Crop prices are getting dragged down by Greece’s slow financial death, with Eurozone little Dutchboys trying to plug leaky holes in the dikes, while Greeks protest against reality.
I’ve gotta say I sympathize with the Greeks, even though the country is rife with tax-dodging, an obscenely bloated government sector and a generally reality-denying population. Until they have their own currency back and default on their debts and depreciate their way back to competitiveness (like the Argentinians did) they don’t have a chance.
But because Eurozone countries can’t handle the truth, they drag this whole thing out, the whole world gets spooked again and again, confidence slides everywhere, and commodities get sucked down with the general great sucking sound we’re hearing.
So here’s what’s happened to canola and oats:
This is all just a manifestation of the general selloff in commodities:
So it’s dark times in the world, and ags aren’t going to escape the darkness until it changes. Let’s hope that’s soon and before other pins start popping. If China slows too much and begins deflating or imploding, we’ve got real trouble.
The generally dark mood out there also seems to be playing out here in Manitoba, with our provincial election being held today. I couldn’t believe it the other day as I watched an hour of TV news and saw nothing but attack ad after attack ad being launched by the NDP against the PCs. Wow, again and again and again Tory leader Hugh McFadyen was made to look like a mafia don, and sinister pictures of Gary Filmon were shown. And all sorts of new election signs have gone up urging people to vote NDP in order to avoid PC health cuts and privatization, even though the Tories have sworn up and down that they won’t be privatizing and that they’ll add hundreds of new healthcare workers.
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The Tories seem to be pushing a cheerier tone, perhaps thinking that’ll sell better with the public. But it seems odd that a government that’s been in power for 12 years is running against the record of a party that was last in government in the 1990s, and the opposition is mostly just trying to be liked. Weird. But perhaps that’s because the NDP has been running attack ads against PC leader Hugh McFadyen for a year, the way the federal Conservatives did against Michael Ignatieff.
Well, if it worked for the federal Tories, why wouldn’t that approach work for the provincial NDP?
We’ll see. Results are tonight, obviously. But I’d guess that even though there’s lots of joy and goodwill in Winnipeg right now – Jets are back and there’s a new football stadium coming and the economy is still OK – the worldwide negative zeitgeist will win out, and the negative NDP campaign will beat the happier campaign of the Tories. I’ve never guessed anything right before, so probably won’t this time either, but I’m going to read all sorts of stuff into the result tonight to back up my oddball theories.
