Wenzel Economic Forecasts on Target

In an announcement that caught us rather off-guard, IMF economists agreed with Wenzel's earlier economic forecast of trouble resulting from a high Canadian dollar and sluggish American economy. For our original thoughts, check out "The Curious Case of the Canada's Currency" attempts to spell out the problems mentioned in the third paragraph below.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/money/national/2006/09/14/imf-useconomy.html

Many questions, few answers

By all accounts it was a stellar year for Barcelona midfielder Ronaldinho, having helped his club to the Champions' League title last year, earning himself a FIFA World Player of the Year. However, he'll be looking to put a lacklustre World Cup performance behind him. In Brazil's game against France, Zidane showed the young Brazillian that there were still a few tricks to be learned at the feet of the master. With Zidane's departure though, Real Madrid will be looking for increased output from David Beckham, who has recently been paired up with his Manchester United striking partner Ruud van Nistlerooij. The Flying Dutchman launched his promising La Liga career this weekend with a hat trick. Meanwhile back at Old Trafford, Ryan Giggs appears to be in fine form, and the team is off to a perfect start. Questions surrounding the relationship of young stars Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo seem to have been answered. Elsewhere, both Chelsea and Arsenal will be hoping that this will be the year that domestic league success translates into a European championsip. In Italy, disgraced giants AC Milan start their campaign off against AEK and would be happy to work their way back into favour with another title. Cross-town rivals Internazionale, the current darlings of Italian soccer, are attempting a ten year return to the winner's circle themselves.

Liberals Make Little Progress

The results of the Liberal leadership French debate did little to clarify matters in Quebec. While it is entirely likely that disaffected Liberals who voted for Harper out of distate for the Chretien/Martin Liberal Party scandals will go back to the Party in the next election (largely predicted for this summer), it is unclear what ground the Liberals are making in Quebec. That the Liberals are looking to re-invent themselves is clear, Bob Rae and Michael Ignatieff, the two front-runners, are Party outsiders with little connections at the Federal level. They were also the only two candidates who are reported to have been comfortable speaking in French. Unfortunately for the Liberal Party, neither of these two gentlemen have much to offer Quebec on the surface. Rae is tainted by his history of being premier of the largest Anglophone province in Canada, while Ignatieff's Trudeauist vision of Canada as a unitary concept does not seem to hold much room for Quebec as a distinct society. If the Liberals want to guarantee electroal victory they're next leader will need to make up ground at the expense of the Bloc Quebecois.

Harper drifts further from Liberals

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced further reductions in Canada's commitment to the Kyoto Protocol. This time, the cuts were aimed at international programs to assist developing countries in lowering emissions. Previously, under Paul Martin, Canada's contribution to the Clean Development Mechanism was among the highest of any developed nation. Harper's move not only helps to distant himself from popular Liberal support for the Kyoto Protocols and environmentalism, but also serves to alienate supporters of increased foreign and developmental aid. The move will increase support for Harper in his Western stronghold. Some elements of the mainstream media are now actively suggesting that Canada is working on behalf of the United States to undermine the Kyoto Protocol from within.

Eleven in a Row?

As Maria Sharapova showed the second set poise that commentators had been predicting for her ever since her Wimbledon win two years ago, we rushed to check if the bookies in Las Vegas were offering a line on a sweetheart bet. With her U.S. Open win over Justine Henin-Hardenne, many will be looking for speculated boyfriend Andy Roddick to win today over Roger Federer. However things will not be so easy for the American, as Federer is riding a ten-match winning streak over Roddick. We keep waiting for Roddick to offer his own Vitus Gerulitis moment with, "No one beats Andy Roddick eleven times in a row." Of course, like Andy's coach Jimmy Connors, Federer might just match Connor's sixteen straight wins over Gerulitis.

The moment, though, belongs to Sharapova. Many will be looking to point to this U.S. Open as her transition from up-and-comer to established winner. She has shown moments of remarkable maturity, from her elegant night match black cocktail oufit and post-match interviews acknowledging that a champion finds a way to win even on the day's she doesn't feel like playing, followed by immature ones, such as the little black bow in her hair, or more notoriusly, robotically following hand signals from her father to eat a banana or take four sips of water.

Fire another shot off, one more time

We tip our hats to James Blake as we down anothre round of espresso. As the time-delayed US Open creeps past midnight here in the Wenzel office we applaud Blake's ability to come back in the third set tie-break after a soul-crushing 6-0 second set against Federer, who once again is demonstrating the icy coolness that has kept him world no.1 for the last couple of years.

