It’s called the chicken cup because it’s got chickens painted on it. The world’s highest priced birds, in fact. The cup fetched $36.1-million, including commission, at Sotheby’s spring auction in Hong Kong. Described as the “the holy grail when it comes to Chinese art,” the cup set a record for
Continue readingAuthor: Bill Longstaff
Quebec—another majority that isn’t
A lot of euphoria last night from Liberal supporters and those many Canadians (including not a few Quebecers) who don’t want to hear about separation for another generation at least. Not only did the Liberals win, they won big, majority big. Or at least the majority that counts which, unfortunately,
Continue readingCanada strikes out as a progressive nation
There was a time—long, long ago—when Canada had a reputation in the world as a progressive nation. Well … not so long ago actually. Only eight years in fact. It just seems like a long time. Now, in at least three areas we have joined the ranks of the reactionaries,
Continue readingSupport the tax gap motion
That governments are robbed of billions of dollars by the rich and by corporations exploiting tax havens is a well-known national and international scandal. It is now standard practice for corporations to exploit a variety of often opaque schemes to shift profits into low or no-tax jurisdictions. The corporate tax
Continue readingThe "mother of all accountants" flays election bill
Sheila Fraser was once one of Stephen Harper’s favourite people. When she, in her capacity of auditor-general, exposed the Chretien government’s sponsorship scandal, sewing the seeds that would bring down the Liberals, Mr. Harper praised her handsomely as the “mother of all accountants” and in a neat turn of phrase
Continue readingMore to Adam Smith and The Wealth of Nations than meets the neoliberal eye
When we think of Adam Smith, the great Scottish philosopher and economist, and his seminal book The Wealth of Nations, we are inclined to think of free markets, individual self-interest, and the invisible hand. However, reading another good book recently, How Markets Fail by John Cassidy, I was reminded there
Continue readingAlberta, oil, and indoctrinating children
“Give us a child till he’s seven and we’ll have him for life”—a maxim some claim comes from St. Ignatius Loyola himself, founder of the Jesuits. Somewhat hackneyed but nonetheless true, the Alberta government and the oil industry seem to be taking it seriously. The government is engaged in a
Continue readingFederal hiring and the warrior ethos
The federal government has, it seems, something of a Jekyll and Hyde attitude towards military veterans. On the one hand, its budget-cutting has resulted in the closing of Veterans Affairs offices and a penny-pinching approach to the well-being of injured and disabled veterans. On the other hand, the government announced
Continue readingSaudi arms sales—the triumph of economics over morality
If nothing else, it illustrates how, in the world of international relations, economics trumps morality. I refer to General Dynamics Land Systems Canada landing a deal to sell light-armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia. The deal was announced last month by International Trade Minister Ed Fast who praised it as a
Continue readingThe global economy—a case of bad engineering
For a number of years I toiled in the oil industry as an engineer, and not infrequently lessons I learned from my engineering experience return to inform me in other contexts. Recently I have been thinking of the global economy in such terms, and it fails miserably to pass the
Continue readingU.S. conservatives going all progressive?
If Justice Minister Peter MacKay announcing that the Conservatives may soften marijuana laws came as a surprise, the change of heart among some conservatives in the U.S. is nothing less than a shock. Addressing the 2014 Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) conference in Washington, CPAC’s blogger of the year, Mary
Continue readingUkraine and American arrogance
The New York Times ran an intriguing headline earlier this week. It read “Debate Over Who, in U.S., is to Blame for Ukraine.” Apparently American politicians are debating which among them is responsible for recent events in Ukraine, Republicans blaming Obama and Democrats blaming Bush. The arrogance is extraordinary. The
Continue readingDoes the terrorist threat justify the snooping? Not according to the stats
British Prime Minister David Cameron, speaking about the need for mass surveillance of communications, talked about keeping concerns about civil liberties “in proportion.” Perhaps what should be kept in proportion is his enthusiasm for mass snooping. Mr. Cameron and other national leaders justify their obsession about security and its attendant
Continue readingWill Homo sapiens evolve itself into extinction?
The notion that eventually we will create an artificial intelligence superior to our own has been around for quite a while. Now someone has boldly, perhaps foolishly, predicted a deadline. Ray Kurzweil, Google’s director of engineering. has confidently predicted that computers will be smarter than humans by 2029. Normally I
Continue readingAndrew Leslie’s troubling views on defence policy
Andrew Leslie, former Canadian forces commander in Afghanistan, now adviser to Liberal Party chief Justin Trudeau, has been busy recently defending his $72,000 moving expense, particularly from attack by the Conservatives. Apparently the expense was within appropriate guidelines, so I have no intention of joining in that quibbling. I am,
Continue readingThe brutal costs of the World Cup
As the scandal over Vladimir Putin’s $50-billion Olympics begins to fade, equally sordid scandals about the World Cup come to the fore. Brazil, which has won more World Cups than any other country. is holding the Cup this year. To date, things are not going well. Five stadiums scheduled for
Continue readingPaying a high price for insulting Mexico
In 2009, our government in its wisdom imposed stringent visa requirements on Mexicans visiting Canada, the harshest on any country. claiming this was necessary to deter increasing numbers of bogus refugee claimants. The complex and intrusive requirements included probing questions about potential visitors’ families and their financial histories. The move
Continue readingThe human legacy—one of the world’s six greatest catastrophes
I was watching with interest the other night Jon Stewart’s interview of Elizabeth Kolbert, author of a new book, The Sixth Great Extinction. There have been five great extinction events in the 550-million year history of multi-celled life on Earth, events in which abnormally large numbers of species die out
Continue readingOur dangerous dependence on the tar sands
It sounds like good news. A new study, “Oil Sands Economic Benefits: Today and in the Future,” states that tar sands production supported more than 478,000 direct, indirect and induced Canadian jobs in 2012 and contributed $91-billion of Canada’s GDP, an economic contribution greater than that of the province of
Continue readingFrom the Wildrose, an interesting idea
Alberta’s Wildrose Party Leader Danielle Smith has offered what on the surface sounds like a good idea. Her party is proposing the province transfer 10 per cent of all its taxes—personal and corporate income taxes, education tax, tobacco tax and fuel tax—and 10 per cent of any budget surplus, to municipalities
Continue reading