The following quote is from an article about the United States. I think it is also very good description about Canada.

“What is the biggest economic problem that the United States is facing? Very simply, our biggest problem is that we have way too much debt, Over the past 30 years, household debt, corporate debt and government debt have all grown much faster than our GDP has. But no nation on earth has ever been able to expand debt much faster than national output indefinitely. All debt bubbles eventually burst. Right now, we are living in the greatest debt bubble in the history of the world. All of this debt has fueled a “false prosperity” which has enabled many Americans to live like kings and queens. But no nation (or household) can pile on more debt forever. At some point the weight of the debt becomes just too great. It is amazing that the United States has been able to pile up as much debt as it has. Over the years, many authors have predicted that U.S. government finances would collapse long before the U.S. national debt ever got to this level. So the mountain of debt that we have accumulated is quite an “achievement” if you want to look at it that way. But the clock is ticking on this debt bubble and when it collapses we will say “bye bye” to our vastly inflated standard of living and we will discover that we have destroyed the economy for all future generations of Americans.”

http://etfdailynews.com/2012/06/25/economy-we-are-living-in-the-greatest-debt-bubble-in-the-history-of-the-world-xlf-tza-fas-faz-spy/

The following link is to a data table at Statistics Canada on Canada’s total credit market debt over the last 5 years.

http://www5.statcan.gc.ca/cansim/pick-choisir?lang=eng&p2=33&id=3780050

The following link is to a data table at Statistics Canada on Canada’s total credit market debt over the last 5 quarters.

http://www5.statcan.gc.ca/cansim/pick-choisir?lang=eng&p2=33&id=3780084

Check out the 6th line from the bottom on both of these data tables (Total funds raised equals total funds supplied) and note the present number, and its rate of increase.

You are posting a lot of interesting links! And you are posting your opinion!

Surprisingly JBelt hasn’t accused you of ‘spammin’ yet! Maybe he is on vacation.

Glad to see the Morrisons Mens Wear Building on George St. getting a face lift . What is going on with the Antique Store on George St. it has been closed for over a year ,people have consignment Items that they can’t get out, she won’t answer phone calls or emails. She is still advertising on line ,so what is going on ???

It’s pretty sad the number of places allowed to blcok off sidewalks during construction (eg. Burger King). City doesnt seem to care and BK wont respond to my calls. Meanwhile i walk in the road adn hope to hell noone kills me. All for the sake of a burger joint.

We do not have a “vastly inflated standard of living”, Charles. Nor could we, physically, so long as our overall capacity to ‘produce’ continues to exceed our total necessity and desires to ‘consume’. Which it undoubtedly does, already, and to which we keep adding additional capacity (overall). Even though in ‘boom’ times we only utilise, on average, about 85% of this already existing rated capacity, and in more ‘normal’ times, around 74% of it.

With a few changes to the existing financial system, (which grossly, and increasingly, mis-represents the actual physical reality it’s supposed to be ‘reflecting’ numerically), we could ALL have a standard of living far in excess of the material one we currently do, if that was what was desired.