#8: Magazine Article

I am sure by now everyone has heard about how badly GM and Chrysler are doing. If they do not already have enough problems to worry about President Obama just announced that 60 days to come up with a better plan of he is cutting off tax payers funds. The article General Motors: 60 Days to Show Result, which appeared in Business Week, explains that Obama is not satisfied with the plan that GM and Chrysler presented to his administration recently. He says they need to come up with a better plan, or else. Some of the criteria they must meet are to negotiate further cuts from the UAW, reduce its unsecured debt, and show a plan that works. This is a comfort to finally hear. Obama is actually taking charge and working towards building our economy, because what happens in the states is so closely related to what happens to us. I gathered from the article that what GM originally proposed would have met Bush’s standards, which seem to be a lot lower than that of Obama’s thankfully. Obama does not see the benefit in giving these companies money if they do not have a solid viable plan on how they would use it. We need to get a clearer grasp on what our economy is going through right now, like Obama has. No more CEOs making millions, if not billions of dollars, while their company is going bankrupt. It does not make sense, and hopefully with Obama’s influence it will begin to stop.

#7: Book Review

So for my personal book choice I think I changed my mind like 100 times, I just could not choose what book I wanted to read and talk about. I really enjoy reading books that have become movies before I see the movie so that I can compare them. I have done it with many books like Harry Potter and Twilight, and usually I find that the books are better than the movie. The only time this was not the case is with the Lord of the Rings, simply because the book was so hard to get through. My favourite book so far, and the one I finally chose to do this review on, is the Never-ending Story. It was one if my favourite movies as a kid, my mom said I watched one VHS so much that I actually wore the tape out, and the book is just that more interesting. It has amazing detail, and the story just comes alive in your imagination. The idea that the book you are reading is really happening and how you react is actually part of the book is so interesting. Sometime it’s a little confusing because you are reading about a little boy who is reading, but it keeps the story going. The antagonist in the book is a wolf named G'mork and he is as scary in the book as he is in the movie. Atreyu, the protagonist, is one of my all time favourite book and movie characters simply because of his depth, you gives inspiration through overcoming his challenegs. I haven’t quit finished reading the book yet, so look forward to another blog on how I feel about the ending, and how much more different the book and movie become.

#6: Newspaper Articles

My next article is Blended sales tax next year. This is a huge deal to anyone living in Canada as our taxes will now be a 13% single sales tax as of July 1, 2010. This will have a HUGE effect on items that are pst exempt, like fast-food and home heating fuels. Because of this the Liberal government plans to impliment a slew of consumer-friendly measures, but I am not to sure how much they will help. The article states that Families earning less than $160,000 a year will get three cheques totalling $1,000 annually to offset the higher prices, but that is most families, especially with all the layoffs. So this raises that question, how will our government afford that? Single people will get lesser relief, which is bad for college students like me, living on their own. It also says that children's clothing, diapers, feminine hygiene products, books, child car seats and boosters, and new homes costing less than $400,000 will continue to be subject only to the 5 per cent federal GST. As a single person, making little more then $10,000 a year im not sure how this will effect me. I work in a grocery store so I will be able to see the effects first hand, but I would like to know what people who are PST exempt are going to do. This proposal seems like it is going to do more harm then good, but I guess we will have to wait and see.

#5: Newspaper Articles

So its been a long time, but I am back. So lots has been going on in the news and the world. There is always articles about another company going bankrupt or laying off more people; the reccesion is affecting everyone in some way. Its pretty much all we talk about in all our classes, so for this write up I have decided to read about something a little different. The article Manitoba town fears worst actually has nothing to do with layoffs or people having no money. Its about the potential flooding they are facing. The first sentence in the article says “The mayor of a Manitoba town says he's bracing for the "worst two weeks" in the community's history as ice-clogged culverts, ice jams and the rising Red River threaten dozens of homes.” Now not only do these people have to worry about losing their homes because of money troubles, but they have to worry about physically losing there homes to a flood. The people of Manitoba have been trying to break up the ice, but it seems that by the time they have made progress at one point the ice has resettled in another area. Already 40 homes have been evactuated and another 100 people have been up on alert. This effects us because the economy is so fragile right now, and any problem in any part of Canada could greatly effect us all. I luckily have no family out there to worry about, but I feel for the people who do.