L E T    'E R     R I P  !!!  

Hey folks. Happy Friday to you all. Stay safe this weekend and may all your drives be down the middle. In June that is, when we'll be able to play golf. haha. Cheers all.

Hey everyone, Happy Friday, spring is here apparently and so are the potholes, I know its as sure as death and taxes, but it still doesn't help the front end much.

The money spent by the candidates in the municipal election are not a big thing to me I realize that elections are part of everyday life and they are expensive.

AIG bonuses?? thats another thing, it just goes to show that greedy people don't care about the others around them. Sure they care enough to keep everyone else on the job so that they can continue to get big bonuses, but thats about it. If you've got a heartbeat as an employee you'll do.

But obviously the people at AIG have no clue as to the cause of the recession. Nor do they care, as long as they get their money all is good.

I have worked for some idiots in my time, but these AIG guys, they take the cake.

thats my rant, thanks everyone. drive safe in these melt/freeze conditions, and have a great week.

Interesting there's so much focus on and outrage over the AIG bonuses, a mere $ 165 million spread amongst many recipents. And so little attention paid to the long term effects of injecting trillions of dollars of new credit into the economy the way it's being done.

It's almost as if those bonuses, the Madoff ponzi scheme, and other instances of personal greed and financial deception, large as they are collectively, no doubt, were tailor made as a 'smokescreen' for the media to deflect the public's attention away from the much more important issue.

An issue that will have far more effect on all of us, and already is being witnessed by the rise in our cost of living. And especially manifest in those prices of items over which we seem to have so little control. Things like food, hydro, gasoline, property tax levies, water rates, etc. They all are rising far faster than our incomes are.

Interesting, too, that in the Great Depression of the 1930's the same focus of fury was concentrated on various 'personalities' of high finance, while the financial 'system' that caused the problem remained essentially unchanged and uncorrected.

Happy Spring everyone

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/fp/story.html?id=1409571

S&P Chops West Fraser's Credit Rating to Junk!

The first day of spring and the sun is out, should be a good day, just watch the pot holes when you drive to Tim's for coffee today don't want anybody to loose your car as we almost did yesterday. And I might add yes we were doing the legal speed limit. Happy Spring to all.

MEH, good eyes. Unless you're a WFT equity holder, and you are following the news releases lately, in which case you're more aware of information about this company than most people in this forum.

I think a dividend cut will quickly follow, and more news of wealth preservation. Of course, to people on the street, that means more curtailment, layoffs, and possible plant closures, or even sales, if that's what it's going to take to keep their bankers happy.

If you're a shareholder, what are your thoughts? Are you going to ride this down? I've got a stake in this myself, and am considering taking a loss. I hate to sell because I want to provide my support, but I have to preserve my wealth too, heh :-)

Thanks

See the news today, bitterly cold weather may have killed off most of the pine beetle in Alberta. What happened to globull warming? May some of those dogmatic scholars up in the thermally efficient glass palace on the hill can chime in. This should be fun.

Global warming is alive and doing well in the GOBAL AVERAGE TEMPERATURE regime.

Global (near-surface) earth temperatures and ocean temperatures are indicating a steady rise in the last 100 years.

This is called Global Warming by the vast majority of the scientific community as it is happening globally.

I don't believe anything has happened "to globull warming" - it is continuing same as before.

Very predictable and somewhat disturbing if mankind indeed had something to do with it.

It's been warming since the last ice age.

The human population of the world was 1.650 billion in 1900. In 1999, it was 5.978 billion. In 2008 it was 6.707 billion.

I think it would be reasonable to say that an increase in population of such a magnitude by a species that used to have a much smaller effect on the immediate and global surroundings when the number were few and survival was through a hunting and gathering method, the same as all other animals.

There is no doubt that a very large number of humans now impact their surroundings to an unprecedent and unequaled fashion from any other living being.

Gus - thats all fine, but if the 1900 population had a 0.001% impact on climate change, and the 2008 population has a 100 fold greater impact its still only 0.1% !!!

The fact is that climate is changing. There is certainly no proof however that Humans have any measurable effect on this process. As duffer commented - the earth has been warming since the last ice age! However we humans arrogantly love to presume that we are oh so important...

West Fraser has no cash! Have they even been able to fill their log yards this season?

Good news bad news for people who want property on Dragon Lake. Its about to get alot cheaper. To bad no one has any money to buy it.

"However we humans arrogantly love to presume that we are oh so important..."

I agree, ants are much more important.

Rumour that PG Pulp may close!!! Hope it is just a nasty rumour.

Could be a great sledding weekend out on the lake and trials in FSJ.
It might also be the last good weekend!
Enjoy all!

Beesknees I think you are very correct to what is going to happen to 'people on the street'. I don't own WF but am a bottom feeder and have an industry interest. Born in BC is bang on about cash!
I see Tech Cominco also joined WF in credit rating. Very interesting journey this region will begin now that winter oil and logging seasons are over.
Are we in a 'lost decade' period like Japan or the last depression? Or will those that survive the next couple years be rewarded to regular profits and competitor free markets?

Demand for pulp is low because US newspapers are dying out. Last week, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer went to all internet service. It is a good time for pulp workers to retrain.