Roddick runnin' hot

With the wet weather hopefully behind us, the US Open rolls on, with several great matches occurring yesterday. Disappointed as we are with Safin's loss to Tommy Haas, Roddick showed great promise in his match against Hewitt, a hard-fought affair much closer than the straight sets victory would have you believe. Tonight's game featuring Federer and Blake, an Australian Open rematch should prove equally entertaining. The real story of this post-Agassi Open however, continues to be the stunning play of Mikhail Youhzny who upset Nadal yesterday. Ranked 54th, but coming off an impressive Davis Cup match for Russia, this could very well mark Youzhny's entry to Tennis' big leagues. His next match is a semi-final against Roddick and we'll be riveted.

Music Update

One of these nights
During one of these fights
We're gonna burn the whole place down

So sings Shane MacGowan on "Paddy Rolling Stone", perhaps our favourite song this weekend. We had forgotten how much we loved the affable, toothless, former Pogues frontman, until a friend of ours brought back Rare Auld Stuff, a collection of rarities and A-sides (though it's missing the version of "My Way" recorded for a Nike commercial with Williams S. Burroughs). Otherwise, its been a pretty slow week for quality.

Debut releases abounded this week, with J.R. Writer's "History in the Making", a self-titled release by Six Pack Jacket, Saddle Creek's Ladyfinger (NE), and something called Various Productions. Add onto this new stuff from Priya Thomas, DJ Slip, and the Basement Jaxx and it makes for a busy week in music. Surely, something good must be in this pile.

Both Six Pack Jacket, a cowpunk band from Calgary but ranging all over Western, and Priya Thomas, an agitpop provocateur from Montreal now living in Toronto, are about the best on tap. Six Pack Jacket are not going to win any songwriting contests anytime soon, but their songs about drinkin', drivin', fightin', shootin', wooin', and shotgun weddinin' are a lot of fun. Think Ramones with cowboy hats (or most likely, Supersuckers). Thinkin' meanwhile, is exactly what Priya Thomas wants you to do on You and Me Against The World, a feisty exchange with the powers that be. Her fourth release, Thomas is coming off the recent festival circuit to rave reviews, and enters the studio with yards of taped, programmable loops, samples, and razor blades. Dense, lyrical, literate stuff akin to PJ Harvey.

Razor blades also come to mind with J.R. Writer's History in the Making. Like Six Pack Jacket, JR Writer is workin a genre for all its worth, but without the tongue in cheekness. After almost twenty years of gangsta rap its hard to find the same old ideas exciting. Writer borrows a lot of themes from Ice T's Rhyme Pays. Unintentionally perhaps, but nevertheless interesting, are the four to six bar synth loops that Writer uses to back his vocals. Very low-fi, very basement quality, very interesting.

Again, sticking with the genre theme, Ladyfinger (NE), from Omaha, Nebraska and the vaunted Saddle Creek record label, falls a little flat with their debut Heavy Hands. Ladyfinger follows the mid-nineties grunge riff with a lead vocalist who waffles between screamo thrash and Morrissey like warbling. The band themselves are solid, but not exceptional.

Where are we? Yes, Basement Jaxx are releasing Crazy Itch Radio, a hyperkinetic, style jumping dance album. With only a few listens under our belt, its been hard finding a common groove. Dj Slip meanwhile, has mustered an good old fashioned techno freak-out with She's a Time Traveller. At times it sounds like kinky, awkward, leather-clad sex with primitive androids. But in a good way.

Finally, the most intriguing is something called Various Productions. With no track listings and decorated with simple black and white drawings of a topless dancer astride deer antlers, it caught us completely off guard with its captivating blend of folk/electronica.

Back to School

As thousands of kids get board buses or tread wearily along sidewalks aimed at heading back to school, its back to business for many of their parents. We here at Wenzel are no exception and to honour the daily grind we've put away the Kimbo and pulled out the Lavazza d'oro, our favourite brand du jour. While Illy is perhaps the world's best coffee, Lavazza, according to our numbers, is the world's best-selling. Their campy, sexy, advertising campaigns don't hurt either.

