Criminal Capitalist Gets Honorary Degree

The U of A does it again. Celebrating criminal capitalism by giving an honorary degree to E. Hunter Harrison of CN. Heck he is the perfect model for a MBA think of all his successes; the accidents, environmental damage, job losses, and forcing workers to strike. If he is one of the top executives in his field then perhaps they should consider Conrad Black for an honorary degree next year.

Former deputy prime minister Anne McLellan and CN chief executive E. Hunter Harrison are among 10 people who will receive honorary degrees at the University of Alberta’s spring convocation ceremonies.

In making its choices, the university made sure to pick a diverse group of leaders from the fields of art, science, business, and community involvement, U of A chancellor Eric Newell said.

Among the selections, the choice of Harrison has the potential to cause some controversy since it was one of his company’s trains that derailed and spilled oil into Wabamun Lake in 2005.

CN was criticized for its handling of the incident in the early days following the spill.

But Newell said Harrison is a worthy choice to speak to business graduates because he is widely recognized as one of the top executives in his field, and CN’s operational headquarters are based in Edmonton.

See

CN


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TILMA Made In Alberta NAFTA

Accidental Deliberations points out that the NDP Government in Saskatchewan will be holding public hearings on the Alberta/B.C. TILMA pact, which is an agreement to homogenize provincial standards with NAFTA.

TILMA is being is being promoted Canada wide as the model for bilateral and multilateral agreements to end trade restrictions between provinves across the country.

The fact that like NAFTA and other international corporate government accords, this one was conducted in secret, with no public input.

Saskatchewan will allow the first public hearings on TILMA. This will allow a full discussion and disclosure of this internal NAFTA style pact. And thus it will allow labour, community, and others concerned with the pact to challenge it.

Like the MAI accord and other such multilateral and bilateral corporatist state trade agreements, public exposure will show that once again those who decry the State and call for less government really mean that they oppose transparency and responsibility to the citizens, preferring to do business with business behind close doors.

TILMA is a perfect example of the Alberta democratic deficit, which is the real politiks of the the Republicanadian right when they speak of wanting smaller or less government. It really means less political responsibility to the citizens.

See:

TILMA


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Labour Boom = Falling Rate Of Profit

Go figure. Under capitalism an increase in labour, that is real productivity, means a real reduction in profit levels, a decline in surplus value, thus a falling rate of profit.

In other words more workers available means the economy is less productive than if you laid off workers and replaced them through technology or outsourcing. Go figure.

This is of course an analysis that is not based on the labour theory of value, but rather 20th Century Macroeconomics. And yet the mainstream economist outlines the essential truth of the Marxist critique of capitalism.

Last year's freakish growth disguised our falling productivity, said professor Ted Chambers of the Western Centre for Economic Research, University of Alberta. "Full-time employment rose by 7.6 per cent -- 114,000 jobs," he said.

If employment rose even faster than total output, then output-per-worker must have declined, Chambers explained.

"Provincial productivity numbers, released by Statistics Canada not long ago, showed Alberta at the bottom."

Productivity -- not GDP -- drives profits, incomes, and competitiveness.

The reason for the decline in 'productivity', is the decline in profits due to the increase in wages earned by the growing workforce.

Economy churns out 55,000 new jobs in March; unemployment holds at 6.1%

In the first quarter of the year, the agency estimated that employment grew by 158,000, the strongest first-quarter growth since 2002.

The booming job market has also resulted in Canadians earning more. Hourly wages rose 2.4 per cent during the first three months of this year, compared with last year, well in excess of the 1.6 per cent inflation rate.

Alberta's booming economy was mostly responsible for higher wages, rising 5.4 per cent in the first quarter of this year, from the same period in 2006.

The rise in March employment was led by women aged 25 years and older as adult women reached a new high in workforce participation at 59 per cent. In March, women in this age group captured over 39,000 of the new jobs created.

Over the past 12 months, adult women more than doubled their male counterparts in finding new jobs. Women over 55 also reached record levels of participation in the workforce, at 25.8 per cent.

By sector, employment growth in the services sector grew by 66,000 jobs in March, more than making up for the continuing weakness in Canada's beleaguered manufacturing.

