Rising gasoline prices are causing financial hardship for a majority of North Americans and are increasingly being seen by global economists as a potential threat to the durability of an economic recovery (albeit, a ‘jobless economic recovery’) that is just underway.
According to this article in Public Citizen “gas prices are rising because of uncompetitive actions by a handful of mega-companies …”.

“If it is so clear that America’s gasoline markets are uncompetitive, then why haven’t these companies been investigated?” said Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook. “We believe that millions of dollars in campaign contributions have purchased immunity from … scrutiny.”

Meanwhile, according to environmental scientist and President of the Foundation on Economic Trends, Jeremy Rifkin, in an article published yesterday in The Guardian, we should all be getting ready for “what might become the economy’s version of the perfect storm later this summer” as steady gas price increases become a harbinger for economic devastation that could result in “dire consequences for the global economy.”

· In a just-released poll, John Kerry leads Bush 49-43 in Florida.
· A recitation of Martha Stewart’s lies, top to bottom.
· Aristide’s ouster was a coup.
· Liberal Sheila Copps loses the Hamilton East-Stoney Creek nomination, and kvetches.
· U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft remains in Intensive Care.
· Howard Stern believes his radio career is coming to an end.

Well, it looks like “that’s all she wrote” for style maven Martha Stewart, as a jury found her guilty on all charges in her obstruction of justice trial Friday. Stewart is expected to go to prison when she is sentenced on June 17.
The New York Times story on Stewart’s conviction reports that the charges against Ms. Stewart would carry a possible sentence of up to 20 years in prison, although federal guidelines could reduce that to about a year.
A personal observation: There is something terribly wrong with the American system of justice when O.J. Simpson can get away with murdering his estranged wife and her lover (based on findings in the American civil courts, on a preponderance of the evidence); when CEO of Enron and Bush pal, Kenneth Lay, has yet to be charged in the ongoing multi-billion dollar investigation of his company’s fraudulent practices; and when myriad other “evil-doers” — who’ve added nothing to the sum total of our existence on this Earth — play round after round of golf with their buddies, unmolested by the courts, while Martha Stewart awaits a lengthy term in prison.
This story will continue to be updated throughout the day as analysis becomes available. Listen to this early, and breathlessly emotional audio report from MSNBC, or have a look at any one, or all of, these TV reports from Canada’s CBC, Britain’s BBC, and / or, from the United States, CBS.
Meanwhile, the Smoking Gun has just posted the jury verdict online.

As a former Statistics Canada employee, responsible for the conduct of the Labour Force Survey in Vancouver’s West End and the Downtown Eastside, this story in Tuesday’s Vancouver Sun comes as no particular surprise.

The widely reported results of the monthly labour force survey of households by Statistics Canada showed 162,100 jobs were created by employers from September through November, a pace of employment growth that, in the face of a strong dollar and weak economy, stunned economists.
However, the results of the agency’s survey of employer payrolls, the latest of which is for last November, paint a much different picture, National Bank economists say in a new analysis.
That survey shows only 31,279 jobs were created over that period, an anemic pace of job growth that’s more in line with an economy that itself was barely growing. “The difference of 130,821 jobs over three months is without precedent since 2000,” the National Bank says.

In B.C., the discrepancy gap was relatively large, at 22,300 jobs.
Although VanRamblings is given to understand that Statistics Canada has, over the past two years, enacted procedures to “tighten up the collection of information”, the organization obviously has a long way to go if it is to regain the confidence of Canadians following today’s publication of the National Bank’s own, more comprehensive research findings.
As for me, I wouldn’t trust in the veracity of any set of survey results published by Canada’s official information gathering agency.