QuickNews, Wednesday, Nov. 18.

 

 Checking out big-screen TVs at Best Buy, Elk Grove, Calif. Photo: Rick Pedroncelli, AP

CALIFORNIA CRACKDOWN ON ARENA-SIZED TVs | Power-hungry sets could be banned. Golden State, long the U.S. eco-trailblazer, now considering ban on sale of all but the most energy-efficient TV sets.

CARNEY IN NEW YORK | Canads's most credible economic expert talks reform tomorrow. Central banker with harsh words lately for half-measures is bound to detail substantive reforms all nations must take to avoid repeat of financial crisis. Wall Street won't like Mark Carney's calls for bigger capital cushions and restrictions on risk, but it will listen up. Canada will be one of two nations heading up development of global reforms package.

HELL FREEZES OVER | Goldman Sachs apologizes for role in global financial meltdown. CEO Lloyd Blankfein also pledges $100 million (U.S.) per year to help small biz, tiny fraction of Goldman bonus pool already set aside for 2009. A PR exercise, of course, but I think this is the first apology from anyone on Wall Street for triggering near-repeat of Great Depression. (Photo: Chip East, Reuters.)

ABSTINENCE-ONLY SEX EDUCATION A FLOP | STD rates still growing, says CDC. U.S. to reconsider Bush-era sex-ed focused exclusively on abstinence, without providing guidance on safe sex.

ANTIBIOTICS CRISIS | Over-prescribing has raised bacterial resistance to antibiotics. Docs say they're now resorting to earlier generations of antibiotics and to compounds they know of only from what's been written about them.

LIFE IS A MARATHON | Why fitness relieves anxiety. But doesn't reduce weight.

TEMPLE MOUNTS | Harper's Indian photo-ops a transparent bid for Indo-Canadian votes at home. PM's greatest-hits tour of India's most famous temples does nothing to advance Canada-U.S. trade and other issues. But the home audience of 1 million Indo-Canadians - especially those in swing ridings - might be impressed, Harper hopes. (Photo: Stephen Harper at Amritsar's Golden Temple yesterday.)

SQUIGGLY UPDATE | Iggy reverses again, maybe he will whip caucus on gun registry vote. After rumoured spine transplant by Rae, who if there was a god would be Grit leader by now, Ignatieff decides earlier decision to allow a free vote on dismantling the long-gun registry the Grits created and cops find essential might not be good plan, after all. But for rural Grit MPs who hate the registry, just wait a day, I expect Iggy isn't done pivoting on this one.

EXIT STAGE RIGHT | U.S. administration pushing for early sale of GM stake. Bankrupt only a few months ago, GM could be in good enough shape to regain stock-market listing by next year's second half. If the economy recovers. If N.A. vehicle sales abuptly pull out of unprecedented slump. If buyers like the look of GM's newest models. In other words, don't bet on a GM IPO in 2010 - but kudos for the ambitious goal.

LESS CROWDED SKIES | Delta and fellow SkyTeam members want JAL link. Meanwhile, British Airways negotiating merger with Iberia.

RAIL COUP | Bombardier close to landing huge SNCF contract. Deal could amount to 800 regional and commuter train sets for France at total value of almost $13 billion (U.S.). (Photo: Bombardier-built regional train at Rouen station in northern France. By Boris Maslard, Reuters.)

CANDID OBAMA | Warns of double-dip recession, hints 9/11 suspect will get death penalty. The first comment, an acknowledgment that indefinite deficit spending could cause a downturn, is a sop to the Johnny-come-lately fiscal conservatives in Republican camp - where were they when Bush was running up record deficits? Latter is a sop to Chicken Littles who fear Big Apple may become terrorist target again with criminal trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Manhattan rather than military trial at Gitmo.

PROFITS BAROMETER | Winners: Metro, Gas Metro. Losers: Tembec, Sears Canada.

GASSING UP | TransCanada forecasts 60% leap in pretax profit by 2013. Never mind current global gas glut. Company is predicting a 70% hike in natural gas demand over next decade with its increased use in generating power.

CANDY CONTEST | Hershey and Ferrero may try to outbid Kraft for Cadbury. Betting has to remain on the much bigger Kraft, which opened the bidding. Trust-controlled Hershey and private Ferrero don't have nearly the same access to acquisition financing. But savvy for Hershey to team with a Euro-partner, as EU Commission is bound to have a say in this.

BURIAL RITES | Coal producers' best hope is sequestration. But technology for burying CO2 is unproven, and scorned by environmentalists who worry about underground migration. Industry's only high cards are America's super-abundance of coal - Appalachia is the Saudi Arabia of coal - and fact that half of total U.S. power is generated by coal-fired plants. 

CARBON SINK SUNK | Oceans struggling to absorb greenhouse-gas emissions.

FOUNDING FATHERS ON CLIMATE CHANGE | Ben Franklin and the boys worried about it too. Lively debate among America's earliest leaders about abrupt warming and cooling of climate, and speculation about causes.

CASH FOR CAULKERS | Why not replicate successful "cash for clunkers" with home repairs? Idea has Obama's tentative support, as part of job-creation strategy that kicks off early next year.

IRAN RENEGES | Backs off earlier pledge to relocate uranium stockpile to Russia. Not sure what mullahs' game is here, except to extract friendlier deal from Western nations increasingly impatient with Tehran. With Iraq quieting down and Obama crafting exit strategy for Afghanistan, and existing members of nuke club like India hostile to new members, Tehran is playing with a weaker hand than it imagines.

WHAT'S IN A NAME? | Translation firm makes sure baby's name not embarrassing in other tongues. At steep fee of $1,678 (U.S.), London-based Today Translations expects to attract mostly celebrity parents. Like, for instance, Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes and daughter Suri, whose name means "pickpocket" in Japanese, "turned sour" in French, and "horse mackerels" in Italian. (I don't know what a horse mackeral is either.)  

QUOTE OF THE DAY | “We participated in things that were clearly wrong and have reason to regret. We apologize.” -Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, in a Tuesday speech at a corporate conference in New York.

 

Courtesy The New Yorker, Nov. 2 edition.

 

Please consider joining me as an elf this holiday season by participating in the Toronto Star's Santa Claus Fund, a century-old Toronto tradition. The Star uses donations to assemble and distribute gift boxes to thousands of less-financially advantaged children throughout the GTA. Each box contains a book, clothing and a toy. You can read all about it, including first-hand accounts of Toronto families in need, at http://www.thestar.com/santaclausfund. I'm counting on your kindness to help put smiles on thousands of young faces this December 25th! Many thanks, David 

 

 

America, where "socialized medicine" flourishes.

"Do you really want to have your future and your life and your health in the hands of the Washington bureaucracy?" -Newt Gingrich, Fox News interview, June 10.

A newsflash for the former U.S. house speaker and his kindred spirits now demonizing "socialized medicine" in the current U.S. debate on health care reform.

More Americans are covered by "socialized medicine" than the entire population of Canada.