Harper loses ground

A few weeks ago, we discussed the idea that Prime Minister Harper would have to find a way to maintain the loyalty of disaffected Liberals, fleeing the corruption of the Martin party. We suggested that an appear in Toronto at the International AIDS Conference would have allowed him to score some of those political points. It appears that our prediction was right; according to the results of a new Ipsos-Reid poll, Harper's no show cost him among Liberals, youth, and Quebecois, a place where the Liberals suffered the biggest losses.

We are academics, we are hard-core!

Yes, it's true, the people behind Wenzel, are nothing but a bunch of pencil pushing geeks with advanced high school diplomas and more than one university degree to each of their names. We admit it, so the following BBC article gave us pause for thought: just how rampant are the "soft subjects"? We keep hearing talk of American college courses on Elvis Presley or philosophy of the Matrix, and the ubiquitious film studies. We also have a tendency to look down our noses at Faculties of Education and Management, faculties we sometimes think belong more at the community college level and less at the Ivy Tower (with apologies to our own Sean Marchetto, who daylights as a school teacher himself). Our belief is still that in our current social state, education should be a process oriented affair, encouraging critical thinking and further study. Do people dismiss so-called "soft subjects" on the basis of "content" or "skills"?

Andre bids farewell

It was a match that nobody but Andre wanted him to play. Too tired and too hurt after the fantastic marathon against Baghdatis Thursday night. Agassi's father himself said that he wished his son had retired directly after that match, to spare him the pain of having to play relative unknown Benjamin Becker, a collegiate player making his first U.S. Open appearance. To many, a loss to Becker would be a letdown after Baghdatis, and with Andy Roddick lurking in the wings. An Agassi-Roddick setup would have been a passing of the torch, old king versus young prince, though it was not to be. There were moments as the fourth set wore on where it appeared that Becker's conditioning would allow Agassi to creep back into the match, perhaps forcing things to a dramatic fifth set victory for Agassi, but Becker's serve did not waiver. Unable to capitalize on a breakpoint at 4-3, Agassi allowed Becker back in, finally losing 6-7. As Agassi shook hands, tears were in his eyes, and the crowd rose to their feet. Sitting his chair, trying to compose himself enough to address the audience, even Becker remained standing, cheering. Barely able to hold the microphone, Agassi gave an emotion farewell, and tennis' prodigal son walked off court for the last time.

Agassi v. Becker

it was the best of time, it was the worst of times . . . Watching Agassi, our hearts burst and then break as he takes the second set tiebreak, and then is broken on opening serve in the third.

Tuition Blues

September means back to school and another round of school fees, either parents paying for items on an ever increasing list of required materials (materials once provided by the schools themselves), or post-secondary students trying to come up with scratch for tuition. Here in Alberta, tuition has been on the rise since the early 1990s, and after fifteen years finally appears to to be slowing, as the University of Calgary actually lowered tuition by 0.2%. Also, the province no longer ranks in first place as the province with the highest tuition rate, that honour goes to Nova Scotia. However, what is not mentioned, is that with the lowest minimum wage and tightest rental market, the University of Calgary is still one of the most expensive universities for out of town students to attend. It is not unusual for undergraduates earning $8 - $10/ hr to have to pay for a $1000/month one bedroom apartment. Many are still working two jobs on top of their full-time studies, despite Calgary's booming labour market.

The expense of education has hidden consequences for the U of C, which expresses it's anger again this year at the MacLean's University Rankings. Part of the criteria that MacLean's uses is the impression that a university's graduates have in the workplace. University of Calgary students, working multiple jobs, tend to be over-worked, sleep-deprived, and under-perform while actually in university, resulting in lower GPAs on transcipt records, another MacLean's measure of quality.

**links to follow**

Boffo for Bardin!

Currently, Wenzel is enamoured of Spanish artist Max's bound collection featuring Bardin, the Superrealist. Having visited the Dali museum in St. Petersburg, Florida earlier this summer, the office staff are passing around the lovable adventures of the big-headed Bardin, heir to Luis Bunuel's Andulisian Dog, against his psyche and ultimate truth.

