contained, and expansion continued in American and, by 1999 the West
Pacific Rim was beginning to recover.
Canada, perhaps one should say British Columbia, with
greater reliance on Asian markets, and Alberta with reliance on world oil
prices [which have been sustained by poltical instability and an unstable
unstable cartel in the Middle East], has suffered more than the United
States. The United State’s Golden Age is more tarnished. Canada’s Silver
Age is also tarnished. We wait to see what happens when Asia recovers.
It has been suggested that we are in the upswing of a Kondratief long
cycle, based on biotechnology and the internet, thought not to peak until
2010. If so, so much the better, for now.
Late Twentieth Century Capital Flows
Canada now has a favourable balance of trade with the United States, and
and unfavourable balance with the rest of the world. The balance with
the United States easily outweighs the balance with the rest of the world.
Still, the value of the Canadian dollar continues to fall, as it has since
the nineteen seventies. Past foreign investment, particularly from the
United States, still has to be serviced, and profits flow out to foreign
owned companies. Net unfavourable monetary flows, including net outflowss
of investment (about $130 billion over the past decade) outweigh net
favourable commodity flows, making it difficult to hold the value
of the Canadian dollar. Falling
interest of foreign investors in Canadian industry, particularly with the
unreliability of recent reverses in the fall in “commodity” prices,
including oil prices, has kept the Canadian dollar under attack, even with
lower rate of inflation that that of the United States