Lord Monckton on Climate Change
By: James Burge
February 5th, 2010
Very interesting…
Some good news…
By: James Burge
February 25th, 2009
I was just emailed this article and thought it was worth the read, so I’m gonna post it.
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative
Canadian banks are typically leveraged at 18 to 1–compared with U.S. banks at 26 to 1.
NEWSWEEK
From the magazine issue dated Feb 16, 2009
The legendary editor of The New Republic, Michael Kinsley, once held a “Boring Headline Contest” and decided that the winner was “Worthwhile Canadian Initiative.” Twenty-two years later, the magazine was rescued from its economic troubles by a Canadian media company, which should have taught us Americans to be a bit more humble. Now there is even more striking evidence of Canada’s virtues. Guess which country, alone in the industrialized world, has not faced a single bank failure, calls for bailouts or government intervention in the financial or mortgage sectors. Yup, it’s Canada. In 2008, the World Economic Forum ranked Canada’s banking system the healthiest in the world. America’s ranked 40th, Britain’s 44th.
Canada has done more than survive this financial crisis. The country is positively thriving in it. Canadian banks are well capitalized and poised to take advantage of opportunities that American and European banks cannot seize. The Toronto Dominion Bank, for example, was the 15th-largest bank in North America one year ago. Now it is the fifth-largest. It hasn’t grown in size; the others have all shrunk.
So what accounts for the genius of the Canadians? Common sense. Over the past 15 years, as the United States and Europe loosened regulations on their financial industries, the Canadians refused to follow suit, seeing the old rules as useful shock absorbers. Canadian banks are typically leveraged at 18 to 1—compared with U.S. banks at 26 to 1 and European banks at a frightening 61 to 1. Partly this reflects Canada’s more risk-averse business culture, but it is also a product of old-fashioned rules on banking.
Canada has also been shielded from the worst aspects of this crisis because its housing prices have not fluctuated as wildly as those in the United States. Home prices are down 25 percent in the United States, but only half as much in Canada. Why? Well, the Canadian tax code does not provide the massive incentive for overconsumption that the U.S. code does: interest on your mortgage isn’t deductible up north. In addition, home loans in the United States are “non-recourse,” which basically means that if you go belly up on a bad mortgage, it’s mostly the bank’s problem. In Canada, it’s yours. Ah, but you’ve heard American politicians wax eloquent on the need for these expensive programs—interest deductibility alone costs the federal government $100 billion a year—because they allow the average Joe to fulfill the American Dream of owning a home. Sixty-eight percent of Americans own their own homes. And the rate of Canadian homeownership? It’s 68.4 percent.
Canada has been remarkably responsible over the past decade or so. It has had 12 years of budget surpluses, and can now spend money to fuel a recovery from a strong position. The government has restructured the national pension system, placing it on a firm fiscal footing, unlike our own insolvent Social Security. Its health-care system is cheaper than America’s by far (accounting for 9.7 percent of GDP, versus 15.2 percent here), and yet does better on all major indexes. Life expectancy in Canada is 81 years, versus 78 in the United States; “healthy life expectancy” is 72 years, versus 69. American car companies have moved so many jobs to Canada to take advantage of lower health-care costs that since 2004, Ontario and not Michigan has been North America’s largest car-producing region.
I could go on. The U.S. currently has a brain-dead immigration system. We issue a small number of work visas and green cards, turning away from our shores thousands of talented students who want to stay and work here. Canada, by contrast, has no limit on the number of skilled migrants who can move to the country. They can apply on their own for a Canadian Skilled Worker Visa, which allows them to become perfectly legal “permanent residents” in Canada—no need for a sponsoring employer, or even a job. Visas are awarded based on education level, work experience, age and language abilities. If a prospective immigrant earns 67 points out of 100 total (holding a Ph.D. is worth 25 points, for instance), he or she can become a full-time, legal resident of Canada.
Companies are noticing. In 2007 Microsoft, frustrated by its inability to hire foreign graduate students in the United States, decided to open a research center in Vancouver. The company’s announcement noted that it would staff the center with “highly skilled people affected by immigration issues in the U.S.” So the brightest Chinese and Indian software engineers are attracted to the United States, trained by American universities, then thrown out of the country and picked up by Canada—where most of them will work, innovate and pay taxes for the rest of their lives.
