The US Congress yesterday put off any bailout of the “Big 3” auto-makers and sent them back to their oak-paneled dens until they come up with better arguments. GM, Chrysler, and Ford had been looking for a $25 billion bailout of the industry, waving red flags warning that at least GM will have exhausted money by the end of December, and both it and Chrysler might be going into receivership by that time. Ford apparently has a bit more cash flow, but isn’t far behind.

Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. The executives that turned up in Washington to plead for money just don’t have a clue. The executive offices of corporate America (not to mention Canada) have become so used to big-bucks salaries, Brooks Brothers suits, and chauffeured lifestyles, that when they have to humble themselves and come with cap in hand to government, they just don’t know how to behave. They might have gotten a warmer reception had not someone noticed that they all arrived on luxury corporate jets for the Washington meeting. Beggars apparently still can be choosers, and in their case Marshall McLuhan was quite correct: the Medium is the Message.

Continue reading →

In a column on May 5 of this year, I stated, “We will not see gas under $1.00 a liter again.”

It appears I was wrong. Error. In this strange crisis of the world economy we find ourselves this November, gas just fell below the one dollar mark for most stations in Nova Scotia a week ago.

Some “experts” (which maybe I thought I was until this point) are saying that when people get comfortable with the lower price, oil companies will be loath to anger us by raising it too quickly. They predict at least several more months at lowered prices. I make no prediction on that, having learned something at least.

The oil companies are capable of doing that, it seems. Despite pie charts being flashed around at gas stations showing us where the dollars go in the business, and how we apparently shouldn’t be blaming any of those people for high prices, I noticed that Exxon posted an almost record profit for the first quarter of this year, some 10.9 BILLION dollars. That’s not sales or anything like that, that’s profit. It was only outdone by the previous quarter, last of 2007, when their profit was $11.7 BILLION. The $10.9 is apparently $1,385 each second for the quarter, for those who are fascinated by such numbers, or $10,900,000,000, if you are impressed with that approach. Profit. And you thought the oil business was in trouble.

Continue reading →

If you have taken your eyes off the watch for gas prices rising at the end of the week, and the election warfare raging above and below the border, you might realize that most Americans have for the moment had their attention diverted from Sarah Palin (even before that interest waned of its own accord).

While the inability of opticians to provide copies of her frameless rectangular lenses might be one of the main crises of supply and demand for some people south of the border, many others have no doubt glanced at newspapers or accidentally landed on a news channel long enough to realize that their country stands at the precipice of what could be the worst financial failure since the Depression. According to some analysts, it could even be worse than the Great Depression, and with the global implications of the American economy in today’s world, it could be recession/depression almost worldwide.

I once heard the difference between Recession and Depression explained this way: when your neighbor loses his job, it’s a Recession. When you lose yours, it’s a Depression.
Continue reading →

The fighters are in the ring and the bell has sounded for the election bouts both north and south of the border. Although we anticipated a lot of low blows from both sides, so far that kind of approach seems to be coming mainly from one side in each election.

Despite the family man image of Harper in the sweater, his followers don’t seem to have fully accepted that look any more than the voters, and have blundered ahead into several errors in judgment as they coordinate attacks on Stephane Dion with few holds barred. The famous Puffin-Poop-Gate stumble will probably go down in the folklore of elections (link below) as just one of those things that “seemed right at the time”, blamed on an over-zealous web ad artist who got carried away. At least that’s where the blame landed, and if you can imagine an ad like that gets put on the air without someone much higher up approving it, you’re naïve indeed.

Harder to find humor in the slip-up where an important Harper staffer emailed Canada AM following the show appearance of the father of a Nova Scotia soldier lost in Afghanistan. The father decried Harper’s announcement of a 2011 pull-out, and argued that a fixed pull-out date made his son’s death in vain. The staffer responded that the father was motivated as a known Liberal supporter. I can imagine Harper’s comment when that story came out in the Conservative camp: “It could well be that his comments are politically motivated, but you just don’t say that about a father who has lost his son!”
Continue reading →

We hope Harper is going to actually announce it at some point, but since all parties have started the campaign ball rolling, it seems obvious now to Canadians that we will be at the polls again about October 14th. I anticipate our being in Edmonton at that time, so my wife and I will see what the business of “advance polls” is all about.

In the States, where it seems to have been a land of constant campaigning for the last two years, finally they are down to actual party against party electioneering, since the Democrats have settled on Obama. Whether there will be any knives in the back of Obama, courtesy of the Clinton camp remains to be seen. Hillary might see a win for her in 2012 to be easier against an older McCain looking for a second term (with Obama faded from the picture) than against a possibly successful Obama.

So it’s fall elections all around. I’ve never been one to hold back on predictions on these things, though I conveniently forget what my accuracy record has been. On occasion I do recall making the comment, “I never saw that coming!”

Continue reading →

The Olympics ended this morning, or I guess last night, or this evening, or whatever it works out to depending on where you are in the world. I always enjoy the Olympic year events, and try to watch it when I can. This year, as with any Olympics, there were some exciting moments.

Our Canadian athletes went from a worry that they were winning nothing to a final count of 18, a reasonable showing in comparison to other Olympics. We don’t win a lot, compared to some other countries, but we have to keep it in perspective. We’re a relatively small nation, just over 33 million now I believe, the US is about ten times larger (and China about forty times). Quite likely we don’t devote enough funding to the Olympics and sports in general, that’s an issue that always comes up at this time, but our governments obviously don’t consider it the priority that it is in some nations.

The Olympics is always filled with dark horse competitors, like Priscilla Lopes-Schliep, who stubbornly charged out of nowhere in Row 8 to win bronze for Canada in the 100 meter hurtles, and with the thrilling come-back stories like Eric Lamaze in the Equestrian Jumping (suddenly millions of people know who “Hickstead” is), and these people and their stories provide the thrills of any Olympics. I followed the curious path of the American basketball “Dream Team” as they remained undefeated through their competitions, a situation that could be anticipated, but never has been since they were beaten in the last Olympics by Argentina for the Gold Medal. Early this morning (“last night”) they won the Gold Medal by a margin of only 11 points in a game against Spain, certainly not indicative of their skill. These “prima-donnas” of the basketball court have been difficult to motivate in any Olympics, often playing great and exciting basketball in the first quarter and then demonstrating almost boredom for the balance of the game. Their main motivation this time around was shame for their performance in 2004, when some of them admitted they were almost afraid to go home to the US after the loss. One of their coaches put it on the mark when he said, “You’ll win this competition when your desire is as great as that of the other teams.” They came through, but I think their desire was far less, and limited them to what had to be done.
Continue reading →