econorat

And now it is the Greenback's turn...

2007-11-25T05:58:00.000-08:00

Beware of The Strong Canadian Dollar

2007-11-05T15:51:00.000-08:00

I have been saying for years that Canada is far too dependent on United States as a trading partner and we are about get hit hard because of this. The U.S economy is tanking and Canada will not be able to take the hit.

Nation	November 05 2007 value over November 5 2006 Value	November 05 2007 value over November 5 2006 Value expressed as a percentage
US	1.07010/.88540	120.86%
Japan	122.8070/104.5360	117.48%
China	7.9890/6.97870	114.48%
European Union	0.73740/0.69650	105.87%

That 20.86% increase in value scares me. There is no way the Canadian GDP has increased that much over the last 12 months and i fear that even the 17.48% and 14.48% increases are related to the tanking U.S. economy. Both China and Japan, like Canada, are net exporters to the United States and as the values of our currencies rise so do the prices of our exports in the American market. Unless the value of our dollar falls to the $1.03 range before Christmas Canada is in for some serious economic hardship in the new year because if it rises to $1.10 (a 27% rise in 12 months) by Christmas I expect stagflation to occur, which could result in mass lay-offs starting as early as March due to surplus inventory because Canadian goods will have been priced out of the market in the United States.

Meanwhile our dollar may continue to rise on world markets as a haven currency but because of the unemployment only a handful of Canadians will be able to take advantage of the falling import prices.

Internet Radio

2007-05-31T19:04:00.001-07:00

Clicking on title will take you to the news article.

Ever since I first discovered internet radio I have been in despair need of a 12 step program. I have discovered blues, jazz and radio drama stations that listen to on a daily basis, none of which are genres that exist in my home market and I might even gladly pay for continued access, if I could get access to them in my car and a portable player too.

I am so happy to see that the hearings have begun. The recording industry has no right to be demanding royalties for much of what is on these stations. Any person is free to start a station and play their original music and thousands of artists that could not get world wide exposure any other way have taken advantage of this, artists that the big record companies have no interest in until the artists begin siphoning off money from the companies formulated 'artists'. In the words of Fred Eaglesmith, "bring back steel belted radio", which is exactly what net radio has done.

I agree that Shania Twain, Hillary Duff, and thousands of others on the big labels should get something for the air play of their music. But what business does EMI, Sony and Virgin have demanding money from artists such as The New Jacobin Club, Kelly Wiens, By Design, Agriculture Club, Enter the Haggis, Propaghandi or any other independent artist? None! If they won't touch it or have let the copyright go, in the case if classic radio drama, they have no right to demand a pound of flesh just because someone might choose to play something on an amateur radio station that anyone can set-up - rack it up to free advertising and comb the original music for the next big thing.

Artists need to be able to create and should not be hindered by some record company executive who is afraid of losing market share. The executives should be adapting and listening, they will always have the upper hand on making stars, which is what they do.

And because they have the upper hand demanding greater royalties is not good business, it will hinder the distribution of new music over the internet. What independent artist is going to want to set up a website or radio station to share their music if they have to pay some multi-national company, who currently has no interest in them, thousands of dollars a year?

Let artists be artist and let the recording industry adapt and evolve.

Calgary passes public behaviour bylaw

2006-11-21T04:43:00.000-08:00

Calgary City Council voted Monday night to pass a public behaviour bylaw despite the protestations of dozens who gathered outside City Hall.

The bylaw, which takes effect immediately, makes it illegal to spit, fight, carry a sheath knife, urinate or defecate in public or put one's feet up on public property.

Fines would range from $50 to $300.

The protesters, mostly from Calgary's anti-poverty community, said the bylaw is discriminatory and unfair. They believe the bylaw targets the homeless while ignoring the root cause of the problems — a lack of affordable housing in Calgary.

"First, before passing a bylaw, is to ensure that people have a choice — that they have shelters or housing so that they wouldn't have to [go to] the bathroom outside," said Laurie Fuhr, one of the protest organizers.

Calgary high school student Blaine Kingcott told CBC News the bylaw should be scrapped because it violates everyone's rights.

"I think its forced people into an unfair social justice situation where they can't even sleep on a bench," he said. "That's unfair even to [people like] myself — that I can't sleep on my public bench."

