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.
Government Confiscates food!?!
By: James Burge
December 19th, 2008
Anyone doubting that martial law is already in the works south of the border need only read this article.
It talks about John and Jacqueline Stowers who run an organic food cooperative, something that we should all be looking to set up in our neighborhoods. The Ohio Department of Agriculture and the Lorain County Health Department raided their home and confiscated the families food supply, cell phones and computers.
“The use of these police state tactics on a peaceful family is simply unacceptable,” Buckeye Institute President David Hansen said. “Officers rushed into the Stowers’ home with guns drawn and held the family – including ten young children – captive for six hours. This outrageous case of bureaucratic overreach must be addressed.”
Outrageous is right! They confiscated FOOD, can you believe that? The idea of cell phones and computers being confiscated is somewhat routine in cases of fraud or other overt criminal activity, but this family has, as far as anyone can tell, done absolutely nothing wrong. According to the video below they also confiscated about a years worth of their personal meat supply some of which was from animals they raised themselves.
They also confiscated the computer that the family uses to home school their children and that one daughter uses to communicate with her husband who is serving in Iraq. The family was traumatized by the police raid and the fact that they failed to identify themselves as law enforcement officials. What sort of resistance did they expect to receive from a woman and 10 kids.
Update: Just came across this very informative podcast from the Buckeye Institure.org
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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.
Tainted imports, what better reason to buy local
By: James Burge
October 30th, 2008
Update: More info here: http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/465.html
I wanted to take a moment to blog again about the story I posted yesterday about the allegedly tainted food products imported to North America from Chinese manufacturers. I admit it was slightly alarmist and I’m not sure that angle is very effective, so I will attempt, with a more level head, to address these concerns again.
Let’s start with what we know.
We know that in recent years many tainted food scandals have affected consumers in this country, the most notable being the Listeria outbreak that continues to get attention (and rightfully so). Other notable cases include the recent tomato and spinach salmonella outbreaks and the dog food recall back in March of this year which caused kidney and liver failure in pets. What didn’t really make headlines was the cause of the kidney and liver failure. Most articles attribute the recall to tainted wheat gluten. But what was the wheat gluten tainted with??? The answer is Melamine.
Melamine is a toxic chemical used in fertilizers and thermosetting plastics.
Ingestion of Melamine may lead to reproductive damage, or bladder or kidney stones, which can lead to bladder cancer.[15][20][21][22][23]
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melamine#Chronic_toxicity
(the one that I find most interesting is the reproductive damage coupled with the high risk to infants, but that’s another story altogether)
We know about reported cases of Melamine-contaminated powdered infant formula from China.
Over 6240 cases of kidney stones in infants with three deaths have been reported from across China as of 17 September [2008]. Kidney stones in infants are very rare.
Source: http://www.who.int/csr/don/2008_09_19/en/index.html
One of China’s biggest dairy producers received consumer complaints about its baby milk formula as early as December 2007.
Earlier this month, government investigators said that Sanlu officials had delayed acting on consumer complaints and warnings in June, and that local government officials in Hebei knew of the problems in early August, just before the Olympic Games opened in Beijing.
Food safety experts say the delays may have allowed the tainted powdered milk supplies to spread more widely, making tens of thousands of children ill.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/24/world/asia/24milk.html
Lastly, we know that the instance of kidney stones in American children is on the rise. Once considered a middle age ailment, more and more young children are developing kidney stones. This rise is attributed to excess salt in ones diet along with the instance of obesity.
Now lets talk a bit about what we don’t know.
We don’t know the amount of contaminated products have been imported into North America, but since the Chinese government was trying to save face while the world was watching, products continued to be imported to North America and may still be on store shelves.
We don’t know, what the Canadian (or US for that matter) government is doing about concerns regarding food imports. Although the Canadian Government is trying to change laws that would require a clarification if products from other countries were used in manufacturing, it may be a case of to little to late.
[U]nder current Canadian law, if 51 per cent of the production costs were incurred in Canada and the last substantial transformation of the product occurred in Canada, it is legal to use those labels.
The made-in-Canada label will mean the product was manufactured or processed in Canada. While such a product can include non-Canadian contents, the label must make it clear by specifying it was made in Canada with imported ingredients.
Source: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/05/21/food-label.html
Update: We now know what the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is doing about the Melamine contamination:
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is advising all importers of food products from China containing milk or milk-derived ingredients that the Agency will require documentation demonstrating certain safety and compliance for these products.
Source: http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/fssa/concen/2008melinfoe.shtml
We also now know which products have tested positive for high levels of Melamine. A list can be found here.
What we still don’t know is which products have been tested and found to be safe. I know that this may be asking a lot because there is no way to test everything that is currently on shelves in stores. But countries like Korea have removed the following:
M&M milk chocolates, Snickers peanut fun size bars, Kit Kat bars from Nestle, and Ritz “sandwich cracker cheese and rice cookies”
Source: http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/463.html
The above mentioned are North American Brand Name candy bars, and the Snickers specifically says the fun size bars, I am assuming this means the small bite size bars usually given out at Halloween. Since the milk power itself was imported to the US, there is a chance that even American brand name chocolate bars could be contaminated, and need to be tested (although it would be easier just to find out who imported milk powder from China (after Dec 2007) and which batches it was used it, this information is likely already known in the US, but has not been released)
We don’t know why the media hasn’t been mentioning the risks to candy, ESPECIALLY since (as I’m writing this), it is Halloween. In 24h the damage will already have been done.
