economy

[joel]

this is just meant as a general economy and business topic,

[joel]

i try to keep up with general economy news as it potentially impacts investments that I may have... having said that I am seeing a lot of gloomy economic news recently...

looks like problems with us deficit talks,
eurozone problems including france credit rating at risk,
drops in commodity prices, including gold

some of this has been building for months or a better part of a year with especially the us economy issues, as well as the european problems, doesn't seem like there is a lot of confidence in the global economy as of late. do you think we are on the verge of another major global market crash?

some equity stocks (at least the ones i typically track) still seem relatively high over a 2yr span still. are these perhaps being overvalued?

[Wetundies]

i don't feel Canada will do as bad as some of the other countries. Companies that depends on export probably will tho.

Yup, i feel another crash is coming if Italy defaults followed by Spain. There's lots of market pressure from short sellers, that's why it's starting to be banned in some countries.

[nature boy]

here's a question that a friend posed to me today:
would you buy canadian-made products if you had a tax break for it?

it's a good idea, it'll increase canadian product sales and improve our economy.

[joel]

yes but then that would involve the government giving a tax break...

but to be honest, there are so few products "canadian-made" products... i wouldn't be surprised if there's absolutely nothing in my home that has "made in canada" with the exclusion of food products

[Duncan]

lol... i was gonna say the same thing

our main export is wood and energy... how often do you pick up a product and notice it say "Made in Canada"?

[nature boy]

there are canadian made clothes. they're ugly and uncomfortable, but still canadian made.

there are other things too, like furniture and other inanimate objects that are made in canada, mostly for decorative purposes though.

[se7entse7en]

All things being equal, I actually try and buy Canadian... or at least North American.
Bike - Kona
Electric Guitar - Godin
Bass - Godin
Acoustic Guitar - Simon & Patrick
Car - Ford

I wish there were tax breaks on them, but I guess it didn't matter much to me after all.

[nature boy]

some of those things were designed in north america but were they actually made in north america? i only ask, i don't know.

[se7entse7en]

According to Wikipedia (and other sources):

Godin is a Canadian guitar company headquartered in Montreal with three factories in Quebec and one in New Hampshire. The guitars are made with wood coming from North Eastern North America.
Simon & Patrick is owned by Godin.
Kona is a bike company in Ferndale, Washington and Vancouver, BC. Apparently it's 50% US and 50% Canadian owned. Bikes are assembled in Taiwan with parts coming from all over including Canada and the US.

[nature boy]

yeah that's the tricky part. local designed stuff isn't necessarily made here. like lululemon clothing is mostly designed here but have factories all over the world.

not saying that it's a good or bad thing, as i hardly look at the "made in" label when i buy stuff.

[geForce]

When I used to work at Roots, all their ad campaigns played on the fact that they're "totally Canadian". Some of their products were made in Canada (pretty shabby quality, I might add), but most of them were made in the middle east.

[se7entse7en]

Where do you draw the line though? A product may have been made in Canada, but were the workers wearing Canadian made shoes? Were they using Canadian made tools?

Almost nothing is 100% [insert any country here] made.

[Duncan]

and also, it could have been "assembled" in canada but the materials are imported

[nature boy]

yeah, i guess there's no way to know in the way of products.

food, however, is a different story.