At least two aldermen had favoured a delay until next year so that implications of the bylaw could be considered.

Although I can understand the desire to have clean streets and am in full agreement with outlawing public urination and defecation, or at least defecation anyway, this law also can be used to outlaw one of the great pleasures of a Canadian summer, falling asleep in a park. The other problem this law does not address is access to public washrooms, business owners do not take kindly to letting non-patrons use their facilities and as for the public toilets, at least in places such as Bankers Hall and Eaton Centre "societal refuse" can be harassed by security and refused access.

Being poor should not be a crime and nor should needing to heed nature's call be, however increasingly both of these things are becoming crimes and that is something that should be outlawed.

Easy-Bake Oven, Lionel train earn place in Toy Hall of Fame

2006-11-13T04:50:00.000-08:00

The Associated Press

The U.S. Toy Hall of Fame is paying homage to the electric age.

The Easy-Bake Oven and Lionel model trains have joined Mr. Potato Head, the Frisbee and 32 other classic, but watt-free toys, in the Strong-National Museum of Play's eight-year-old hall of fame in Rochester, N.Y.

Longevity is a key criterion for getting into the all-star lineup. Each toy must not only be widely recognized and foster learning, creativity or discovery through play, but endure in popularity over several generations.

"This is the year of the plug-in toy and a sign of things to come," said Christopher Bensch, the museum's chief curator, noting that the 12 nominees in 2006 included the iconic Atari video game system.

"Will it be time someday for the GameBoy or the PlayStation or the Xbox? I think so. Those are the toys people are going to have nostalgia for and maybe pass on in their latest forms to their kids and grandkids."

The latest, still pre-computer child favourites to be honoured have been around for awhile: The first Easy-Bake Oven showed up in stores in 1964, and Lionel trains have been chugging along for more than a century.
Continue Article

Engineer Joshua Lionel Cowen built his first electric toy train as a store-window attraction around 1900. When a customer bought the train instead of other advertised toys, he launched the Lionel Manufacturing Co. Its sales peaked at $32.9 million US in 1953.

Pretzel vendors in New York City gave toymakers at Kenner the idea of a child-suitable gizmo that actually heated food in a small working oven. Kenner, now a division of Hasbro Inc., has since sold 23 million Easy-Bake Ovens and more than 140 million mixes.

"It's safe, it works and the best part is that the play makes its own reward," said museum curator Patricia Hogan. "Fifteen minutes in the oven and a slurpy, gooey, doughy concoction becomes a delicious — OK, edible — confection."

The museum, which boasts the world's largest collection of toys and dolls, acquired the hall in 2002 from A.C. Gilbert's Discovery Village in Salem, Ore. So far, 36 classic toys have been enshrined, from Barbie to Jack-in-the-Box, Legos to Lincoln Logs, Slinky to Play-Doh, and Crayola crayons to marbles.

The corrugated cardboard box — a universal plaything or recreational backdrop since the 1890s — was inducted into the hall last November.

2006-04-20T22:41:00.000-07:00

Sex, Porn and Marketing

2006-04-17T05:57:00.000-07:00

It has been said that had it not been for the porn industry we would still be groping around trying to figure out how to make money on the internet. I have also read that it was the porn industry that made VCRs viable, suddenly a person could purchase the movies through the mail and watch them at home rather than risk being seen going into a blue movie house. Further back, the reason that Barbie dolls have impossible proportions is because the mold was originally used to make a sex doll; Mattel did not believe in the toy enough to give it the funding it deserved - what would a woman know about what little girls want to play with??

Now we have an extremely realisitic robot that is used to teach health care professionals how to assist a mother in giving birth. There is little doubt that the genitalia on this robot is also derived from the porn industry, where they manufacture battery operated vaginas and sex dolls that are intended to respond like the real thing. And actually when you think about it it is only natural that this would occur, no sex, no babys.

I suppose what I am finding interesting is that our most primal desires and needs are driving technological innovation. For all our brilliance we still force our greatness to submit to our bodies animal instincts and desires. That really is the driving philosophy behind marketing, "how can I make my product appeal to people's basest desires"?

Currently I am marketing a product from ThermoFlow, wearable pain relief. This is a reasonably high-tech product, it contains ceramic fibers that hold far-infrared light, or heat, in the tissues, which increases blood flow and eases pain. It has a Health Canada number and has been found effective in a double blind study. However what I am doing is selling a product that appeals to people's base desire to be relieved of pain.

