Which headline describes an actual news event?
Todd Palin to change places with lead dog in next Iditarod race.
Sarah Palin to field-dress caribou for pictorial in Outdoor Life.
Bristol Palin ex-fiance Levi going "full johnston" for Playgirl.
« September 2009 | Main | November 2009 »
HOUSE AFFORDABILITY ERODES | Sharp rise in Canadian prices amid sales boom. Despite sluggish economy, average Canadian house price rises to $328,762 in 3Q. Vancouver priciest, at average $603,165. Toronto rises to $324,873. Only Calgary down, by 2% - first decline since 2005 in Desjardins Affordability Index.
Vancouver skyline. Nice place to visit, but can one afford to live there?
LEST WE FORGET | Lt. Justin Garrett Boyes, 26, killed by IED near Kandahar city. Brings to 132 the number of Canadian troops killed since our Afghan mission began in 2002. U.S. thinking hard about new strategy to protect Afghan's biggest cities and cede countryside to Taliban. But that strategy failed for Soviet occupiers.
MALAISE | Sluggish August GDP growth expected to continue when September GDP revealed. Canadian growth of just 0.3% expected for month. Today U.S. expected to announce 3Q GDP growth of about 3%.
PENSION REFORM | As expected, Ontario to follow Ottawa's lead in pension reform. Flaherty's proposed reforms affect only federally regulated employers. Provinces and territories must follow suit for more Canadians to benefit.
VOLTE FACE | Harper to visit China in December, India in November. Harper established hostile relations with Beijing even before taking office, criticizing Grits for placing trade ahead of human-rights concerns. Said he'd never sell out those concerns "for the almighty dollar." Now that Canada needs rapidly growing China as stronger trading partner, human rights agenda quietly shelved. (Photo: Chinese President Hu Jintao and Stephen Harper meet in Hokkaido in July 2008.)
CHINA BLASTED | Mark Carney slams China for manipulating currency. Bank of Canada governor raises volume on longstanding N.A. complaint that Beijing artifically suppresses value of yuan to benefit its exporters. Carney says resulting $2 trillion (U.S.) Chinese accumulation of greenbacks made possible easy-money era of earlier this decade that helped trigger record U.S. housing boom that in turn caused global financial meltdown and recession.
CHINA PREFERRED BIDDER | Ford gives China's Chery the nod as inside bidder for Volvo.
BREAKTHROUGH | After a 10-year impasse, Obama extends hate-law provisions to gays.
PREVIEW | Sunday NYT Magazine profile of Barack and Michelle Obama. When Obama first asked his wife of only three years for her permission to run for elected office, Michelle's response was: "I married you because you’re cute and you’re smart. But this is the dumbest thing you could have ever asked me to do.”
U.S. HEALTHCARE DRAMA | House bill to include "public option," as Senate bill will. But Pelosi, in appeal to conservatives, would require new government insurer to negotiate costs with private-sector providers rather than set the rates itself, in contrast, say, to OHIP schedule of reimbursements. Senate's twist is that states can opt out of public option. Seems only "option" U.S. legislators won't experiment with to gain passage is the only one that really makes sense: cost-efficient, genuinely universal single-payer system that the rest of industrialized world has had for decades. Congres divided on public option, but not Main Street, where support for new government insurer to keep private ones honest remains strong.
NAIL-BITER | Iran to announce today if it will accept tentative deal to have Russia store its uranium. Many Iranian officials getting cold feet, say no assurance Russians will return the uranium. U.S. acting oddly with this coup in sight, harshly dictating deadline for Tehran. And Clinton in Pakistan when Tehran would seem more logical place for secretary of state's diplomatic skills at this moment.
HYDRO-HYDRA | Hydro-Quebec will today announce deal to buy N.B. Power for close to $10 billion. Already N.A.'s biggest hydro-electric utility, Hydro-Quebec also keen to buy or ally with N.S. and P.E.I. power utilities to dominate Eastern Canadian production. Maritime utilities have U.S. contracts that will add to Hydro-Quebec's.
HALLOWE'EN HAUL | Trick Or Treat Index identifies most promising neighbourhoods. For Seattle and Los Angeles, Website zillow.com has factored in home values, population density, walkability and local crime rates. “Based on those variables, this Index represents neighbourhoods that will provide the most candy, with the least walking, and minimum safety risks,” says site's Whitney Tyler.
QUOTE OF THE DAY | "He thinks by infection, catching an opinion like a cold." -John Ruskin.
