What Causes Inflation

Is it really inflation if wages don't rise? Economists used to peg inflation to workers wages, remember the nasty seventies with Wage and Price controls. Of course those are capitalist economists, or more correctly apologists. They now peg inflation to what really causes it; not wages but prices and the creation of profit.

Gas prices may stoke inflation, economists say


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Wisdom of the East

A comment from the Khaleej Times, which sounds like something I said here.

Oil prices and refineries
By Mohammed A. R. Galadari

So, it is not correct to say that oil prices go up because of shortage or war. The fact is that there is more production of oil today than was the case some 10 years ago. The production is going up, the consumption is going up, but refinery capacities are not increasing in a matching way.

More important is the fact that the industrialized world does not have enough refineries, even as they have access to oil. More shipments to the US, for example, alone will not help, as long as the country does not increase and upgrade its refining capacity. Increasing the refinery capacity is not easy, for the reason that it would have to be done in tandem with the environment standards set by the country. Pollution is a big issue for the developed world in particular, also the reason why those countries use mostly light crude in their refineries.

Dear readers, some are however tempted to see a coincidence between the oil price rise and the Bush presidency. If Bush won the elections with the backing and support of the Texas oil companies, it would also be that he created the necessary conditions for them to make extra gains during his presidency, is how the argument goes. Nothing can be ruled out in politics.

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Day of Reckoning

Dire IMF warning clouds gather over the US economy like buzzards in the Iraq desert. But is anyone in the Bush regime listening?

The US's enormous current account deficit, now worth almost 7 per cent of its GDP, will have to be unwound eventually: like anyone living beyond their means, it will have to have a day of reckoning. The IMF warned again last week that without co-ordinated action to bring the value of the dollar down smoothly, and boost growth in Europe and Asia to compensate for slower growth in the US, there is an increased chance that the imbalances unwind suddenly, leading to a devastating global downturn. Do we need an IMF? Yes, but not this one


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Old Boys Club

King Stephen the Harpocrite continues to fall down when it comes to walking the walkin over his cherished fetish; 'accountability'. Once again given a chance to appoint someone qualified, someone who has the required background, or is of high standing in regards to business ethics, he does the opposite. Sure the person for the job will work for $1 a year but a pal is a pal. And a plum political appointment is that a plum. PM picks supporter for watchdog job

Mr. Harper said in his speech: "Let me be clear: governments should be able to appoint people who support their agenda -- that is not the issue.

Sure it is especially if the position is; Public Appointments Chair, it sets the tone. But wait is is the best person for the job, as in David Emerson, or party loyalty?


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Zero Sum Gain

Ok here is an interesting fact. Ford is reporting a $1.2 billion dollar loss this year, larger than even GM, after making $1.2 billion last year in sales. So thats a zero sum gain, no loss no gain. Despite this failure in basic economics 101, Ford the boss continues to say he is going along with his winning formula. It's a result of following the "no guidance" formula of economics, which is like driving with no steering.

Ford financial downshift

One day after the also-ailing General Motors Corp. won investor and analyst approval in posting a $323 million first-quarter loss, the nation's second-largest automaker reported a $1.2 billion loss Friday.

The decline, Ford's biggest since 2001, compared with a $1.2 billion profit a year earlier. And it has analysts questioning the turnaround program the company announced in January.

"We believe implementation has been slow, and it could be some time before benefits are realized," Merrill Lynch analyst John Murphy said.

Still, Chairman and Chief Executive Bill Ford Jr. plans to stick with the program, which includes closing 14 North American plants and cutting as many as 30,000 jobs by 2012. Ford expects to trim 13,000 of those this year.


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Profiting From Disaster

CN had a record number of corporate made disasters last year in Alberta and B.C. Which it still has not paid the communities affected by, nor has it paid the Alberta government for the clean up.