We all know sex sells and that is the real question, how do we made a product sexy in order to sell it. In fact that may be one of the issues I need to address, how do I make pain relief sexy? Danni Ashe has shown us how to make the internet sexy, before that pornographic movies made VCRs sexy and it has been stated that the front bumper on a 1953 Cadillac was intended to be 38DD sexy.

So how do I make ThermoFlow sexy so that I can make some money?

Islam and Water

2006-04-13T12:27:00.000-07:00

Please visit the link that pressing on the title to this post will take you to.

A few years ago a heard a preacher state that he believes the next global war will be fought over water. I am now concerned. The combination of Islamic, the world's fastest growing religion, fanaticism and water accessibility concerns scare me. In fact I just thought of something I dare not mention on the web or I could get myself under the surveillance of the CIA, the RCMP, Massod and Interpol. This is scary. If Islamic terrorists decide to begin bombing for water...

Those of you who know me, feel free to approach me and I will tell you what my thought was and it will scare you too, once you understand the significance of the target.

Natural light 'to reinvent bulbs'

2006-04-13T11:49:00.000-07:00

I honest want to have something constructive to say, but I keep finding wonderful articles that I want to share, but am at a loss as to how I want to comment on them except to say that I really apprciate the innovation.

A light source that could put the traditional light bulb in the shade has been invented by US scientists.

The organic light-emitting diode (OLED) emits a brilliant white light when attached to an electricity supply.

The material, described in the journal Nature, can be printed in wafer thin sheets that could transform walls, ceilings or even furniture into lights.

The OLEDs do not heat up like today's light bulbs and so are far more energy efficient and should last longer.

They also produce a light that is more akin to natural daylight than traditional bulbs.

"We're hoping that this will lead to significantly longer device lifetimes in addition to higher efficiency," said Professor Mark Thompson of the University of Southern California, one of the authors of the paper.

Old fashioned

Traditional light bulbs were invented more than 130 years ago. Since then the basic principle of creating light remains the same, although the design has been tweaked.

An electric current passing through a tungsten wire causes it to heat up and glow white hot.

Today, more than 20% of electricity used in US buildings is eaten up by lights and nearly half that amount is used by traditional, incandescent light bulbs.

It has been a long-term goal of scientists to come up with something that would reduce this mammoth energy demand.

The new work exploits the properties of carbon-based polymers to produce the white light. These are already found in some mobile phone displays and MP3 players.

Until now, they have been unable to generate sufficient light to illuminate a room.

To create the new material, the scientists build up ultra-thin layers of plastics coated with green, red and blue dyes.

When an electric current passes through them, they combine to produce white light.

Previous attempts to make OLEDs like this have largely failed to make an impact because traditional phosphorescent blue dyes are very short lived.

The new polymer uses a fluorescent blue material instead which lasts much longer and uses less energy.

The researchers believe that eventually this material could be 100% efficient, meaning it could be capable of converting all of the electricity to light, without the heat loss associated with traditional bulbs.

The new material can also be printed onto glass or plastic and so in theory could create large areas of lighting, relatively cheaply.

Before this becomes a reality, the scientists need to work out a way to seal the OLEDs from moisture which can contaminate the sensitive material, causing it to no longer work.

If that barrier can be overcome, the new polymer could eventually become the material of choice for stylish, environmentally friendly lighting.

The research team incorporated members from Princeton University, the University of Southern California and the University of Michigan.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/4906188.stm

Drug firms 'inventing diseases'

2006-04-11T07:56:00.000-07:00

Pharmaceutical firms are inventing diseases to sell more drugs, researchers have warned.

Disease-mongering promotes non-existent diseases and exaggerates mild problems to boost profits, the Public Library of Science Medicine reported.

Researchers at Newcastle University in Australia said firms were putting healthy people at risk by medicalising conditions such as menopause.

But the pharmaceutical industry denied it invented diseases.

DISEASE-MONGERING
Restless legs - Prevalence of rare condition exaggerated
Irritable bowel syndrome - Promoted as a serious illness needing therapy, when usually a mild problem
Menopause - Too often medicalised as a disorder when really a normal part of life

Report authors David Henry and Ray Moynihan criticised attempts to convince the public in the US that 43% of women live with sexual dysfunction.