Brother Andre, we pray for you

Somone in the Wenzel office joked just before Thursday night's match, that the only way Agassi was going to beat the younger, faster, and stronger Baghdatis, was if Baghdatis fell in the tunnel walking out to the court and broke both his legs. Little did we know how close that prediction would be . . . Andre started off in fine form, the forearm errors from the Pavel match were gone, and he was able to control the match from the baseline. Perhaps Baghdatis was too overwhelmed by the moment, but Agassi took the first two sets 6-4, 6-4. It was a different story in the third however, as Agassi appeared listless and Baghdatis ran down balls and fired them back with authority, using a wicked drop shot that forced Agassi to run and crouch towards the net. With three consectuive breaks of Andre's serve, Baghdatis took the third set. Marcos Baghdatis, the young Cypriot with a bright tennis future, looked ready to end Agassi's career as he cruised through the fourth as well. For Agassi, the well seemed empty, and he stopped making cross-court runs to return balls. Then, early on serve in the fifth, it happened. Baghdatis started cramping in both legs. Watching Baghdatis hobble around on court seemed to rejuvenate Andre Agassi, but Baghdatis wouldn't go away carrying the match to the verge of tiebreak before putting a return wide to end it all. The 23,000 New Yorkers who had stayed well past midnight went wild and Agassi prepares to meet Benjamin Becker later today.

Movie Update

It's been a busy week on the cinematic front. The big afternoon cine-siesta featured District B13, a rousing cops and robbers tale about drug dealers and missing nuclear warheads, community redemption and political corruption and Paris. Produced and directed by the makers of Ong-Bak and Little Miss Sunshine, about a family falling apart but trying desparately to hold themselves to together as the youngest daughter is escorted to a beauty pageant. Greg Kinnear plays the self-motivated failed salesmen, Alan Arkin the heroin snorting grandfather, while Steve Carell takes a turn as America's pre-eminent Proust scholar. The son, adorned in his plain white t-shirts, black and maroon low-top Vans, and love of Nietzsche, reminded us all very much of our very own editor, Elvis Bonaparte, when he was in high school. The usually flighty Toni Collette plays the steady mom, offering support and guidance. Easily one of the best movies we have seen this year.

Other movies that crossed our screens included two Giovanni Ribisi vehicles, I Love Your Work and The Big White, which also featured Robin Williams and Woody Harrelson, as well as Inside Man, which while engaging and thoughful, ultimately offered one to many loose ends to tie up. It must be said however, that Spike Lee continues to impress us in his post-9/11 manifestation.

Agassi, the Eternal Return

This was perhaps one of our favourite Andre Agassi headlines, taken from Le Monde's US Open coverage a few years. The interview cast Andre in Nietzchean terms, but not in the tumultous superman exerting his will-to-power over those around him, but rather in equilibirium and control. Watching Agassi take centre court Monday night you hoped desperately that Agassi could recapture the same kind of magical spark that ignited Zinedine Zidane at the World Cup. As he and Andrei Pavel traded breaks and headed into a first set tiebreak, we were on the edge of our seats, hoping that he could battle back from the points he so easily gave away. Anxiously we counted unforced forehand errors in the second set, fearing that Pavel might win three sets straight, but jumped for joy when Agassi won the next tiebreak to even the match at a set apiece. However, we were quickly brought crashing down to earth at his uninispired beginning to the third set, falling 4-1, and were baffled by his hand signals to his coach. If we were surprised with the start of the third, we were awestruck by the difference those new rackets retrieved by his coach made, allowing Agassi to storm back to take the third set. Pavel looked like the old man andready to collapse. We knew it was over. Agassi would be back. He skipped about the court like a spritely tennis spirit, rejuvenated by his surroundings.

U.S. Open now Open

One of our favourite sporting events starts today with Wenzel contributor Bassano del Grappa's countrywoman Maria Elena Camerin taking on Justine Henin-Hardenne, the tournament favourite. Both del Grappa and Camerin are from the Venice area and our office space has already given itself over to Italian passion.

But yes, we always seem to enjoy the U.S. Open. Maybe it's because of the drama and atmosphere of New York, maybe its the tension and storylines that come from the season ending tournament itself. Can Federer hold-off Nadal? Can Agassi enjoy one last special ride before he retires? Can Marat Safin finally clear his head and win again where he won his first slam? What about up-and-coming players like Andy Murray or Gael Monfils? Or the Andy Roddick show?

The Housing Bubble

Two news stories published this weekend help to show that Wenzel is not alone in worrying about an impending housing crash and recession in the United States, although analysts differ on the extent that it will affect Canada. Check out the following stories, but notice that our economic picture attempted to include the impact of the energy market on the U.S. - we keep hearing rumours that American oil companies are being threatened by the Chinese, something that the BBC reported this weekend too.

"Will it be a crash or a soft landing?"

"Canadian bank raises warning of U.S. recession"

"Chad orders foreign firms out"