After our class that focused on Burger King and their Russian expansion I had a little debate with some of my group members. I had mentioned how I thought it was naïve to think that BK could maintain a perfectly ethical business practices while having to deal with notoriously corrupt Russian government. This got me thinking as to how there is all this hype to investing in BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) despite it seemingly like such a headache to deal with local regulations and practices. This is why I did some research to find a second grouping of countries worth investing in grouped by an acronym. MIST countries (Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea and Turkey) have all the up and coming appeal to them but with less government officials looking to keep their hands in your pocket. Of course the downside to MIST is a much smaller population and each country has its faults. Specifically I point to the instability while the Syrian civil war’s violence spills over to Turkey and South Korean growing tensions with their Northern counterpart. Having said that given well researched and strategic planning I think MIST countries are vast in opportunities.

The scientific community has been at a consensus for some time now that not only is global warming a very real trend but we as humans are the ones that are behind it. We may like to avoid this fact in our lives but our governments are afforded no such luxury.  The Kyoto protocol has tried to facilitate a solution known as “cap and trade”.  The idea is complex so I have found a video that helps explain.

The first four minutes are about what cap and trade is while the last six explain why it will not work.

The video was made in 2009 while a very recent Economist article come to the same concusion. It seems that our quick fix solution is not working out as the one billionth CER has just been rewarded while the price for them has dropped to 25% of the original in five short years. It is becoming increasingly clear that this solution only works on paper. Canada should be ashamed after backing out on the Kyoto protocol and its citizens need to do more to force the issue as our current plan is not working.

The CRTC is currently listening to arguments from many different special interest groups on the topic of how the proposed merger between Astral Media and Bell will affect those for which they speak for. The overall concern of the hearings seems to be that with this addition Bell could start a strangle hold on the television market. Where this starts to border on unethical territory is that given this deal does go through, Bell will hold unprecedented market share in what is already an oligopoly.  This opens up the possibility for them to charge premium prices for those with Rogers or other companies to access networks like CTV (which is under the Bell corporate umbrella).

Of course with the government intervention in the form of the CRTC there also comes the question of what the government role should be in the free market. There were concerns raised by separate unions about Bells poor track record for cutting costs by streamlining their properties which negatively influenced the Canadian content on programs such as the news.  In this case it seems the CRTC is doing its job by investigating to the fullest extent how this acquisition will affect the Canadian consumer.