Courtesy The New Yorker, Oct. 26 edition.
A 12-week-old panda cub at San Diego Zoo. Photo: Ken Bohn, AP. HT: Globe and Mail.
U.S. DEMOCRATS FINALLY FLEXING SOME POPULIST MUSCLE.
* Reforms would allow unprecedented state intrusion in badly run financial institutions. Government could intervene early in banks, insurers thought to be courting disaster, dictating changes in pay, scrapping overly risky products and practices, and firing executives. Bailout fund to be created, financed by healthy banks, to prevent repeat of panicked plea to Congress for bailout funds late last year. Fed and U.S. Treasury, like Canada's Mark Carney on Monday, are determined never again to have taxpayers bail out banks and insurers like AIG that are "too big to fail." In future, "shareholders will be wiped out," not taxpayers, says administration official. Specific provisions of proposed bill here.
* U.S. Senate panel approves bill to recapture $8.5 billion (U.S.) from tax evaders. The U.S. crackdown on tax evaders and their bank enablers is designed to stem the tide of estimated $100 billion (U.S.) in annual tax-evasion losses.
* House measure would impose scrutiny of hedge funds, private equity and offshore funds. Currently unregulated "shadow-economy" players had role in epic financial-markets collapse. Panel soon to consider oversight of credit-rating ologopoly that pasted "Triple A" ratings on junk mortgages, even more central to the global credit meltdown.
* Dem leadership in Senate pressuring holdouts to get in line for "public option." Turncoat Lieberman and "blue dog" Dems on the fence or opposed to new government health insurer told they risk being remembered for "being on the wrong side of history" if they vote nay - like opponents of Social Security and Medicare before them.
* Obama announces $3.4 billion (U.S.) funding for "smart grid." Funds are downpayment on overhaul of U.S. power grids that caused 2005 N.A. blackout, and weill enable producers of power from alternative sources like solar to feed into national system. Step in right direction, says eco-columnist, but government and utility bureaucracy will make progress slow.
PENSION REFORM | Nortel retirees encouraged by Flaherty proposals unveiled Tuesday. Could pressure provinces and territories to follow Ottawa's lead.
ALL-DAY KINDERGARTEN | Cash-strapped Ontario to proceed with $500-million initiative.
Katherine Pal, Jack Bates, Fan Fei, Scarlett Moncada at Toronto's Bruce Junior school. Photo: Andrew Wallace, Toronto Star.
TORY TRANSPARENCY | Ottawa at last preparing to provide details on stimulus spending.
IGGY SHAKEUP | Chretien veteran Peter Donolo becomes Grit leader's new chief of staff. Gaffes and slumping polls spur Ignatieff to replace team that helped in his leadership bid with one better capable of running official opposition leader's office.
U.S. RECESSION ENDS | Government to make it official in Thursday announcement. 3Q GDP expected to be about 3%, first positive GDP growth since recession began December 2007. But with jobless rate still high and rising, consumers are hardly celebrating yet. The two key figures to watch for strength of U.S. recovery are weekly jobless-relief claims and ISM index, the pace of economic output. The first continues to rise, the second is too anemic to signal a robust upturn.
THE NEW CZARS | Kremlin says democracy is cumbersome, inefficient. Even with Putin's legacy of quasi-totalitarianism, megaprojects and other initiatives still not getting underway fast enough. Well, at least Ruskies are finally candid about displeasure with brief 1990s experiment with liberal democracy.
THE NEW FORD | Ford quality now meets or exceeds Asians on many models. By contrast, GM still lags far behind, and Chrysler ranks dead last in Consumer Reports' latest survey. Ford Fusion (left) ranks second only to Prius in all-important family category, where unit volume is high. Ford quality eclipses even Toyota and Honda flagships Camry and Accord, respectively. Quandary for Chrysler, especially, is major quality improvements can only be made with costly new-model introductions. Chrysler has fewest new products in pipeline, while Ford will have replaced entire line-up within two years.
PROFITS BAROMETER | Winners: Rogers, CPR, AK Steel, Visa. Losers: TD Ameritrade, E*Trade, Danier Leather, QLT, Valero, Sinopec, Inmet Mining, Alcon, Honda, Canon.
HAMMER BLOW | Ritchies, 42-year-old Toronto auctioneer, is bankrupt.
