Monday miscellany

• Former Canadian Finance Minister Michael Wilson has passed away at the age of 81.  A Bay Street veteran, Wilson was appointed Finance Minister in the Brian Mulroney government at a time of massive budget deficits.  Despite his private sector cred and some ambitious plans, Wilson was never able to tame the deficit monster -- that had to wait for the arrival of Paul Martin.  That was one of the few failures in Wilson's career; he was a decent and distinguished man with a long list of accomplishments.

• Canada's equity market is under attack from short sellers because the rules here are less restrictive than elsewhere. The article calls them "abusive" short sellers, but really, is there any other kind?  As I've said here before, a short seller is like the kid in class who rats out his classmates to the teacher.  Nobody likes that kid.  Any nugatory benefit from short-selling, in terms of more rapid adjustment of prices when bad news hits, is more than offset by the obvious potential -- and frequent occurrence -- of abuse. 

• The shutdown countdown is back on, with another partial closure of the US government possible by Saturday.  As I said when the last shutdown ended, if there is another one, it won't take three weeks for air traffic controllers and other essential workers to start calling in sick this time.  Since even the dumbest denizen of Capitol Hill must be aware of that, I'd bet that a way will be found to avert a shutdown, even if it's only through another temporary resolution. 

• The UK economy grew only 1.4 percent in 2018, its worst performance since the financial crisis.  Data for December were especially dire, with output falling 0.4 percent in the month.  With more and more companies in all sectors of the economy bracing themselves for a "no deal" outcome, the current quarter promises to be even worse -- and if there really is no deal by the March 29 departure date, the rest of the year could be truly catastrophic.