My tiny claim to Sept. 11 fame is that I shared the horror of the crime with Margaret Atwood (I hope you know who I mean). We both happened to be at Toronto airport for an early flight to New York when we saw the first tower hit and, as longtime acquaintances, we hung together glued to the TV until the second crash made clear we weren't going anywhere that day. The day, as the cliché now insists, that changed everything. Maybe it's really true.

The Harper government's Big Idea for the future of the Canadian economy is that Canada should become an "energy superpower." What will make it so is the gargantuan development of the Alberta tar sands, which the Harperites and their friends depict as "ethical oil." In truth, the development of the tar sands is reducing northern Alberta to a stinking hell. Long after this dystopian nightmare has been put aside, Albertans will be left with the environmental catastrophe that is being wrought. Not only is the tar sands a disaster for Alberta, it is helping drive the planet down the path to irreversible climate change. Our grandchildren will pay the price for this.

After watching Jack Layton's state funeral, I noticed that Jean-Claude Trichet's speech from Jackson Hole is online. The European Central Bank president does not seem to get it. Far from acknowledging that last month's interest-rate hike was premature, he touts "price stability."

TD Economics Monday released a rather gloomy report, putting the odds of a U.S. recession at 40 per cent, and arguing that that Canadian economy is more vulnerable to recession than it was in 2008. It highlights reduced capacity for governments to respond given that interest rates are already very low, and given that household and government debt are significantly higher than in 2008.

I would go one step further and argue that the odds of a Canadian double-dip recession are quite high. I agree with TD that our capacity to respond through easier monetary policy is weak, but would argue that we can and should respond through fiscal policy.