A drop in the Canadian dollar in the past two weeks gave the Bank of Canada just enough breathing room to deliver its seventh consecutive - and likely final - interest rate increase Wednesday morning.
" Recent Canadian data confirm that domestic demand remains solid, and that both CPI and core inflation are evolving largely in line with the Bank's expectations."
The key objectives of Canada’s inflation targets,
when they were originally announced in 1991, were
to prevent inflation from accelerating in the short
run in the face of the introduction of the new Goods
and Services Tax (GST) and a sharp rise in oil prices
and, in the longer run, to bring inflation down to a
level consistent with price stability.
Over time, the importance of other favourable
characteristics of inflation
targets as a permanent operating framework for
monetary policy has become increasingly apparent to
us at the Bank of Canada. The most notable of these
characteristics are increased transparency, better accountability,
improved internal decision making, and
a mechanism for responding to demand and supply
shocks that reduces potential fluctuations in output.
I would not argue that explicit inflation targets are
the only way to achieve good macroeconomic results.
Indeed, the worldwide reduction of inflation in the
1990s across countries with different frameworks for
monetary policy clearly indicates that there are a
number of ways to achieve low inflation.
GORDON G. THIESSEN
Governor of the Bank of Canada
Public-Private Partnerships, The Undermining of Free Enterprise, and the Emergence of “Soft Fascism”
There are now thousands of public-private partnerships in place throughout the country, engaging in activities ranging from building roads and neighborhoods to providing waterand wastewater services to renovating government schools to overseeing the management
of real estate to providing health care. This number seems destined to grow in theimmediate future.
It is fair to say that public-private partnerships have been accepted
without question by the ‘mainstream’ of both government and business. This is because a new ‘paradigm’ for the relationship between the two has emerged, verygradually, over the past few decades. This ‘paradigm,’ of course, is that of sustainable development, which combines the power of the purse, one might call it, with the power of
the sword. The resources of business (the power of the purse) are utilized to do the work of “governance” (the power of the sword)—with the former’s full cooperation and support.
The reports we cited noted several examples of what appear to all intents and purposes to be successful public-private partnerships—successful, that is, in achieving the ends wanted within government.
Expansionist or interventionist government—the idea that government should undertake responsibility for managing huge portions of a country’s economy and infrastructure—is taken for granted, but limits on the capacity of government to effect change by itself are acknowledged. The solution to the problem of the limits on the capacity of government, in the new paradigm, is to employ the resources of business, in a way that brings business fully on board and enlists it as collaborator—or partner.
Of course, the larger the business the better, because bigger businesses tend to have deeper pocketbooks than smaller businesses. The critics of public-private partnerships usually cited in the favorable literature are not those who do not trust government but those who do not trust business.
The secretive group known as Bilderberg will hold its annual secret meeting at the posh Brook Street Resort a few miles from Ottawa, Canada, June 8-11.Media coverage of the Bilderberg conference is extermely limited as many of the ruling class media barons and their syncophants attend. See Aaron Bratens Open Letter to the Bilderberg Steering Committee
The location and part of the agenda was disclosed to American Free Press by a source inside Bilderberg’s inner circle.
High on the Bilderberg’s secret agenda this year are oil prices and the political upheaval in Latin America. When meeting last year in Rottach-Egern, Germany, Bilderberg called for dramatic increases in the price of oil. Oil prices started climbing immediately from $40 a barrel to $70.
Whether Bilderberg will call for still higher prices is unclear, but Henry Kissinger and others had gleefully anticipated ultimate prices at $150 a barrel a year ago. Bilderberg is certainly concerned about supply, which is related to the “Latin American problem,” as one insider said.
Approximately 120 international leaders in politics and finance will also discuss the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which has caused a rare breach between American Bilderbergers and their European counterparts since the United States Iraq invasion in 2003. Whether the United States should invade Iran is also high on the agenda.
Now those that see conspiracies everywhere might be forgiven for thinking that this meeting is coincidental with Canada's economic dominace with the petro-dollar and the election of the Conservatives, since Harper has attended previous Bilderberg Conferences.
the bourgeoisie has at last, since the establishment of Modern Industry and of the world market, conquered for itself, in the modern representative state, exclusive political sway. The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie. THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO
Merchants Hit MasterCard IPO on Anticompetitive Grounds
A law firm co-leading the merchant class-action interchange lawsuit against Visa USA, MasterCard Inc. and a number of their large members yesterday filed a supplemental complaint in federal court asserting that MasterCard’s imminent initial public offering of stock is an attempt to shield itself from antitrust liability for past interchange practices. But if or how the revised complaint will affect the planned IPO that could come as soon as Thursday and raise up to $2.8 billion is unclear.NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - MasterCard is expected to hit the market with a bang when it makes its debut on the New York Stock Exchange as early as next week.
