vttoth — June 10th, 2010
I admit: I really thought Obama was better than this.
Back after 9/11, the moronic Bush administration shut down all commercial air traffic for days in a knee-jerk reaction that exaggerated the economic fallout of the 9/11 attacks possibly by orders of magnitude. (None of which prevented them from chartering special flights to help Saudi nationals, including members of the Bin Laden family, flee the United States in haste. But that is another story.)
Now here’s this oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. To be certain, there exists a serious need to review how these rigs are licensed, how they are operated, and whether or not future drilling is worth the economic risk. But shutting down on-going drilling operations? Not only does it do grave economic harm to an already heavily affected region, it may actually increase the risk of another spill.
If this is how Obama continues his presidency, I don’t know what will save us from seeing Sarah Palin and her friends move into the White House in January 2013. Now there’s a scary thought.
Categories: Economy, Environment, Politics |
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vttoth — May 6th, 2010
What on Earth was going on with Procter & Gamble stocks today?
Yup, glitch. CNN is confirming. One of these days the world might come to an end because someone clicked the wrong button with a mouse.
Categories: Computers, Economy |
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vttoth — January 30th, 2010
If we can believe CNN, the recession is over:
I hope they’re right.
Categories: Economy |
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vttoth — October 24th, 2009
Recently, I bought a television series on DVD online. One of the DVDs appears unreadable. I noticed some scratches on it, but I also noticed that it happened to carry the HD DVD label. Is it possible that one of the disks in the boxed set was mistakenly an HD DVD? Unfortunately, I don’t have an HD DVD drive in which to test it.
Which reminded me that I’ve actually been meaning to buy an HD DVD drive before they vanish completely, just to be able to read HD DVDs in case I come across any. I looked and found one online that I liked. I tried to buy it… only to be informed repeatedly by Yahoo shopping that “there was a problem saving your information and basket”.
No matter, it can wait… I’ve also been meaning to do another thing this morning, namely to buy a new Microsoft Developer Network subscription. So I went to the MSDN Web site, clicked all the right buttons, logged in with my blasted Microsoft Live ID, and presto… I was told by Microsoft that they “are unable to validate your customer information and proceed with your order at this time”.
Looks like The Powers That Be just don’t want me to spend any money this morning. No matter, I have better things to do with it… and with my time, too.
Categories: Economy, Internet |
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vttoth — August 11th, 2009
Nortel’s CEO has quit. But the company is in good shape, he says: after all, it is “stabilized”.
Isn’t that a little like the surgeon showing up at a patient’s funeral, boasting that as a result of his expert attention, the patient’s condition is fully stabilized?
Categories: Economy |
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vttoth — July 22nd, 2009
There is an interesting article in The Globe and Mail this morning that asks a very curious question: given the amounts of money spent in Canada to help save GM and Chrysler (who do most of their research and engineering outside of Canada), why was there not a similar government effort to save Nortel from bankruptcy, even though this company was by far Canada’s largest contributor to private research?
Categories: Economy, Politics |
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vttoth — May 6th, 2009
The EU banned the import of Canadian seal products, in an attempt to stop the cruel practice of seal hunting.
About bleeping time, I say. We can thank Brussels for making a decision that our own spineless politicians were unwilling to make.
Yes, it means the loss of income for some who made a (part-time) living from hunting seals. I am not against them but what can I say? Should we also reinstate the death penalty just so that we don’t end up with unemployed executioners?
There is also a concern that stopping the seal hunt would threaten already depleted fish stocks, as seals that would otherwise be hunted will eat millions of tons of fish. Inflated numbers aside, there may be some truth in that… but again, chances are humans eat a lot more fish than seals do, so if we’re really concerned about the future of fish stocks, perhaps it’s time to fish a little less and not treat the oceans as an undepletable source.
Now if only our politicians were smart enough to move on and not spend millions of taxpayer dollars (more than the entire industry is worth) to fight this eminently reasonable and humane European decision… Those millions would be much better spent on the battle to block American efforts to export a Draconian copyright law to our country, a fight in which the latest round was fired recently when the Obama government put Canada on the same blacklist of copyright violators that contains Russia and China. All because we’re unwilling to give Mickey Mouse a 99 year copyright and put kids on jail for sharing music online.
Categories: Canada, Economy |
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vttoth — May 5th, 2009
Jack Kemp has died. He was a former American Congressman and vice presidential candidate, also a champion of the theory of supply side economics.
The basic premise of supply side economics is that lowering taxes increases demand; increased demand means a healthier economy, hence more tax revenue.
Others say hogwash, supply side economics is just a euphamism for making the rich richer at the expense of the public treasury, i.e., ultimately at the expense of the poor.
So which side is right? Neither.
Or, to be more precise, neither side is right all the time, though both have a point. Yet both are liars, since both elevate to the level of universal truth a principle that is right only some of the time.
Let me illustrate. If the average rate of taxation is 0%, there is obviously no government revenue. If the rate of taxation is 100%, i.e., the State takes away everything, there is no economy, hence no government revenue. At intermediate values, i.e., when the taxation rate is somewhere between 0% and 100%, there is some government revenue. One of the simplest curves that satisfy these criteria looks like this:
Revenue vs. taxation rate
In reality, the curve may be more complicated, but it’s going to be continuous and it’s going to be positive between the end points, hence it will have (at least one) maximum. And here’s the kink. The supply siders are right if the current rate of taxation happens to be to the right of that maximum… lowering the tax rate would indeed increase economic activity and hence, government revenue. But if the present taxation rate is to the left of the maximum, decreasing the tax rate will decrease revenue, and while it may increase economic activity, it certainly also increases the public debt.
So the trick, for a responsible but cash-strapped government, would be to find the maximum of this curve not to subscribe to any political ideology. Not that it’s likely to happen… politicians need snappy soundbytes to secure victory, not boring explanations.
Categories: Economy, Politics |
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vttoth — April 2nd, 2009
They did a group photo at the G-20 and our very own Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, was missing. According to a Canadian television channel, he was busy engaged in a discussion with an official. According to the BBC, he was in the toilet.
Stephen Harper
So they redid the group photo. Or tried to, anyhow. This time around, Berlusconi appeared to be missing… there was no word why.
Nonetheless, signs are that the G-20 meeting was (at the very least) not a failure, and perhaps even a modest success. I guess we’ll know in the next couple of days. But, if it is not just wishful thinking and real, meaningful decisions were made, then perhaps this is where the world changes to a track different from the one followed in the 1930s… instead of choosing protectionism, leading to a collapse of international trade, we’re choosing to keep the system of international trade robust and intact.
The BBC just updated their story: quoting a Harper press secretary, they’re now saying that Harper was indeed engaged in a conversation with an aide, he was not in the washroom.
Categories: Canada, Economy, Politics |
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vttoth — March 25th, 2009
I’m hearing on the BBC that Japan’s exports in February are down 50% since February last year and that their car exports are down an astonishing 70%.
These numbers are insane. What is this world coming to?
Categories: Economy |
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