Environmentalists, MLA call for B.C. to fund protection of old-growth forests

Members of the Ancient Forest Alliance on the steps of the B.C. legislature are seen on Dec. 21, 2021

(CTV News)

Scott Weston
CTV News Vancouver Island Journalist
Published Dec. 22, 2021

On Tuesday, the Ancient Forest Alliance and BC Green Party MLA Adam Olsen held a briefing on the steps of the B.C. legislature demanding the province increase its funding for the protection of old-growth forests.

Staff with the Ancient Forest Alliance say there is an urgent need for substantial provincial funding to defer old-growth logging, particular for First Nations that are stuck deciding between supporting deferrals or maintaining logging revenue.

"We need to protect the last ancient stands of old-growth forests in B.C., but it's not as simple as the stroke of a pen or just passing a piece of legislation," said Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner Andra Inness.

"We need to support First Nations communities who are economically dependent on revenues from those old-growth forests," she said. "We need to supplant those revenues with economically sustainable alternatives, and that requires a significant funding commitment for the B.C. government."

Tuesday’s briefing comes after the province said in early November that it will work with First Nations to defer 2.6 million hectares of old-growth forest after a recommendation from an independent scientific panel.

'IMPOSSIBLE POSITION'

The Ancient Forest Alliance says that last week the B.C. government announced that most First Nations that responded to requests for deferrals have expressed an interest in discussing old-growth forest management with the province.

The conservation group says despite the positive response, the NDP government is failing to support the discussions with funding to offset the revenues from old-growth logging.

"We’re here to demand that the B.C. government commit significant funding in the upcoming budget in February to help First Nations to protect old-growth forests in their territories and develop their economies sustainably," said Inness. "Forests are the most carbon rich ecosystems on the planet, so in a climate change emergency we simply cannot afford not to do this."

Olsen says he is pleased to see the province move to protect B.C.’s most at-risk ancient forests but he says the commitment to First Nations communities that rely on the money generated from logging falls short.

"As long as they continue to come to the negotiation table with First Nations virtually empty handed, they won’t fully achieve it," said the Saanich North and the Islands MLA.

"Many Nations are dependent upon the revenues from logging in their territories, and the government is putting them in the impossible position of having to choose between old-growth protection and economic security," he said. "This does not advance conservation or reconciliation."

The Ancient Forest Alliance says the province has yet to announce new deferrals to halt old-growth logging in at-risk forests recommended by it’s Old Growth Strategic Review Panel. It says the B.C. government has allocated $12.6 million to support government-to-government negotiations on deferrals, but without financial support for compensation, First Nations may not support the proposed deferrals.

Inness says the financial commitment by the provincial and federal governments for the protection of BC’s ancient forests should be as much as $500 to $600 million.

"To be clear, we don’t expect all of that to come from the province," said Inness. "The federal government is coming to the table now with a significant funding contribution to expand protected areas across Canada, several hundred million of that will come to B.C. to expand protected areas here."

"There’s multiple sources where this funding can come from and we know Premier Horgan has acknowledged that significant funding is required, but he has yet to come to the table with it and that needs to happen now," she said.

Old-growth logging opponents urge B.C. to do more to protect the environment

December 22, 2021 

A small crowd gathered on the grounds of the B.C. Legislature on Tuesday morning demanding more action from the provincial government to stop logging of old-growth forests.

While the demonstration was quiet and peaceful, another group is threatening more disruptive action if the NDP doesn’t do more.

“We have a broken relationship with the natural world that desperately needs to be restored,” said Andrea Inness of Ancient Forest Alliance, one of the speakers of the event.

Currently, the provincial government has committed to halting the logging of 2.6 million hectares of old-growth, and is working with First Nations to develop a new plan for sustainable forest management.

In the statement, B.C. Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development said, “we’re working with First Nations that want to move forward on immediate deferrals, continuing to engage with Nations who want more time or to talk through other processes, and continuing to reach out to Nations that haven’t responded.”

“We will support people and communities affected by upcoming temporary old-growth deferrals through a comprehensive suite of supports. We are committed to working in collaboration with First Nations, local communities, and industry to ensure we get this right,” the statement read.

It’s also promising about $12 million over three years to support First Nations through the process, but Inness says this isn’t enough.

“They haven’t committed the necessary funding to make that happen. So, these are empty promises that will come to nothing. So, we need to see, just like the Great Bear Rainforest, a significant conservation financing commitment from the government this budget,” she said.

“Asking them to respond to these requests without providing them with any kind of support to assist them in their analysis and planning is not a respectful and responsible way to go,” added Andy MacKinnon, a forest ecologist and Metchosin councillor.

They’re calling on the B.C. government to increase their funding to at least $300 million to support those most impacted by the old-growth forests deferrals.

While they acknowledge it is a lot of money, they said it’s imperative that the province provide more financial support.

“The impact of this is going to cost us far more than it would cost us to protect these ecosystems,” said Adam Olsen, the Green Party MLA for Saanich.

“When you take a look at the impact of floods and the impact of climate change on our province just this year, it’s going to cost us hundreds of millions of dollars or billions of dollars to repair just from one or two storm seasons,” he continued.

