The Harper Conservatives are fond of touting Canadian banks as more stable than other countries’ big banks. They claim all the credit for Canada’s stability during the 2008-10 global financial crisis. And, we’re often told that our banks needed no … Continue reading →
Continue readingTag: business
The extremely illogical logic behind your credit rating and debt repayment
This is what I find excruciatingly bizarre about the way banks conduct their business on loans, credit cards, personal lines of credit and other lending vehicles: That you may have paid back your entire loan to them, but because you haven’t made the payments on time your credit rating suffers. Although
Continue readingArt Threat: That’s a wrap? – Killing Saskatchewan’s film tax credit is economic nonsense
The cast from InSecurity. The TV show will no longer be produced in Saskatchewan. With the announcement of the axing of the Saskatchewan Film Employment Tax Credit, we are effectively telling the rest of the film-producing world that Saskatchewan is closed for business. It’s a commonly known fact that film
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: More problems with Ornge
This week it was learned that there could be a nasty side effect (no pun intended) to the scandals that have plagued Ornge, the air ambulance service. Hamilton could lose on staff air traffic control. Why? It seems that the company that was contracted to do air ambulance services, and
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: The Politics of Conservatives is Big Business
Within two months Canada’s ruling Conservative Party rejected government intervention in one labour dispute and leapt at the chance to intervene in another. In January a manufacturing plant owned by Electro-Motive Diesel, a private company that had received millions in government tax breaks announced it was laying off 450 employees.
Continue readingeaves.ca: Data Wars: A mini-case study of Southwest Airlines vs. TripIt and Orbitz
As a regular flyer, I’m an enormous fan of TripIt. It’s a simple service in which you forward almost any reservation – airline, hotel, car rental, etc… to plans@tripit.com and their service will scan it, grab the relevant data, and create a calendar of events for you. While it’s a
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Conservatives Don’t Hate Democracy, They Just Don’t Need It
In Canada our representatives are elected, our churches, charities, and businesses are not. Conservatives by their ideology believe that less power should be given to our democratically elected government and more power given to groups that do not answer to voters, whether they be private hospitals, unaccountable church organizations, or
Continue readingCanadian Progressive World: Naomi Klein Debunks “Ethical Oil” Fiction
As she delivers this brilliant rebuttal of the corporate-funded Ethical Oil fiction, Naomi Klein brands herself “an expert in corporate crap”. We don’t have ethical oil in Canada. We’ve tar sands oil, which is like …Read More
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: What’s in YOUR drinking water? In Hamilton it could be Scotchgard ™
Several months ago, back in the spring of this year, Radio Canada ran an investigative report regarding the run-off of chemicals from John Munro International Airport at Mount Hope, the highest point in Hamilton. This was prompted after a lot of fish and turtles were turning up dead downstream in
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: The Cain identity
Yesterday’s decision by Herman Cain to drop out of the GOP Presidential stakes (technically, suspending, a legal loophole that allows him to reallocate donations made to him to another candidate or a PAC) really wasn’t surprising nor was the timing. But it was inevitable. If it was just one woman
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Déjà vu 2011 style
If this is déjà vu all over again, well it is. Fearing another crisis like the one in 2008, during the US election no less, those who control the supply of money are again swinging into action. And once again it’s making me ask about our complacency about these things
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: A reply to my tar sands entries
In response to some of my recent posts about the tar sands, I got an e-mail the other day in reply that was quite compelling enough that I asked the writer if I could use it here. He agreed provided I not use his last name. I am okay with
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Keystone XL delayed; and how many Wal-Marts does Hamilton need?
It was a big surprise but also a delight to hear that Hillary Clinton’s State Department has ordered Trans Canada Pipelines to reconsider the proposed route of the Keystone XL project, in particular the section that would have gone through Nebraska’s S…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Perry’s brain freeze
Last night, Rick Perry, the most bloodthirsty governor in American history (he has permitted 234 legal murders and counting) had a major big time brain freeze when asked what three agencies he would try to cut from the US government (presuming of cours…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Berlusconi out, not because of "bunga bunga" but bonda bonda
After sticking around what seemed like forever, and beating off one sleaze scandal after another, the world’s most powerful womanizer, Silvio Berlusconi, has finally said he’s going to resign after bond markets pushed up the yield of Italy’s 10 year bo…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Greece and the game of chicken
It is truly unbelievable the game of chicken we’ve seen played this week in Europe. Just one week ago, Greece’s PM George Papandreou, was handed the deal of the millennium – a write off of 50% of his country’s debts — and he caused havoc when he w…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: There are overprotective trademark lawyers, and then … there’s the Legion
It is just me, or has the Royal Canadian Legion become a laughing stock for calling in the trademark lawyers to go after — ready for this — a group of veteran bikers who raise awareness about the sacrifices the men and uniform make for those of us wh…
Continue readingRegarding the Ongoing Irrelevance of Keynesian Economics
As I see more of them, my enjoyment of Barry A. Deutsch's cartoons increases. I recommend you visit the Ampersand blog to check out the entire selection. I enjoyed this one especially, as I can never understand how business leaders are so anta…
Continue readingThanks Steve
I still remember fondly the first computer ever to find its way into the family home. The Apple IIe was magic, allowing these clumsy finger to type badly, then delete the virtual mistakes. I remember Gary Gladstone and myself huddled over the computer …
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Oil Lobbyists Targeting “Super Committee”
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As the so-called “Super Committee” works to figure out how to trim $1.2 trillion from the U.S. government’s federal deficit, the dirty energy industry has thei…
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