Employment in trade grew by 27,000, with Alberta registering almost half the gains. The agency said the strength in this sector in March reflects gains in wholesale trade as a result of increased activity following February's CN strike.

Canada's labour force participation, the proportion of adult Canadians that have jobs or are actively looking for one, has jumped 0.6 per cent since last October and now stands at 67.7 per cent.

See:

Productivity Myth

Canadian Workers Poorer Today Than Yesterday

Variable Capital


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Petro Dollars and U.S. Debt

An interesting post on the U.S. Debt and the U.S. Dollar as it relates to American Petro-Economy Imperialism

Cost, abuse and danger of the dollar

By Rudo de Ruijter,
Independent Researcher
Netherlands

Camouflaged conflicts

To keep the permanent demand for dollars going, oil sales must remain in dollars. That is why the US tries to keep as much influence as possible, as well on the US owned IPE and NYMEX world oil markets, as with the people in power in oil exporting countries. By doing so the US secures its oil supply at the same time. Beyond that, lucrative contracts can be obtained from the local governments, and with these contracts a maximum of benefits can be seized from the oil production.

Fear always wins over reason

But when the local governments do not want to sell their oil in dollars anymore, the US has a problem. Then, the US-president will not explain how dependent the US is on the dollar demand. The conflict is always camouflaged. And to do so, always an emotional theme is chosen. In times gone by this was the danger of communists, today it is the danger of terrorists, fundamentalists and other popular bogies, like “the enemy has weapons of mass destruction” or “the enemy tries to make nukes.”

The fact that there is, rationally, not a single proof for such allegations, does not matter. The emotions always win. Even the fact, that these accusations could be turned around and then can be proved, is noticed by hardly anyone. There was no proof Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, but the US, the accuser, has weapons of mass destruction and has used them. There is no proof Iran has intentions for nukes, but the US, the accuser, has nukes and has used them, and, afterwards, repeatedly threatened to use them again.

But once again, at the moment accusations are loaded with emotions, humans switch off their intelligence. Then, reason is no argument for peace anymore. The theatre is only about the launched accusations. And because, as a result, only specialists of weapons of mass destruction or nukes are called upon to give their opinion, nearly nobody finds out what the conflict is really about.

Venezuela

In Venezuela, since many years, the US tries to pull down president Chavez, pretexting he is a dangerous communist. Chavez has nationalized the oil industry and has set up Barter-deals to export Venezuelan oil in exchange for medical care from Cuba and others. In Barter deals there is no necessity for dollars and the US has no profit from the oil trade.

Iraq

Until 1990 the US maintained lucrative commercial contacts with Saddam Hussein. He was a good ally. For instance, in 1980 he had tried to free the hostages at the US-embassy in Teheran.

But in 1989 Saddam accused Kuwait of flooding the oil market and making the oil price go down. The following year Saddam tried to annex Kuwait. It led to an immediate turn around of the attitude of the US. With the annexation Saddam would dispose of 20 percent of world oil reserves. The Iraqis were chased out of Kuwait by the US, with an alliance of 134 countries, and condemned to water and bread by a UN-embargo that lasted ten years.

Although the US sought a way to re-establish its influence in Iraq, Saddam’s switch to the Euro on November 6, 2000 [9], would lead to the US invasion. The dollar sank away and in July 2002 the situation got that serious, that the IMF warned that the dollar might collapse. [10] A few days later the plans for an attack were discussed at Downing Street. [11] One month later Cheney proclaimed it was sure now, that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. [12] With this pretext the US invaded Iraq on March 19, 2003. The US switched back the oil trade into dollars on June 5, 2003. [13]

There is a huge difference between trading Iraqi oil in euros and trading it in dollars. This will be explained below. (See: “How do you steal oil reserves?”)

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Smurfs are Commies

A Marxist deconstruction of the Smurfs by a non-marxist. LOL.

"In summary, I would contend that the Smurfs, a comic strip created at the height of the cold war in a social democratic country in Europe, featuring communitarian lessons and an unsympathetic characterization of those who "lust for gold", does in fact hold up as a piece of Soviet Nonconformist art, expressing the principals of Marxist Communism succinctly, compellingly, and in a manner that children can understand, making it the perfect teaching tool for your children, should you want to raise Communist children for some reason."


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