The B.C. government said that in February, it will introduce Budget 2022 “which will continue to be responsive to the needs of people, businesses, and communities to see them through the pandemic and into a strong economic recovery that supports all British Columbians.”

Tuesday’s quiet demonstration was nothing compared to what has happened in the past with some groups taking more extreme measures to drive their point home, including shutting down the Patricia Bay Highway for hours.

The “Save Old Growth” civil resistance movement announced on Tuesday it will “begin a campaign of continuous disruption of the Trans Canada Highway” starting on January 10th if the government does not end all active old-growth logging.

“It really is unfortunate that we have to do this. And it’s regrettable that we do have to stop people that are just trying to provide for themselves and their families. They’re not the people destroying our world. It’s the people that employ them that are,” said Brent Eichler, an activist who is part of the movement.

“It is regrettable, but history shows us that this is the way to win,” he added.

He said they’ll be attempting to shut down the highway around the province, including on the island three times a week throughout the month.

Could Chile show the United States how to rebuild its democracy?

The US once helped destroy Chilean democracy. Now, a constitutional reform movement in Chile could teach the US how to fix its own

‘Does Chile have lessons to teach US progressives?’

 Photograph: Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock
Thu 23 Dec 2021
Tony Karon

THE GUARDIAN


Chile always gave the lie to the cold war claim that the United States stood for democracy. When its voters in 1970 showed the temerity (“irresponsibility”, Henry Kissinger called it) to elect socialist Salvador Allende as president, Washington helped orchestrate the coup that toppled him, and backed the resulting dictatorship.

It seems those “irresponsible” Chilean voters are at it again – on Sunday, they elected leftist Gabriel Boric as president by a 12-point margin, on the back of a campaign for a new constitution. But if Chilean democracy seems on the road to recovery from its Washington-backed disfiguration, prospects for democracy in the United States look rather bleak

Sunday also saw Joe Manchin brandish the veto power the US system grants a senator representing fewer than 300,000 voters to tank the agenda of a president chosen by 80 million. And that was but the latest reminder that Americans are not governed by the democratic will of the citizenry. The US supreme court looks ready to strike down abortion rights supported by about two-thirds of the electorate, while Democrats in office seem unable or unwilling to deliver on basic social programs supported by a majority of voters, whether on drug prices or childcare or public health, and much more – or to prevent Republicans brazenly reengineering state-level laws and procedures to prevent voters of color from ever again making the difference they made in 2020.


Minority rule is a feature, not a bug of the US constitutional system.

Donald Trump was legitimately elected president in 2016 despite losing by 3m votes. And 6 January notwithstanding, the Republican party needs no coup to lock itself into power for the foreseeable future, even if it represents a diminishing minority of voters. The US constitution provides all the tools they’ll need: the electoral college; the US Senate (two seats per state means it can be controlled with less than 20% of the national vote); the supreme court the Senate effectively picks; and the state houses empowered to set voting laws and rules, and even redraw districts to partisan advantage.

The framers of the constitution never intended that every American would have a vote, much less a vote of equal value. They created a system to regulate a society ruled by and for wealthy white male settlers engaged in the conquest and subordination of the country’s Indigenous and Black populations.
Ineffectual appeals to save our democracy reflect the paralysis of mainstream Democrats

Decades of bitter struggle on the streets have won Black and Brown people far more access to the US political system than the founders ever intended. Still, even the gains codified in the civil rights era are being consciously rolled back by a billionaire-funded white nationalist party looking to cement its hold on power for the foreseeable future against any demographic headwinds.

Ineffectual appeals to “save our democracy” reflect the paralysis of mainstream Democrats in the face of the Republican offensive that has weaponized a minority-rule constitutional system.

Nor is a majority of citizens easily able, within its rules, to change these anti-democratic provisions of the US constitution: even minor changes require agreement by two-thirds of each house of Congress, and three-quarters of the 50 states.

Democratizing the United States – creating a system of government shaped by every citizen having the right to a vote of equal value – would require a different constitution, democratically adopted by a national community quite different from the one imagined by the founding fathers. But that’s what Chileans are attempting.

Boric is a product of a student rebellion a decade ago that fed into a broader social justice movement focused on issues ranging from austerity, a failing social safety net, healthcare and economic inequality to gender violence and Indigenous rights. While even center-left governments were stymied from delivering on voter expectations, many in this parliament of the streets recognized that their grievances were products of the democracy deficit built into the dictatorship’s 1980 constitution to ensure continuity of its economic model.

Although it allowed Chileans to elect their president and lower house of parliament, that constitution built in minority vetoes, such as appointing one-third of senators and much of the judiciary, as failsafe mechanisms to prevent democratically elected politicians from enacting the systemic changes demanded by voters. Thus the emergence of a democracy movement based outside formal political parties, which in late 2019 won a referendum to have a new constitution democratically drafted. That movement’s energy also propelled Boric to power.

So, does Chile have lessons to teach US progressives? It’s a question worth investigating. Sure, the US is nowhere near a point where public opinion recognizes the need for a new constitution. But it’s equally clear that the US fails as a democracy – and the morbid implications of US minority-rule-with-a-democratic-face can’t credibly be avoided.

