Will Wall Street Return to its Old Ways?

Thanks to blogger Albertasaurus Talks I just came across a Toronto Star piece by David Olive entitled "The Era of Big Government Already in Retreat." It is worth a read.

David Olive says "Never in history, perhaps, has avarice spent so little time in hibernation." The meltdown of capitalism last September saw job losses for 7 million people in North America and an "abrupt global credit freeze" that wiped out "trillions of dollars of net worth of retirees and others as stock market property values plunged 40% and more." Olive says "Capitalism failed, again."

"Capitalism had failed, again. If a few avaricious pinheads in the financial markets could wreak such havoc so swiftly on the general population, then we would reinvent capitalism to make it more socially beneficial. It was that belief, of an urgent renaissance on the horizon, that helped keep the terror at bay last winter and spring."

Instead of using this recession to retool and rethink the regulation of capital markets, Olive argues the opportunity is lost and "We have gone back to living in ordinary times." This is because the Obama reforms, according to Olive, have already been stymied by "Wall Street lobbyists" and the argument is reform would be too expensive.

The same people who crated this crisis in confidence in the financial sector blithely discount the trillions of taxpayer bailout dollars for Wall Street in buying up their unregulated "toxic assets" that have devastated the wealth of ordinary people. That has not been too expensive because without real reform to ensure uncontrolled greed and avarice, we will not have learned from these mistakes in governance and be doomed to repeat them.

If Wall Street is allowed to return to business as abnormal without real regulatory reform, we are only one more greed induced disaster away from depression and devastation.

Canadians governments mostly followed the American lead and act as policy takers, not policy makers. Without some serious self-interest to decouple that political and policy approach we too will be sucked into the next American demise. This is not the kind of political discourse that gets sound bites or slogan journalism coverage. It is too complex and confounding to be approached from a simple-minded communications. To happen, it will have to emerge from citizens in op-ed, think-tanks, universities, thought leaders and maybe even a few bloggers.

It is time for some made in Canada and made for Canada economic and environment policy that just isn't American lite. We have done it in our social policy for years. Just look at the differences in health care, abortion, guns, public education, immigration, gay marriage to name a few.

The best chance for this to happen will be in Alberta and British Columbia because they are still exporters of commodities that beg for more local value added production and new markets beyond the U.S. As well the energy commodities produced have significant environmental issues that should and must be resolved locally and aimed at setting new planet-friendly standards globally.

Should Business Responsibility to the Environment be Governed by the State of the Economy?

I just got the teaser from the McKinsey Quarterly on the global survey they did on “valuing corporate social responsibility.” The findings are disturbing. First the good news! The survey indicates 2/3 of Corporate Financial Officers and ¾ of investment professionals “…agree that environment, social and governance activities do create value for their shareholders…” Here is the qualifying kicker. They restrict that belief to “normal economic times.”

Well these are hardly normal economic times and the survey finds these professionals now “…view some of these programs differently.” Guess what has changed. The importance of governance programs has increased and the importance of environmental programs has decreased. The needs of the environment and our responsibility to protect the environment are not seasonal and cyclical.

It almost seems like CFOs who run corporate finances and investment professionals, those folks who advise others where to put their money, think board of director issues like CEO compensation is more important than their environmental efforts.

Are these folks ever out of touch with what most people are thinking about the role, responsibilities and purpose of business today. This is especially true given the amount of greed and corruption that are at the root causes of this recession.

I expect more investors to be seriously considering ethical investing criteria when they return to the market. Share your heads CFOs and Investment professionals. Business is not just about business. It is about public trust and a social license to operate and that demands employing the best possible environmental practices. Don’t forget the economy is there to serve the needs of society and not the other way around.

Imagine No New Tailing Ponds for Oil Sands

Look at what is happening at the University of Alberta to eliminate tailing ponds, reduce water usage and apply CO2 to the extraction of oil from bitumen. And the water that is needed for pipeline transportation looks like it can be reclaimed from the existing tailing ponds. That means eliminating the need for new freshwater sources.

Lets get this research fast tracked! This is exciting and newsworthy stuff - and on a global basis - especially given how the toxic tailing pond duck deaths went viral around the world.

This is what a quality knowledge economy will do for Alberta.

"Send ‘Em a Message Survey Report #3

With tomorrow being a holiday I thought it better to do the survey update report tonight. The order of things has changed a bit and the Environment is still #1 but is pulling away from the pack of the other issues most dramatically. It is #1 with a bullet!

The weighted score of the Environment has moved from 22.80 last week to 27.26 this week. A huge jump that is indicating the increasing concern and commitment of Albertans to the critical needs for government to be addressing the environmental issues around water, land and air.

Guy Boutilier the Minister of the Environment has very little respect in government, industry and ENGO circles. He has just gone against the tide and supported Oberg. He is one of the very last MLAs to make a choice and it shows how politically out of touch the Minister of the Environment is given the disasters that are devastating the Oberg campaign of late. Best update the resume Guy given your disasterous performance in this portfolio.

The #2 issue remains ensuring access to quality and timely health care. The weighted score is down a tad however, from 11.45 last week to 11.10 this week. A small but not insignificant change.

Third spot is the big shift area and Managing Growth has taken over in this slot at a weighted score of 9.97, very close to health care. The fourth spot is the Quality K-12 Education system down from third spot last week but also losing weighted scoring too from 10.04 last week to 8.04 this week – a full 2 point drop.

At the bottom end of the scale as to what survey participants are concerned about as important issue to deal with right away are aboriginal issues at the bottom with a score of 1.27. The next least critical issue is dealing with resource surpluses scoring at 1.50

Performance scores for the Environment improved to only 82% saying it was bad compared to 83% not being impressed last week. Health care ranking has improved slightly with 60% not being impressed, down form 63% last week. The K-12 education rating has improved slightly too a poor rating of 50% from 51% last week. Managing growth is moved up to the #3 issue but the performance ranking is still a terrible 87% negative rating, the same as last week. This is the lowest performance rating of all 15 issues.

Big payoffs for government would be to do something significant in the environment and the management of growth. Lougheed is calling for a slowdown of oil sands projects. Manning is saying we can and need to have solid economic growth and enhanced environmental outcomes at the same time. Both approaches have been resonating but no candidate has picked up those concepts and made them their own in the campaign yet. Curious since that is the secret to winning.

Take the survey - but give yourself about 5 minutes because you will have to do some thinking about what is really important to you.

Quality and Character Always Rises to the Top

Even the National Post is finally "getting" the essence of Stephane Dion as the class of the field in the Liberal leadership. With the Environment taking over Health care as the #1 priority issues for Canadians speaks well for the changing fortunes of Dion. He owns the environment issue and is trusted by citizens on the environment as well.

Here is what the National Post said about Dion today...worth a read.