But there may be reason for long-term investors to whimper.
Investors big and small are expected to gobble up shares of the credit card association, which has a long history of stable performance. But the company's future appears less certain.
MasterCard faces mounting lawsuits, and long-term investors could end up footing the company's legal bills, analysts said.
Investors in the IPO market like to see growth, and while MasterCard is a well established company, its business has benefited as consumers move from paper to electronic payments. The total value of transactions on MasterCard-branded cards - including purchases and cash advances - rose 13 percent last year to $1.7 trillion, according to company estimates.
MasterCard has booked about $860 million in expenses related to legal settlements over the last three fiscal years. It settled a lawsuit brought on behalf of merchants in 2003 but a number of cases remain outstanding, including separate suits filed by Morgan Stanley's (Research) Discover and American Express alleging the credit card association competes unfairly.
Also See:
Rights report condemns US, ChinaWhen the powerful are too arrogant to review and reassess their strategies, the heaviest price is paid by the poor and powerless.
-- Amnesty Secretary-General Irene Khan
Did anyone care to notice that the Chinese president did not rush to see his US counterpart when he landed in the US? What did it say about China’s perspective on the Sino-US relationship that the first person that President Hu visited in the US was Bill Gates, Microsoft’s chairman and the world’s richest man? No matter how rich Gates is, he is still a private citizen and one would surely imagine that the first person a visiting head of state and government visits before anyone else is his counterpart. With China It’s Simply Business, Not a Clash of Civilizations
In Washington the state, Hu beamed as he hobnobbed with the capitalist kings of computers, coffee shops and airplanes, who are among those making a mint in China's markets. In Washington the city, Hu got a rather frostier reception. A dissident heckler startled him on the White House lawn, a White House announcer called his country the Republic of China - did someone say Taiwan? - and a senator warned that China should open more of its markets to American products, or else. The chill in the East and the warmth in the West were, of course, mostly about money. The number most policy makers in Washington, D.C., think about when they think about China is the $202 billion trade deficit in 2005, up 25 percent from the year before. In Seattle, the focus is on the $5 billion that businesses in the state exported to China last year, up 64 percent from 2004. News Analysis: Hu sees 2 very different Washingtons
China Befriends Oil-Rich Saudis; US Pays at Pump
Merkel's China visit to strengthen bilateral ties
China extends its reach into Africa with $1bn deal for Nigeria's railways
United States looks on as China mines Latin America's riches
WASHINGTON, May 23 (Reuters) - China's military buildup has altered Asia-Pacific power balances and could pose threats to other forces, the Pentagon said on Tuesday, in an annual report that repeated U.S. calls for Beijing to explain its actions. China has retained its long-standing focus on rival Taiwan but years of double-digit growth in arms spending and new missiles, ships and aircraft meant it could project power further afield, the 2006 China Military Power Report said. "The pace and scope of China's military build-up already place regional military balances at risk," the 58-page report said. "Current trends in China's military modernization could provide China with a force capable of prosecuting a range of military operations in Asia -- well beyond Taiwan -- potentially posing a credible threat to modern militaries operating in the region," it said.
China should revise policies on Sudan
But the Sudanese, more than all world powers and economic entities, are the ones most directly affected by the political and economic policies of China on Sudan.Apart from the nuclear power conflict in the Chinese-Iranian-Western relations, the unabated fears about the Gulf oil, and the other international agenda, what concerns us here is a Sudanese viewpoint on the reasons for the requested revisions on the Chinese policies on Sudan.
There are clear political concerns with the Chinese mechanical support of Sudan in the international arena, especially the United Nations Security Council, as well as major economic questions about the Chinese oil methodologies in South Sudan and other parts of the country.
Of particular importance is the way the revenues of these investments have been used by China to support the repressive rule of Sudan with virtually non-economic or social development projects in the oil-producing region, South Sudan, for almost a decade.
Recently, the Chinese working team on the construction of the Hamadab Dam at the Manasir/Robatab area in the Nile Province of North Sudan faced some forms of popular resistance from the local inhabitants who had been prevented from using the Nile drinking water for their animals by construction provisions imposed by the repressive rule of Sudan in agreement with the Chinese firm.
The Chinese company, however, went as far as inciting the authorities that responded promptly with armed forces to displace the inhabitants and their animals from the dam construction area.
This insensitivity to the local communities of North Sudan was an extension of graver indifferences by the Chinese investors towards many other communities in South Sudan.