Curiously enough, US conservatives have never been shy to follow Chilean examples: the shrink-government campaign that began in the Reagan era was road-tested by Chile’s dictatorship under the tutelage of US “free-market” ideologues. And President GW Bush, in his 2005 effort to privatize social security, cited Chile as the model to emulate.

But the Chilean popular rebellion against that same neoliberal model, and the potential it has raised for a democratic reordering of power and of that country’s social contract, suggests that the right are not the only Americans who may have something to learn from Chile.


Tony Karon is a South African-born journalist and former anti-apartheid activist. He is currently the Managing Editor of AJ+

Researcher explains why those without college degrees are seeing decline in close friendships

Thu, December 23, 2021


Daniel Cox, the director of the Survey Center on American Life, explained that Americans without college degrees were reporting fewer close friendships due to a "decline in civic and social infrastructure."

Cox spoke about a recent report he did comparing social experiences of Americans with and without college degrees.

The report compares a Gallup poll conducted in 1990 and a survey conducted by Survey Center on American Life earlier this year, showing that the percentage of Americans with no college education who said they reported five or more close friends dropped from 64 percent in 1990 to 34 percent in 2021.

"What we found - and what I speculate is happening - is that we've seen a decline in civic and social infrastructure that was really important for all Americans, but it really was important for serving the needs of those without a college education. And I'm talking about marriage," Cox explained in a Tuesday appearance on Hill.TV's "Rising." "We're seeing a decline in participation in marriage among those without college - it's basically fallen off a cliff over the last few decades."

Cox also explained that there has also been a decline in the number of people participating in religious affiliations.

"So we're also seeing, and we document in this our report, is a decline in religious participation. And there's been, you know, I think there's this kind of sense in the culture that that more educated Americans are less religious, but we actually find the opposite when it comes to belonging to a religious congregation - that those with the degree are actually more likely to be members," Cox explained.

Rich kids and poor kids face different rules when it comes to bringing personal items to school

Casey Stocksill, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Denver
Sat, December 25, 2021

Some preschoolers are encouraged to bring in their favorite toy or stuffed animal, while others risk having it confiscated. Layland Masuda/Moment Collection via Getty Images

The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work.
The big idea

Poor preschoolers get fewer chances than wealthier children to bring their prized personal possessions to school. That’s what I found in my two-year comparative ethnographic study of two preschools in Madison, Wisconsin. One of the preschools primarily serves middle-class white children and the other primarily serves poor children of color.


In the preschool that served mostly poor kids, the teachers made a rule that kids could not bring toys, games, stuffed animals or other personal items to school. The stakes felt too high to these teachers. Some students’ families were recently evicted and had few toys. Other students’ families did buy them toys but at great financial cost, and families didn’t want these items broken. Teachers also worried about toys being stolen. The items that I observed children try to bring in ranged from expensive action figures to random board game pieces to sparkly ponytail holders.

I then observed an affluent school and found that teachers actually encouraged children to bring their personal items to school. The teachers hosted a weekly show and tell. Kids could bring toys, objects from nature or anything else to show and tell. Teachers also encouraged kids to bring books to read with their peers and stuffed animals to cuddle at nap time any day of the week. Because these teachers knew their students’ families were financially well-off, they made classroom rules that allowed children to celebrate their personal property.
Why it matters

This gulf in how kids experience classroom rules about property matters for three reasons.

First, I observed that when children brought personal stuff to school, they used the items to connect with friends or just to hold and enjoy by themselves throughout the day. This was true whether they were encouraged to bring the items in or they successfully sneaked them in.

Bringing special personal objects to school provided the kids with a form of what sociologists call substantive dignity – the sense that one belongs in a wider community but is still respected as a unique individual. My research suggests that preschool segregation creates pressures for teachers of poor children to forbid personal property at school, closing off a pathway to substantive dignity for these children.

Second, the disparity in children’s degree of control over property connects to other researchers’ findings that affluent children have more control over their experience within schools. From school uniform rules to how much of their teacher’s help they get when working on assignments, affluent children grow up expecting more special attention from authority figures. They are more comfortable asking for accommodations, and this matters in college and as they transition to adulthood. In contrast, poor and working-class children experience more encouragement to defer to the rules of an institution. My research suggests that affluent children’s comfortable access to personal property in preschool is an additional mechanism by which they come to feel entitled to individualized attention in workplaces and other institutions.

Third, one consequence of the no-personal-items rule at the poor preschool was that a handful of students – all boys of color – sneaked toys in anyway. Sometimes these children were caught and were disciplined by having their items taken and being sent to the quiet area. As a result, property rules contributed to differences in discipline on race and gender lines. This aligns with other scholars’ findings that boys of color experience more punishment as early as preschool, and this pattern continues through K-12 schooling.
What still isn’t known

My research observed broad, social experiences that children had over time. However, social scientists will need to do more research to determine how teachers’ rules about controlling children’s personal property use differ across a wider range of preschools. Another question is how teachers manage kids’ access to personal items in mixed-income preschools.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Casey Stocksill, University of Denver.

