 12.5% in conjunction with a stock market that is down close to 50%, the CPI (inflation) is negative, and nominal wages are stagnant, it’s an economic depression. We are in one.”

As I may have mentioned, the key thesis of my book is that the odds of a depression are greater at this moment than at any time since the 1930s. That does not mean it will happen, or that I agree entirely with Shedlock – certainly not (yet) in Canada. But it does mean a depression is possible, and that potential leapt closer on this day of joblessness and January anxiety.

We all hope for a quick recovery, but we must also be ready for a deflationary spiral. At least, I am. I’ve made it my goal in the last year to go through a checklist of personal actions (which are in the book) that will help me and my family weather a protracted storm. On that list were big things – such as selling inappropriate real estate and trashing my non-deductible debt. Also included were lots of smaller things – ensuring a cash reserve, crafting a defensive mix of investment assets and having a Bad Times plan with the ability to make my own power and provide my own food.

I have written about all of these things not to scare people, but to help them. Some will think I have taken too many precautions, and am extreme. But I consider it insurance. After all, I insure my house against burning down, and never expect that to happen. But if it did, the consequences would be devastating. Ditto for a depression or protracted recession. I can always put the cash back to work or buy a trophy house, and I still have backup power for the next ice storm or grid failure. Why not prepare, when it builds confidence about whatever might be coming?

It’s also why I took another uncharacteristic step, and set up the xurbia.ca web site. Selling physical products is not my thing, although I have owned retail stores, small hotels and restaurants in the past. But after spending months finding the tools I wanted for my own family’s security, I knew this was something worth sharing. So I went through the process of becoming a dealer for leading companies in everything from wind, solar, power storage and generation to event preparedness and seeds.

There may be enough like-minded citizens to make the effort worthwhile. Maybe not. But I was doing it for myself anyway.

One thing’s for sure – there will be people, probably many, who see this in an entirely different light. Like the guy who left this comment for me today:

Just like lenders got innocent people to borrow money they could not pay back, so are you doing the same with your book and gadgets, using innocent people’s fear to buy your useless products. I will never buy your book nor will even have a look at your survival gadgets, the world is not going to end.

No it’s not. Not in my house.