Saturday, March 04, 2006

Cuckoo Clock Economics

Canada looking like Switzerland, economist says

Sure Dr. Hoffman the Swiss chemist discovered LSD and Canadian Doctors experimented with it.

Opps thats not what he was talking about.

Douglas Porter Chief Economist at the Royal Bank was talking about Canada's Petrodollar.

Mr. Porter contends, in fact, that the loonie can now aspire to the role so long played by the Swiss franc as the "go-to currency in times of global turmoil . . . the ultimate safe-haven currency." This is especially because of Canada's status as an energy exporting industrial country at a time when much of the current geopolitical risk involves oil, he says, noting that the loonie also has risen by more than 20 per cent against the Swiss franc in the past year. He acknowledges that Canada will likely need to become a net international creditor country before it can claim "full-fledged standing as a safe haven." But this appears to be "only a matter of time," he adds, noting that Canada's net foreign liabilities have been slashed to 12 per cent of GDP from more than 44 per cent in 1994.


But wait there are some drawbacks to being compared to Switzerland.

Harry Lime:"In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock ..."

The Third Man (1949)

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