Canadian Supertramps

Announcement of Bank of Canada's new lending rate of 0.25% was as interesting as was the explanation behind the decision, shall we say, intriguing. “The global recession has intensified and become more synchronous since the bank's January Monetary Policy Report Update with weaker-than-expected activity in all major economies.” The Bank has also retracted on its optimistic recovery prediction and revised expected GDP numbers. In other words, the recession in Canada will be deeper than the Bank anticipated.

The thing is, though, that the recession will be exactly like most of economists expected. However, Messrs. Harper and Flaherty were busy listening to the Supertramp' Crisis? What Crisis? Album, breaking up the country, proroguing the Parliament and, apparently, sharing the aforementioned CD with the Bank's governor Mike Carney. He went through similar twist-and-turn of opinions as Canada's finance minister, first predicting almost rosy future and then, again with a considerable delay when compared to most economists, gradually proceeding to the realm of economic reality.

Maybe he, as well as Flaherty, stumbled upon the Breakfast in America album that features the famous Logical Song....