AFGHAN QUAGMIRE | U.S. accepts resignation of one of its top Afghan diplomats, who quit citing likely failure of mission. Big setback for WH's current Afghan strategy, now subject of heated internal debate. Matthew Hoh, 36, distinguished veteran of Iraq war, is highly regarded at State Department, which tried to keep him on with relocation offers he rejected, and arranged for him to personally brief AfPak envoy Richard Holbrooke on his misgivings. Which are that additional forces requested by Gen. McChrystal will only further alienate civilian population; and that U.S. is "a supporting actor" in Afghanistan's decades-old civil war. Logically, routing Taliban and al-Qaeda from Afghanistan would also "require us to occupy western Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, etc," Hoh wrote in resignation letter. The New Yorker on why Hoh quit, and PDF of Hoh's detailed resignation letter. Meanwhile, Reuters reports Pakistani soldiers ordered to fight insurgents fear Taliban retribution on their families. And Reuters blogger doubts Afghanistan is the right place to fight al-Qaeda, whose operatives are worldwide. Six U.N. staff killed this morning in Taliban attack and hostage-taking in downtown Kabul luxury hotel in third major attack on capital in recent weeks (photo above). ISAF forces don't even control Afghan capital in deadliest month of Taliban attacks since war started eight years ago.
ARE WE PARADISE OR WHAT? | Two of National Geographic's top three vacation picks are Canadian. Top-five ranking, of 133 locations judged, is: 1. Norway's Fjord region. 2. B.C.'s Kootney/Yoho National Parks. 3. Gaspe Peninsula, Quebec. (Photo; Gaspe landmark Perce rock.) 4. South Island, New Zealand. 5. Ancient Kyoto, Japan.
QUOTE OF THE DAY | "It's a war of necessity, not a war of choice. And it's a just war." Timothy Geithner, U.S. treasury secretary, addressing the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association annual meeting in New York yesterday. Geithner, anticipating G.O.P. and Wall Street opposition to proposed financial-markets reforms, said the system's continued fragility requires new regulations and a toughening of existing ones.
Courtesy The New Yorker, Nov. 2 edition.
Hope you find these pumpkin-carving ideas helpful.
One-man axis of evil.
Arizona's senior U.S. senator.
Self-described space clown.
National political party leader.
"Still life, former A-list couple, Chicago, 2007." Patrick Fitzgerald, photo-emulsion on #3 card stock.
Mr. and Mrs. Balloon Boy Exploiter.
CARNEY READS RIOT ACT TO BANKS, UNVEILS NEW GLOBAL REGULATORY ORDER.
* BoC governor rips bankers as guilty of "hubris" in lavish bonuses and denialism about causing crisis.
* Intolerable legacy of bailouts: "We are awash in moral hazard" - the bankers' belief that governments will rescue banks deemed "too big to fail." That's an incentive for banks to embark on acquisition sprees to make themselves even bigger and more disaster-prone. Think again, says Bank of Canada governor. Brunt of future failures will be borne by executives and shareholders, not taxpayer.
Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of Canada. Photo by Christinne Musch, Reuters.
* World governments to impose higher reserve requirements and lower leverage ratios on global banks. To prepare for that, banks shouldn't be squandering windfall profits from bailouts and low interest rates on lavish bonuses, but bulking up their reserves.
* Banks will be forced to adopt "living wills," so troubled banks are quickly dismantled, isolating solid operations from troubled ones that threaten entire bank and the financial system.
* Risky derivatives should be openly traded, just like stocks and bonds. Drag these "weapons of mass wealth destruction," as Buffett calls them, out of the shadow economy where they can be accurately priced and subjected to the same transparency as other bank assets and liabilities.
* Carney deflates bankers' self-importance, saying they must return to being "servant of the real economy."
Carney's blueprint for sweeping reform, unveiled yesterday in Montreal speech, echoes concerns of heads of state and regulators worldwide. Much if not most of it will be adopted by world economies over the next year or so, with many of the final touches applied at next G-20 summit in Muskoka next year. Carney says reformed global system will, in some key respects, adopt long-standing Canadian regulatory practices that resulted in our status as a rare major economy that didn't need a state rescue of its banks.
EUROPE ALREADY FORCING BANK BREAK-UPS | Prefers "too-small-to-worry-about" model. Dutch giant ING (above), among few remaining bancassurance colossi, stuns market yesterday saying it will shed insurance ops, become a pure retail bank. EU regulators are pushing for asset sales at other bailout recipients, including RBS, Lloyds, Barclays. This will amount to shedding 30% to 50% of total assets. New era of incredibly shrinking bank has arrived in Europe. U.S. not yet convinced banks need to shrink. Could happen, though, given multitude of U.S. regulators and economists also wary of "systemic risk" posed by over-sized financial institutions.
