tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post8651078248616513512..comments2024-03-22T05:20:44.167-07:00Comments on The Disaffected Lib: It's Time that Canada Found a New/Old EconomyThe Mound of Soundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-33009079050882823382014-06-03T00:28:45.727-07:002014-06-03T00:28:45.727-07:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-51731732726906466622013-08-02T06:20:38.120-07:002013-08-02T06:20:38.120-07:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-50232149297778590372013-06-18T23:32:46.005-07:002013-06-18T23:32:46.005-07:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Globalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00635756338462816979noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-74376680837930751042013-03-17T22:13:49.166-07:002013-03-17T22:13:49.166-07:00An interesting post... In 2005 Jared Diamond wrote...An interesting post... In 2005 Jared Diamond wrote “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.” But it's a stretch to hope that any academic text can deter a lobotomized machine already out of control. <br /> <br />Diamond did offer some useful concepts: like “Landscape Amnesia”<br /><br />You're right, “by the time you're in your 60s” the cumulative view of what has changed for the worst is broader based. <br /><br />Most people under 40 simply haven't lived when governments or businesses were trusted. What people wish for now, we have seen vanish.<br /><br />Landscape? People who return to an area decades later see instantly which changes have occurred. People who are new to an area do not. They help adapt themselves by blurring what those changes cost them. It shapes their frame of reference.<br /><br />Older people remember when governments not only supported the public interest, but were esteemed for many successes. What happened? <br /><br />Except for one absent word, Ronald Reagan almost painted the picture to perfection. He should have said, “Corrupted Government Is The Problem.” <br /><br />For 30 years: mass firings; ludicrous denials of service; giveaways of public assets to corporate backers; regressive taxation; routine price-gouging; excessive fees; mass pollution of air, ocean and land - on a scale that would embarrass the USSR – was this useful devastation? <br /><br />Supposedly yes. Let's call it: “Economic Reform” and “Restructuring”. Very Serious Stuff, not just looting masked by lies to protect crooks in nice suits. <br /><br />For younger people “the way things are” [and hence always were] is that corruption is constant, if now admittedly at epidemic proportions. Led by business, they see both estates are blindly committed to a suicidal lemmings' march to economic oblivion. <br /><br />In medical history, bleeding the pauper to death as a Cure was called bloodletting. Today it's called Austerity, Job Outsourcing, and Industrial Offshoring. There's no evidence that it's working to our benefit at all.. <br /><br />In BC, blogger Alex Tsakumis noted that, in the last week alone, not only were there 8 new scandals, but the BC media was doing its utmost to foof away and ignore them all. <br /><br />In my youth – adults were shocked to read about 8 similar scandals -- per year. <br /><br />And the press in those days? Believe me: it was Ferocious.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-73531829735497614762013-03-17T19:40:45.592-07:002013-03-17T19:40:45.592-07:00You touch on something I haven't brought up fo...You touch on something I haven't brought up for some time, Anon, the difference between a manufacturing-based economy and today's FIRE (finance/insurance/real estate) economy.<br /><br />A manufacturing-based economy does look more to the future. It also accepts more modest but sustained profitability. A FIRE-economy, of the sort we're left with after offshoring our manufacturing base, is inherently opportunistic which goes a long way to explain America's modern cyclical "bubble economy." <br /><br />Look at what has happened since the "new economy" saw the offshoring of manufacturing. It began with the Savings & Loan scandal, then the Dot.Com bubble, the Enron/WorldCom scandal, the real estate bubble and the derivatives/credit default swap fiasco. Now we're in the midst of the biggest bubble of them all - the Carbon Bubble.<br /><br />Vast fortunes are made, but it all amounts to a transfer of unearned wealth from wiped out middle class investors and pension funds into the pockets of the richest of the rich. And yet these same ruined middle class folks, very much like the vivisectionist's dog, lovingly lick the hand holding the scalpel in their bellies.The Mound of Soundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-17553293139367503042013-03-17T17:16:14.799-07:002013-03-17T17:16:14.799-07:00When I was young I used to think that Corporations...When I was young I used to think that Corporations thought and planned in terms of 20 yrs or so into the future and that gave them a definite advantage over small businesses that didn't have access to the levels of capital the big guys had. I still believe that was true and remains so to a degree, but their focus seems to have changed in a number of ways. First that long term planning now seems focused on controlling the politicians and the rules as much as business planning. Second I think they want more and quicker returns than they used to. Maybe it's because they aren't all that confident in what they are doing and the long term outcome? Maybe it's just greed. <br /><br />The author of that book I referred to above discussed the growth of lobbyists in the US and said there were less than a 100 lobbying firms when the Conservative guru started the movement to expand Corporate influence in Nixon's time. That has grown to 12,374 firms in the US in 2012.