Canadian consumer spending is finally poised to hit the brakes after a spectacular run earlier this year,

Given that there are virtually no other signs that Canadian spending suddenly weakened in February, this sharp drop in imports is likely to prove to be a fluke.

Early in the year, we had everybody trying to hit home runs. Everybody was trying to do the spectacular thing, and they were making turnovers and everybody was just doing things uncharacteristic. Once we settled down ? we started running our offense and it's really looked good.

The industrial sector is cruising along at a moderate but not spectacular pace, and that's a good thing at this stage of the expansion.

Then all of a sudden brakes get slammed on. Then we hit something and go off the side of the road and tip over,

I'm spending a year dead for tax reasons.