Author Archives: Troy

The Price of Greed

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The whole world is reeling as a result of consumer and corporate greed.

Subprime mortgages allowed people to purchase the dream homes they really couldn’t afford. Banks wanted to make more money off of the consumer. Things got bad for buyers. The house of cards got wobbly and started to collapse.

We can look at the history books at what happened in the Great Depression and see the simple mistakes in fiscal policies that led to that financial collapse. I don’t think we learned much since then..

Sitting here in Canada I wondered how such an obviously dumb thing could happen again, not realizing the impact it would have around the world. In my ignorance, I thought it would have some big problems for our southern neighbors that would spill over some into other nations’ economies, but nothing like what is happening. Our global economy is incredibly inter-linked.

Banks in London and other European nations in trouble because of the US housing market?
Canadian banks writing off billions?
Talk of the US dollar being abandoned as a currency backing in foreign nations?
One in forty-five US homes possibly facing foreclosure?
Worldwide recession?

Turns out that mortgage debt was being traded all over the world, so the impact may be global. Because of house buyers and corporations wanting more.

Greed has a price, and the whole world may have to foot the bill.

Shopping Celebrations

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Today is a big day in the town of Olds. The much anticipated Wal-Mart opens its doors. To commemorate this event, may I present the following Jib-Jab video. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

I grew up as the son of a small business owner in a small town. Not much of a fan of ye ol’ Big Box Marts.

PS. That song is going to be in your head for weeks.

Western Adjustment :: Part 2

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There is something wrong with my radio. It seems more prevalent since we have moved out west. Often after my wife has driven the van somewhere I will get in and turn the van on and the radio just sounds terrible. It is all twangy and bad.

I have noticed that a lot of radios around here suffer this same affliction. Even stranger.. people seem proud of their malfunctioning radios. When I ask what that awful noise is, people respond with one word: “country”.

Now, I have lived in rural, country environments before and it has never affected how the music sounds like this. It must be that the land is so flat that it distorts the radio waves or something.

Western Adjustment :: Part 1

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One of the changes that I have had to make upon arriving in the West concerns something I have always taken for granted in my 35 years living in Eastern Canada. It concerns a matter of convenience, and has even been tied to the Canadian identity in verse. Yet it is conspicuously absent here in western Canada. I am, of course, talking about milk in a bag.

Plastic jugs are the dominant milk form here. This adds a certain inconvenience to the late night milk drink as a tall cool glass of milk can not be poured in one fluid motion. With the milk bag, a pitcher can simply be pulled from the fridge, poured out in a glass and returned. Now with a milk jug I must take it out and remove the cap, pour a glass and replace the cap before putting the milk back. Certainly an inefficient way to get tall cool glass of milk.

Growing up in the Maritimes we always had milk in a bag. It permitted such great family games like “Who left an empty bag in the pitcher!?!” and “Where are the scissors?”. I remember when this packaging was taken to an extreme as a kid when we could even purchase orange juice in a bag. We had one pitcher for milk and one for OJ. And of course, the inevitable happened one day. Someone had changed out the empty bags and put fresh ones in the wrong pitcher. Fruit Loops really are a little too rich with orange juice on them.

Anyway.. I will stand strong. I will adjust.