Harbingers of Doom

[On the up]

So oil is back to $100 a barrel. Ryanair predicts a return to profits, Zoom went bust but other canadian companies seem to have squeeked through! Air Canada drops its 2nd bag charge! It seems like the worst may be over, whats next for canadian aviation?

Oh, and how come Canadian financial institutions seem to have been unaffected by the recent financial 'crisis'? Every other country is getting nailed pretty hard!

[Hedley]

You call a billion dollar mistake unaffected?! Next
time we go for lunch, you can pick up the check

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ ... login=true

http://canadianpress.google.com/article ... XtkREc6T9Q

Canadian banks already hammered by billions of dollars in writedowns related to the ongoing credit crisis in the United States were caught up in deep pessimism after Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection.

The Bank of Canada issued a brief statement saying it is closely monitoring global developments and welcomes the Federal Reserve's actions to support U.S. financial markets.

The bank did not disclose specific actions in Canada but said it "will provide liquidity as required to support the stability of the Canadian financial system and the functioning of financial markets."

[On the up]

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce's third-quarter profit fell short of analysts' expectations, with the bank earning only $71-million after taking an $885-million hit relating to risky securities. That writedown was actually lower than most analysts expected. The soft earnings resulted from weakness in both investment banking and consumer banking, including high provisions for losses in the bank's credit card business.

Wow, the CIBC only made $71m in the 3rd quarter, so annually that would only be $280m profits. Now I realise for banks less than a $1bn is a bad year, but UK/US/Russia amongst others are putting together bail out packages for numerous companies. In Russia and UK they have placed restrictions on stock market trading (well the Russians shut down the stock market).

Maybe Canada just hasn't felt the 'crunch' yet.

[xsbank]

Curious how these outfits get bailed out and the CEOs, who caused the whole thing, continue in power and will probably get larger bonuses (bonii?) because they can claim they negotiated the bailouts!

Just like Lee Iaccocca and Chrysler and their bailout all those years ago. He got rich after riding C. into the ground.

Edited to add: I forgot to mention, doesn't it make you feel all warm and fuzzy to know that oil is below $100 a barrel but gasoline is still $1.30-ish? Aren't you glad our oil companies are so well-off? Don't you feel like a dork for adding to all those "sky is falling" threads earlier? Don't you want to buy that Escalade or Suburban now?

I'm gagging on my own cynicism. Jeez we're a useless race of twats.

[chu me]

That would be a gaggle of twats!!!!

[Doc]

I believe that the correct term, my good Chu Me, would be a "Tangle" of Twats.

[chu me]

I stand corrected!!

[North Shore]

I prefer my twats untangled, thanks. But each to his own..

[xsbank]

Twats the matter with calling lots of them a gaggle? Another CH closer and it would have been perfect.