The following link will take you to Forest Talk, (Canada's Forestry Blog - bringing you forestry news from Canada and around the world)

http://foresttalk.com/

Also it was just announced that one of West Fraser operations [Northstar lumber} is shutting down indefinately. What a time of year to get this information, I hope they got plenty of notice at the very least.

PS, thats in Quesnel incase you were wondering.

The following is from a Dec.16, 2008 article on the Bloomberg News web site.

"Dec. 16 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. builders broke ground in November on the fewest new homes since record-keeping began, signaling the housing slump will extend into a fourth year.

Construction starts on housing fell 18.9 percent last month to an annual rate of 625,000 that was the lowest since the government started compiling statistics in 1959, the Commerce Department said today in Washington."

The following is the link to the article:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=azP8gnGVza2U&refer=home

Vice President-Elect Joe Biden just mentioned that massive infusions of government money will be needed in the coming year to prevent a total collapse of the U.S. economy.

To all those who are losing their employment now - may you be strong and find a way to other employment.

The Canadian forest industry needs a bailout like the auto industry, but there seems to be no urgency on the part of the Feds to do anything of the sort.

The ivory towers of Ottawa are as oblivious to us as ever.

"Vice President-Elect Joe Biden just mentioned that massive infusions of government money will be needed in the coming year to prevent a total collapse of the U.S. economy"

Where the heck are all of these governments around the world getting this money from, especially since most of them will be in deficit positions? I don't imagine they have cash reserves just sitting around so that begs the question, is the money just pretend? If it isn't, who is loaning it?

Sounds to me like one big financial mirage.

Over building of homes, over production iof cars and over consumption is the cause of this mess. Greed is the basis of all of it. Don't blame anyone but ourselves and our insatiable appetite for more.

Wait until the surplus inventory of homes for sale in the US is between 225,000 and 325,000 and things will get back to normal.

Let's use up the existing inventory of cars before we build any more. Lay off some of the workers until demand justifies hiring them back.

Every business is in business to provide a product or service that someone else wants and is willing to pay for. That is what makes the world go around. If people quit spending, companies are forced to lay off employees. Tax revenues decrease and demand on the social safety net increases. So, taxes have to increase to pay for the demands of our citizens. And the burden falls back on the remaining producers and tax payers to pack the load. And the bankers increase their portion from 14% to who knows of every dollar we send to Ottawa.

NMG:"Where the heck are all of these governments around the world getting this money from, especially since most of them will be in deficit positions? ...who is loaning it?"

The money (like all other money) is created out of thin air - then it becomes the duty of the taxpayers to pay the annual interest on it, thereby reducing our standard of living.

The collateral are the country's assets and the savings of private citizens.

The debt obligations are sold within the country and overseas as investments. Eventually somebody will get stuck with holding the empty bag.

The whole thing is a painful charade, a modern system of slavery.

With the Minister of Forestry in PG and 2 Conservatives MPs in the North - why are they not fighting for the forestry workers for a bailout / an extension to EI etc? This is ridiculous to help a small sector - autoworkers and ignore a much greater workforce.
Not only that all other forms of industries and towns rely on the forestry.
Pat, Dick and Jay need to be heard loud and clear that compensation for forestry workers is a must - maybe a trip to see Danny Williams (Newfoundland) would help instead of a trip to China!!

This is nothing new.
Boom, bust, echo.

Our economic system, right or wrong, is based upon greed.

I disagree woodwoman. Bailouts and EI extensions are not the answer, whether you're talking about the forest industry or the auto industry. Racking up the credit card and spending money we don't have is not the way out of this crisis.

It is insane to me to bail out an auto industry to keep people working building more cars that nobody wants. Why don't governments see this?

Things are going to get a lot worse before they get better.

NMG:"Where the heck are all of these governments around the world getting this money from, especially since most of them will be in deficit positions? ...who is loaning it?"

That's the irony of it all, NMG, the bank's are 'loaning' it! The same banks the government is bailing out! It's as utterly stupid a situation as realizing that the bailout loans to the auto companies to allow them to survive and save "jobs", are really for them to "restructure" and eliminate them!


So far as banking goes, Diplomat is basically correct. Every bank loan or purchase of securities by a bank creates a bank deposit. The repayment of that loan by the borrower, or sale of those securities by the bank, destroys that deposit.

We look on money as something that circulates. In reality, it 'ebbs' and 'flows' from the banks and back to them as loans are constantly made and repaid. The system is 'creditary', based on contracts for future performance. When there is doubt that those contracts can be, or will be, honoured, the banks restrict lending. Since loans that have been made are dependent for their repayment on other loans being made, any restriction in lending causes borrower defaults.

Fundamentally, any money system is really no more than a bookkeeping system. What we see as 'cash' and 'coin' are merely tickets and tokens that make that part of it portable. Most money exists only in the form of figures in bank account balances.

All money is 'credit', (or 'debt', depending on which side of the ledger you're on). It's only practical function, in reality, is to facilitate the production, distribution, and consumption of actual goods and services.

The problem we are witnessing right now is caused by a disparity between the quantity of money in the hands of the general public, as a whole, and the 'price values' of all products for sale on the market, as a whole.