As result of its bottomline operations that led to those disasters, it has a record profit this quarter. Canadian National profit climbs 21%

Further it plans to continue expanding its computerized operations which led to the problems in the first place. CN plans to spend $1.5 billion to boost efficiency

But hey ever the good corporate citizen they intend on making a donation to a U.S. hospital. It's a tax write off. CN donates $1 Million to Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center

But for the folks in Wabamum, Smithers etc., well they get buckus.



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Emerson's First Act

Here is how not to win friends and influence people. Feds change licence scheme at VanPort; Owner-ops not impressed

The federal government may not be extending a container truck licence regime which mandated set rates and fuel surcharges paid to owner-operators, but it has tabled legislation that institutes a separate licensing rule for carriers working the ports in the Lower Mainland of Vancouver.

Earlier this week David Emerson, federal Minister of International Trade and Minister for the Pacific Gateway, said the Tory government would not approve an new order in council that would extend the interim licensing scheme which ended a bitter six-week strike last summer by 1,200 independent container haulers protesting rate-cutting, low wages, and the high cost of fuel.

Instead, new "Regulations Amending the Port Authorities Operations" published in the Canada Gazette Part 1 yesterday require the Vancouver Port Authority to administer licences to approved trucking companies entering the ports.

Note well this law was passed as an Order In Council, that is without debate in the house.

And as usual it is a typical Alberta regulation, it suggests but does not mandate, in fact it degerulates the market. The Harpocrite government will monitor the situation which of course means sitting on their hands till there is another strike.

In fact, the new government made it clear it wouldn’t be regulating rates – nor asking the VPA to do so -- but would closely monitor that contracts and bargaining agreements be honored.

This week, the Vancouver Container Truck Association and the Canadian Auto workers, which represent many of the owner-ops, threatened to launch another wildcat strike if the previous licence system wasn’t continued. There’s a good chance they may still in fact do so.

That’s what the Retail Council of Canada is warning members across the country. The RCC’s Kevin Evans told Canadian Press the changes don't do anything to stop another major labour disruption at the ports. The association estimates Canadian businesses lost an estimated $500 million during last year’s strike.

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Another Privatization Myth Busted

Ah the joys of privatization, more efficient and cost effective than the public sector say the neo-cons until reality walks up and slaps them in the face. Toll highway operator 407 International posts $11-million loss in Q1


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The Ugly Truth About Migration

Here are the real faces of the so called illegal aliens, the undocumented migrants coming North to the United States. A very different story than that of the jingoist hysteria raised by Lou Dobbs and his ilk as I have documented here before. This is a crisis of development and underdevelopment and until that is addressed then migration, legal and illegal will continue.

The Lost Children

Each year, an estimated 700,000 immigrants enter the United States illegally. Since 2000, nearly a million additional immigrants annually, on average, have arrived legally, or become legal residents. . . . In recent decades, the increase in divorce and family disintegration in Latin America has left many single mothers without the means to feed and raise their children." No one knows the exact number of mothers coming north without their children, but a University of Southern California study shows that 82 percent of nannies and one in four housecleaners are women with children left alone in their home countries. And now that these mothers have come north, their children are following. It is now common to find 15-year-old walkers caught in the border patrol nets. But this is a catch-and-release sport, and these fingerlings are tossed back into the bigger pond of Mexico to try their migration again.

Why is this allowed to happen? The undocumented worker can be hired for wages far lower than the American worker; moreover, their presence tends to depress the minimum wage. They lower production costs, they serve as union busters, they save money in terms of benefits, and they are a pliant and compliant workforce. The paradigm has shifted from under-the-table cash payments to formalized employment. Any border patrol agent can explain to you how money withheld from the undocumented worker's paycheck pours into state and federal coffers. For example, according to the Center for Immigration Studies, illegal workers donate $6.4 billion annually to Social Security. But these illegal workers will never collect benefits from that program. On the other side of the tattered fence, the Mexican government appreciates the stunning $17 billion in remittance money -- money sent home from that maid who cleaned your house, that fast-food cook who salted your fries -- that arrives each year.

