Binders full of Women, Retroactive Taxes, Ontario without a Government and Friday #Shoutouts

After a much more spirited debate this week, we now have a much more rich set of expressions to write about, and my favourite has to be “… binders full of women…” which was Mr. Romney’s odd way of pointing out that he wanted more women hired. However, it didn’t come out that way. Funny, when I got married, Mrs. C8j made me throw away my binders of women, but I suspect (again) that this was not what Governor Romney was talking about either, but it did cause quite the Twitter quake (and aftershocks are still being felt even this many days afterwards).

Mme. Marois in Quebec came up with a great idea to tax folks in Quebec, but not just now, going back 5-10 years if they were rich enough. This is where I always wonder why folks cry out that this is ‘Punitive and illegal’, but if the Government is doing it, can’t they just change the laws to make it work? Luckily Mme. Marois has relented and will only add these new taxes to the “Rich and Ethnic” folks in Quebec. More scandalous talk of what has been happening in Quebec has also kept the Quebec news media busy, again, Quebec politicians taking kickbacks is like saying the Sun rose this morning, isn’t this normal? (yes a very jaded, cynical and possibly libelous comment).

Dalton McGuinty pulled his parachute to escape the toxic dump that is the Ontario Legislature. His surprise resignation and the legislature’s closing leaves the governing Liberals with quite the smelly pile of doo-doo to deal with. Can the provincial Liberals survive? My guess is in the short term, no, they are going to get avalanched if a new election is called, however, as with 1985 in Ontario politics, all sins are forgotten (except for Bob Rae that is) and the Liberals will resurrect themselves after a crushing defeat. For any potential Liberal Leaders out there, you want to be leader AFTER this one, because Dalton has handed you an unwinnable game. As for my favourite kitten-eating politician, where will we see him next? Leader of the Federal Liberals, could happen, and with that the Liberals may have found an Ontario candidate even less appetizing than Bob Rae!

Tainted meat (another thing that happened in Quebec in the 70’s first! Quebec knows how!) continues to be in the news as well with XL Foods being shut down and may be up for sale. Nothing should worry you more to see stories about corruption of the food we eat (except maybe interest rates jumping to 15%).

Speaking of Interest rates, there are more and more noises about rate increases being needed, but fear of what the consequences might be on the Canadian consumer. Interest rates going back to 6% or something more normal would be interesting, but I suspect it would mean a large spike in bankruptcies too (but I have railed and ranted about this many times).

Weekly Recap

No surprise resignations by me, that I know of, but an interesting cross-section of odd posts as usual:

• Defections, Lost Tapes and #Zombie Tweets was the regular Sunday post pointing out that if you want to defect from a country, Canada is still a very nice choice (if you are a Soccer player).
• Falling 37 KM is like all things financial points out that Fearless Felix’s jump is like a lot of things, a long time to set up and very quickly over (sounds like something Mrs. C8j might say).
• Ten Things I have said that have Saved Me Money was just some helpful hints on things to say to service folks to try to get a better deal for you.
• Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff with Debt  is an expression I heard someone use this week and it scares the hell out of me. The last thing folks with a lot of debt need to feel is that they shouldn’t be worried about it.
• Money Catch Phrases was a very odd post by me where I wander down memory lane for some of my favorite sportcasting characters in my life (yeh, I am not sure what the heck I was thinking about on that one)
• Carnival of Wealth, Fall is Awful Edition continued my discussions about Guest Posts and the reactions to them.
• Leftovers, Casinos, E.Coli and Friday #Shoutouts Nothing more exciting than leftovers from a Thanksgiving dinner, so how about leftovers from financial articles?

Links for the Week

Nobody else has mentioned whether they have binders full of women at home either, they stayed on much safer topics, like money or religion:

• The Blunt Bean Counter (who is on Twitter now too) points out the Punitive Income Tax Provisions, I should show these to my co-worker who hasn’t filed her taxes for the past 5  years, might light a fire under her?
• Michael James asks Who Loses Money to Insider Traders? The answer is not a happy one (hint it’s YOU).
• The Canadian Capitalist gives us the Impact of Benchmark Changes on Vanguard MSCI and others, in-depth, but worth a read if you are a Vanguard investor.
• I am enjoying reading Financial Uproar these days, especially some of the odder posts about how fellatio is better than early retirement, however the 19 of the Best Songs about Money is also a good post, except they forgot Money by Pink Floyd? Isn’t that THE song about money?
• Mark at My Own Advisor got a Reader Question: Where do I start Reading on Your Site, on my site, you could start at the beginning, search for First Post, or you can look at my Twitter feed and anything marked (OBG) is an older post that I think is worth another look.
• Gail Vaz-Oxlade brings us Bad Reasons for NOT Saving, trust there are a plethora of them, don’t use any of them please!
• Preet writes in the Globe about the Importance of a Will, Especially if you have Kids, if you don’t have one, do something about it now, please!