Commentary on France’s myopic narcissism, Harper's timid budget, and how the Supreme Court may overturn Obamacare.

Right sizing.

Financial Times -- France votes to shut out the world
Not so long ago François Hollande was a racing certainty to win the Elysée.

Related.

Economist -- A country in denial
By ignoring their country’s economic problems, France’s politicians are making it far harder to tackle them. 

 

 

 

Le déjeuner sur l'herbe, by Édouard Manet (1863).

 And now … the 2012 Canadian Federal Budget!

Pdf below – Td Economics: 2012 Federal Budget

From the right.

National Post -- Andrew Coyne on Budget 2012: This is the terminus of Tory radicalism
So now we know. If the matter was ever in any doubt, it is no longer.

 

From the middle.

Globe and Mail -- Penny drops, Tory government balks
What a strange budget Stephen Harper’s new majority government produced. Heralded as tough on spending, it was nothing of the kind. Primed as bold, it was cautious. Expected to be clear, it wallowed in the impenetrable.

From the left.

Centre for Policy Alternatives -- Federal budget drags Canada into unnecessary austerity
In contrast to this year’s AFB 2012, today’s federal budget is decidedly not a budget for the rest of us. 

 

From me (four other panelists).

The Agenda with Steve Paikin – The 2012 Federal Budget
The Agenda examines the Harper Conservatives' first majority budget and what it means for Canadian policy going forward.

The Court speaks.

Economist -- Full-court press
Barack Obama’s health-care law moves to America’s highest court, and looks to be in danger. The case could transform the power of the federal government.

Note: the mirror motif came from Japan.

The bold designs of Japanese woodblock prints, which were popular in France at the time, were another influence on the Impressionists. Their asymmetrical arrangements contrasting large areas of flat colour with patches of intricate pattern offered a compositional format that the Impressionists could use to develop their ideas about colour. Sometimes, even the most avant-garde artists need the security of knowing that the path they have chosen to follow has some roots in tradition. The compositions of the Ukiyo-e masters such as Hokusai and Hiroshige offered the Impressionists this precedent of tradition, albeit from another culture, and consequently the confidence to forge ahead with their new ideas. Arty Factory

Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) -- Pere Tanguy