We don’t know the scope of the contamination. Most of the stories have highlighted milk powder or whey, but includes products like chocolate, cookies, cakes, and even things like packaged macaroni and cheese. While some of the recalled candy doesn’t even contain milk powder as one of the ingredients. Egg powder is also being identified as a potential source of this contamination.
A recall was issued for foil-wrapped Pirate’s Gold chocolate coins because they contain melamine.
Source: http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/coins.asp
We don’t know how much, if any of the candy currently in stores for sale for Halloween has been tested, and therefore we don’t know what candy to avoid. This will put an unfortunate damper on Halloween this year.
So what can we do?
We can do our best to limit or eliminate any Chinese made products that may contain milk, milk powder, egg powder, whey. (although this is easier said than done)
We can pressure government officials to step-up testing of products which are imported to this country and could contain chemical additives (whether deliberate or accidental) deemed harmful.
We can educate everyone we know on the risks, and we can hope that we don’t see that kind of kidney damage in children before we act.
We can buy local food, and try, whenever possible, to stay away from pre-packaged manufactured food and candy. Only by refusing to buy potentially unsafe products will testing become standard in order to ease the public’s concerns.
For some more information, Brass Check TV has compiled some videos here: http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/462.htm
Credit Crisis Crooks
By: James Burge
September 24th, 2008
Well it’s looking fairly grim south of the border, here’s hoping Canada’s Politicians won’t get away with anything similar.
What is going on in the US right now, the so-called ‘Bailout’ is nothing more than Corporate America stealing from the taxpayers, aided and abetted by the Executive Branch, with little to no resistance in Congress. But who would blame them when more then 50 members of Congress would personally benefit from the bailout plan.
Pelosi, in her most recent financial disclosure form, reported that her husband owned between $250,000 and $500,000 of stock in AIG, which ceded majority control to the U.S. government this week in exchange for $85 billion of loans.
Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, disclosed that his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, had more than $2 million of AIG stock at the end of 2007, when shares were worth $58.30. AIG has fallen 85 percent this week to close yesterday at $2.69. The lawmakers’ aides didn’t respond to calls seeking comment.
Altogether, 56 senators and representatives had stakes in AIG, Lehman, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns Cos. or IndyMac Bancorp Inc. — some of the biggest casualties of the market bloodbath
Basically what you have here is a last ditch effort to once and for all destroy/bankrupt the middle class taxpayers in order to ‘save’ the rich elite from their own predatory lending practices, which were designed (by none other then GW himself) to loan money to people who couldn’t afford it, only to group these risky mortgages, give them flashy names, and sell them to people who didn’t know or care what they were really getting because (as with the savings and loan crisis, and the ‘tech bubble‘) they figured if it got bad enough the government would step in, and ‘save the day’ using the same taxpayers money that were given predatory loans they can’t afford and most have already lost houses. But I’m sure they can afford to pay so the banks and most publicly traded companies get the money. It’s a steal from the poor, give to the rich sorta thing. And don’t forget that the companies that own the Media will benefit so expect them to parrot how great an idea….(a bit of a rant I know).
Another thing worth mentioning is the recent US Defense Authorization Act which seemed to nullify part of the Posse Comitatus Act (passed in 1878) which prohibits the federal government from using the Army against it’s own citizens.
The President may employ the armed forces to restore public order in any State of the United States the President determines hinders the execution of laws or deprives people of a right, privilege, immunity, or protection named in the Constitution and secured by law or opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws.
Although these changes were repealed, Bush issued a signing statement basically saying he doesn’t have to listen if he doesn’t want to.
Basically, if enough people take to the streets to protest this greedy bailout plan, coupled with economic collapse, Bush has the power to declare Martial Law, and it seems to be happening already as mentioned here (Brigade homeland tours start Oct. 1).
[The Army] may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control or to deal with potentially horrific scenarios such as massive poisoning and chaos in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive, or CBRNE, attack. [1]
Again, fear is used to confuse the issue, and the issue here is the President unilaterally using the Army against anyone who protests. More and more often Agent Provacateurs have been used to incite violence at peaceful protests. The intent of this is two fold, firstly it is important to paint a picture where protestors are violent and completely unreasonable, making them out to be a menace. Secondly, so that a ‘show of force’ in the form of heavily armed guards (or soldiers) would be seen as welcome when their presence prior to a disaster is unlawful under Posse Comitatus. At the democratic national convention, police began arresting accredited journalists (injuring a few) for trying to do their job and cover the heavy handed tactics used by Police, ultimately providing them with all the proof they needed.
I write this as a warning to the world
By: James Burge
September 22nd, 2008
Just came across an article linked on whatreallyhappened.com regarding the Hiroshima attack which is really worth a read.
I especially like the part where one of the first reporters to arrive in Hiroshima, Wilfred Burchett, described the radiation poisoning.
“In the immediate aftermath of the bomb, the allied occupation authorities banned all mention of radiation poisoning […] For telling [the] truth, his press accreditation was withdrawn; he was pilloried and smeared […]”
His article, aptly named “I write this as a warning to the world,” should serve as warning still; a warning that when it comes to truth, the government isn’t interested. There was/is an obvious disconnect between the will of the American people and the way in which their leaders inflict ‘foreign policy’ on the rest of the world. While most citizens would see interventionist foreign policy such as sanctions and war acceptable only as a reaction to threat or violence the reality is, it seems, that the US has wanted nothing more then to bait countries into war, or diminish its own atrocities, (as in the case of Hiroshima) under the guise that a greater evil exists. The truth, however, remains that no other country in recorded history has ever used atomic weapons on civilians other then the US (who also seem to be the ones who are quickest to remind the world they still have the bomb, kinda like a game of chicken).