Read more:

Racial inequality starts early – in preschool

What I learned when I recreated the famous ‘doll test’ that looked at how Black kids see race

250 preschool kids get suspended or expelled each day - 5 questions answered

Deadmen Valley, Canada was one of the coldest places on Earth on Christmas Eve


Isabella O'Malley, M.Env.Sc

WEATHERNETWORK. CA
Fri, December 24, 2021, 6:44 PM

A lobe of the Polar Vortex, which is an area of cold air and low pressure that is always circulating around the poles, is creeping down from the Arctic and spilling over parts of Canada.

Western and northern regions of the country normally see particularly chilly temperatures at the end of December, but the temperatures that are currently being recorded are amongst the coldest on the entire planet.

Deadmen Valley, Northwest Territories recorded a brutally cold temperature of -45°C (-49.0°F) and the only place that was colder was Jakutsk, Russia at -48°C (-54.4°F) at 4:00 p.m. EST on December 24. In fact, the bone-chilling air that sent temperatures tumbling so low in Deadmen Valley originated in Russia before it migrated over the North Pole.

Temperatures are ranging from the low minus teens to nearly -30°C (-22°F) across British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. This region also has wind in the forecast, meaning that temperatures will feel several degrees colder.

Sunday

Unsurprisingly, this frigid air could be record-breaking. Edmonton, Alberta could experience its coldest Christmas Day ever if the city surpasses -27.8°C, which was recorded in 1971.

Temperatures are expected to continue dropping early next week with daytime highs approaching -30°C and wind chill values dipping well into the -30s and even -40s in some areas.

Meteorologists and public health experts are warning of the dangers this cold snap is bringing, even for folks that are acclimated to extreme winter weather.

“Dress in layers that you can remove if you get too warm. The outer layer should be wind-resistant,” Environment Canada and Climate Change advised in their extreme cold warnings for northern Alberta. With wind chill values dipping into the -30s, it can take as little as 10 minutes for exposed skin to freeze and hypothermia can set in not long after.

THEY HAVE A POST WWII PACIFIST CONSTITUTION

Japan plans record defence spending in 2022 with 10th straight annual increase


Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks before the media at his official residence in Tokyo

Thu, December 23, 2021
By Kiyoshi Takenaka

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's government on Friday approved record defence spending, with a 10th straight annual increase in 2022, against a backdrop of China's rapid military expansion and North Korea's nuclear and missile programmes.

The budget for the fiscal year starting April 1 will rise 1.1% to 5.4 trillion yen ($47.18 billion), still less than a quarter of China's military budget this year according to official Beijing data.

The higher spending plan follows a meeting in April between U.S. President Joe Biden and Japan's then-premier Yoshihide Suga, in which Suga pledged to strengthen his country's defence capability in light of a more challenging regional security environment.

Tensions over Chinese-claimed Taiwan have risen as President Xi Jinping seeks to assert his country's sovereignty claims on the island. Taiwan's government says it wants peace, but will defend itself if needed.

Shinzo Abe, Japan's prime minister before Suga who remains an influential figure in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said this month that any emergency over Taiwan would mean an emergency for Japan, as well as for its security alliance with the United States.

Big-ticket items in the draft budget include 128 billion yen for 12 Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 stealth fighters, four of which will be short take-off and vertical landing variants operating off converted helicopter carriers.

The defence ministry is also setting aside 86 billion yen in next year's budget to develop its first new domestic jet fighter in three decades. The project, expected to be completed in the 2030s, is being led by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.

The ministry is also earmarking 34 billion yen to strengthen defences against cyber attacks, and 79 billion yen for space-related projects, such as satellites and lasers to track targets beyond the atmosphere.

The draft budget still needs to pass parliament, where Kishida's ruling bloc holds a majority, for enactment.

($1 = 114.4600 yen)
(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)

Japan Cabinet OKs record defense budget amid Taiwan concerns


Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, left, rides on a Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) Type 10 tank during a review at the JGSDF Camp Asaka in Tokyo, Japan, Saturday, Nov. 27, 2021. Kishida’s Cabinet approved record 5.4 trillion yen ($47 billion) budget Friday, Dec. 24, for fiscal 2022 that includes researches and development into future fighter jets and other “game-changer” arsenals as Japan bolsters its arms capability amid China's rise and its tension with Taiwan.

 (Kiyoshi Ota/Pool Photo via AP, File)

MARI YAMAGUCHI
Fri, December 24, 2021

TOKYO (AP) — Japan's Cabinet approved a record 5.4 trillion yen ($47 billion) defense budget for fiscal 2022 on Friday that includes funding for research and development of a new fighter jet and other “game-changing” weapons as Japan bolsters its defense capabilities in response to China’s growing military might and its tensions with Taiwan.

The 1.1% budget increase for the year beginning in April is the 10th consecutive defense spending increase and is in line with Japan’s pledge to the United States to strengthen its own defense capabilities to tackle increasingly challenging security issues in the region.

The budget, which still needs to be approved by parliament, includes a record 291 billion yen ($2.55 billion) for defense research and development, up 38% from the current year.

Of that, 100 billion yen ($870 million) is for development of the F-X fighter jet to replace Japan’s aging fleet of F-2 aircraft around 2035. It would be Japan's first domestically developed fighter jet in 40 years.

Japan and Britain recently announced joint development of a future demonstration fighter jet engine and agreed to explore further combat air technologies and subsystems. The project includes Mitsubishi and IHI in Japan and Rolls-Royce and BAE Systems in the U.K.