PROFITS TURNAROUND | Corporate profits, as earlier reported here, signalling economic upturn.
TORIES REFORM 1 | Ottawa to toughen parole rules for while-collar and other non-violent criminals. Fraudsters to serve longer stretches before parole eligibility. Response to spate of high-profile fraud cases, notably in Montreal and B.C.
TORIES REFORM 2 | Flaherty vows "comprehensive reform" on pensions soon. Will affect federally regulated firms, such as banks, transport sector, telecommunications. Meanwhile, Quebec moves to backstop pension guarantees for 3,000+ Nortel retirees in province. Leaves no excuse for QP not to follow suit.
BIG HURT | Fiscal basket case Toronto preparing across-the-board 5% cut in budget outlays. "Everything is on the table," official says - social services, rec centres, snow clearance...
THAT DIDN'T TAKE LONG | New U.S. ambassdor to Canada makes early stop in Alberta. Talks oil with premier and conservationists, following in Cheney's footsteps. U.S. administrations come and go. But Athabasca, world's second-largest oil reserves after Saudi, will forever be regarded stateside as integral to U.S. energy security.
HUH? | John Kerry describes Hamid Karzai as a "patriot." Massachusetts U.S. senator, close to WH, either is delusional about corrupt Afghan president (left) or is setting the table for a Karzai role in negotiated settlement with Taliban. Bet on the latter. Obama repeats he won't be rushed in his rethink of current, failing counterinsurgency mission. Contrast with LBJ, who believed his generals' sanguine reports of Vietnam "progress" to the end.
HUGE U.S HEALTHCARE BREAKTHROUGH | Senate bill will include new government insurer. So-called "public option" had met stiffest opposition in senate. So in conference with pro-public option House to forge a final bill for president's signature, Canadian-style single payer element likely to survive, with provision permitting states to opt out. Just weeks ago public option was given up for dead, by me, among others.
WASTE RAMPANT IN U.S. HEALTHCARE | Tab is put at staggering $700-billion-plus (U.S.) a year. "That's one-third of the nation's healthcare bill," official at Thomson Reuters, author of report, says. "The good news is that by attacking waste we can reduce healthcare costs without adversely affecting the quality of care or access to care." Obama has been widely dismissed in asserting that the cost of covering the uninsured can be defrayed by cutting waste.
NEWSPAPER CIRCULATION PLUNGE CONTINUES | Papers cutting "unprofitable" circulation. Slumping ad revenues no longer support free copies distributed at hotels and the like by USA Today, LA Times, et al. Also ttrimming distribution to suburbs in effort to reduce newsprint, printing costs. Papers claim readership numbers are holding up - more people reading each copy. Still, hardly what you'd call a sign of health.
UNEXPECTED HEALTH BOOST FOR ICELAND | McDonald's quits the insolvent country. Cites 80% plunge in local currency. Watch for reheated McNuggets imported from Norway to become Reykjavik dorm delicacy.
CRASH TEST DUMMY | Director Paul Haggis quits Scientology on discovering it's homophobic. Director missed the memoes all these years.
THE COST OF A WELL EDUCATED BABY | Getting that toddler through university will cost $137,013. So start investing now. This assumes no scholarships, no student grant assistance, no student summer jobs. True, tuition and related costs have soared. But you have to wonder about the self-interest in this report from TD Financial - which, BTW, is emphatic that a cape-and-gown is essential to your kids' future. Obviously, TD has a strong interest in selling mutual funds and other fee-laden savings products.
QUOTE OF THE DAY | "Let's face it, the most important innovation in banking for most people in the last 20 years is the automatic teller machine." -Paul Volcker, former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board, in an interview with Rotman Magazine, the U of T business school publication, on the bankers' current fear of over-regulation that might restrain them in "innovating" new products to replace past hits like subprime mortgages, collateralized debt obligations and credit-default swaps. And don't we miss those already?
Courtesy The New Yorker, Oct. 12 edition.
David Olive is a business and current affairs columnist at the Star, which he joined in 2001 after stints at the Globe and Mail, National Post and Financial Post.
"If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion."
- George Bernard Shaw
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