Uncle Sam already is the primary healthcare provider in the U.S., covering about 100 million people - or one in three Americans.

If you're a senior in the U.S., Uncle Sam insures you for healthcare costs with Medicare.

If you're poor, the taxpayer insures you for healthcare costs with Medicaid.

If you're handicapped, the U.S. taxpayer provides you with healthcare coverage through Medicaid.

If you're a child of a working-class family whose income is modest but too high for Medicaid eligibility, the taxpayer covers your healthcare through the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

If you're a military veteran, the taxpayer covers your healthcare costs through the Veterans' Administration.

If you're incarcerated your healthcare is provided by the state. This includes drugs, dentistry and chiropractic and other physiotherapy.

The two affluent nations with the biggest networks of government owned and operated hospitals are France and the United States.

In America, veterans are treated at VA and Pentagon health facilities at home and abroad.

These include some of the finest hospitals in the U.S., such Walter Reed Army Medical Center; the Bethesda Naval Hospital; and the Hart-Dole-Inouye Federal Center, formerly the Battle Creek (Michigan) Federal Center, renamed in honour of three future U.S. senators treated there for injuries sustained in the Second World War.

One of the biggest and most highly advanced hospitals in Germany is the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center near the U.S. Ramstein Air Base, owned and operated by the U.S. Army and the Department of Defense.

Dwight Eisenhower was a recipient of taxpayer-funded healthcare his entire adult life.

Health care services are provided to the U.S. prison population at on-site clinics and nearby hospitals, some of them privately operated, but with the bill paid by the taxpayer.

The U.S. prison population is the world's largest, in absolute numbers and percentage of the population. At the start of 2008, 2.3 million American adults were incarcerated, or one per cent of the total population. The People's Republic of China was second, with 1.5 million people imprisoned. But with a far greater population than the U.S., China's incarceration rate was 18 per lower than that of the U.S.

Charles Manson has been a recipient of U.S. taxpayer-funded healthcare for 38 years. Should he serve his entire U.S. prison sentence, Conrad Black will have received U.S. socialized healthcare for six and a half years.  

Canada does not have the pharmacare that U.S. seniors, veterans and imprisoned criminals do. Canada does not have pharmacare, period. Nor does our Medicare system cover dental bills or chiropractic services. In Ontario, our Medicare doesn't even cover an eye exam. The spectacles themselves, at $400 to $600 a pop, are paid for by the patient, not the government.

But in the U.S. a serial murderer gets the trifocals he needs and the $4,000-a-month course of medicine his condition requires, care of taxpayers in Florida, Texas and New Hampshire.

In short, more Americans are already covered by "socialized medicine" than any country in the world but Japan.

True, France and Britain cover everyone, and the U.S. does not. But France and Britain each are about one-fifth the population of the U.S., with just over 60 million people each. Medicaid alone covers 47 million Americans; Medicare another 43 million people. Roughly one-third of Americans are covered by "socialized medicine."

Indeed, Uncle Sam is the key player in all major aspects of U.S. healthcare.

The federally funded U.S. National Institutes of Health finances the primary research on chemical compounds from which Big Pharma derives those that show the most promise of becoming commercial drugs.

The federally funded Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention in Atlanta sets the world standard on pandemic assessment and control. The federally funded Food and Drug Administration sets the world standard on which proposed new drugs boast sufficient safety and efficacy to be released to the market.

The U.S. debate today on healthcare reform is not about further socializing an already heavily socialized U.S. system. It's about trying to make sure the private insurers who cover those Americans who don't fall into the above groups treat their clients fairly.

It's about ensuring that private insurers stop trying, usually with success, to renege on their obligations. That they stop denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, "cherry-picking" only the healthiest payers of high and rising premiums. And that they stop putting an annual or lifetime cap on claims.

Next time someone asks you for an example of an elaborately socialized healthcare system, point them to the U.S.

As it happens, those parts American medicine that are administred by government bureaucrats are those with which Americans are happiest, especially the single-payer Medicare program, dating from 1965. Which is why a majority of Americans favour a new government health insurer (the so-called "public option") as part of the current healthcare debate.  

Oh, I left out a U.S. group that also benefits from "socialized medicine." That would be politicians, especially at the federal level.

Incorporated in the compensation of elected officials are taxpayer-paid premiums for first-class healthcare. Every Republican and blue-dog Democrat in the U.S. Congress who waxes indignant about the imminent socialization of American healthcare is a recipient of socialized healthcare. And very happy to be so.

I think the term for those folks is "hypocrite." I can think of some others - "heartless," "dumb as a plank," "chutzpah," "no sense of irony" - but this is a family paper.

If they were honest, those alarmist elected officials would surrender their gold-plated health-insurance benefits as they seek to deny decent coverage for low- and middle-income Americans - the hard-working taxpayers who foot the bill for a socialized American healthcare system from which they alone are excluded.

QuickNews, Monday, Nov. 16.

LEADERS ON TOUR | Harper in India, Obama in China. Harper acknowledges Canada's trade with emerging Indian economic superpower is embarrassingly tiny. "Between us, our combined GDP is well on the way to $4 trillion. Yet at the moment we are only doing $5 billion worth of business per year. Where we are today is not where we ought to be." Obama, in Iowa-style town hall in Shanghai, describes liberating wonders of the Internet, a hint at Beijing repression he'd rather not dwell on tomorrow in tete-et-tete with Chinese president Hu Jintao, where the topic will be the debilitating trade imbalance between the U.S. and China. Paul Krugman convincingly explains once again here how China's artificially depressed currency effectively steals jobs from rest of world. Meanwhile, China has detained activists to squelch criticism prior to Obama's arrival.

  
 
Harper hails India as "South Asian tiger" in address to Mumbai business audience. (Photo: Rafiq Maqbool, AP.) Obama town hall with students in Shanghai. (Saul Loeb, AFP.)

APOLOGIES | Britain and Australia apologize for deportation, mistreatment of "Home children." Practice begun in 19th century, extending into 1900s, saw thousands of British orphans, runaways and other troubled children sent to Canada, Australia and other existing and former U.K. colonies, where often they were abused and used as slaves, including on Canadian farms.

GM COMEBACK | Troubled giant's 3Q losses lower than expected. CEO Fritz Henderson vows GM to begin paying back loans from Washington, Ottawa and Queen's Park as early as December.

AFGHAN QUAGMIRE | Canadian military leader insists progress being made. Arrival of Obama's extra troops, mostly deployed in treacherous south where Canadian forces are, has enabled Canadians to focus on smaller region of Kandahar, establish more intimate and humanitarian relations with Afghan civilians.

 
P.R. BONANZA | Canada's space clown got vastly more media coverage than Afghan mission. Cirque de Soleil cofounder brags that media survey shows his stunt generated 23 times more international press attention than Canada's Afghan mission. In return for the $35-million (U.S.) cost of his space trip, Guy Laliberte figures he generated $592 million (Cdn.) worth of publicity. Guy's red clown nose was key, marketing expert says.