As China’s military buildup extends to cyberspace and outer space, Japan's Defense Ministry is also pushing for research into artificial intelligence-operated autonomous vehicles for aerial and undersea use, supersonic flight, and other “game-changing” technologies.

The budget allocates 128 billion yen ($1.1 billion) for purchase of a dozen F-35 stealth fighters from Lockheed Martin Corp., including four with short takeoff and vertical landing capabilities for use on two helicopter carriers being converted into aircraft carriers, key to Japan's joint operations with the United States in the defense of the Indo-Pacific region.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, formerly known as a dove, has quickly adopted more hawkish policies and said Japan should consider acquiring a pre-emptive strike capability in response to China’s military buildup and North Korea’s growing missile and nuclear capabilities.

The Japanese and U.S. militaries have compiled a draft joint contingency preparedness plan for a possible Taiwan emergency, such as fighting between Chinese and Taiwanese forces, Kyodo news agency reported Thursday, citing unidentified Japanese government sources, amid rising tensions between Taiwan and China.

China claims self-governing Taiwan is its own territory, to be annexed by force if necessary. It has increased its military threats by holding exercises near the island and frequently sending warplanes into its air defense identification zone.

Under the reported plan, the U.S. Marine Corps will set up temporary bases on islands in Japan’s Nansei chain between Kyushu and Taiwan for the deployment of troops in the early stages of a Taiwan emergency, while Japan’s military will provide logistical support as well as ammunition and fuel supplies, Kyodo said.

Japan and the United States are likely to agree to start drawing up an official preparedness plan at a meeting of their foreign and defense ministers expected in January, Kyodo said.

The plan, which also includes islands near Okinawa, the site of the bloodiest battle in World War II, is certain to face protests from local residents.

Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi refused to comment Friday on the report, saying only that Japan and the United Sates have action plans in case of emergencies and plan to update them, but that the details could not be disclosed. Kishi added that a decision by the Japan-U.S. committee in charge of negotiating the status of forces agreement between the nations would allow the U.S. military to open a new base on Japanese soil.

Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who remains influential in the governing Liberal Democratic Party, recently cautioned Chinese President Xi Jinping against triggering a Taiwan emergency, saying that China should be aware of the serious consequences.

Japan’s defense spending now ranks among the top 10 in the world, according to international defense research organizations.

SEE LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY 

U.S. Exchanges Eye Indian Tech And Energy As Chinese Companies Get The Boot


Editor OilPrice.com
Fri, December 24, 2021

The federal government is about to finally force Chinese companies to de-list from American exchanges for refusing to adhere to American accounting standards. And for the last five months since the disastrous Didi IPO, no Chinese firms have sought to list on the NYSE and Nasdaq, which in turn is forcing the exchange operators to look to make up that shortfall in other Asian markets.

For a time, it seemed as if the tensions between the US and China would chill US offerings involving other Asian firms from outside China. But apparently, the US exchanges are having some success at lining up deals elsewhere in the region.

Or at least that's what they want us to think, because that's what Nasdaq's AsiaPac Chair Bob McCooey told the FT in an interview published Wednesday. McCooey claims that in the span of just a year, the "pipeline" of deals from his corner of the world had increased 2x or 3x.

"We think the entire region is ripe for IPO activity," said Bob McCooey, Nasdaq’s Asia-Pacific chair. "The pipeline has grown from a handful of companies, if you asked me a year ago, into a few dozen today," McCooey told the Financial Times. Over time the region could become as big a source of business as China was until recently, he said.

The outlook for US IPOs from Chinese companies has soured in the past few months amid mutual recriminations over the sharing of sensitive data and a crackdown on large private companies by Beijing.

However, Chinese companies are still pulling previously scheduled deals. Insurance group FWD this week became the latest firm to pull plans for a US offering after warning about the risk of intervention from both Chinese and US regulators. As for Didi, the expectation is that it will delist from the NYSE and do the offering over in Hong Kong.

To illustrate just how big of a shift would need to occur for AsiaPac business to even come close to offsetting the losses from China, consider this: Over the past year, there have been more offerings involving Chinese companies than from the rest of Asia combined.

Of course, the recent listing of Singapore-based Grab is one notable recent highlight. The company went public via the SPAC route in a deal that was announced back in April.

One major reason for the discrepancy is that India has rules that make it extremely difficult for local companies to list in the US. To date, renewables operator Azure Power is the only company based in India trading on US exchanges.

The FT also spoke with Alex Ibrahim, NYSE's head of international capital markets, who said exchange officials had been "spending a lot of time focused on south-east Asia, more so than in previous years, and I think this will continue."

Bottom line: both exchanges are hoping to find ways to recruit more offerings from India (perhaps they'll find a new loophole to hoodwink gullible US investors, like they did for China with the VIE), and also Indonesia. Those countries are obvious targets due to the sheer size of their populations (and economies). But already, Delhi-based software company Coforge is expected to list in the US next year (it already trades in India) and Bangalore-based education firm Byju is expected to list in a SPAC deal.

Still, the total addressable market for unicorns is relatively small outside China.

But smaller markets like Vietnam and Malaysia are expected to contribute to the uptick as well. There are only 80 private companies worth more than $1 billion in the Asia-Pacific region outside China, according to CB Insights.