Why does the problem continue? Follow the money. Everybody wins -- except the abandoned children. Who can blame them for trying to save themselves the only way they've been shown? The U.S. government's slipshod attempts to bolster security at the borders have made the passage more deadly. In the madness of the harsher border, drug lords and gangsters rule the day. Any border patrol agent will tell you that criminal elements are on the rise -- as are violence and the terrible toll of deaths due to heat, cold, misadventure and homicide. The death train is running all night, and it makes stops in Tegucigalpa, Mexico City, Juarez, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York City.

Lure of the north: 'I had to come'

COST OF ILLEGALIMMIGRATION MAY BE LESS THAN MEETS THE EYE

US Arrests Hundreds in Illegal Immigration Crackdown


Illegal Immigrants Expanding Footprint






















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Petrocan's Arctic Sovereignty

The real reason for the Conservatives insistence on expanding Canadian Forces in the north is for military enforcement of our Northern Arctic sovereignty..... for Big Oil. In this case Petrocan.

Oh and here is the irony, it is global warming that is opening up these vast reserves to potential exploitaion, thus increasing global warming in the Arctic.


Catch 22.

FEATURE-Canada scrambles to assert sovereignty in Arctic

CORNWALLIS ISLAND, Nunavut, April 21 (Reuters) - After decades of virtually ignoring its remote, frozen Arctic lands, Canada is belatedly trying to assert its sovereignty over a gigantic region rich in mineral resources. Ottawa's problem is that it has little idea of what is going on in the North and far too few resources to patrol the area properly. And that could be bad news when climate change and the appetite for energy and commodities mean the world is suddenly paying more attention to an incredibly inhospitable place.

Scramble is on for Arctic oil

British and US scientists are at loggerheads over a plan to work with oil companies in hunting for the Arctic's fossil fuel reserves.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) is lining up a project with BP and Statoil to find oil and gas in the Arctic Ocean, under the auspices of a flagship scientific initiative intended to tackle global warming. But the head of the British Antarctic Survey, which coordinates UK activity at the poles, has said he is "very uncomfortable" with the idea and has questioned its ethical and scientific justification.

Article continues

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Tackling climate change and working out how it will affect the Arctic and Antarctica is a central theme of International Polar Year (IPY) - a high-profile project to start early next year that involves thousands of scientists from 60 countries.

The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet and last September saw the lowest extent of sea ice cover for more than a century. Scientists say the temperature there could rise by a further 4C-7C by 2100, and the Arctic Ocean could be ice-free in summer by 2060.

Documents on the IPY website show that BP and Statoil, a Norwegian company, are "significant consortium members" on a USGS proposal to assess "energy resources in the circumarctic area including oil, gas, coalbed methane and methane hydrates". Geologists estimate that a quarter of the world's undiscovered oil and gas reserves lie under the Arctic, and analysts have predicted a 21st-century goldrush to tap them as the Arctic Ocean's ice cover retreats.

Suzanne Weedman of the USGS said: "This is very much a part of what we do. Our responsibility is to assess the undiscovered oil and gas using geological information." She said the plan built on a project called the Arctic Energy Assessment, which is part of its World Energy Project - a global attempt to map untapped hydrocarbon fuel reserves. ExxonMobil, Amoco, Conoco, Texaco and PetroCanada are listed as members.

Global warming project criticized for affiliation with U.S. oil mapping

The polar year project, scheduled for 2007-2008, is aimed at increasing scientists' understanding of the environment at the North and South Poles. Rising temperatures are having a big impact on both regions, so climate change is an important aspect of the research.

The project, which includes more than 200 studies, last year conditionally accepted the U.S. Geological Survey's mapping effort as part of its research program, said Chris Rapley, head of the British Antarctic Survey and a board member of the committee running the polar year. The committee is likely to give final approval for the U.S. survey's involvement soon, he said.