LOOSE GERMS | Canadian labs have poor control over viruses in storage. Auditor calls for enhanced monitoring of inventories of potentially harmful bacteria and other compounds at federal labs across the country.

HOMELESS | Nicolas Cage joins expected 2 million Americans who will lose homes to foreclosure. Actor's financial woes known for some time, he loses two New Orleans residences in auction. Between 2008 and hoped-for stabilization of U.S. housing market by next year, estimated two million American families will have lost their homes to foreclosure.

CANADIANS REJECTING WILDERNESS | Attendance down even at most famous parks. Parks Canada says even Banff, Jasper, Cabot Trail see decline in visitors. "The population of Canada has become very urban," says Gloria Keyes-Brady, a Parks Canada tourism specialist. "A few decades ago people would go camping with their parents. That is not the trend anymore." Not enough cellphone towers, is my guess, or WiFi connections.

QUOTE OF THE DAY | "We're entitled to it." -Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens, on why U.S. companies deserve first bids on Iraqi oil plays, arguing for compensation for unprovoked U.S. war of choice on sovereign Iraq that claimed more than 4,000 U.S. soldiers' lives. So the estimated 200,000 Iraqi civilians killed in this needless war, to what are they entitled?

Courtesy The New Yorker, Nov. 16 edition.

Please consider joining me as an elf this holiday season by participating in the Toronto Star's Santa Claus Fund, a century-old Toronto tradition. The Star uses donations to assemble and distribute gift boxes to thousands of less-financially advantaged children throughout the GTA. Each box contains a book, clothing and a toy. You can read all about it, including first-hand accounts of Toronto families in need, at http://www.thestar.com/santaclausfund. I'm counting on your kindness to help put smiles on thousands of young faces this December 25th! Many thanks, David 

QuickNews, Friday, Nov. 13.

 

EUROPE EMERGES FROM RECESSION

EU RECOVERY | GDP growing again in Eurozone. Key economies Germany and France turned the corner in the summer, others have followed, British turnaround remains halting.

BREAKTHROUGH | Pioneering Calgary doc uses glue to repair breastplates post-heart surgery. Superglue, called "Kryptonite" (what else?), greatly eases post-op pain compared with current method of wire stitches. Another coup for progressive Foothills hospital, as doc hits the road worldwide to teach others his method that's won acclaim from Calgary patients.

eHEALTH SCANDAL CLAIMS ANOTHER VICTIM | Ontario deputy health minister abruptly quits.

"BUY AMERICAN" BITES | Parochialism of U.S. stimulus bill hits Canadian manufacturers. Just the same, export data show Canadian recovery. 

LOONIE PARITY IMMINENT | Greenback still sliding against world currencies, including CDN$.  

HARPER HEADS WEST | In Singapore today, will promote Canuck exports at APEC confab.

BALSILLIE, TOO | RIM co-CEO in Silicon Valley to show the flag against Apple, et al.

PROFITS BAROMETER | Winners: BCE. Losers: Aeroplan, Western Coal, Hydro-Quebec.

MSM OUT OF SYNC | Canadian public say media, opposition MPs exaggerate H1N1 glitches. Canadians give government passing grade on flu vaccine supplies, distribution. WHO says global death toll from swine flu has hit 6,250 people. Swine flu boosts garlic sales in Serbia. (Photo: Garlic in a Belgrade shop, Nov. 11.)

OFFSIDE | Women and girls demand equal access to community rinks. About time, too.

FAUX PAS | France retreats on burqa ban plan.

FLAILING "TOO BIG TO FAIL" | WH disses Senate finance proposal for reining in banks. So does comptroller of currency, but for different reasons. Yet Jamie Dimon, head of monster-sized J.P. Morgan Chase, agrees "too big to fail" doctrine must be scrapped.

CENTRE-FOLDING | 56-year-old Playboy finally put on auction block. Effectively put out of business a decade ago by flood of free Internet porn.  

BACKSTORY ON LOU DOBBS | Told months ago to be newscaster or opinionator. If he chose the latter, Jonathan Klein, head of CNN/U.S. told the Day One CNNer, Dobbs would lose his TV platform. Which Dobbs has just done. We can thank Klein also for dispatching both Tucker Carlson (shown) and "Crossfire", saying "I agree wholeheartedly with Jon Stewart's overall premise," and that CNN would dispense with "head-butting debate shows." A few weeks earlier, in a wild October 2004 "Crossfire" exchange, guest Stewart had told the co-hosts: "What you do is not honest. What you do is partisan hackery. You have a responsibility to the public discourse, and you fail miserably." The humbled Carlson, having imagined himself too cute for anyone to fire, eventually emerged from Obscurityland, sans affected bow-tie and snark. What Dobbs learned from that episode was, er, nothing. He's 64, not reality-based and not cute, unless your taste runs to crinkly faced curmudgeons - which might disqualify him even for Fox. The Shelley Long Syndrome strikes again, quitting "Cheers" in expectation of better roles, mired in Obscurityland ever since.

AFGHAN QUAGMIRE | U.S. Army admits troop morale is down in Afghanistan. Among soldiers on third and fourth tours of duty, more mental-health problems and higher marital-breakup rates. Conversely, in Iraq, where soldiers know they're coming home for good, morale is up.

ANOTHER "HERO" DETHRONED | Thank Airbus for "the Miracle on the Hudson, not pilot Sully. Authoritative new book, Fly By Wire, by author-pilot William Langewiesche, credits the Airbus A320's "fly-by-wire" automated controls, pioneered by the European aerospace consortium in the 1970s and 1980s, for the survival last January of all passengers and crew when Capt. Chesley B. Sullenberger III's jetliner engines failed from inhaling a huge number of geese. Sully - and why doesn't this surprise us - has never acknowledged the role of the aircraft that day, while bad-mouthing faulty aircraft-control systems generally, thus elevating the importance of pilots. Truth is, modern planes mostly fly themselves, something that $275,000-a-year captains and their union would rather not acknowledge. In Toulouse, they should order a 10,000-copy extra print run of this book for distribution to airline executives worldwide. Max Ward, erstwhile bush pilot, grasped immediately the value of fly-by-wire, and thus his Wardair introduced Airbus to the Canadian market and was second to Eastern among N.A. carriers to risk snubbing Boeing with the "foreign" plane. Sully has cashed in with his own book, in which he gives fly-by-wire the back of his hand. Also not surprising. (Yesterday, it was Fort Hood hero Kimberly Munley who got knocked off her pedestal.)

TRISKAIDEKAPHOBIA | Happy Friday 13th! Norse origins of fear of #13, carried on by Bible stories, ultimately likes of Henry Ford and FDR. Latter died Thursday, April 12, 1945. Not willing even to arrive in afterlife on Friday the 13th, FDR museum official jokes.