Although Hong Kong's exchange business is likely to get a bit of a boost from Chinese firms, the CCP's "closure" of the Hong Kong money gateway to the west might create enough of a chill in other areas to incentivize HKEX to look for more deals in neighboring countries as well. Hong Kong has already one major victory: Indonesian delivery group J&T just listed there. The company's currently worth $20 billion.

By Zerohedge.com

IMPERIALISM IS FINANCE CAPITALI$M

TD on deal hunt after BancWest bid as Canadian lenders pursue U.S. growth


FILE PHOTO: Toronto-Dominion Bank logos are seen outside of a branch in Ottawa

Thu, December 23, 2021
By Pamela Barbaglia and Nichola Saminather

LONDON/TORONTO (Reuters) - Toronto-Dominion Bank is leading the charge of cash-rich Canadian banks seeking to make a foray in the United States and find growth away from their home turf where the Big Six banks already control nearly 90% of the market.

Billions of dollars of excess cash amassed during a nearly two-year moratorium on capital redistributions that was only lifted last month, and share prices close to record highs have given Canadian banks an acquisition currency to bet on the exit and downsizings of several European and international banks.

The sale of BNP Paribas' U.S. unit, Bank of the West (BancWest), is the latest example of pent-up demand, with Toronto-Dominion Bank battling it out with rival Canadian lender Bank of Montreal, two sources familiar with the matter said.

Bank of Montreal said on Monday it will buy BNP Paribas' unit, Bank of the West, for $16.3 billion in its biggest deal ever.

TD, Canada's second-largest bank by market value, had looked at every major asset portfolio that came up for sale, including the U.S. businesses sold by Mitsubishi UFJ (MUFG) in September and BBVA in November 2020, the sources said.

It remains on the hunt for acquisitions in the United States after its narrow loss to BMO.

TD and BMO spokespersons did not comment on the bidding process or future growth plans in the United States. MUFG declined comment on the Canadian banks' interest in their assets and BBVA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"Banking is a scale, technology and sophistication game," said Brian Madden, portfolio manager at Goodreid Investment Counsel.

He added that Canadian banks already in the United States are well placed to scale up their U.S. operations since they "happen to be directly adjacent to the largest banking market on the planet."

TD executives said earlier this year that the bank "will not be shy" to do a bank deal in the U.S. Southeast or in any area where it currently has operations, primarily on the East Coast.

Having missed out on some big acquisitions, TD is now likely to turn its attention to smaller banks, one of the sources said.

Along with TD and BMO, Royal Bank of Canada, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), Bank of Nova Scotia and National Bank of Canada round out Canada's Big Six banks.

TD is one of the top 10 banks in the United States, and Royal Bank owns City National, the ninth-largest bank in California by deposits.

Royal Bank has also been undergoing U.S. expansion, although Canada's biggest lender is more focused on its wealth management https://www.reuters.com/article/us-rbc-wealth-idUSKBN25U1I6 business in the United States.

And CIBC, which entered the United States in 2017 with its acquisition of PrivateBancorp, has said it is aiming for increased earnings from the country in the coming years.

Royal Bank did not respond to a request for comment. CIBC declined to comment.

BMO'S CHASE

BMO had pursued BancWest after losing out on the U.S. retail business of MUFG, Japan's biggest lender, one of the sources said. MUFG ended up selling its U.S. retail business to U.S. Bancorp for $8 billion.

BMO made a competitive bid for MUFG's assets, and its disappointment at losing out propelled Canada's fourth-largest bank to move fast on the BancWest sale, the source said.

BNP Paribas, advised by Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, entered parallel discussions with both TD and BMO, raising pressure on both bidders to finalise their offers as it fretted that regulatory headwinds could hamper the sale, the sources said.

BNP Paribas did not respond to a request for comment.

While TD initially made a low bid and subsequently raised it, BMO was more aggressive with its first proposal and was quick at declaring its offer "best and final" in December after offering a final sweetener, one of the sources said.

The deal will make BMO the 16th biggest bank by assets in the United States, up from 19th now, and lifts its assets to nearly $300 billion.

By merging with U.S. rivals, Canadian banks with an existing U.S. presence are expected to extract better returns from these businesses than smaller players, even when they appear to pay a premium as BMO did for BancWest, said Anthony Visano, portfolio manager at Kingwest & Co.

"Sometimes the strategic value trumps the financial consideration," Goodreid Investment's Madden said.

(Reporting by Pamela Barbaglia in London and Nichola Saminather in Toronto; Editing by Megan Davies and Matthew Lewis)

Customers hate tipping before they're served – and asking makes them less likely to return

Nathan B. Warren, Ph.D. Candidate, Marketing, University of Oregon

 Sara Hanson, Assistant Professor of Marketing, University of Richmond

Fri, December 24, 2021

Imagine you’re in line at a coffee shop. You order your usual cappuccino and swipe your credit card to pay. Then the cashier swivels a little screen that prompts you for a tip – before the espresso shot is pulled or a drop of milk steamed.

Do you tip more, perhaps hoping that it will lead to a better drink? Or less or none at all, peeved at being asked to reward service that hasn’t happened yet? Do you feel pressured into tipping the suggested amounts, which can equate to more than half the price of the drink?

