Derek Kite

Curmudgeon, amateur photographer, angular developer.

[Derek Kite @derekkite]

God, I thank you that I am not like other people—joggers with dogs, churchgoers, people who want to plant a garden—or even like this business person. I wash my hands twice an hour and stay home to work, and all I get is delivered to my door.

[Derek Kite @derekkite]

@KirkLubimov 12%? No. Almost every business I deal with is using it in some way.

This guy is ridiculous.

[Derek Kite @derekkite]

Who is Scott Pelley? Why should I care if some pompous looking piece of plastic loses his job?

[Derek Kite @derekkite]

@charlesmurray A sensible society sees a guy like Musk and works him like a rented mule. Smart, a bit nuts, driven by demons and capable of creating amazing things. Good for everyone.

[Derek Kite @derekkite]

Im seeing 2021 level price increases in equipment and consumables that I'm buying for my business. 60-250% since the beginning of the year, and my customers are the grocery sector.

These pump up GDP numbers without showing up in the inflation rate.

I'm also seeing what happens when things are slow and money is tight; companies are delaying payment of receivables.

The cost increases are hitting businesses and consumers that are already deeply in debt.

All this while the provinces and Feds are borrowing money to fund operations.

I doubt if we are going to see a anything slow and moderate for long.

[Derek Kite @derekkite]

A few years ago I was working in a small airport control tower. Fixing something. The guy had set up a satellite receiver into the tower equipment and had the raw network feeds. You could watch the remote feeds of network news readers; they would sit there patiently then turn on the charm for 30 seconds, then off.

One was memorable. Wherever they were was cold and windy, and the woman had a look of hatred for the world in general and in specific for those who put her there. The man had a carved face which naturally was warm and authoritative, the only humanity was his eyes which showed a barely contained disdain for the woman and her constant complaints.

Then a signal, and they both turned into different people. He looked warm and friendly, she looked happy and attractive, a perfect couple. They did their 30 seconds, then right back to what they were previously.

I don't know and frankly didn't care what they were saying, but the plastic transformation was quite amusing.

[Brandi Kruse @BrandiKruse]

I was an intern at @CBSNews when Pelley would fill in for Katie Couric on the evening news. I watched in the control room one day as he directed them to slowly push the shot in on him as he took his glasses off. It was so fake I’ve remembered it for 15 years.

[Derek Kite @derekkite]

I suspect it is specific to the academic environment. Wasn't there a university in the US where a mob chased some Jewish students and they barricaded themselves in a library? That was specific to that university, and others have made sure nothing like that happens.

The BC NDP drove a Jewish women out of their caucus.

[Derek Kite @derekkite]

@DrPhiltill It is a productivity enhancer. In some domains orders of magnitude, others less so.

A question. Would you have contemplated the project without AI?

[Derek Kite @derekkite]

@LauraPratt33 @WayneMathison The fourth quarter of 2024 was very close to recession. Neither Trump or Carney were in power.

[Derek Kite @derekkite]

There was something of a tell in the Liberal handling of the zero growth announcement.

They kept pointing at Statistics Canada.

Frankly, the 'recession' was rounding errors; GDP growth is a measure of economic activity in two periods, minus inflation.

There is way to much slop in both measures; economists joke that when a macro economist uses decimal points they are pulling your leg.

A higher inflation number means less growth.

So this week I bought a consumable that I use regularly; the price went from $190 per lb to $386 then to $500 over the last 6 months. I pass these costs along to my customers. So my billing could show an increase of 250%, increasing the gdp numbers, but they say inflation is floating between 2 and 3%.

Ask around. This is happening throughout the economy. I'm seeing price increases that shock me, similar to 2022.

To put it mildly, I don't believe the numbers.

So you are Statistics Canada. You see these anomalies, this strangeness; you know the numbers don't represent anything except the result of an equation that has been used for a while.

You hear the political fuss; your numbers are consequential. The data can tell you anything that you want it to say. The political environment in Ottawa punishes anything contrary to the desired narrative.

So you put lots of decimal points in the published data.

[Derek Kite @derekkite]

The mediocre Bruce Arthur

[Bruce Arthur @bruce_arthur]

Glad Canada’s conservatives spent yesterday hammering The Liberal Recession

[Derek Kite @derekkite]

@krista95809544 It is all policy driven. Repeal the policies.

[Derek Kite @derekkite]

@cbcwatcher They are funding it.

[Derek Kite @derekkite]

Millei shows up, the Argentina equilibrium is disturbed, and a line up of wanna be Peronists start crawling out of the woodwork.

[Western Lensman @WesternLensman]

Paul Krugman: “We really need to do a thorough purging of the United States."

“We need a deMAGAfication…similar to de-Nazification."

This deranged lunatic was employed by NYT for 20+ years.

[Derek Kite @derekkite]

@4U2goFurself @ForMYCanada @PierrePoilievre It is quite amazing to see the justifications for a flat economy, that by the way would have been a recession but for the external events causing oil prices to go up.

Elbows up!

[Derek Kite @derekkite]

@mrmikeMTL Drinking is a social phenomenon. Covid broke the social habits of a generation, and there is a handy thing in everyone's pocket that has replaced them.

[Derek Kite @derekkite]

Your tolerance for mediocrity is quite remarkable.

Carney's only ability is to use his connections to allow Canada to borrow absurd amounts of money. How long people will fund his economic war against the US we shall see.

I have seen Canadian governments change quickly in response to events. This one isn't doing that, in fact is doubling down on the policy direction and cost impositions that got us here.

Canada is an incredibly expensive in time and money jurisdiction to do business in. The time Carney has been in power has made it more expensive that it was.

The US is seeing around 3% economic growth. Carney has been in power almost as long as Trump.

[Derek Kite @derekkite]

Global headwinds? What are you talking about. Commodity prices are up sharply, and the resources that are plentiful in Canada are in high demand.

Do you know when employment in resource development is highest? When all the work is being done at the beginning.

We have high unemployment because we haven't even started the projects.

There are no headwinds. There are only regulatory and political barriers imposing high costs and ridiculous delays on economic activity.

[Derek Kite @derekkite]

Never forget that the NDP in BC lost official party status after two majority terms in 2001. 7 seats iirc.

Horgan was a survivor from that time, and forced the NDP to be a bit reasonable.

A very similar thing happened in Ontario. The Liberals lost party status.

In BC, the BC Liberals, who were very conservative, cut government substantially, controlled spending.

In Ontario, the Ford Conservatives have done very little of anything except spend money. I'm coming to the conclusion he was the dumber of the two brothers.

The electorate in Canada will give power to someone they think will solve problems. If they don't solve them, they will kick them out. At least in Western provinces the conservative leaning governments actually do something conservative.

[Derek Kite @derekkite]

@bushcrafter79 It takes about a decade for the symptoms to show up.

[Derek Kite @derekkite]

@JM_Whiteside Indeed. Wouldn't want any ethnic political assassinations to happen here.