GET A ROOM | Oh, you have one - English couples' noisy lovemaking lands them in court. When Steve and Caroline Cartwright got the urge, their intimacy sounded to neighbours like "howling," was "unnatural" and "hysterical," and "like they are both in inconsiderable pain", Newcastle court hears.

QUOTE OF THE DAY | "The sex is better and I understand life better. I don't want to be young again." -Jane Fonda, 71, quoted this week.

Courtesy The New Yorker, Nov. 16 edition.

Please consider joining me as an elf this holiday season by participating in the Toronto Star's Santa Claus Fund, a century-old Toronto tradition. The Star uses donations to assemble and distribute gift boxes to thousands of less-financially advantaged children throughout the GTA. Each box contains a book, clothing and a toy. You can read all about it, including first-hand accounts of Toronto families in need, at http://www.thestar.com/santaclausfund. I'm counting on your kindness to help put smiles on thousands of young faces this December 25th! Many thanks, David

 

QuickNews, Thursday, Nov. 12.

LEST WE FORGET | Military veterans yesterday honoured worldwide for their service and sacrifice. Scores of memorial services held, from Ottawa (above), Canada's Afghan base in Kandahar, to Arlington National Cemetary.

RUSSIAN REVOLUTION | Medvedev excoriates abysmal industrial status quo. "We haven't managed to get rid of the primitive structure of our economy," Medvedev told the Duma in his second parliamentary address since becoming president, noting that Russia has suffered more than most advanced economies in the global recession. "The competitiveness of our production is shamefully low." Also warns that dissidents will be silenced, like in the good old days. If Dmitry can name a country where disruptive innovation has flourished despite state repression of free speech I'd love to hear from him. 

OUCH! | Cost of Canadian flu vaccinations projected at $1.5 billion and climbing. Some caregivers doubt all the shots are necessary, question efficiency of innoculation system.

WORLD HUNGER | Hunger causing stunted growth in estimated 200 million children. UNICEF calls for sweeping reforms in global population of malnourished people, including 1 billion people living in hunger. (Click on map to enlarge.)

 

BETRAYAL | Threat of populist revolt growing as independents swing to left. NYT columnist argues that Main Street anger over bailouts to Wall Street ingrates poised for $30 billion (U.S.) in bonuses at a time of 10.2% unemployment will take its toll on any mainstream politician who doesn't "get ahead of the rage."  

OFF THE RAILS IN SOUTH AFRICA | Bombardier's showcase project way over budget. High-speed commuter-rail connection between Johannesburg and airport is key to demonstrating Bombardier engineering prowess during upcoming 2010 World Cup, arguably the biggest sporting event in the world - just as Bombardier commuter trains completed in time for the Beijing Olympics led to megadeals for the Montreal company in that country.

PROFITS BAROMETER | Winners: Hewlett-Packard, Bell Aliant, Shoppers Drug Mart, AB InBev. Loser: CAE. Also, Peugeot Citroen raises profit estimates for 2009. Quebec says Caisse de depot will continue to underperform peers in 2010.

H-P vs CISCO | H-P pays $3.1 billion (U.S.) for 3Com. Hewlett-Packard wants 3Com's advanced networking gear to plug a hole in its line-up. Trend here is toward one-stop shops, as with software giant Oracle's purchase of Sun Microsystems. My worry is that 3Com and Sun were also-rans by the time they were acquired (hence the low purchase prices). Can't help recalling Nortel's 1997 purchase of Bay Networks, also-ran to Cisco in routers (who isn't?). What merger architects don't get is customers like to pick and choose, buying best-in-class routers from one guy, servers from another. Not H-P, not anyone, is going to beat Cisco in networking. Analysts above my pay grade beg to differ.

WE KNOW THE FEELING | Power blackout hits much of Brazil, all of Paraguay. Storms are the cause, crippling power grid. Identical cause to regional blackouts in Italy and eastern North America earlier this decade. Investor alert: a massive overhaul of world's power grid is coming, not just because the existing one is aging, but global demand for power will soon skyrocket as world vehicle fleet switches to electricity.

NO SENSE OF IRONY 1 | Beijing warns Obama off making nice with Dalai Lama. Meanwhile, everyday Chinese who set off for government offices to register complaints are routinely kidnapped, with police looking the other way.  

NO SENSE OF IRONY 2 | Lou Dobbs abruptly quits CNN after nearly 30 years there. Dobbs, 64, says too many issues are "now defined in the public arena by partisanship and ideology rather than by rigorous, empirical thought." This from controversial Dobbs, under fire for demonizing undocumented immigrants and showcasing "birthers" on his show who believe Obama is not U.S.-born. His plans for second life in politics might turn out if room can be found for him in the padded cell crowded with Palin, Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Hannity, et al.

AFGHAN QUAGMIRE | Clinton and U.S.'s top Afghan envoy warn separately of Karzai corruption. Hint that sending still more U.S. troops might reward Mr. K. Meanwhile, Obama yesterday grilled his Afghan war council yet again on options. What's happening here is pressure on Karzai for genuine reforms in exchange for U.S. continuing to prop him up. So far, only lip service from Kabul. Hence the apparent U.S. "dithering" (Cheney's accusation), when reality is U.S. exploring every tool for trying to turn this Diem clone into a respectable leader. Can't be done, of course, just one reason U.S., Canada and rest of ISAF should quit the strategically inconsequential country now.

U.S BANK BAILOUT A WINNER | Surplus TARP funds will pay down deficit. The emergency $700-billion (U.S.) bailout, proposed by then-president George W. Bush but opposed by Congressional Republicans, not only arrested a complete collapse of the global banking system but will be far less costly than expected. WSJ estimates long-term cost of TARP could be as little as $200 billion (U.S.) WH is already redirecting TARP funds to ailing small-business and housing sectors and deficit reduction.

LAND OF THE RISING WON | South Korea eclipsing Japan in tech. Japan looks to new tech fields to conquer as Samsung, LG Electronics and the like steal a march on longtime Japanese leaders.

FORT HOOD "HERO" MAY BE NO SUCH THING | Questions over who finally stopped killer. As with Pte. Lynch and Pat Tillman myths, U.S. armed forces appear to have unduly rushed in declaring police officer Kimberly Munley (shown) as shooter of mass murderer. While not confirmed, appears instead that another cop, Sen. Sgt. Mark Todd, fired the shots that brought down the killer. I posted on this, based on what now appears false information. I apologize for my part in also rushing to judgment. This is the downside of the otherwise beneficial acceleration in getting out news and commentary. We also rushed to make heroes of the 9/11 firefighters, who for the most part weren't. I can hear my grandfather say, on such early reports, "Let's wait till all the facts are in" or "Better wait to see how this turns out." Well, modern media isn't about waiting, which is a problem.

APPEARANCES ARE DATE-ELIMINATING | Dating site rejects "ugly" applicants. Existing members of BeautifulPeople.com, Danish site that went global last year, assess photos submitted by applicants. So far they've given highest acceptance rate to Swedish men and Norwegian women, lowest to Russian, Polish, German and British men. Site managers say it's the stern, grim photos submitted that are the problem, not (always) the applicants.  