They also said that risk factors like high cholesterol and osteoporosis were being presented as diseases - and rare conditions such as restless leg condition and mild problems of irritable bowel syndrome were exaggerated.

The report said: "Disease-mongering is the selling of sickness that widens the boundaries of illness and grows the markets for those who sell and deliver treatments.

Campaigns

"It is exemplified mostly explicitly by many pharmaceutical industry-funded disease awareness campaigns - more often designed to sell drugs than to illuminate or to inform or educate about the prevention of illness or the maintenance of health."

The researchers called on doctors, patients and support groups to be aware of the marketing tactics of the pharmaceutical industry and for more research into the way in which conditions are presented.

They added: "The motives of health professionals and health advocacy groups may well be the welfare of patients, rather than any direct self-interested financial benefit, but we believe that too often marketers are able to crudely manipulate those motivations.

"Disentangling the different motivations of the different actors in disease-mongering will be a key step towards a better understanding of this phenomenon."

But Richard Ley, of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, said the research was centred on the US where the drugs industry had much more freedom to promote their products to the public.

"The way you can advertise is much more restricted in the UK so it is wrong to extrapolate it.

"Also, it is not right to say the industry invents diseases, we don't. It is up to doctors to decide what treatment to give people, we can't tell them."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/4898488.stm

Customer Service???

2006-03-27T16:34:00.000-08:00

I hate Wal-Mart. It is not actually Wal-Mart I hate it is the business culture that the store has created. I overheard a conversation between two women today, on of which works at Le Chateu and frankly her attitude sucks, she is yet another person I am adding to my list of people I would not hire to clean my toilet.

According to this woman retail is a great environment to work in because you can just stand there and do nothing, now if a customer approaches you have to talk to them, but really you do not do anything. Whatever happened to customer service, whatever happened to pride in your job? Whatever happened to work ethic?

I am part of a start-up and know that I have hours of hard work, endless selling and strategising to do. It really concerns me that after all the effort I will put into selling my products to retail stores some store manager is ultimately going to be trusting some person like the woman mentioned above to sell the me products to consumers. I hate Wal-Mart, I blame Wal-Mart for this attitude.

About two years ago I needed to buy an SD card. This was the first one I had ever bought and a friend told me to just go to Wal-Mart because they had them on sale cheap and really anyone in Audio/Video should be able to help me. NOT!!! The particular day I visited my local Wal-Mart store I was dealing with not one, but two women over fifty who were totally computer illiterate. I finally left the store and after telling them that I there was no way I was buying anything from them and I would gladly pay whatever premium a computer store would charge me just so I could talk to a knowledgeable salesperson. Wal-Mart has lowered the bar of staff knowledge and consequently customer service so low that being a sales clerk is an entry level position, not just entry, but first job ever.

We are trusting people who have never worked a day in their life to be the frontline workers in our economy. They are are being trusted with customers who have questions, they are being trusted as the faces of our businesses. They are not being trained in the simplest of customer service skills and consequently people are receiving terrible service.

This would not be so bad if it was confined to Wal-Mart, but it is not, as I stated in the beginning the young lady works at LeChateu, a mid-market retail clothing chain. She is cute as cute can be, but lacks anything that remotely resembles a frontline personality, to quote Billy Joel, "All you need are looks and a whole lotta money". And you do not even need the money anymore, you can get it on credit.

Risky Business

2006-02-16T09:38:00.000-08:00

I was at my usual Wednesday breakfast yesterday and was privy to a conversation regarding the mission and vision for certain year-round camp that is currently in the process of being passed from one generation to the next.

The younger generation was arguing that the camp should be closed each winter, rather than expanding it's services, because it is so expensive to keep it open and it does not generate enough revenue. The older generation was being very emphatic that the orginal mission was a year-round camp and that the next generation should proceed very cautiously if they wish to make such a change because money should not be their deciding factor.

The younger generation expressed that they preceived the core mission of the camp to be two weeks in July each year that the board runs a camp. The older generation was arguing that, 'no, that is incorrect', the core mission is the availability of the camp to all the other groups who use it the rest of the time. Both were arguing that the camp needed to focus on it's core mission, they just could not agree what it was.

