Montebello Tryst

Fact and allegation are hopelessly intermingled right now. The failure of PMSH to brief Parliament a year ago on the last SPP talks, in Mexico, only fuelled the worry. To date, your MPs have never been offered a comprehensive briefing on exactly what it is our leaders are negotiating. That’s not acceptable. But even more of an issue with me, is cozying up further with a country in serious economic crap. On Tuesday the Canadian dollar hit a new three-decade high, topping 96 cents. The pundits attributed it to robust retail sales numbers. The real story, however, is not the soaring loonie but the collapsing greenback. Federal treasuries around the world have been dumping their American currency reserves out of concern for the quickly eroding financial picture of that country. The war in Iraq is costing the US $12 billion a month, or close to $150 billion a year – almost half the entire government budget for Canada. The war, health care and social security payments now eat 60% of the American federal budget, which means the government is in deep deficit when it finishes paying for everything else. US federal debt is growing by $1 trillion a year. Federal debt will rise from 40% of the gross national product to 100% of GNP within a couple of decades. More at: http://www.garth.ca/weblog/2007/07/24/montebello-tryst/ [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on July 27, 2007]

Note: http://www.garth.ca/web...