QUOTE OF THE DAY | "'I hate discussions of feminism that end up with who does the dishes,' she said. So do I. But at the end, there are always the damned dishes." -Marilyn French, The Women's Room.

Courtesy, The New Yorker, Nov. 16 edition.

Please consider joining me as an elf this holiday season by participating in the Toronto Star's Santa Claus Fund, a century-old Toronto tradition. The Star uses donations to assemble and distribute gift boxes to thousands of less-financially advantaged children throughout the GTA. Each box contains a book, clothing and a toy. You can read all about it, including first-hand accounts of Toronto families in need and the inner workings of the Workshop, at http://www.thestar.com/santaclausfund. I'm counting on your kindness to help put smiles on thousands of young faces this December 25th! Many thanks, David

 

QuickNews, Friday, November 6.

KILLING SPREE AT U.S.'S LARGEST ARMY BASE.

U.S. Sgt. Fanuaee Vea comforts Pte. Savannah Green outside Fort Hood Army Base. A U.S. Army psychiatrist has been held in the killings yesterday of 13 soldiers and wounding of 30 others at the base, near Killeen, Tex., in the worst incident of fratricide in decades. Photo: Ben Sklar, Getty Images.

JOBLESS SURGE IN CANADA AND U.S. | Canada lost 43,200 jobs in October. Raises Canadian jobless rate to 8.6%, heading for almost 10% next year, some experts say. The U.S. jobless rate has moved into double digits, to 10.2% - the worst in 25 years (since April 1983). Rates vary considerably by city. In ascending order of unemployment: Ottawa, 5.2%; Saint John, N.B., 5.2%; Winnipeg, 5.8%; Halifax, 6.8%; Calgary, 6.9%; St. John's, N.L., 8.9%; Vancouver, 7.3%; Edmonton, 7.7%; Oshawa, 9.1%; Montreal, 9.3%; Toronto, 9.6%; and Windsor, 13.7%.

H1N1 VACCINE IN GROWING SUPPLY | 6 million flu shots will be given in Canada early next week. But Ottawa admits reliance on sole supplier - in this case, British drug giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSX) - is unwise and not to be repeated. Photo: Pandermix A (H1N1) vaccine.

AFGHAN QUAGMIRE | Ottawa sets firm plans for 2011 withdrawal. Had been some question of Obama pressuring Canada for more troops, but Parliamentary deadline for end to combat mission will be met. MacKay still on record, though, that some support staff will remain. Meanwhile, U.S. study shows NATO training of Afghan army and police has been incompetent. Western-trained and equipped Afghan forces and police often duck out of missions and engage in banditry and ethnic score-settling. Author of recent Vietnam War history defends Obama's cautious rethink. But most pundits - including me - expect U.S. president ultimately will accede to Gen. Stanley McChrystal's request for about 40,000 more troops. Still, Obama, who must cringe at every reference to "Obama's War," a debacle he inherited, will go two-track - attempting to better secure Afghan cities while quietly setting groundwork for negotiated peace with Taliban. 

A U.S. soldier, right, demonstrates for Afghan police yesterday how to disarm a suspect during training in Kunar Province. Photo: David Guttenfelder, AP.

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK | Harper's new senators to cost $177 million. NDP report is hard to dispute, simply computing publicly reported salaries and average annual expenses of Harper's latest crop of Red Chamber appointees. Whose work touches us all, you'll surely agree.

SICK BAY | Despite AMA and AARP support, U.S. House passage tomorrow of health reform is dicey. Dems can't hold caucus together as some members have last-minute qualms about costs and abortion coverage. Meanwhile, Senate majority leader Reid says his chamber might not pass its version until New Year, which means a conference bill passed by both houses for president's signature would come in March earliest. This is terrible politics. Heading into 2010 off-year elections, Dems need reforms in place as long as possible to curb the usual loss of seats by the party of a newly elected president.

 
A patient is wheeled into the cardiac lab at Intermountain Medical Center, part of a network of hospitals in Utah and Idaho. Intermountain has cut its death rate for coronary-bypass surgery to 1.5%, well below the national average. Photo: Béatrice de Géa for the New York Times.

PREVIEW | Healthcare, heal thyself: more science, less intuition, fewer drugs and procedures. NYT has posted startling Sunday NYT Magazine feature on healthcare economics, which finds culprit in over-treatment. For most of human history, doctors have done more harm than good, reformist doc Brent James tells NYT's crack economic reporter David Leonhardt. Dependence on a doctor's informed intuition, Leonhardt writes, means "different doctors frequently end up coming up with different answers to the same question. Cardiologists in Davenport, Iowa, are quick to insert stents; cardiologists in Iowa City and Sioux City are not. They can’t both be right. Some people with heart disease are getting the best treatment, and some are not. The same is true of debilitating back pain, various cancers and even pregnancy."

MAGNA, DON'T GO! | GM, Magna's biggest customer, wants Stronach's help in Russia. Russia will soon eclipse Germany as Europe's largest market, and GM - with two Russian automaking joint-ventures - wants Magna's help in making those operations more efficient. Meanwhile, Kremlin is appreciative of Magna's joint bid with Russian state bank Sberbank in ultimately failed bid for Opel-Vauxhall, designed to gain Russian access to Western technology. Magna's willingness to risk relations with its key client GM will see Magna rewarded in Russia, analysts say. On top of that, Magna reports return to profitability in 3Q.

Opel-Vauxhall workers walked off the job at most of the firm's plants across Europe yesterday to protest GM's reversal in deciding not to sell the automaker to Magna-led consortium. Protesters are seen here at headquarters of Adam Opel GmbH in Ruesselsheim, about 20 km. west of Frankfurt, with statue of Adam Opel, founder of what is now Germany's second-largest automaker. Workers fear GM will cut more jobs than Magna investor group would have. Photo: Kai Pfaffenbach, Reuters.  

PROFITS BAROMETER | Winners: Starbucks, Magna, Suncor-Petrocan. Losers: Manulife, Sun Life, RBS, Fannie Mae. Latter's staggering $18.9-billion (U.S.) loss in 3Q means erstwhile publicly traded mortgage backer will likely remain in government "conservatorship" for a decade.

DIET, DIET, DIET | Why fitness alone doesn't reduce weight. Working out is essential to good health and does burn off calories, but not nearly enough to compensate for too many meals, too-big portions, and too much unhealthy food.

FOOTWEAR FANCIERS | Even in recession, women still sparing no expense on shoes. So far as shoes go, at least, shopping remains America's #1 cure for depression.

 
Mary Paige Phillips at Macy's on 34th Street. Despite the recession, U.S. shoe sales rose in September and October. Photo: Julie Glassberg, New York Times.

