Boom Boom

It looks like David Dodge head of the Bank of Canada is stuck back in the eighties when thanks to constant high interest rates the Canadian economy flatened out. Now with the Loonie replacing the pound as the Petro Dollar our economy is booming, and once again Dodge is planning to raise interests rates. Which would be counter-productive.

David Dodge sounds alarm about inflation

The Bank of Canada issued its semi-annual report and solidified expectations another rate hike is pending, despite having raised rates six times since September.

The Canadian dollar closed at 89.04 cents, up from Wednesday's close of 88.61 cents -- the highest since November, 1991, and continuing a surge that started earlier in the week. Mr. Dodge's comments yesterday clearly exposed his fear that inflationary pressure, which has been negligible for more than two years, is no longer as benign as once thought.

"Given these divergent signals from the Bank of Canada and the Fed, look for the Canadian dollar to strengthen in the near term, trading decisively through 90 U.S. cents," said Craig Alexander, deputy chief economist at Toronto-Dominion Bank.

Indeed, Peter Frank, a Chicago-based currency strategist for ABN Amro, wrote yesterday that the loonie would break through 95 cents by the end of this year, the strongest since May, 1977.

And Bank of Montreal economist Sal Guatieri sees the loonie at 92 cents by next year, assuming that commodities prices soften somewhat. If they strengthen, he sees the Canadian dollar moving up to 95 or even 96 cents -- a level not seen for nearly 30 years.

But a growing number of economists say the Bank of Canada should stop raising rates before that happens. Earlier this week, CIBC World Markets warned that the central bank risks overshooting by raising rates when there are few signs of inflationary pressure.

Yesterday, TD Bank added its voice, saying the central bank should hold off on further increases because there is no evidence higher energy prices are causing other prices to rise significantly.

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Blogging Iraq

A great news aggregator blog on Iraq is Today in Iraq. And no there are no planted Pentagon stories.


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In Defense of Migration

Two thoughtful articles on migration and the current white whing wascist hysteria in the U.S. about 'illegal aliens' appear on the Thomas Paine's Corner blog. Well worth the read.

Your Huddled Masses are my Wretched Refuse:

African-Americans, Economic Well-Being, and Immigration



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Bank Charges

Here is a good news story for banking customers for once; CIBC to refund $27M to clients who were overcharged

However one has to ask why we pay service charges period.

Especially when this happens;Citing more than 1,000 mistakes a day in preauthorized bank debits across Canada, a coalition of consumers' groups is calling on Ottawa for consumer protection legislation on electronic payments.

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Ashamed of Being A Tory

This nutbar is ashamed of being a blogging Tory....except he has also been a Liberal and a Green blogger.

Of course the Blogging Tories have never heard of him as he is not on their roll.Which is a shame since he tries so hard to be one of them.

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No Rae Days For Liberals

This is why Bob Rae will not be elected Leader of the Federal Liberals; "Former Ontario NDP premier".

This appelation will follow him where ever he goes, and in any stories about him.

Despite being the Chretienite/Demarais/Power Corporation candidate . Barely out of the gate and he got La Presse's editorial endorsement, the voice of the Power Corp and his inlaws.

But not all the criticism will be from the right, nope there is a good left hook out there with elder NDP statesman Ed Broadbent's latest column in the Globe and Mail.Mr. Rae and the Grits deserve each other

And not to be outdone Ontario MPP Peter Kormos gets in a couple of shots;
"He began his political career as a Liberal and Bob Rae is going to finish it as a Liberal. And, as far as I'm concerned, there was no hiatus in the interim. He was the best Liberal premier this province ever had."

Bob has baggage alright but not just his past as Premier of Ontario. He has more recent baggage, that of screwing post secondary students.

Student-loans Catch-22 lurks

In 1994, Manning introduced a motion in Parliament calling for the creation of an “income contingent loan repayment system”. Manning claimed that this would reduce costs for taxpayers and ensure postsecondary institutions generated enough funding to maintain quality. He made no mention of the potential impact on tuition.

Just over 10 years later, Rae submitted a report to the Ontario government on postsecondary education that also called for an income-contingent student-loan-repayment plan. He suggested that this could come in the form of payroll deductions.

“In the Canadian context, such a system will take time to establish because of the need for federal- provincial consensus,” Rae wrote in his report. He added that governments would also “necessarily involve the future of tuition tax credits, and other tax expenditures”.

Payne said that Ontario students have opposed Rae’s proposal for that province. “I think that myself and students across the country are concerned about Bob Rae potentially becoming the leader of the Liberal party,” Payne said.

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Atlantis Discovered

Is this the discovery of Plato's Atlantis?