Rapley said the U.S. Arctic survey program - part of a long-term American effort to map untapped oil reserves around the world - would provide valuable scientific information that could help those trying to understand climate change and figure out how to combat and anticipate it.

Norway sets Arctic oil plan - boom or gloom?
Norway set rules for oil and gas exploration in the Barents Sea on Friday amid major uncertainty about whether the pristine Norwegian Arctic will mean boom or gloom for oil firms.

The U.S. Geological Survey has suggested that 25 percent of the world's undiscovered petroleum resources could be in the Arctic. But some experts say oil may have leaked from the Barents, off the northern tip of Europe, millions of years ago.

Russia's Gazprom Enters Booming LNG Markets with Giant Arctic Gas Field

With gas reservoirs equivalent to Exxon's oil reserves, Shtokman poses an alluring but technically daunting challenge for the five firms shortlisted as possible partners: U.S. majors Chevron and ConocoPhillips, FranceÂ's Total and Norway's Statoil and Norsk Hydro. Gazprom wants help producing gas in the iceberg-strewn seas around Shtokman, pumping it 550 km to shore, liquefying it and shipping it to the United States for re-gasification and sale.

And it's not like this is NEWS either, as this article from 1999 shows, we have known about global warming in the Arctic for years it just that over the past two years we have seen an acceleration in that process. Arctic Meltdown

Alaska natives speak out against Arctic oil exploration

The $500-million Northstar project has been more than four years in development. It is the first offshore development in the Arctic Ocean

April 16, 1999
Web posted at: 2:30 PM EDT

Alaska natives spoke out Thursday against BP Amoco's Northstar project to explore for oil reserves in the Arctic Ocean. The natives say the oil exploration threatens their culture and livelihood in the region.

Three Alaska natives of the Yup'ik and Gwich'in people attended BP's annual general meeting to make their concerns known directly to company directors and shareholders. The three are campaigning with Greenpeace to end the project.

According to opponents of the project, climate change, caused by burning oil, coal and gas, is causing the western Arctic to warm three times faster than any other part of the globe. The survival of many species, such as polar bears, walrus and reindeer, is currently threatened by retreating ice and unseasonally warm weather.

Arctic scientists have found that the Arctic ice pack has been declining at a rate of 4.5 percent in the past decade.

"For countless generations the Gwich'in people, my people, have relied on the land to provide for our survival," said Allan Hayton, a Gwich'in Athabascan from Arctic Village, Alaska. "Already we are witnessing dramatic changes in our Alaskan climate from the burning of fossil fuels, and an oil spill on the North Slope would effectively destroy our abundant wildlife and our native cultures in the process. Sir John Browne, respectfully I ask you, will you cancel Northstar, and commit your company to not drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge?"

The $500-million Northstar project has been more than four years in development. It is the first offshore development in the Arctic Ocean. BP became sole operator of the Northstar Unit in December 1995. The company projects its 'first oil' to come between 2000-2001.

The survival of many species, such as polar bears, walrus and reindeer, is currently threatened by retreating ice and unseasonally warm weather

Proponents of the project say Alaskans and the federal treasury would both benefit economically from increased oil production and the environmental impact would be negligible. They argue that expanded oil production is badly needed in the area.

Opponents say the oil industry is only looking at the short-term benefits and not seeing the long-term threats.

"BP is undermining climate protection and threatening subsistence ways of life by pushing ahead with oil exploration," said Greenpeace Climate Campaigner Matthew Spencer.

Also at the meeting were 60 members of the BP shareholder splinter group, SANE BP, who encouraged shareholders to advocate a different direction for the company than that being pursued by current BP directors.

Copyright 1999, Environmental News Network, All Rights Reserved

Also See:

Capitalism's Denial of Climate Catastrophe

Water in your Scotch

Melt Down

Da' Bears Have It

2005 Record Heat Wave

More Thaw

Hot Air Over Climate Change--Business as Usual

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