US Elections and the Economy

Canadian newscasts and newspapers have shown a great deal of interest in the presidential races in the US as both races appear to be wide open...with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama duking it out on the Democratic side and God knows who is going to prevail on the Republican side. I have had some interesting conversations with Canadians up here explaining the various aspects of the presidential primaries and the upcoming election in November. Canadians are very attuned to what goes on in the US for the reason that much of Canadian economy is quite dependent on the state of the US economy. Recent talk of a recession in the US have sparked concerns here in Canada and has led to the highest level of pessisism, in almost a quarter of a century according to a news report, by Canadians regarding the 2008 economy. They have kept a close eye on the enormous U.S. federal budget deficit, the mortgage credit crisis, the rising number of foreclosures, the rising price of oil, and the exchange rate between the US and Canadian dollar and trying to figure out what all this means for the Canadian economy in 2008. Hence, there have been a sense of pessisism in the Canadian media regarding economic conditions.