To make his point the younger generation brought up the case of General Motors in the late eighties buying up everything but Toyota because they had lost their primary focus, building automobiles. I replied that the problem was that General Motors has quit taking risks many years earlier and simply focused on continuing to build automobiles, rather than building innovative automobiles or improving the automobiles were already building.

Until about 1965 the most dynamic and successful auto manufacturer in the world had to be General Motors. New lines were introduced, new features were added, risks were taken, unexpected failures were shrugged off and unexpected successes were built upon. Then along came Ralph Nader's attack on the Corvair in, Unsafe at Any Speed. The Corvair was probably General Motor's crowning achievement, years before there was ever an energy crisis they had an entire line of fuel-efficient compact cars that could compete head to head with the coming Japanese imports and the best that Europe had to offer; I read a review of the Corvair SS by someone who raced Porsche 911s - he said that the SS was just as good or better and at a lower price. Had the Corvair division not been killed off General Motors would have had a proven, tried and true compact truck, mini van!!!, four door sedan, coupe and convertable established in the market before the buying public had ever heard the names Toyota, Datsun, Mazda or Honda (who risked their entire motorcycle company to build a car). General Motors introduced a fuel efficient garagable van 20 years ahead of Chrysler and Toyota!!!

General Motors lost it's way when it began playing it safe and began following others, the Camaro to compete with the Mustang (arguably the only real success), the Vega to compete with the Japanese, or converting a gas engine to diesel to compete with Mercedes-Benz, to name just a few. Any innovations they did come up with were either mediocre, because they played it safe or downright failures that discouraged them.

Business is about taking risks and being dynamic. Chrysler has rebuilt their company on love it or hate it design, Ford risked going retro with two of it's icons, the Thunderbird and the Mustang. They understand that their mission, taking their cue from General Motor's Harley Earl, is to build practical automobiles that evoke emotion in people, cars that people buy not because they are practical, but because they excite them. Nobody needs to buy a new car or a $100,000 car, people buy them because they want them and they want them because someone took a risk when they designed it.

Hiring a full-time maintenance person and spending the money to bring the camp up to year-round standards is a risk, but it is keep it's eye on it's mission. The camp in question was one of the first year-round camps in Saskatchewan, it was built because a group of men had a vision and a passion. It is beautiful and well constructed, times have changed, the board has changed, but should mission? The passion that drove General Motors had driven them to success and was continuing to drive them toward success in the coming decades and economic realities, but they quit listening to their visionaries and started listening to their bean counters.

Western Canadian magazine publishes Muhammad cartoons

2006-02-13T11:36:00.000-08:00

Why do I smell a rat?

Ezra Levant would publish Holocaust cartoons? Somehow I think not!! Or at least not unless he is a self-hating Jew.

I believe he is hiding behind freedom of the press and Liberatianism. I admit that I published a thumbnail and linked to the cartoons on my faith based blog, Search For Righteousness, but this story was still in it's infancy and my point was what I perceived to be hypocracy on the part of the Muslim community. Furthermore do not possess any implied public authority and am free to be as much of a raving lunatic as I choose. Ezra Levant publishes a magazine that people subscribe to (implied public authority) and be cause he is a jew and it can be extrapolated that he is also very antagonistic toward Muslims, hense his true motives for publishing.

The impression I have always received of him is that he is a right-wing nut. A good idea is not a good idea unless it is a proposed by some one from the right and the further the right the better because the right can do no wrong. He did this because it is not politically correct and he can hide behind his right to publish whatever he wants.

I can not even think straight. I simply think that if he had some integrity he would have long ago barbequed some conservative politicians for their foolery and ineptitude like he has repeated done to the Liberals.

Mr. Levant can say whatever he wants, but remember he would die for any conservative cause before admitting that either the NDP or the Liberals could or ever have done one thing correct. His credibility is suspect at best because otherwise Maurice Vellacott and Stockwell Day would targets of his as would Stephen Harper's decision to bring a senator and a liberal into cabinet but, I at least, have heard nothing of that issue from Mr. Levant.

Do I here the death of the tobacco industry?

2006-02-08T09:34:00.000-08:00

Forgive my rambling I am working out an opinion before your very eyes.

It would appear that the chapter of world history Sir Walter Rawleigh's began is coming to a close. China is banning the construction of any new cigarette factories.

