Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Update: Canadian Energy Export Cliffdiving in Q4

As discussed previously here, Canada's trade surplus is taking a beating as energy prices and demand plummet. By my quick calculations, total energy product exports in Q4 came in at $25.6B vs $35.5B in Q3 - a drop of 28% quarter over quarter. I don't expect this will get much better in Q1 2009.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is an AB "culture of defeat" (lol AB and culture in same sentence).

Too bad they didn't save a Norway level of savings in their kitty (have $40B). Manitoba wouldn't gift $80B in hydro revenue to foreign CEOs blindly hoping they will maintain boom investment levels in bust.

Maggie May said...

You're right Phillip, the failure to sock away cash in a heritage fund so times like this could be smoothed is a pretty substantial failure of the AB government.

(I'm sure they have culture in AB, I just don't know what it is or that it would fit any accepted definition)

Anonymous said...

Well there is hockey, even if you need to wait 2 hours in rush hour traffic on the Saddledome's one road link.
I remember working seven straight $8/hr shifts in steel-toes there and all I wanted was a breakfast buffet. I went through the entire phone book to no avail. Maybe spoiled by Van/Vegas/Wpg/T.O. food (tastes so good in Van)...a Syl's burger is okay but not worth the 45 min anticipation in line.
I wonder what their Heritage Fund is invested in; they just lost $3B. Must not have any gold or any loans to GE Wind or anything else counter-cyclical. It is retarded to block charting one's aquifers when freshwater is economic lifeblood (correlates 96% with GDP while oil is in the low 80s%). Cgy has healthcare and aerospace hubs but not nearly the diversification T.O. has achieved at similiar $$.
I've read the AB government is the most corrupt in the land, which sucks. You'd want PEI to be least porky. I think the culture is maybe Wall Street pre-crash and without drugs. No evidence of CCF roots that offer a helping hand in cyclical downtime in the people or the Heritage Fund invetment strategy...