I don't know whether or not Ghasemi is more reliable than Netanyahu. I'd say that odds are in Ghasemi's favor because Netanyahu is a notorious and profligate liar. Like the time he spread that very malicious slander that the Palestinians gave Hitler the idea for the Holocaust. 

Thinking that Netanyahu is a liar has nothing to do with anything that Ghasemi said. 

We may be the last province to have directly billed people, according to income, for the Medical Services Plan. That ended since an NDP and Green Party coalition took power, so most people in B.C. now have no direct connection to paying for MSP health care coverage, it's done by the employer, only the self employed might know what they are paying into the system. I don't know how it works for a Quebeccer (Quebecois), but I did visit a specialist near Laval once years ago and at that time the transportation costs were all mine (this too changed shortly after, though I didn't qualify for reimbursement as it was not retroactive). Our Emergency areas out here are pretty bad, an hour wait is considered quick and there are routinely people in hallways after admission for lack of ward beds. There is a crisis for years where there are not enough doctors and at least a fifth of the population doesn't have and can't get a General Practitioner or family doctor. I hate to suggest it but if things are so much different in Quebec it could be that more is spent on it as it represents a political necessity.

Our prime minister has put an oil pipeline he used government fund to buy into, to sell and ship more oil to Asia, ahead of the killer whales. His father gave the west a raised middle finger once, not sure his son would ever do the same though literally.

We also used to have fees for clinic visits, so that's another thing they did get rid of here too, but now we're limited to a certain number of doctor and specialist visits in a year which was not the case that I know of before. You can get a voucher for ferry transport to see a medical specialist in another area, but very difficult to get other transport costs paid (I got a taxi voucher once but paid for the buses too many times to count and trains a couple of times). Also we pay for a few hundred dollars of prescription pharmaceuticals before some of it starts to get covered, dispensing fees are not covered, nothing used to be covered at all here, having anything partially paid for near the end of the year is relatively new for me, except for exceptions. But you won't go bankrupt, that part is different than the U.S. was, but hospital cafeteria food here is almost made to make you ill compared to U.S. hospital food (ours was contracted out to some massive Asian owned processed food corporation years ago). If you have money or a good plan the U.S. cancer patient (my fiancee who sadly eventually died of cancer) gets in very very quickly. When my Mother was diagnosed with cancer twice (she is still alive though) she waited weeks for a specialist and then two months give or take a week or so for surgery, and it is even longer now.

So are you saying you think Trump's tax cut is responsible for the growth?  I strongly disagree if that's the case, it's too soon for that to have taken effect... Obama's spending package is more likely to be the reason.  It takes time for government actions to start taking effect.   the money has to circulate through the economy.  

Certainly his trade policies haven't had any impact yet... I suspect that impact will be mostly negative, but we'll see.

Accumulating Inventory is generally considered a bad sign.. equipment spending is good though.  

You could certainly argue that just by virtue of the Republicans being in office, businesses have more confidence and spend more, which helps everyone.   There's lots of precedent for that.  

It feels alot like the 80s to me right now... Reagan's policies got things flying after the stagnation of the 70s, but we borrowed heavily do to it.   That's what was great about George Bush, IMO, he was willing to bite the bullet and raise taxes when the spending benefits peetered out and it was time to pay for them.   I don't think Trump is going to be willing to do that in a year or two when it'll likely be the right thing to do, which concerns me.   (I'm not sure any politican in today's climate would, which is the bigger problem)

The ACA was a Republican policy that Obama adopted as a compromise.   Mit Romney came up with the basic tenets, and we were using a variation in Massachusetts when he was governor... the ACA just made it a more friendly to lower income people.    My health insurance has gone down since it's been in existence.. I think states that acutally set it up as designed did well, those that fought it and didn't suffered.

I'm not married to it though, since health care is still insane... the problem is there is no replacement plan.. just getting rid of ACA when it was helping was the height of partisan politics.   IF Trump, or anyone, had a good idea for an alternative, I'd be all ears.

Again, the jury is still out... it's takes time for economic policies to kick in .  I like Powell as a replacement for Janet Yellen (though keeping Yellen would have been better)...  seems like he's continuing the same long term policy.   That was definitely points for Trump ... I just wish he realized that that fed reserve policy was already fixing the trade imbalances he seems so concerned about (thanks to a strengthening dollar) instead of starting a trade war with China.


Booms and recessions are no ones fault, they have to happen in a free market economy.  The governments job it to try to make the booms better and/or last longer, and the recessions shorter.   If you go too big during a boom time, the following recession is worse.. my concern is Trump's policies might make the next recession, whenever it hits, worse because he won't raise taxes when it's time (which is very soon).   It certainly won't be his fault there is one though, there certainly will be within the next 5 years no matter what anyone does.

There is a very good chance the economy would not be doing much differently overall no matter who was elected in 2016, frankly. The short term boosts from businesses being excited Trump was going to let them raid the pantry and from the tax cut are going to end up being hiccups in the overall trend line. I suspect the Republican Congress would have done basically everything the same thing if any Republican with a pulse had won.

I'm still not seeing much Trump specifically personally has done to truly improve things, though the conversation is moving in a better direction.