How's yer bubble?

On October 5, 2008, Dear Leader, in a radio appearance of a Sunday night, revealed the existence of the magical financial bubble:

And on the other side of it, you know, from our own perspective, you know, our economy is strong, we're in a better position than we've ever been, we're also in a very good position now with the, you know, the international financial crisis that's underway. We now, for the first time in our lives, are in a bit of a financial bubble and that's a wonderful thing. We have that protection and the people of this province got the support of the provincial government.

According to the latest figures, (finally) published this week by the Newfoundland and Labrador Statistics Agency, all but two of the province's 20 economic zones saw a loss in the number of business enteprises between 2007 (the last of the pre-recession years) and 2009 (the most recent data.) They were the Northeast Avalon and Central Labrador, shown here in green.

Most zones had declines of up to five percent (yellow) or between five and ten percent (orange). The two zones in red lost more than ten percent of their business enterprises during the recession, despite the presence of the magic bubble and the operation of the Williams Effect (on a go-forward basis, naturally).