If President Obama is looking for smart government, there is much he, and all of us, could learn from our quiet—OK, sometimes boring—neighbor to the north. Meanwhile, in the councils of the financial world, Canada is pushing for new rules for financial institutions that would reflect its approach. This strikes me as, well, a worthwhile Canadian initiative.
More Ron Paul
By: James Burge
February 11th, 2009
$550 Billion Run on the Bank
By: James Burge
February 11th, 2009
Laughably Useless
By: James Burge
December 18th, 2008
In a move similar to recent Melamine contamination news, the US FDA has decided that “mercury in fish,[…] no longer poses any health threat to children, pregnant women, nursing mothers and infants.” (as if toxins somehow degrade with time…as opposed to accumulate in the food chain)
Last week, the FDA declared trace levels of melamine to be safe in infant formula. A few weeks earlier, it said the plastics chemical Bisphenol-A was safe for infants to drink. Now it says children can eat mercury, too. Is there any toxic substance in the food that the FDA thinks might be dangerous? (Aspartame, MSG, sodium nitrite and now mercury…)
Source: FDA Stuns Scientists, Declares Mercury in Fish to be Safe for Infants, Children, Expectant Mothers!
In a move that can only be seen as highly political the USA FDA has caved in to pressure regarding Mercury in Dental Amalgam and Thimerosal in vaccines and flu shots and decided that all mercury is safe, even for pregnant women and infants. This is in direct opposition to YEARS of science that labels mercury as one of the most neurotoxic substances known to man.
A recent University of Calgary study found that mercury causes significant neurodegredation in snails. However, even Health Canada released a statement saying these findings don’t provide evidence of any risk. Most claim that mercury levels from dental amalgam aren’t significant enough, or as some claim, non-existent, so no health effects are expected.
It just seems to me that, as with most industry watch dogs, that unless a significant risk exists its business as usual. Which means that the claim mercury no longer poses ANY health effects is false it just isn’t significant enough for them to care. If you do by chance suffer from mercury poisoning (or acute mercury toxicity) you likely wont be able to trace it back to dental fillings, flu shots/vaccines, or fish consumption. Also, when you consider how many people have mercury in their mouth due to dental fillings, if it was deemed unsafe, where would the dental industry begin in attempting to rectify the situation?
When agencies such as Health Canada and the FDA play these sorts of games it does nothing more than reduce people’s trust thereby rendering these agencies useless. What good is a health agency that is more worried about multinational cooperation’s bottom line than the people they are supposed to be protecting? And at what levels can a known toxin be considered safe? Oh wait I forgot, Mercury isn’t toxic, not anymore, what a relief?
But if you don’t believe me, below is the video from the University of Calgary presenting the results of their study, decide for your self.
How Mercury Produces Brain Damage – Click here for funny video clips
Yet another political assassination???
By: James Burge
December 17th, 2008
I’m sure you are aware of the recent story involving Illinois governor, Rod Blagojevich, and his alleged attempts to sell the senate seat left vacant by President-Elect Barack Obama.
Under Illinois law the governor of Obama’s home state can appoint the president-elect’s successor but he apparently left the aide in no doubt that his blessing would come at a price. A seat in the Senate, he explained, is “a fucking valuable thing, you just don’t give it away for nothing”.
Source: Governor of Illinois faces ’staggering’ charges of corruption
Let me start off by saying that this is not by any means the first time a politician has looked for outside compensation to grease the wheels of ‘democracy,’ and it wont be the last. Is this really such a shock, in a political environment that saw multi-billon dollar, no-bid contracts for work in Iraq go to Halliburton and KBR, companies which both Vice-President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld both had worked previously and some say still receive money or have financial interests. This is the way business has been done by the Elite in power for a long time, why now is it so ‘staggering’ when a democrat does it, oh wait, I may have just answered by own question…
It is also not surprising, in these days of warrant-less wire tapping, that the FBI happens to have these recorded phone conversations as part of ‘an investigation’ and that his arrest came, less than 24 hours after he ordered all Illinois state agencies to suspend doing any business with Bank of America who received $25 billion in taxpayer money as part of the financial bail-out.