<br /><br />Here's an interesting link on lobbying and it's $3,277,514,737 cost last year.<br /><br />http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/incdec.php<br /><br />Then there's the money supply and their control of that. Woe be it to the person or country who aspires to mess with that, as Mo Gaddafi discovered. Lot's of info on Mo and the oligarchs here;<br /><br />http://www.4thmedia.org/2013/02/16/the-african-union-algeria-and-mali-the-west%E2%80%99s-war-against-african-development-continues/<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-56878492597995036882013-03-17T14:44:23.027-07:002013-03-17T14:44:23.027-07:00Our decision-making processes have become deeply f...Our decision-making processes have become deeply flawed. We treat government as though it was just another variety of corporate governance, something that encourages short-term thinking and extremely narrow focus. Government in service to the public needs to be expansive and forward looking. It is the duty of government, for example, to accommodate posterity in its planning. It is the duty of government to respect the "precautionary principle" (you can find more by searching this blog) in its planning.<br /><br />Harper's former BFF, Tom Flanagan volunteered that our prime minister actually abhors vision. Without that he can merely rule, not govern. Without vision the future is severely discounted. <br /><br />The Mound of Soundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-3081383483961728362013-03-17T13:56:41.227-07:002013-03-17T13:56:41.227-07:00The future prospects of China and India are mind b...The future prospects of China and India are mind boggling really. China perhaps more so, as it seems like a candle burning on both ends with a stick of dynamite in the middle. <br /><br />For Western economies, the fact that inequality between nations has come down but that inequality within nations has gone up should tell them something about the results of globalization. For the US to continue on it's present course is ludicrous, but there doesn't seem to be enough awareness and understanding of them being their own worst enemy due to that lack of awareness. All the Repub's and the oligarchs have to do to throw a wrench in their tiny minds is to present a plausible boogeyman and then promote the hell out of the fallacy. ie Unions killed the US auto industry, Ach! Arrogance among the big 3's Executives and greed killed that goose. With an ample dollop of stupidity on top. Even when Iacocca showed them the way out, they went back to their big vehicle, big engine, big margin per unit strategies that almost sunk them the first time around after the Japanese invasion and the OPEC crisis. <br /><br />And of course, the taxpayers are on the hook for that one too.<br /><br />As for Canada, my reading tells me that these wonderful free trade deals aren't really so marvelous. Statistics tells the rest a person needs to know. Things like upward wealth transfer and that a study on the economics of Canada's existing free trade deals shows that the countries we deal with end up with the better share. Imports from those countries has grown more than it has with countries we don't have deals with and exports to those countries has grown less than exports to countries we don't have a trade deal with.<br /><br />Economist Harper's answer? More free trade deals...so he can promote oil, coal and mineral exports. What a guy. <br /><br /> Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-3027115467259685922013-03-17T10:25:14.378-07:002013-03-17T10:25:14.378-07:00All good points, Anon. China, like India, faces a...All good points, Anon. China, like India, faces a harrowing environmental problem, the effect of which may mean both countries are at or near their zenith, economically, and at grave risk for destabilizing social upheaval. In both countries, natural resource sustainability is in decline even as their populations steadily grow and their per capita consumption increases. That is a candle burning fiercely at both ends.<br /><br />As I write in a post today, I really think Canada needs to take the lead in transitioning to a "full world" or "steady state" economy rather than wait until some poor variety of it is imposed on us. If, however, governments and the Canadian public insist on pretending we're still back in the 80s, we'll be inviting calamity.The Mound of Soundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-61322023965316954152013-03-17T09:05:37.930-07:002013-03-17T09:05:37.930-07:00All of which brings many of today's realities ...All of which brings many of today's realities into focus. Bits and pieces of news and data that are found from various sources almost daily help to pull it all together.<br /><br />Recent news on the UN's human development report caught my interest for example and I wanted to know more about where the rising economies fit in that. China in particular. Although I could only find a complete report for 2012, not the latest one which shows a significant decline for the US, I discovered China ranked 101 out of 186 countries. Not very impressive given their foreign currency reserves etc.