Random Thoughts: Shut down!

Election Time Week 2

Not much new and exciting this week on the election trail other than Harper attempting to run his campaign “sans media”, Ignatief’s Family Fun Pack of Liberal (re)hash, Jack Layton saying all politicians are corrupt (an interesting paradox), the Green Party not being allowed into any debates and Gilles Ducepe chuckling his way to the ballot box. No real new ideas yet, but the debates coming soon should make for much more financial fodder for us to discuss in the coming weeks.

Down South however, the entire U.S. government may shut down today, because they have run out of money (and don’t have a new budget to run from). This is kind of cool in some ways, and terrifying in other ways, but no matter how you do it, this kind of Political Stand off does make for interesting news.  Our Japanese friends are also attempting to shut down nuclear reactions and the expulsion of radioactive water from their reactors as well.

Lent continues on but the end is in sight (and then the celebrations), only 2 weeks to go until Easter.

Yesterday was World Health day, I was going to go for Irony and phone in sick, but I didn’t have the nerve.

Security and various breeches (at Epsilon especially) filled my posts this week:

• I took a poke at our political leader with my post of I Promise to Cut Services and Lower Taxes, where I pointed out that the Government’s Budget is not that different from our own personal budgets.
• A big discussion point is Garbage and Green Bins in Ottawa , at least around where I live, and I am not sure we are not creating a false savings with these new city plans to cut garbage pick ups.
• The Security breach at Epsilon caused me to question Financial On Line Security, at a lot of these firms.
• While I like the On Line Financial Services tools available, I have serious misgivings about their security given their reliance on networks and putting all that financial information in one spot.

As a note, I actually enjoy all comments (even the ones that question my sanity), and will try to respond to most comments, so please feel free to comment away.

Other financial bloggers had their own interpretations of what was going on this week (both financially and politically):

• Michael James got us all a bit jumpy with  Technical Problem at BMO Investorline Gives Us a Scare, which is never a good thing, when your investment house tells you the WRONG thing.
• Echo of Boomer and Echo lamented about the Things I Hate Spending Money on: Shaving, I myself hate buying deodorant and after a while, I kept getting it for free, as my co-workers kept leaving it at my desk.
• Canadian Financial DIY gives us his One Investor’s Wish List for the Coming Election, and one is almost coming true if the Tories get into power (at least it is one of their promises).
• Sandy at Yes I am Cheap got the same form e-mail as I did from Chase, Capital One Bank Customer E-mail Addresses hacked, and she sounds as happy as I am about the situation.
• Canadian Capitalist warns us that with the Canadian Learning Passport: Check the Fine Print, which of course is true for all promises made this election (except of course by Jack Layton, because he is such a bad ass (see below for details)).
• Jim Yih gives us a list of Not Taxed Items in Canada, which is always useful, given that most things are taxed here (including fun, and sex). This explains why we are all so crabby.
• Larry MacDonald gave us an update on the One-Minute Portfolio, which is up a little more, good news for Larry.
• My Own Advisor goes out on a limb with his post You Can Learn Financial Planning Tips from Guns N’ Roses, Duff McAgan is a financial author? Guess I best start practicing my guitar riffs and head out on the road.
• Preet points out in the Globe and Mail  Celebrating Annual Tax Refunds? There are better things to be doing with your money than loaning it to the Government for a year (with no interest), which is a good point.
• Sustainable Personal Finance gives us Sustainability Tip #95: Serve Local Wine, you mean from Ottawa? I think not, maybe from Niagara, but I haven’t really found any local Ottawa wines to my liking, (might try Chateau Neuf De Manotick next week though).
• Must be Job hunting week because Financial Highway gives us 30 Most Common Interview Questions and How to Answer Them, remember bollocks is never a good answer (unless someone is asking you about your favorite Sex Pistols album).

Carnivals this Week

I also had some submissions accepted to various carnivals, so go have a read of these as well:

• Tom at Canadian Financial Blog hosted the Canadian Finance Carnival #30 which featured my post C’est La Faute du Federal .
• Out of Debt (again) hosted the Carnival of Money Stories #100 Retire Gracefully Edition which featured the post Let’s Go Buy Some Money .
• Funny about Money hosted the Carnival of Personal Finance #303 which featured post about whether following the crowd is safe.
• On the Carnival of Risk #128 my post Security for Lent was highlighted.

Other Bookkeeping

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Remember

“I never lied to you, I’ve always been cool, I wanna be elected…”

Author: Alice Cooper (or was it Jack Layton?)