This is exactly the kind of thing that isn’t right, when on the one hand powerful special interest groups get the help of taxpayer money[…], yet the purpose of that money was supposed to be to provide a line of credit to businesses [...] to keep workers working and people employed, yet the bank of America has yet to step up and say they are going to be helpful […] and keep these people working so unless and until they do that the State of Illinois will suspend doing any business with the Bank of America and we hope that this kind of leverage and pressure will encourage the Bank of America to do the right thing for this business take some of that federal tax money that they have received and invest it by providing the necessary credit to this company so these workers can keep their jobs.
Source: Interesting timing
This all seems very reminiscent of the recent political assassination of recent New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer when the FBI released information about another ‘investigation’ revealing his use of prostitutes (another thing that is surprisingly common in all aspects of politics, just look at the assassination suicide of Deborah Jeane Palfrey the D.C. Madam who apparently had information about Vice-President Dick Cheney’s use of prostitutes). I’m sure his recent statements blaming the Bush Administration directly for the Housing Bubble. In a recent Washington Post Editorial Spitzer stated:
Even though predatory lending was becoming a national problem, the Bush administration looked the other way and did nothing to protect American homeowners. In fact, the government chose instead to align itself with the banks that were victimizing consumers.
Source: Predatory Lenders’ Partner in Crime
And only a few weeks later, he was forced to resign and his resignation got more attention than his accusations a few weeks prior, again I’m not surprised.
Anyone who still thinks that the NSA warrant-less wiretapping is to combat terrorism, or that FBI investigations are not political, wake up.
Worth the Read… The FED
By: James Burge
December 3rd, 2008
I just came across an amazing post about the privately owned US Federal Reserve.
Basically, Congress was given the power by the US Constitution to “To coin Money, regulate the value thereof,” but somehow has given that power to a private bank known as the Federal Reserve. They have never, in the history of the reserve, been audited mostly because no one, not Congress, not the IRS, have the power to do so. When congress spends money it doesn’t have (deficit spending) they issue a government bond that is then bought by the Federal Reserve, thereby providing the money needed. They get the money from the US Treasury which prints the money at a cost of about $0.03/$100. They then charge the American Government interest on moneys provided. The amounts to over $100 profit for every $100 government deficit spending. Any other privately owned company would have to pay taxes on their profit, but not the FED. They claim only $20 billion profit a year which is returned to the US Treasury. The rest is spent abroad, without oversight, in whatever way the owners of the FED desire.
The U.S. Government now owes the FED owners the interest on those bonds. Remember the FED owners do not earn the bonds, they simply arrange for printing the money to buy the bonds. In other words, they created money out of thin air, and exchange it for the interest bearing bonds.
When the OWNERS of the FED receive the interest on the BONDS they’re holding, they are receiving that money essentially for free and without the need to pay taxes on the profit.
Why don’t we learn about any of this in school???
Update: Came across another article today that quotes a Thomas Edison New York Times article from 1921.
Now, that is what Henry Ford wants to prevent. He thinks it is stupid, and so do I, that for the loan of $30,000,000 of their own money the people of the United States should be compelled to pay $66,000,000 — that is what it amounts to, with interest. People who will not turn a shovelful of dirt nor contribute a pound of material will collect more money from the United States than will the people who supply the material and do the work. That is the terrible thing about interest. In all our great bond issues the interest is always greater than the principal. All of the great public works cost more than twice the actual cost, on that account. Under the present system of doing business we simply add 120 to 150 per cent, to the stated cost.
Update 2.0: Came across another article, Bag the Fed! Looks like the recent economic ‘crisis’ is sure getting people talking about the Federal reserve.
The Fed always increases the money supply to increase the money owed to it. That money is also loaned out, as said earlier, at interest, creating more debt, which equals a kind of economic slavery because it’s impossible for the government to ever free itself from this self-generating debt-load.
Update 3.0: Come across this google video, haven’t had a chance to watch it yet… Linked from BrasscheckTV.
