Some of you may be wondering what this “mother of all bailouts” really means for you (Canadian perspective)? Well, let me break it down. The US government just spent about half a trillion on bailing out a few institutions, now it looks like they plan on buying out the entire debt of the sub-prime mortgage crisis. The total price tag of all the bailouts plus this one is going to be at least 1.5 trillion. The US is already about 10 trillion in debt so there is no more money. How will they pay for it? Basically, they will have to print that money. ECO101: If supply of money goes up, value goes down. This means that the purchasing power of your own US dollars will go down and inflation will go up. The plan is still being worked on but if its like anything that they announced on Friday, you’ll want to change your green bills into CAN. This is also going to affect businesses that rely on Americans purchasing their products. As American dollar looses value, our products will become more expensive for them to buy. Canadian trade surplus will definitely decrease. So far, everyone is still waiting for the details but instinct tells me that if you try to cram the most important piece of economic legislation into a weekend, there is a high risk of a major blunder.