A smokeless world. As much as I revel in the idea I really am concerned that it will just be driven undergound. Before long we will begin hearing about hydroponic tobacco operations, the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms will begin raiding countries and destroying their tobacco fields, okay so I'm getting carried away. But I really do wonder how people will react.

Laws are obeyed because they are respected, if we do not respect them we do not obey them. Obviously non-smokers have no problem obeying anti-smoking laws but smokers are known to flaggrantly disobey rules if they believe they can get away with it. Add to this the billions and billions of dollars that the tobacco industry makes each year and the death of the cigarette is probably a long way off.

However this is a good first step. Now I do fear a proliferation of new factories in China as bribes are taken and current plans are rushed through. But at only 36% of the population with a target of 18% by 2050 it is encouraging to think that China is now joining the rest of the industrialised world on this point too. Hopefully smoking will be virtually eliminated in the next couple of centuries but that is optimistic.

There are some serious economic concerns though, tobacco is big money, they have deep pockets and they are aggressive about wanting to stay alive. There will be some serious fights ahead as they lose markets and struggle to gain new ones. The upside is that Muslims smoke very heavily in the Islamic countries and given their current level of anger it may not take long before they begin to quit (boycott actually) smoking as they decide to punish the west.

Basically if China can pull this off and the Muslims remain as angry as they are we may once again see a smoke free world, driven by the twin forces of the market and religious zeal.

You GO!!! Tim's

2006-02-06T12:06:00.000-08:00

Click on the title for the story

We may have lost the Bay, but the new Canadian insitution is showing those Yanks how it is done.

Tim's is profitable and Wendy's is in red ink.

I really have nothing to say, I just want to gloat.

A cartoon

2006-02-06T06:32:00.000-08:00

I simply like this one when I came across it. From what I can figure out it is drawn by an American Muslim.
Strom Thurman

Another Porsche for the Family?

2005-07-27T15:07:00.000-07:00

First they introduced the Cayenne and now they are going after the mainstream market again with the Panamera. As much as I can understand the logic and may have even voted in favour of this idea had I been on the board I simply must also question this decision.

The fear is that it will "muddy" the brand. Porsche is a unique company, they build "practical" semi-exotic and exotic sportscars. By practical I mean that a person can actually live with one as a daily driver, despite the fact that they are built to go very fast on the Autobahn they are also built to be driven up to the Alps to go skiing. This fact may be their saving grace on this decision, ever since the 911 was first introduced Porsches have always been both a prestige and practical brand.

But I must confess that I still have a hard time accepting the Cayenne as a Porsche. It is not a Porsche, it is an SUV and a reskinned and tweaked Volkswagen SUV at that. I suppose my point is that they "muddied" their brand once and it was accepted as a necessity, but a family car too? What's next? Are they going to introduce a mini-van?

Like I said I understand the logic, but I suppose from brand identity perspective they would have been wiser to have never offered the Cayenne in the first place and introduced the Panamera as a four door coupe similiar to the Mazda RX8 or even the Dodge Charger. But to have begun with an SUV and then go to a four door is just ruining a good brand name. As I write this I am realising that the truth is Porsche is positioning itself, intentionally or unintentionally as an upscale Mazda.

Mazda has worked hard to position itself as an exciting brand and even marketed their SUV at one time by asking what would happen if a sportscar company built and SUV? Porsche has now answered that question and copied an economy car manufacturer to do it. Like I said I have no issues with the four door coupe per say, but I do have issues with the fact that Porsche seems to be working hard to become just another German car manufacturer.

In and of itself the Panamera is good idea, but following the Cayenne it is a real risk. I fear Porsche has bet inadvertently their reputation and the entire company on this car when it was really unnecessary. Had they never built the Cayenne in the first place this would not be half the risk it is it, something to compete against some Maseratti products is a good idea, but not it just seems like the right idea at the wrong time following an SUV.

London

2005-07-12T09:02:00.000-07:00

It is strange how I feel a pressure to write this and yet to my knowledge I am the only person on the entire planet to cares if I do.

Shortly after the bombs went off I heard a news report that effectively stated that world oil prices where falling quickly because the demand was expected to fall off over the summer because particularily in Britian people were expected to be scared of travel. Well, as my tank rapidly approaches empty, I am waiting for the price at the pump to fall. I am not sure it will here in the bald Canadain prarie though. We still feel secure, I mean who cares about Saskatoon? Only those of us who live here.

