Thanks to my friend Bill Hunter I have the delight to share this irreverent but very creative updated depiction of the Christmas Story. As the closing credit says "Times change. Feeling Don't." So in that spirit I give you this video and wish all my friends and especially the many loyal readers of this blog a very Merry Christmas. I will be relatively quiet over the holidays with fewer postings as I reflect and recharge in preparation for what promises to be a turbulent new year.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
BP Oil Spill Revisited
This spoof is more satire than slapstick and more truthful than fiction. It makes you see the impact of self organizing human perceptions and the good and bad inherent in that "gift."
A Delightful Moment of Alberta Politicians Being Human-ish
The Legislative Press Gallery Annual Christmas Party features videos by the Alberta political parties. This year the NDP and Wildrose Alliance joined forces and did a video worthy of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
Give it a look and enjoy the giggle.
Give it a look and enjoy the giggle.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Support the Edmonton Christmas Bureau
I have been asked by the Edmonton Christmas Bureau to help them with the final push over the top for donations in this years goal of $1.8million.
The Christmas bureau aims to help 73,000 Edmonton community families this year with your generous support.
Donations can be made online at www.christmasbureau.ca <http://www.christmasbureau.ca/> or the following locations:
The Christmas bureau aims to help 73,000 Edmonton community families this year with your generous support.
Donations can be made online at www.christmasbureau.ca <http://www.christmasbureau.ca/> or the following locations:
-All Edmonton Fire Halls
-Servus Credit Union Branches
-ATB Financial Branches
-Southgate Centre
-Commerce Place
-West Edmonton Mall
-Kingsway Mall
-Bonnie Doon Shopping Centre
-Londonderry Mall
-Millwoods Town Centre
-Northgate Centre
-West Mount Shopping Centre
Thank you gentle readers for your support for this great cause.
Is Pension Scheme Good for Us or for Mutual Fund Managers?
There is a need to get Canadians saving for their retirement. No argument there. The need to expand access to pensions is critical too. No argument there. There is a role for the private and the public sector in this effort as well. RRSPs are the model for the private sector play and the CPP is the public part in the process.
So now we have a scheme proposed that will enable people to set up private pension arrangements that don't get them from employers or the self-employed. The theory is good but the execution and regulation of the program is the concern. This is on the face of it a Christmas gift to the financial institutions who will get enormous fees, the ability to leverage pooled funds and do not have to worry about investment performance as they play with the hopes and aspirations of possibly millions of individual Canadians.
I am told by pension fund managers that Canadians pay some of the highest, if not the highest, fund management fees in the world. Will that change in this pooled pension scheme? Will there be competition - I mean real competition - not price fixing collusion amongst fund managers for fees and investment performance? Will the average Canadian even know how to monitor and evaluate the management service and fund performance they are getting? Will contributors be fragmented individuals no consumer or political clout who give their retirement nest eggs to fund managers with minimal accountability, transparency and responsibility?
This "solution" seems to be potentially more disastrous than the problem it is trying to solve...unless there is serious government regulation and over site...not lax enforcement and political over sights that is characteristic of the Harper political style to date. Is there any reason for citizens to trust the political motives and in public interest integrity behind this scheme?
I am a free enterprise kind of guy and think capitalism is a great tool for economic growth. But these are man- made concepts that only work if there is confidence and trust by the public who must feel assured that the public interest is the goal, not private greed. We saw what happens when big fees and private greed takes over brokers and fund dealers. Just look at the U.S. Sub-prime mortgage disaster that almost put the world into a depression "saved" by trillions of taxpayer dollars paid to bail out the "too big to fail" banks who were the "masters-of-the-universe types" who were ripping off everyone...or the Bernie Madoff example...just to name a few.
Free market capitalism only works with real competition and that only happens with the assurance of appropriate government regulations. Market based competition is not the solution to all the social, economic and environmental challenges we face - there is a fundamental role for good government. We need both for a happy, wealthy and wise society.
I need to know a great deal more about this scheme and how it will be regulated and controlled by my government before I will buy in. I need to know why the expansion and extension of the CPP was not an accepted Canadian-way alternative? I need to be convinced this approach is about sound fiscal policy and not hard core Harper Conservative dogma wagging a poorly thought out public policy agendas.
So now we have a scheme proposed that will enable people to set up private pension arrangements that don't get them from employers or the self-employed. The theory is good but the execution and regulation of the program is the concern. This is on the face of it a Christmas gift to the financial institutions who will get enormous fees, the ability to leverage pooled funds and do not have to worry about investment performance as they play with the hopes and aspirations of possibly millions of individual Canadians.
I am told by pension fund managers that Canadians pay some of the highest, if not the highest, fund management fees in the world. Will that change in this pooled pension scheme? Will there be competition - I mean real competition - not price fixing collusion amongst fund managers for fees and investment performance? Will the average Canadian even know how to monitor and evaluate the management service and fund performance they are getting? Will contributors be fragmented individuals no consumer or political clout who give their retirement nest eggs to fund managers with minimal accountability, transparency and responsibility?
This "solution" seems to be potentially more disastrous than the problem it is trying to solve...unless there is serious government regulation and over site...not lax enforcement and political over sights that is characteristic of the Harper political style to date. Is there any reason for citizens to trust the political motives and in public interest integrity behind this scheme?
I am a free enterprise kind of guy and think capitalism is a great tool for economic growth. But these are man- made concepts that only work if there is confidence and trust by the public who must feel assured that the public interest is the goal, not private greed. We saw what happens when big fees and private greed takes over brokers and fund dealers. Just look at the U.S. Sub-prime mortgage disaster that almost put the world into a depression "saved" by trillions of taxpayer dollars paid to bail out the "too big to fail" banks who were the "masters-of-the-universe types" who were ripping off everyone...or the Bernie Madoff example...just to name a few.
Free market capitalism only works with real competition and that only happens with the assurance of appropriate government regulations. Market based competition is not the solution to all the social, economic and environmental challenges we face - there is a fundamental role for good government. We need both for a happy, wealthy and wise society.
I need to know a great deal more about this scheme and how it will be regulated and controlled by my government before I will buy in. I need to know why the expansion and extension of the CPP was not an accepted Canadian-way alternative? I need to be convinced this approach is about sound fiscal policy and not hard core Harper Conservative dogma wagging a poorly thought out public policy agendas.
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