This is a dilemma that most of us are increasingly facing in a variety of settings where previously you might have encountered a lone tip jar with change and crumpled dollar bills. Now we’re being asked to fork a over US tip for a coffee drink.

In a 2020 research study, we explored how this new pre-service tipping etiquette is affecting consumers – and what it meant for the baristas and other employees hoping for a reward for their efforts.

Long live the tip jar. Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via Getty Images

The pre-service tip invasion

Point of sale platforms such as Square and Clover are making it easier than ever for businesses large and small to seamlessly integrate tip requests into the service experience.

While most of us are used to filling out the tip line on a receipt at a full-service, sit-down restaurant, we are now seeing tip requests occur in many new environments, such as cafes and bakeries, fast-casual delis and food trucks, and even retail stores, flower shops and liquor stores.

Articles in the popular press about the trend suggest that some prefer the convenience of tipping when placing their order. Others say they feel that they are being guilted into tipping employees who have not yet provided a service – and who have done little more than type in an order and hand over a muffin.
How consumers really feel about it

To find out how people respond to differences in tip timing – before or after service – we conducted a series of experiments with fellow marketing professor Hong Yuan.

We looked at how it affected tip amounts, ratings and likelihood of returning to the business, controlling for variables that might affect tip amounts, most notably the effects of repeat customers or attractive workers.

The first study compared real tip amounts at two locations of a popular smoothie chain on the East Coast. At one location, tips were collected while ordering – before receiving the smoothie. At the other, gratuities were requested only after someone handed the customer her order. After analyzing 7,523 transactions, we found that tips were 75% higher on average at the location that asked for them only after people received their smoothie.

Next, to dive a little deeper into why, we conducted three experiments in which we recruited participants online and asked them to imagine themselves a customer in a scenario. In one, participants imagined ordering a drink and a sandwich at a cafe, while the other two involved getting a haircut at a salon. In all three, participants were randomly prompted to tip either before or after receiving service.

Then we asked them to fill out a scaled survey rating the experience in terms of how likely they’d be to return to the business and how they felt about the tip request. In the third study, we also asked participants to select how much they’d tip and and how they’d rate the service on Yelp.

In each study, we found that participants viewed pre-service tip requests as unfair and manipulative and reduced the likelihood that they would become repeat customers. In the third study, requests for tips before a haircut also led to lower gratuities and online ratings.

We also found that businesses that emphasize the convenience of tipping can offset some, but not all, of the other negative feelings.

Consumers prefer to drink their coffee before handing over a tip. 

Anastasiya Aleksandrenko/Shutterstock.com

Tip benefits

Tipping trends are constantly shifting.

Some innovations include the introduction of recommended tip amounts on receipts and the proliferation of tip jars in the 1990s and most recently digital tip requests. Each has contributed to “tip creep,” which has pushed up the average tip from 10% in the 1940s to over 20% today, and made tipping the norm in more and more types of business.

Our findings, however, suggest that businesses should be careful when adopting new innovations. Customers, employees and owners all benefit if businesses stick to tradition – and request the tip only after the coffee is poured.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Nathan B. Warren, University of Oregon and Sara Hanson, University of Richmond.

Read more:

Why we should get rid of tipping

How the war on tipping harms customers

Are you a stingy tipper? You may have unresolved trust issues

WE ARE ALL CUSTOMERS AS WE ARE ALL WORKERS, THIS IS AN IDEOLOGICAL CONSTRUCT LIKE MIDDLE CLASS ( NO SUCH CREATURE)  ITS ALL ABOUT WHICH SIDE OF THE COUNTER YOU ARE ON.

THE TIP IS A WAGE IT IS NOT AN OPTION, IN ALL PROVINCES IT IS PART OF THE STATE'S DETERMINATION OF EMPLOYMENT IN THE SERVICE SECTOR BEING PAID LESS ON THE ASSUMPTION THAT FELLOW WORKERS WILL RECOGNIZE THE EMPLOYER CHEATS ITS WORKERS LEGALLY AND WE WILL MAKE UP FOR IT.

THE MYTH THAT IT IS FOR 'SERVICE' IS JUST THAT SOMETHING THE BOSSES AND THEIR STATE WANT US TO BELIEVE.

Applebee’s server sparks debate with photo of customer’s low tip: ‘The nerve of some of y’all’

Alex Lasker

Thu, December 23, 2021

A TikToker has sparked debate on the platform after sharing an Applebee’s receipt exposing a customer’s substandard tip.

The user @kingj24__ posted footage of a receipt from a franchise location in Staten Island, N.Y., showing a $6.55 tip left for a server named Dana G. The total bill plus the tip is $80, meaning the cost of the meal was $73.45. The tip comes out to around 9% of the bill. That’s significantly less than the standard 20% tip, which would have been $13.49 in this instance. 

It is unclear if the TikToker who shared the receipt is the server in question.

The customer also left a hand-written message on the receipt explaining the low tip. 

“You [were] great,” they wrote. “Holidays are just rough right now.”

They added in an arrow pointing to the tip and a frowning face. 

TikTokers were divided in the comments of the video, which has since racked up over 711,000 views. Some pointed out that the customer, who seemed to be going through some financial struggle, did at least leave a tip, albeit a small one.