I'M OUTTA HERE | 12 places to go if the world goes to hell. There's the South Atlantic's Tristan da Cunha (pop. 271), world's most remote inhabited archipelago, suggests BusinessInsider.com. Also Guam, Denver (you want to be mile-high when global warming climaxes), Yukon ("lots of wildlife for hunting and trapping") and Rio ("they already know how to live at the edge of economic and social chaos").

WHAT, YOU'VE NEVER HEARD A GUN GO OFF? | A playful moment yesterday as Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, blocks her ears while husband, Prince Charles, readies to fire a gun on HMCS Haida in Burlington Bay. Tribal-class destroyer Haida, which saw heroic service in World War II, was long a fixture of the Toronto waterfront in retirement, until its relocation to Hamilton a few years ago. Photo: Fred Thornhill, Reuters.  

QUOTE OF THE DAY | "Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery." -Charles Dickens, David Copperfield (Mr. Micawber).

 
  

Courtesy The New Yorker, Oct. 26 edition.

 
 

QuickLinx 11.4.09

 

Why is America the affluent world's most murderous society? (New Yorker, Nov. 9)

 

A man, a zoo, a penguin: All Nuremberg's talking about a bizarre love affair. (Der Spiegel, Nov. 3)

Europe must grow a spine, stop "fetishising" U.S. (Der Spiegel, Nov. 2)

Meet Dutch PM Jan Peter Balkenende, likely to be Europe's first president. (NRC Handelsblad, Nov. 3)

Al Gore, soon the first "green billionaire," profits from his climate-change agenda. (Daily Telegraph, Nov. 3)

Being grumpy is good for you. Really. (BBC News, Nov. 3)

Canadian metal band emerges from 25-year obscurity in hilarious documentary. (Japan Times, Oct. 30)

It's suddenly hip to make a fashion statement with tracksuit bottoms. (UK Guardian, Nov. 4)

Cheryl Cole wears slashed tracksuit bottoms on X Factor. Photo: Ken McKay, Rex Features.

In cockpits of future, pilots won't be distracted by laptops. (Christian Science Monitor, Oct. 29)

Sarkozy's controversial new "What it means to be French" campaign. (Christian Science Monitor, Nov. 2)

Astounding half of all secondary-school girls contemplate cosmetic surgery. (London Times, Nov. 3)

Why more women are pushing for Caesareans. (London Times, Nov. 2)

India's men-free "Ladies Special" train cars, where there's no harassment. (Christian Science Monitor, Nov. 3)

Women wait to board a train at the Nizamuddin station in New Delhi. Photo: Mary Knox Merrill, CSM.

Spotting Internet addiction, and curing it. (Boston Globe, Nov. 2)

How Marlon Brando seduced journalists. (La Stampa, Nov. 4)

Lonely Planet's top 10 destinations for 2010. (Sydney Morning Herald, Nov. 4)

New Zealand offers rainforests, glaciers, volcanic plains, geothermal springs. Michael Gebicki, Lonely Planet.

X-ray voted top science achievement, ahead of Apollo mission and DNA (Straits Times, Nov. 4)

Obama's half-brother on the U.S. president's father-from-hell. (Washington Post, Nov. 4)

Joe Queenan asks: Why does Hollywood keep making the same films? (UK Guardian, Nov. 3)

Michael Moore in Capitalism: A Love Story. Haven't we seen this picture before?

America, America.

Hold the Mayo. It's a business, too. (Harold Pollack, New Republic)

Alec MacGillis had a nice Washington Post piece on the Mayo Clinic’s low provision of care to Medicaid patients and the even more dicey policies of Mayo’s Glendale, Arizona site to stop accepting Medicare primary care patients...Mayo and other flagship institutions provide excellent, sometimes surprisingly cost-effective care. Yet how should we think about these institutions in light of the reality that many choose in varying degrees to channel their services towards a relatively privileged slice of the American population?

Flagship institutions such as Mayo provide crucial models of best-practice innovation and care. [But] admirable as they are, they are not charities in the normal sense of that term. They are also economic animals that respond to business opportunities and imperatives.

Soon designers will bring an ecology state of mind to all their work - whether it's toys, shoes or furniture. (Allison Arieff, NYT)

“Let’s say the market needs a new bath toy. The [designer's] typical approach is to look at form, function and the market. But here, we’re leading with the material, and if the material doesn’t do exactly what we need we can go back to the chemists. Essentially, we’re trying to bring material science into the discussion.” This can pave the way toward our using more healthful products, made from renewable and/or recyclable resources, rather than the plethora on the market now that have a negative effect on our health and the environment.

The 2009 recovery was made in Washington. (John Cassidy, New Yorker)

The U.S. government has succeeded in getting the economy growing again much quicker than most people expected, myself included—and, from the end of last year onward, I was a relative optimist. Next time you hear somebody criticizing Washington for being incompetent, or railing about the evils of big government, you might remind them of that fact, or simply direct them to the Web site of the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis, which compiles the G.D.P. report. The numbers tell the story.

Too little of a good thing: A jobs recovery requires a Son of Stimulus. (Paul Krugman, NYT)

Suppose that the economy were to keep growing at 3.5 percent. If that happened, unemployment would eventually start falling — but very, very slowly. The experience of the Clinton era, when the economy grew at an average rate of 3.7 percent for eight years (did you know that?) suggests that at current growth rates we’d be lucky to see the unemployment rate fall by half a percentage point per year, meaning that it would take a decade to return to something like full employment.

Goodbye to the age of newspapers. (Hello to a new era of corruption.) (Paul Starr, New Republic.)

This is no time for Internet triumphalism: the stakes are too high. Nearly all other news media, except for online news, are also retrenching, and--particularly at the metropolitan, regional, and state levels--the online growth is not close to offsetting the decline elsewhere. Despite all the development of other media, the fact is that newspapers in recent years have continued to field the majority of reporters and to produce most of the original news stories in cities across the country...Online there is certainly a great profusion of opinion, but there is little reporting, and still less of it subject to any rigorous fact-checking or editorial scrutiny...No online enterprise has yet generated a stream of revenue to support original reporting for the general public comparable to the revenue stream that newspapers have generated in print.

Rush Limbaugh's race obsession. (Jonathan Chait, New Republic)

Limbaugh has repeatedly cast Obama's agenda in racial terms. ("Obama's entire economic program is reparations.") Before Obama's election, some reporters found an undercurrent of fear among certain white voters that the election of a black president would usher in a wave of revenge against white America for its history of slavery and discrimination. Limbaugh has stoked those fears:

The days of them not having any power are over, and they are angry. And they want to use their power as a means of retribution. That's what Obama's about, gang. He's angry, he's gonna cut this country down to size, he's gonna make it pay for all the multicultural mistakes that it has made, its mistreatment of minorities.

As the blogger Conor Friedersdorf has detailed, Limbaugh hurls charges of racism promiscuously. Obama? "[T]he greatest living example of a reverseracist." Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates? "[A]n angry racist." Sonia Sotomayor? "She's a bigot. She's a racist."