<br /><br />http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/<br /><br />More on how the US has declined here;<br /><br />http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/jul/17/internationalaidanddevelopment.usa<br /><br />When you add in things like the recently published report card on the cost of the Cheney / Bush wars, @ 4 trillion and counting and other reports of US Corporations offshoring $1.7 trillion in profits to keep them away from the US taxman, the picture becomes even more grim.<br /><br />Back to China for a moment, although it's difficult to assess China through western media, it appears the quality of life a Chinese citizen experiences depends on things like where you live and where you came from. Rural people are often denied status and services in urban areas, minimum wage rates are double in urban areas and people who live in better off regions, mostly close to the coast I take it, often receive much better services from government as it's largely based on the local economies and the money they have to work with. No equalization program for them, more like a Republican utopia where States rights are supreme.<br /><br />Along with their gains, have come many downsides too, as in the tripling of the number of people who suffer from diabetes over the last decade. From 30 million to 90 million. An interesting aside to that is big pharma is giddy over the new opportunities. ie in the land of China, they spend approx $195 per diabetes sufferer per yr., as opposed to the US where the annual amount is closer to $5,000. <br /><br />Which brings me to another example of globalization I read about recently. A story of the lowly chicken and KFC international. A group of farmers from Nepal raised a ruckus over chickens being imported to their neck of the woods from India. They destroyed several truck loads of frozen chicken destined for KFC's in their square as they couldn't understand why the chain couldn't source locally? The rest of the story says a lot about globalization as those chickens originated in South America. Brazil if memory serves. <br /><br />Another interesting story is one of the humble mock crab made from fish caught in waters off North American coasts, shipped to China for processing, frozen and then shipped back to us. A lot of bunker C was expended on those efforts. <br /><br />I'm about half way through watching a 2 hr. video presentation on a book Who Stole the American Dream? Author Hedrick Smith, which deals with a lot of the same issues that Roberts focuses on. There is also some discussion in it on the origins of the oligarchs banding together to use their wealth in a more focused way to increase control over politicians, laws, regulations and courts. <br /><br />All of which is what makes the Green Party philosophy of grow, process and buy local very attractive to me.<br /><br />Neocons war costs;<br /><br />http://ca.news.yahoo.com/iraq-war-costs-u-more-2-trillion-study-144627599.html<br /><br />Offshore cash;<br /><br />http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-08/offshore-cash-hoard-expands-by-183-billion-at-companies.html<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-60524991850936470372013-03-16T22:25:18.713-07:002013-03-16T22:25:18.713-07:00I understand your reservations, Anon, but this pos...I understand your reservations, Anon, but this post is about Roberts' evaluation of globalism and free trade, how they've been manipulated to undermine the middle class and his country's economy to effect the transfer of economic and political power to the richest of the rich, the 1%.<br /><br />He never offered an apology for you to accept or reject. And he was quite resolved on distancing himself from the "voodoo" economics, the "trickle down effect" nonsense we associate with Reaganomics.<br /><br />Don't be so judgmental and dismissive. This is about globalism and the demise of the North American manufacturing economy.The Mound of Soundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-87641016937533931572013-03-16T22:01:20.375-07:002013-03-16T22:01:20.375-07:00"Roberts' economic theories have been con..."Roberts' economic theories have been controversial and widely criticized. He is the father of Reagonomics...."<br /><br />So this wanker's 'theories' helped get us into our current mess?<br /><br />You know what? Apology not accepted.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-85553113099044911892013-03-16T14:10:33.312-07:002013-03-16T14:10:33.312-07:00I understand your concern on printed books, Anon. ...I understand your concern on printed books, Anon. What I often do these days is wait for a couple of months after a title I want is released and then pick up a nearly-new copy cheap from an outfit like Abe Books online.<br /><br />I really like to have a hard copy of some books to keep in my library for reference purposes. Electronic books seem to come and go - from machines and from our memory.The Mound of Soundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-37775260788176081142013-03-16T13:54:18.630-07:002013-03-16T13:54:18.630-07:00Taking our markets back would also mean being able...Taking our markets back would also mean being able to purchase this book and read it without using a machine to do so? I so dislike the way books are being sold without access to the real thing in one´s hand. It´s called dictatorship of printed matter for the reason of greed.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com