Volcanologist says past blast wiped out Plato's Atlantis

Olive tree rewrites classical history

Scientists have detected ash from the explosion as far away as Greenland, the Black Sea and Egypt. They have also discovered signs of frost damage caused by the volcano on preserved plant material excavated in Ireland and California.

That means that many of the cultures that researchers once assumed were trading with each other, may have existed at completely different times. In particular, researchers have generally thought that the civilisations on the islands of Crete, Cyprus and in Greece had many ties to Egypt.

But, the new timeline indicates that these civilisations may have been more tightly linked with cultures of the Levant, which today includes Israel, Lebanon and Syria. The cultures were contemporaneous with Egypt's Second Intermediate Period - when northern Egypt was controlled by a Canaanite dynasty with links to the Levant - instead of the subsequent New Kingdom.

It could also explain some anomalies that have long puzzled historians. For example, it's been speculated that there is a connection between Anat, a virgin goddess of war worshipped in the Levant, and Athena, one of the most important goddesses in Greek culture. Olive Branch Buried by Volcano Revises History

Of course there are other contenders as well, Cyprus and Ireland.

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Telcos Limit Internet Freedom

This is a damn good reason why the United States should not have proprietary control over the Internet.Faced with the challenge by the big Telcos, AT&T has returned like the ghost of Trusts past, net neutrality has been shot down in favour of the corporate Telco oligopolies. Suddenly the concerns raised by the EU and others about the US control over the Internet seem less chicken little than prescient.

A host of tech outfits, from Google to Intel, suffered a setback in a battle over access to the Internet on Apr. 26. At issue is whether telcos like AT&T and cable operators such as Comcast, which maintain the country's vast broadband networks, can favor one provider's Web traffic over another's. A measure that would bar the practice was shot down by a Congressional committee. Tech Giants' Internet Battles

And wouldn't you know it but the guy who is responsible for this travesty is none other than Colin Powell's little boy Michael. You know the guy who got upset over a nipple being shown during the Superbowl. Who then pushed for 'decency' regulations over both non cable and cable networks in the US. Censorship by any other name.

The version of the bill passed on Wednesday includes four "principles" put forward by Michael Powell, former chairman of the FCC, the communications regulator. It would allow the FCC to take action against service providers if they block subscribers' access to legal websites or services but does not prevent price differentiation. Telecoms groups win 'net neutrality' battle in Congress

And if you don't think that the issue of 'decency', affects you well check this out;

Wireless Carriers Set Strict Decency Standards for Content

As music and video programming becomes widely available for cellphones, major U.S. wireless carriers are quietly setting strict decency standards for their content partners in an effort to stave off criticism from customers and regulators. Many of the rules go far beyond those set by federal regulators for television and radio.

The rules, which bar sexually explicit or graphic content, have sparked concern among media providers. Some have already been forced to alter or remove hip-hop ringtones, video clips or other material that wireless operators considered offensive, people familiar with the situation say. The wireless industry trade group, CTIA-The Wireless Association, issued broad content guidelines in November, but largely left it to the carriers to implement their own policies.

As we all know decency is just the excuse to limit free speech period. And the worst offender is not the State, but the corporations themsleves as they self censor. Now the Telcos will be able to limit access to the Internet, censor it and charge you more for it. Oh joy.

According to the watchdog group Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, "large corporations are a more common source of censorship than governments ... The most frequent form of censorship is self-censorship." Revealing images contrary to the official narrative often end up on the cutting room floor. Hustler Magazine's editorial director, Bruce David, asserts: "The job of the media is to keep the American people calm. It won't show them anything that threatens the ruling elite. It'll show eating bugs on `Survivor' because it doesn't threaten the system. But it won't show casualties of war and flag-draped coffins, because they look at that as a dagger at the heart of the system the corporate media protects."Anything goes today, or does it?

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Left Wing Engineer

Will wonders never cease. A Left Wing Engineer with a blog.

A Left Wing Engineer. And an Engineering Prof at that.

Most Engineers I've met tend to wander into the world of Ayn Rand Objectivism. Being such linear thinkers, it's the trade you see, they think that Ayn is both a great philospopher and a great novelist. Ah poor deluded Engineers, but then again the slogan of Engineering school is 'Geers Rule the World, to which my reply has been; No wonder it's so messed up.

The old left wing Engineers tended to read Veblen and join Technocracy, so it's interesting to see a 'new left' in Engineering. And about time too.

Anyways our good Herr Doctor Professor Filippo A. Salustri has great little Atheist Workbook and a guide to the falacies of Intelligent Design.



Ya gotta like a guy who quotes Marx on his Ryerson home page;

"Je ne suis pas Marxiste."
--Karl Marx, 1818-1883

To which I can only reply; Oui, oui.




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Blogging Medicine Hat

For an overview of the reaction of this little corner of the blogoshpere to the triple murders in Medicine Hat click here.






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