Month: November 2011

Will Papademos,

former vice-president of the European Central Bank, Greece’s new prime minister, 

pay the bills?

 

 

 

The democratic process is generally touted in the western world as the most desirable form of government, but you have to wonder; given the frequency with which countries have been going bankrupt lately, that there might be a better alternative to allowing an ill informed and self absorbed populace determine who should be running things.

The debt and democracy dilemma has us dangling from a whole lot of bull.

Buttonwood suggests a practical answer: “… if you don’t want to be at the mercy of creditors, don’t borrow lots of money from them.” 1

Well, we’d feel warm all over if so many of us weren’t already deep in the hole.

The problem is that there’s little incentive for any party in power to tell the people who put them there, that in order to meet the country’s financial obligations, their taxes have to be raised and their pensions must be cut by 50%.

Greece, high on the list of potential absconders is presently in this position. The Greeks are violently opposed to any change in the status quo that might put them back on the road to solvency and satisfy the IMF 110 billion euro bailout.

China has become banker to the western world and is likely to remain so into the foreseeable future.

Unless the critical mass realizes that debts need to get paid, and unless we elect to meet that end,

the majority vote for bankruptcy will remain the status woe.

 

Commenting On Another Blog

¹Buttonwood’s Notebook.”Reforming Europe: Debt and Democracy”.

 The Economist. Sept. 8, 2011.

Sienna Richardson-Isberg shines a bloglight on the funky phone app that won’t short change your next Starbucks fix…unless you forgot to load your phone.  The new payment method is indeed a nifty improvement on plumbing your purse for the exact change, however,

most repeat Bucks customers quite simply will not care.

It’s a coin toss whether this innovation will froth up enough interest in a currency shift or simply serve as one of the thousands of gimmicks to fade into obscurity. It’s likely the devotees won’t care either way, and they’ll still be fishing for the elusive oonies jangling in the far reaches of their Burberry couture.

Innovation, especially in a business that puts a heavy emphasis on customer service is like trying to hold onto a frog smeared in Vaseline. Demographics are increasingly unreliable as people become more mercurial and individualized in their consumer preferences. Predicting consumer trends in order to enact effective innovation methods is like trying to find a good reason to keep the penny in circulation.

Bottom line; it’s got to be good and we want to feel good when we’re there.

It will be interesting to see if other businesses will hitch a lift

on the smart-tech wagon.

Commenting On A Classmate’s Blog

In response and in full support of the message in Jaskaran Chauhan’s blog, titled “Eco Friendly or Brand Friendly?”, I would further suggest that Air Canada’s Zerofootprint propaganda is offensive.

In the years prior to the 1970’s, BC’s lower mainland experienced some nasty pea-soup smogs. Because they were a serious threat to commerce, the hue and cry went out that this was unacceptable to the populace. The biggest contributors to the smog were the waste wood beehive burners-so they were effectively condemned. Lo and behold, most of the burners were decommissioned and the smog disappeared.

At no time during this period was it suggested that massive fans should be installed to blow the smog out to sea or that one million trees should be planted to offset the effects of the burners.

But the world is faced with the immediate threat of global warming and we are fully engaged in self delusional games.

Yes, airplane engines and aerodynamics are more efficient and yes, less polluting fuels can be developed, but unless a government cap is imposed, projected airline growth will offset any techno innovations.

Tree maturities vary depending on their species and most won’t function as carbon converters for another 5-50 years. Crunch the numbers on carbon emissions from one Boeing 747 jet flight (at approx. 31 kg carbon/hr ¹), then multiply that by thousands of flight hours daily, subtract the conversion ratio (a mature tree can absorb CO2 at a rate of of 22 kg/year ²), then apply it twenty years down the road and you will find your ‘zerofootprint’ program has made ‘zeroimpact’.

By all means plant trees; trees are beautiful and in the natural order of things they help maintain the carbon-oxygen balance, but let’s not kid ourselves…

and shame on Air Canada for trying to ‘fuel’ us.

 

Commenting On A Classmate’s Blog

¹ “Math! How much CO2 is released by Aeroplane?“. Small-M. May 8, 2007.

² Pareja, Marlon. “Trees and Climate Change.” Green for Life: One Million Trees and Beyond. 2009

 

The recent contretemps

over the routing of the

Keystone Oil Pipeline from the Alberta Tar Sands to Texas brings the whole business of sending

Canadian resources south into focus again.

Whether we agree to supply the US with electricity and water, or the US, China and the Pacific Rim countries with our oil and natural gas, once the taps are turned on, they can never be turned off except by mutual agreement.

 Should the US economy continue to decline and threaten their ability to pay, Canada would either be left bleeding resources without payment in return, or would have to cork the flow and brace for a clash with the strongest military nation in the world.

It must be said, that the US have never fully abandoned the concept of Manifest Destiny; viewing Canada as a kind of repository of resources to be tapped when needed.

So what do we do?

The proposed scheme to pipe natural gas and Tar Sands oil across to a BC port for shipment to China and the Pacific Rim countries might be seen as a viable business alternative, but unless the Keystone Line was already in place, the US would see this as an act of aggression and Canada would be made to pay through obstructionist trade policies.

Canada is going to have to accept the fact that its resources, and quite possibly its identity, are caught between a rock and a U.S. place.

 

Mayeda, Andrew; Quinn, Greg. “U.S. Review Delay May Doom TransCanada’s Keystone Pipeline.” Bloomberg. Nov 10, 2011 9:02 PM PT