The Obamas' taste in art. (slide show) (James Gardner, New Republic)

So what do the Obamas' choices say about them? They may well be the first couple in the White House to prefer abstraction to representational art.

Nicolas De Stael, "Nice," 1964.

 

Should Obama let Afghanistan trample his domestic agenda? (E.J. Dionne, New Republic)

At a White House dinner with a group of historians at the beginning of the summer, Robert Dallek, a shrewd student of both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, offered a chilling comment to President Obama.

"In my judgment," he recalls saying, "war kills off great reform movements."

Did Karzai play us for fools? (Jason Zengerle, New Republic)

How many "Friedman Units" for Afghanistan? (Spencer Ackerman, Washington Independent)

Ah, the Friedman unit, that beloved Internet tradition denoting the six-month increment many pundits believe will prove decisive in any war, only to be subject to an endless addition of … Friedman units. [In a NYT article today, a White House official says]: “We’re going to know in the next three to six months whether [Karzai is] doing anything differently — whether he can seriously address the corruption, whether he can raise an army that ultimately can take over from us and that doesn’t lose troops as fast as we train them.”

Really? We’ll know in less than a Friedman Unit? That actually seems like a rather short period of time. And the quote seems dubious. If Obama orders an escalation of troops, as he’s likely to do, then the United States will effectively be reducing its leverage on Karzai. So the Friedmans will roll onward. Will Obama work around Karzai, focusing on sub-national governance? Will Karzai let that happen?

 

 

QuickNews, Tues., Nov. 3.

 

ANOTHER FRUGAL CHRISTMAS | U.S. holiday sales expected to slip further 1% this season. Christmas season begins this week, and retailers can expect no improvement from last year's worst showing in nearly four decades. Online sales, registering double-digit increases most of this decade, will be up 8% this year, from just 5% last year. But online accounts for only $1 of every $10 spent in holiday season.

COMEBACK I | Ford Motor surprises Street with near-$1-billion (U.S.) 3Q profit. Turns first profit in key N.A. market since 2005. Helped by "cash for clunkers" much more than GM and Chrysler, hobbled by their bankruptcy stigma. But Ford has used cost-cutting and new models, not discounting, to gain market share on Detroit rivals. Full recovery still awaits end to N.A. economic slump, but Ford is in best shape to emerge as U.S.'s best all-around automaker - tops in profitability, volume, fuel-efficiency standards.

Alan Mulally, Ford Motor Co. chief executive, at a headquarters rally in Dearborn, Mich., June 23, 2009.

COMEBACK II | Global recovery in manufacturing is underway. Not accompanied by hiring surge, alas, but turnaround in order books is precondition to re-hiring. And it's made the layoffs subside.

KEEP THE BUBBLY CORKED | Obama and Page warn of only gradual return to economic buoyancy. U.S. president and Parliamentary budget officer forecast stubbornly slow pickup in job creation. Obama exhorts exporters to keep up the pace, one of few bright lights amid lifting gloom. Also a likely topic for G20 finance ministers meeting in St. Andrews, Scotland this Friday. Big obstacle in global trade is, of course, currency exchange rates. Stakes for N.A. in getting China to stop artificially depressing its yuan are described here.

MAKING THE BEST OF IT | Harper and Obama call Karzai with congratulatory messages. The corrupt Mr. K. hit the jackpot, acceeding late in the day to a do-over of the stolen election, only days later to have his rival quit the race because Karzai failed to provide assurances it would be any less dishonest than the first one - and ends up winning a second term by acclamation. Obama sternly instructs Karzai - as sternly as one can down a long-distance phone line - to rid his government of corruption. In that spirit, I'll be bathing my leopard until the spots to come off.

RIMMED | Negative Citigroup analyst report sends RIM shares down. Analyst rightly notes RIM, currently trying to expand into consumer market, facing new competition in its core enterprise business, where margins are fatter. Big problem is that key BlackBerry carrier Verizon has adopted Motorola's new Droid as its "hero" phone - the one on which the #2 U.S. telecom will lavish most ad spending.

THE CITI NEVER SLEEPS | Old ad slogan apt for bank that also never sheds its foolhardy ways. After fourth U.S. government rescue of Citi in past 80 years, doubts continue about Citi's risk exposure - this time to credit-card users. Fed and Treasury kept sleepless over ability of the crippled bank to right itself one more time. Common sense dictates euthanasia. But Citi still deemed "too big to fail." 

 
 
WORKSHOP MERGER | Venerable U.S. toolmakers Stanley and Black & Decker finally tie the knot. The $3.5-billion merger follows 28-year courtship between household names. Looks like a good deal: all stock, no debt; surprisingly little product overlap; more heft with retailers; and estimated $350 million savings in eliminating cost-duplication.

ETHNIC CRACKDOWN | Beijing unveils plan to suppress nationalist violence in Xinjiang district. Far-west, resource-rich region has long been claimed as native homeland of Turkic ethnic group. Tibet gets most of the Western attention, but China is coping with nationalist unrest in many regions. 

ENDANGERED LIST GROWS | More than one-third of species in annual global study face extinction. Authoritative Red List of Threatened Species finds that 17,291 of 47,677 species studied are at risk due to loss of habitat, global heating and other factors. (See photo below.)

At what point will society truly respond to this growing crisis? Professor Jonathan Baillie, Zoological Society of London In pictures: Threatened species

MONEY 101 |  Ontario schools to teach financial literacy. Beginning in 2011 school year, students grades four to 12 will have personal money management integrated into overall curriculum. Hope it includes how money disagreements loom large in marital breakdown. Also that Rule #1 is preserve capital. Rule #2 is to remember Rule #1.

TEXTING CRACKDOWN | British court sentences texter in auto accident to prison term. Never mind that errant driver wasn't texting at the time. The many messages she sent over previous hour show she was in a distracted state of mind, and thus as dangerous as an inebriated driver. That's how the get-tough British law is written. Meanwhile, poll shows growing number of Americans want texting crackdown.

YOUTH OBESITY TREND CRESTING? | Britain latest to report plateau in childhood obesity. But docs warn rate is still growing and is way too high. Recession has hurt, driving families to processed food from more costly fresh produce and other nutritious food. Turning corner on childhood obesity - if latest reports aren't just a blip - results from greater public awareness, and steps like removing soft-drink vending machines from schools.

MOST SECRETIVE FINANCIAL CENTRE | Switzerland? Caymans? Try Delaware. Tiny U.S. state, legal domicile of the Fortune 500 (and Conrad Black, in better days), took in $2.6 trillion (U.S.) in funds from non-resident firms and individuals in 2007, says watchdog group Tax Justice Network.

NOW THEY TELL US | Take aspirin only as "secondary prevention," not to ward off initial heart and stroke risk. Research has long shown aspirin helps prevent a second heart attack. But it not does not prevent cardiac problems from developing in the first place, and poses an internal-bleeding risk.