"It's only $4.45 less than the typical 15% average tip," one user commented. "But at the same time, you don't know that family's struggle. [At] least they left you a tip."

"The nerve of some of y'all," wrote another. "Gatekeeping taking your family out to dinner for the financially blessed. What type of BS is 'stay home if you're broke.'"

"This makes me really not want to go to Applebee's," commented a third. "It's a low tip, but it's still a tip. Calling out customers like this is wrong."

Still, others believed that the customer shouldn't be dining out if they cannot tip fully, as waiters rely on their tips as a primary source of income.

"You can afford $73 and some change to feed yourself but not enough to tip?" commented one person. "Don’t eat out if you can’t afford the service.

"If I can't afford a 20% tip, then [I'm] not going out for an $80 meal," wrote another.

Some TikTokers turned the conversation around, noting that restaurants should be fairly compensating their employees so they do not have to live off of tips.

“Ban tipping,” one user wrote. “Force the restaurants to pay servers living wages.”

“Don’t blame the tipper, blame the establishment,” wrote another. “These people shouldn’t have to rely on tips to barely make ends meet.”

The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. 

However, as trial attorney Laura Lawless explains for The National Law Review, businesses that employ tipped workers are legally allowed to pay them as little as $2.13 per hour, though the number varies by state.

This is because employers can take a “tip credit” of up to $5.12 per hour against the $7.25 federal minimum wage obligation — meaning that as long as an employee’s hourly wage plus their tips equals $7.25 an hour or over, the low wage is considered legal.

According to tax and auditing firm Plante Moran, tip credits are meant to “give some relief to businesses that pay an employer’s share of employment taxes on tip income paid to their employees by someone else.”

But Lawless notes that the long-standing tip credit model “presumes that tipped employees receive a steady flow of tips and spend nearly all of their working hours engaged in tip-generating labor,” which does not “always align with reality.”

Many tipped employees, for instance, might be tasked with time-consuming duties for which they are not tipped, such as bookkeeping and cleaning, while receiving just $2.13 an hour for such labor.

On Oct. 28, the U.S. Department of Labor announced the “Final Rule,” which will require employers to pay the full federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour to tipped workers who spend more than 20% of the workweek on tasks not directly engaged in tip-producing work. 

The rule will go into effect on Dec. 28.

The post Applebee’s server sparks debate with photo of customer’s low tip: ‘The nerve of some of y’all’ appeared first on In The Know.

HIP CAPITALI$M

Marijuana Stocks -- What Are You Waiting For?

Benjamin Rains

Fri, December 24, 2021, 5

Marijuana transformed at lightning-fast speeds from a mostly underground black market into a dynamic, booming, $20 billion a year industry full of public companies. And the best part about investing in legal marijuana right now is that we are still in the very early days.

The legal tides have already changed dramatically in a short time and we are on the verge of a truly seismic shift that will only happen once. Heading into 2022, there are multiple marijuana legalization bills being debated and reworked in Washington, D.C.

The U.S. is poised to introduce wide-ranging federal cannabis legalization in the near future, on the back of overwhelming bipartisan support. When this happens, the entire industry will change overnight and current projections that call for global marijuana sales reach to $90 billion by 2026 might look super conservative.¹

Legalization is Gaining Steam

Only a decade ago, recreational pot was totally illegal in the U.S. By the end of 2021, a total of 18 states and Washington, D.C. had legalized adult-use marijuana. Meanwhile, the number of legal medical cannabis states is fast-approaching 40.

On top of that, Canada legalized recreational marijuana in 2018, becoming the first major economy to do so. Since then, Mexico has made a series of legal changes that will soon see it operate a large legal pot market. Across the Atlantic, multiple European countries are prepared to legalize nationally.

The tiny European nations of Malta and Luxembourg legalized weed near the end of 2021. More importantly, Germany is reportedly ready to legalize marijuana under its new coalition government in the early months of 2022. Italy and a few other countries are showing solid potential to join the legal ranks in the near future. And with every new market, new marijuana firms are sure to emerge, as the dollars flow.

Huge Bipartisan Support

Global marijuana sales soared roughly 50% to a whopping $31 billion in 2021, based on some recent data, and the U.S. is by far the largest legal cannabis market. The expansion was driven by continued growth in legacy states such as Colorado and California, alongside a wave of relative newbies ranging from Illinois to Arizona. And more states are set to climb on the legal cannabis train in 2022.

More importantly, multiple bills are under debate in Washington to federally legalize marijuana. Furthermore, Republicans, the party traditionally opposed to weed, are in the midst of a dramatic, paradigm-shifting transformation at both the state and national level.

Multiple GOP lawmakers are pushing for marijuana legalization in states like Ohio and Pennsylvania. On top of that, the first major Republican-led federal legalization effort was introduced in November. The bill grabbed a huge amount of national media attention and could gain steam as more Republicans come on board.

The growing number of federal legalization efforts on both sides of the aisle make sense given mounting public support. A total of 68% of U.S. adults are now in favor of legal marijuana, including 50% of Republicans. This is up from just 50% of the entire country as recently as 2013. And just think how hard it is to find any issue nearly 70% of Americans agree on these days.