But back to London, I have no doubts that the bombing will have some effect but they seem to be taking a similiar apporach to the Americans after 9/11. Yesterday Ken Livingston, London's mayor took the subway to work and people are being encouraged to resume their lives as usual. Some one also pointed out that, traditionally, Londoners just live with these things and keep a stiff upper lip.

I have yet to hear of any royal activity but it is a well known fact that the queen's mother went for daily tours of the city during the blitz in the second world war. I suppose my point is life will resume to relatively normal in a very brief time frame. And I would argue that whatever their purpose in bombing London was al Qaeda has failed. Life will go on and apart from creating fear for a few days terrorism is not an effective philosophy with regard to communicating a message to the western mind.

Cutting off our oil would be far more effective. Therefore the question is why does al Qaeda not simply begin bombing oil wells in the Middle East and tankers on the sea? That would be far more effective and far less complicated with regard to having to circumvent security measures. Hit us where it really hurts and cut off our oil supply and now we might listen; continuing to bomb us on our own soil will only create hatred and persecution for Muslim in our countries.

Live 8

2005-07-03T19:08:00.000-07:00

Have Bono and Bob Geldof really accomplished anything?

I am all in favour of eliminiating poverty, but I can not help but wonder how many of the concert goers really understand what sort of personal sacifices they might have to make for us to truely eliminate poverty. Are they prepared to pay twice what they now do for a cup of coffee? Are they prepared to pay more for their textiles? Are they prepared to live more simply so that others may simply live?

I am not attacking intentions but I am concerned that many got on bandwagon not realise that it could really cost them. Now with regard to achieving their objective, time will only tell, because the real test will be if Live 8 did infact shame the G-8 leaders into doing something. I happened to catch a part of an interview with Ralph Goodale this afternoon and he was trying to explain what the real cost of eliminating poverty and budgeting 0.07% of our national budget to poverty relief. the bottom line is that it has to come out Canadian's pockets somehow. Military, transfer payments, or justice spending, to just give three examples, would have to be curtailed, or taxes woud have to be raised to meet these commitments.

Now that said, Paul Martin also promised that he would do something about this when he was elected Prime Minister and Bono publicly stated that he would hold him to account, which he is and has done. Somehow I doubt Paul Martin was too impressed that Bono put his office phone number on a jumbotron, but that is the price he had to pay to get Bono's endorsement and blessing, although I have no idea why the Prime Minister of Canada needs to the support of an Irish rock star to give him legitimacy, but such is the strange world we live in.

Anyway I have been up for the better part of two days now and I am afraid I am no longer making any sense, so I will shut up now.

Maybe I Can Discuss the Downside of Same-Sex Marriage

2005-06-30T15:28:00.000-07:00

The link above is to a news story about a couple who are being sued because they had reservations about doing business with a same-sex couple; they did not refuse, they were simply upfront about their reservations.

This was not a case of refusing service or denying someone the necessities of life (food) based on their lifestyle. This was a case of an inn-keeper and wedding chapel owners being upfront and honest about their reservations about being expected to participate in a same-sex wedding, so now they are being sued.

Business should operate on a simple principle, that of Adam Smith's invisible hand. Both firms and consumers are free to do business with who ever they choose and both firms and consumers are free to boycott one another for any reason. Business relationships are dynamic and businesses and consumers are boycotted constantly. I know of one lady who refuses to do business with a firm I work with based on an experience with a manager who has left and a staff that has turned over completely. I also know of one firm that refuses to business with the owner of the firm I work with, regardless of how much money is involved, for personal reasons.

Are the same-sex couple being discriminated against? Yes, but so are the other two example I have cited. The invisible hand guides money from one place to another and each business determines how much of what is in that hand is given to them based on their behaviour in the market place. The courts should have no say in such matters, it is a simple case of supply and demand and if the firm owner refuses to meet the demand they can suffer the economic consequences.

The Economics of Gay Weddings

2005-06-29T11:52:00.000-07:00

My religious convictions aside yesterday's legislation could be good for Canada. Already there is a burgeoning industry around gay weddings, particularily with regards to tourism.

