What Happened to the Dog Days?

Summer is supposed to be a time when you can take a news holiday and get away with it. Weeks filled with Coney Island hot dog contests and George Bush clearing brush. Financial markets in particular are supposed to be slow. Everyone's to busy golfing to care about the markets. Lots of low volume days. Well, this doesn't quite fit the pattern. Anyone following the mortgage meltdown south of the border won't be shocked to hear that the US Treasury is going to extraordinary lengths to protect its biggest lenders, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. However, the fact this meltdown is occuring in July tells me, in case I needed a reminder, just how serious this crisis is. Last week a major regional bank went under in California. There are rumblings of General Motors having liquidity issues. The global economy is on the precipice. Yes, don't believe for a second that any country, least of all Canada, can resist the pressure of a US recession. If M. Dion insists on spending the summer talking about The Green Shift, he better be talking about all those Green jobs he's going to bring Canadians. People don't want to hear about the environment when they can't put food on the table or pay the rent. Climate change doesn't stop being important but voters care a whole lot less. Priorities change when the economy goes south. If M. Dion needs any confirmation he should talk to his foreign affairs critic about auto insurance.