Posts tagged as:

Canada

Greenland and the resource curse, can this possibly end well?

January 21, 2010

in Culture, Society, & Economy

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Excerpt:

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[/caption] The Arctic might be melting and scaring the rest of the world, but the Greenlanders aren’t too worried about it.  They are fully aware of the fact that when ice disintegrates, so goes the Inuit hunting lifestyle.  But that has since then been replaced with the dreams of potential economic windfall from oil. The Greenlanders are so confident of what the “black gold” can do for them, they have negotiated independence from their colonial overlord – Denmark.  It sounds great in theory, but in reality, a clear break from the mainland means a reduction in…

Weekend Readings

May 15, 2009

in Links and Resources

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Excerpt: Early reading list this week. I’m always interested in how cultures affect the way we organize ourselves politically and economically.  See how Germany, Norway, and Canada are faring this recession. The actions and reactions are results of something more deep-rooted than a wholesale application of capitalism. Then I stumbled upon a number of older articles on what it meant to be an introvert.  A fellow Twitterer pointed me to more evidence that as a marginalized and misunderstood group, we have done pretty well as far as corporate ladder-climbing and entrepreneurships go. And there’s Elizabeth Edwards, whom captivated my interest by going on an…

Is the Era of Rising Real Estate Prices Over?

May 6, 2009

in Get the Facts

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Excerpt: When I first moved to Calgary to work in the oil and gas industry in early 2006, it was right around the top of the property boom, and affordable housing was next to impossible to find.  Not wanting to shell out half my salary for an apartment, and spending months to fill it up with furniture, I decided to go the room rental route. Little did we know at the time, but towards the end of 2006, the market was slowly but surely moving from sellers’ to one that favoured buyers.  Ones in the know, i.e. people with family members…

Four Reasons I’m Bullish on Canada

April 22, 2009

in Culture, Society, & Economy

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Excerpt: A while ago, I looked at some of the worst-hit countries from the global financial storm, and concluded that on a scale of bad to deplorable, the US hardly the worst off. No crystal ball can readily foretell which regions will emerge from the crisis unscathed, but I am bullish on Canada in the medium to long term. Here’s why. Sounds banks, no bailouts Some say it was the far-sightedness, wisdom and conservatism that prevented the Canadian banks from participating in the madness that was the sub-prime securitization in the US. Many European banks were not so lucky. Financial institutions from Ireland,…