It seems to me, just from watching a few news reports that we have become a destination for gay tourism. I am aware of both American and Israeli same-sex couples who have come here to get married and we have shows such as My Fabulous Gay Wedding on prime time. The gay community has been capitalising on this and our national protestant denomination, The United Church of Canada, and many of our Anglican diocese have little problem performing gay weddings and have not been shy about being gay friendly. Therefore it would seem to me that it would be a wise move, economically, to get on board with this trend.

Statistically speaking, homosexuals live a more affluent lifestyle than the general population and are therefore a very lucrative market segment. Canada would be foolish to ignore this and particularily in economically depressed areas, such as the maritimes and parts of the praries. These are people with deep pockets and a desire to spend big, observe a gay pride parade, and do not forget that because they generally have no children that translates into a greater disposable income even at the lowest rungs of society.

It simply makes good economic sense to exploit the new economic opportunities this legislation represents.

However as a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth I must caution my reader that I have expressed a short-term view. To quote Steve Taylor, "..for if the Lord don't care and he chooses to ignore-ah, tell it to the people of Sodom and Gomorrah"; in the long-term there will be grave consequences, grave economic consequences. But that is a religious, not an economic argument and therefore in best addressed at Search for Righteousness (However it has not been addressed at this time).

2005-06-24T16:16:00.000-07:00

So both the Saskatchewan government and the opposition are both in favor of raising the minimum wage. But do they have a formula or anything? Seemingly, NO! It appears that both parties subscribe to the certerus paribus school of economic thought, where they can arbitratily change a variable and nothing else will change. A word exists to describe such thinking, naive; businesses are going to raise their prices to reflect their added costs.

What we need is a formula that allows for inflation and states what the objective of minimum wage legislation ought to be and guess who has such a formula? ME!!!!

The majority of minimum wage employees are young, inexperienced workers. Therefore, in my humble opinion we ought to be looking at what their needs are and the needs of the society at large and how we can best meet everyone's needs.

I believe the best way to do this is to determine what a single individual needs to survive. We sit down and determine what an adequent, but not extravagant, lifestyle should cost for a single individual and how we as a society can best assist them in achieving their full potential, both for their own benefit and society's. Therefore we must also include the cost of education.

So what I propose is that a person should be able to pay rent, buy food, purchase clothing, pay for transportation, entertainment and also cover the cost of tuition and books at a post-secondary institution, all on the income generated from a 30, not 40 a hour work week. The reason for a 30 hour work week is that I want to give these people the time and financial resources to better themselves without having to incure massive debt.

Working 30 hours a week and taking two or three classes is mangable for most people. No one should ever feel that they do not have access to education based on price or time restictions. An educated society is something that is valued and should be promoted and supported ar all cost.

How I would determine the wage is very simple, it would be calculated backwards from the mean cost of education at the provincially funded post-secondary institutions. In the case of the technical schools it would be the mean cost of all their programs for a given years, in the case of the univesities it would be the mean cost of all the under-graduate programs. By addding these two numbers together and dividing by two we would have our starting point. This number should be 30 % of a person's annual income.

Next we look at the cost of food and housing. Food is easy enough to determine, again 30% is the magic number. In this case it is 30% of Statisics Canada's "basket of goods" for a household of four. The number 30 is chosen over 25 to simply allow for things such as cleaning supplies and other items that are included in the basket, but are consumed relatively equally regardless of the household size. Housing is determined by taking the average cost of renting a legal one bedroom apartment within a 3.5 Km distance from the provincially funded institutions; walking distance.

Transpostation is costs are determined by the mean cost of public transit in the various training centers as well as a five year mean cost of gas and oil only for a new, barebones economy car travelling no more than 10,000 km a year. Purchace, insurance and all other costs are excluded. The logic behind this is that using public transits costs alone is unrealistic in some circumstances, due to it's lack of existence, but at the same time it is assumed that other costs, such as housing in a rural community can offset the added vehicle expenses.

Entertainment can now be calculated in using the simple number of 10%. We simply add an additional 10 % to the now determined wage to allow for entertainment. I know that some have other suggestions, but I stated in the beginning that I was concerned with meeting people's needs and society's needs, not meeting everyone's whims.

I realise I have not proposed a perfect solution, but I believe it is far superior to the ridiculous idea that a simple wage hike is any knid of a solution at all.