HUMANS' BEST FRIEND | If you don't like dogs, you will after reading how ably they save lives. Trained service dogs becoming ever more sophisticated, now widely in use as psychiatric service dogs increasingly assigned by U.S. military to veterans suffering PTSD. By monitoring body language and noting slight change in smell, dogs can detect oncoming panic attack, will collapse in front of patient to cushion blow from a blackout-induced fall, intervene in suicide attempts, drop a toy in your lap to remind you to take medication. Border collies rank highest in intelligence.

BATHE TOGETHER, STAY TOGETHER | Malaysian state has solution for spicing up marriages.

COUNTRY SINGING THE BLUES | George Jones bemoans new lack of C&W authenticity. Crossover tunes and artists have made country more popular than ever - and it already was the biggest U.S. music genre - but the downside is dilution of genuine "hurtin' music" by R&B, rock, pop and other influences.

QUOTE OF THE DAY | "If you want to keep the beer real cold, put it next to my ex-girlfriend's heart." -Anon., country lyric.

The Giant Jewel, one of 17,291 endangered species identified yesterday in the annual Red Line report, can be found in southeast Nigeria and southwest Cameroon. It is believed to be threatened by loss of habitat from logging and agricultural expansion. Photo by Kai Schuette.

 

Courtesy The New Yorker, Nov. 2 edition.

 

QuickNews, Monday, Nov 2.

WE'RE STUCK WITH KARZAI

KARZAI RIVAL QUITS RUN-OFF BID | Abdullah Abdullah won't contest Nov. 7 run-off. Which means earlier stolen election stands. Which means there's no chance of restoring what growing faith Afghans had in budding democracy - or sense that central government is relevant to them. Clinton says this won't affect Obama's Afghan strategy rethink, which is nonsense, since WH line has been that it's awaiting Nov. 7 results before unveiling new mission. Still, there's been growing D.C. sentiment in recent days that Karzai is "the devil we know." (Abdullah, in truth, is just as corrupt as Karzai.) Star's Tom Walkom is sharp on what the death of nascent Afghan democracy portends, namely the closing scenes of a drama that will end badly.

NYC RECLAIMS FINANCIAL CAPITAL STATUS | Global poll of financiers reports Big Apple, for all the rot on Wall Street, has reasserted itself as world financial capital after brief reign of London prior to recession. A big, unstated reason: Just four U.S. bank/investment dealers - Citi, Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo - now control about 40% of U.S. banking assets. They got that big - even more "too big to fail," and therefore posing still more "systemic risk" - from U.S. government-assisted forced mergers with casualties like Merrill Lynch, the former #1 independent investment bank (now part of Bank of America) and Wachovia, the former #5 bank (hastily absorbed by Wells Fargo). Corporate and retail customers alike prefer big, as New Yorker's James Surowiecki explains here, even if they're on government life support. And even though evidence shows big financial institutions serve their customers more poorly than smaller ones. Britain, meanwhile, is bringing its big banks to heel, shrinking them to manageable size - and taking London out of the global M&A game in the process, at least for now. (See below.)

CHARLES AND CAMILLA'S CANADIAN TOUR | Four-province visit begins in Newfoundland today. Polls show couple's 11-day tour will be 11 days too long, Organizers worry that apathy is so evident that crowds will be hard to scare up. Allan Fotheringham, veteran royals observer, in Star op-ed has turned republican. Time to shed ourselves of this anachronism, he says. I couldn't agree more, much as I admire Elizabeth II. In our multicultural big cities, the image of a foreign monarch on the currency isn't just bewildering, it's alienating. And really, how are other nations to take us seriously when our head of state is a foreigner? (Harper is head of government.)

FORD LABOUR SETTLEMENT | CAW comes to its senses, gives Ford same deal as GM and Chrysler. Ford may be the healthiest of the Detroit Three, but it too is losing a tonne of cash every month. Globe columnist saw this coming Friday in smart analysis of implications for union and company.

C.I.T. R.I.P. | Bankrutpcy of giant small-biz lender predicted here repeatedly finally happens. And with mimimal fanfare, having been so long anticipated. Mercifully, C.I.T., as a domestic lender without spider's web of obligations to hundreds of other global lenders, is not too big to fail and thus not a bailout candidate.

PERSIAN GULF | Grassroots Iranian disaffection with mullah theocracy is growing. Dissidents vow to keep up the fight to overturn status quo. Message to U.S.: Leave well enough alone, and change will come of its own accord. Surest way to strengthen existing order is perceived bullying of Tehran by outsiders, which unites even dissidents against a governing reality they seek to overturn. (Photo: Iran post-election bloodshed after the controversial June vote. Image by Vahid Salemi, AP.)

QUEBEC STIFFED ON STIMULUS | CP analysis shows Tories favouring other provinces. No coincidence, I'm sure, that Harper long ago gave up Quebec strategy of playing footsie with nationalists in exchange for seats that were not forthcoming in last election. Meanwhile, Tories alleged to be showering cash on 905 and other ridings seen as winnable in next election. Your tax dollars at work.

WILL SOMEONE GET MANSBRIDGE A CHAIR? | Globe critic unnerved by standing newsreader. New "National" format has Peter standing - you know, like Wolf Blitzer, who hasn't sat down for eight or nine years now. I just wish head honcho Richard Stursburg's "thorough" CBC overhaul had included, I dunno, more world and investigative reporting and less fretting over set design.

PROFITS BAROMETER | Chevron and Estee Lauder each surpass Street expectations.

HEATHCARE REFORM DRAMA | Turncoat Lieberman will help G.O.P. filibuster "public option." That's of course the proposed government insurer to keep the private ones honest. Joe, deeply in the pocket of home-state Connecticut-based insurance industry, can explain his decision to the families of hospitalized kids much more likely to die if uninsured. Meanwhile, Sen. Harkin reminds the former Dem presidential running mate that after this and campaigning last year for McCain, it's becoming really tough to justify allowing Independent Joe to caucus with Dems and enjoy plum of chairing Homeland Security committee. Me, I'd have the pious bastard stuffed and mounted at the Hartford Museum of Science.

BRITISH BANK BUST-UP | U.K. forces crippled RBS, Lloyds, Northern Rock to shed hundreds of branches. Yanks, meanwhile, blithely leave incompetents in charge at Citi, Bank of America, et al with lame excuse Uncle Sam doesn't have "authority" to intervene in their affairs. As if U.S.'s controlling equity stake in bailed out banks isn't authority enough. Maurice Greenberg was God at AIG for decades with 1% of the stock. C'mon, Treasury, grow a spine.

ORDER IN THE COURT | Ontario barrister spearheads effort to drive "boorish" lawyers from courtrooms. A laudable initiative, to be sure. But if it succeeds, the boors won't reform but merely resurface in street clothes in Question Period.

QUOTE OF THE DAY | "Stock option plans reward the executive for doing the wrong thing. Instead of asking  'Are we making the right decision?' he asks, 'How did we close today?' It is encouragement to loot the corporation." -Peter Drucker.

Courtesy The New Yorker, Nov. 2 edition.