The recession of 2009 will force or induce changes in the work force and government finances, only some of which can reasonably be foreseen.
At first glance, seniors are most vulnerable to what's happening. Many of their incomes have been slashed with the downdraft in the value of investments. Low interest rates and lower portfolios (for those lucky enough to have them) will mean tougher times.

What about those contemplating retirement? Many have thrown away previous calculations. The money they had counted on in their portfolios or other investment vehicles isn't there. Nor is the value of their house that, for many homeowners, is their principal capital. Worse off are those who fear their company pension plans might not be sufficiently solvent to pay out what had been anticipated.

Where possible, therefore, we might expect a lot of people to delay retirement where they can, or to move into part-time employment after they turn 65. Provinces that eliminated mandatory retirement obviously did not see this recession coming, but one unintended consequence is to make remaining in the work force easier and necessary, of course, for those who will require the income.

What happens then? If senior professors at university don't retire, for example, how can those institutions hire or promote younger faculty, who, by the way, are cheaper for the bottom line? How do civil services rejuvenate themselves when senior people need to stay on?

How do companies react? If they lay off the younger employees, they are eating their seed corn and forgoing cheaper salaries? If they lay off senior employees, their short-term obligations might be high. How does an economy go forward when newly trained people in financial services, trades and business can't get started at all? How does a company plan for future growth while shrinking itself today?
Product lines are going to change in popularity as incomes stagnate or shrink. Cars are now outselling light trucks (a.k.a. SUVs) even though gas prices have plummeted, because consumers have less money and remember when prices skyrocketed.

We know that government budgets across Canada (and the industrialized world) will go into deficit in 2009, the only question being by how much. Deficits will remain in 2010, and perhaps for some years thereafter. These will be added in Canada to the national debt that had been declining both in absolute terms and as a share of the national economy.

Lowered debt in the past 10 years put Canadian governments in a stronger position to face the retirement bulge of baby boomers that would have started in 2012/2013. Perhaps as older people remain in the work force, that bulge of retirees might be pushed slightly back. But the bulge is coming and, with it, more demands on government spending.
Thinking ahead to the bulge should enjoin governments to keep their deficits manageable. That's easier said than done in a political climate of a minority government, short-term economic hardship and endemic difficulty of governing more than a year or two ahead.

The recession has already brought a fool's paradise about energy. Consumers presumably sigh with relief at the gas pump, and companies are thrilled to receive solace from the prices of six or eight months ago. With everything else heading south in the recession, having energy prices head there, too, is a relief and a trap.
As prices fall, exploration shrivels. World oil demand was finely poised between supply and demand before the recession. When demand recovers, if supply does not, or cannot, keep pace, prices will rise - perhaps very sharply and quickly.

Internationally, the United States has lost some of its relative economic influence. The U.S. model of capitalism has taken a knock. Even if the United States wished to show leadership - and the world will certainly appreciate Barack Obama more than George Bush - if that leadership requires lots of U.S. money, forget it. The country will remain for some time in hock above its neck.

China will come through this recession in the best shape of any country. The trick will be to give Beijing more clout in international institutions and to engage it on every front, something this Canadian government can't seem to understand.