It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, September 12, 2022
Canada PM Trudeau attacks new
Conservative leader as 'reckless'
By Ismail Shakil - Global News Pierre Poilievre speaks after being elected as the new leader of Canada's
(Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday attacked veteran lawmaker Pierre Poilievre, who was elected new leader of the opposing Conservative Party, for what Trudeau called "reckless" economic policies.
Poilievre, 43, secured 68% of his party's vote on Saturday to become the sixth Conservative Party chief since 2015, a period in which Conservatives have lost three elections to Trudeau.
Speaking at a meeting of his Liberal caucus in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Trudeau said he would be "calling out highly questionable, reckless economic ideas" and that "attacking the institutions that make our society fair, safe and free is not responsible leadership."
Poilievre's predecessor, Erin O'Toole, was ousted by the party in February after losing last year's election to Trudeau.
Related video: What’s next for Federal Tories as new leader elected
Trudeau congratulates Pierre Poilievre on winning the Conservative leadership
While a new national election is not expected until 2025, pollsters view Poilievre-led Conservatives as a formidable opponent to the Liberals, especially if Trudeau, who has already been in office seven years, runs for a fourth time.
In parliament and during his campaign for leadership, Poilievre blamed Trudeau's economic policies and the Bank of Canada for stoking inflation, and he supported anti-government protesters who paralyzed downtown Ottawa in February.
He also promoted cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, as way to fight inflation.
Trudeau took a jibe at Poilievre's stance on cryptocurrencies, saying "anyone who followed that advice would have seen their life savings destroyed."
Cryptocurrencies have fallen dramatically this year.
Poilievre, speaking earlier, called on the government to rein in spending and pledge to not raise taxes.
"The cost of government is driving up the cost of living. A half a trillion dollars of inflationary deficits mean more dollars bidding up the cost of the goods we buy and the interest we pay," Poilievre said.
(Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa; editing by Steve Scherer and Cynthia Osterman)
'Canadians are hurting': Poilievre says he'll
fight for the working class in first caucus
speech
Social Sharing
Facebook
Twitter
Email
Reddit
LinkedIn
'We know the problem — the cost of government is driving up the cost of living,' new Conservative leader says
THATS NOT THE PROBLEM IT'S THE FALLING RATE OF PROFIT
Pierre Poilievre addresses the Conservative caucus for the first time as party leader during a meeting in Ottawa on Monday, Sept. 12, 2022. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)
In his first speech to caucus since winning the party's top job, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Monday his focus at the helm will be on holding the government to account for its perceived failings on the economy and inflation.
Poilievre — who spoke for roughly 10 minutes, sometimes to thunderous applause from the assembled MPs and senators — said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the governing Liberals are out of touch with the struggles of working people.
He said that, as the son of a single mother and the adoptive son of two school teachers, he comes from "humble origins" and can sympathize with the plight of Canadians struggling to get by.
The consumer price index rose 7.6 per cent in July over a year earlier, Statistics Canada reported last month.
While there may be an early sign in dropping fuel prices that year-over-year inflation has peaked, the costs of housing and other goods remain elevated. For the last several months, consumer price increases have continued to exceed the year-over-year increase in hourly wages.
Poilievre said during his campaign for the leadership that he met young people living in their parents' basements because of eye-popping home prices, blue collar workers who can't afford new boots for their jobs and single mothers who have cut back on the food they feed their families because of surging grocery prices.
"Canadians are hurting and it is our job to transform that hurt into hope. That is my mission," Poilievre said.
Poilievre called on Trudeau to stop increases to payroll taxes like Employment Insurance (EI) premiums and contributions to the Canada Pension Plan.
He also said it was reckless for the government to push through sizable hikes to the federal carbon tax — the levy on fuels will increase from $50 a tonne of emissions this year to $170 a tonne by 2030 — when people are "already suffering."
"I'm issuing a challenge to Justin Trudeau today. If you really care, commit today that there will be no new tax increases on workers, on seniors. None," Poilievre said.
"My commitment back is, to the prime minister and his radical woke coalition with the NDP: we will fight tooth and nail to stop the coalition from introducing any new taxes."
WATCH: Poilievre addresses Conservative caucus for the first time since winning leadership
Pierre Poilievre addresses Conservative caucus for the first time since winning leadership
11 hours ago
Duration13:41
Poilievre won the party's leadership race on Saturday with 68 per cent of the vote. He says he will fight against inflation and the current government's rising deficit.
Poilievre also offered another solution.
During his campaign for the leadership, Poilievre tried to tie the government's pandemic-era spending to inflation. With more money in circulation, the MP argued, the cost of goods has increased to meet surging demand.
The government has rejected these claims, saying the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine are largely to blame for recent price spikes.
'Pay-as-you-go'
Poilievre said that, if he's elected prime minister, he'll introduce legislation to force the federal government to offset every dollar of new spending with a cut to something else — a program he's calling a "pay-as-you-go" approach to budgeting.
Poilievre's plan is to essentially cap federal spending so it doesn't go much higher than it is now.
The legislation, if passed, would require the government to find money for new measures within existing budgets, rather than increasing debt and taxes to cover new costs.
"We know the problem — the cost of government is driving up the cost of living," he said, pointing to the nearly half-trillion added to the federal debt in recent years during a global health crisis. "The government should find a way to save one dollar for any new dollar spent. That's the proposal we're going to make."
Poilievre, a populist figure, said he wants to lead a country with "small government and big citizens ... [where] the state is the servant and the people are the masters."
Poilievre, who has a reputation as an attack dog in party politics, brought his wife and one of his children to the platform ahead of his Monday morning speech.
He warmly embraced his wife, Ana, who gave a well-received introduction to her husband at Saturday's leadership event. He also held his baby son, Cruz, who turned one year old today, and blew out the candles on a small birthday cake as a smiling caucus looked on.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, wife Anaida and son Cruz arrive at the Conservative caucus meeting in Ottawa on Monday, Sept. 12, 2022 — Cruz's first birthday. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)
While Poilievre had the backing of much of the caucus during his leadership run, he extended a hand to those MPs and senators who supported other candidates during the sometimes nasty race.
"No matter the candidates you support throughout the leadership race, no matter if you stayed neutral. I am grateful for your contributions. We're all together and we're all part of the great Conservative family," he said.
Quebec MP Gérard Deltell, who backed former Quebec premier Jean Charest in the leadership contest, said he and others are ready to unite behind Poilievre.
"I think the message is Mr. Poilievre got a strong result on the first round so now he's the leader of every Conservative member of this party," he said.
"Inflation is the big issue of Canadians right now — we have to address it and Mr. Poilievre is the one to do that," he added. Detell continued to distance himself from Poilievre's campaign pledge to "fire" the Bank of Canada governor, however: "That's not where I stand on that."
Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner said the decisive nature of Poilievre's win should put an end to the party's 'war of succession.' (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)
Alberta MP Michelle Rempel Garner, who supported Brampton, Ont. Mayor Patrick Brown for leader before he was blocked from running, said she's happy with the clear result because it brings the party's revolving roster of leaders to a halt.
"I am relieved our war of succession is over and Mr. Poilievre received a crushing mandate and I think it's going to provide some much-needed stability to our caucus at a time when we need to focus, as the opposition, on holding the government to account," she said. "It's back to work for us."
Alberta MP Glen Motz said the leader's lopsided victory shows most Conservatives are onside with Poilievre's populism.
"We're not as divided as you'd think," he said, calling Poilievre a "consensus builder" who will work with some of the MPs who bristled at his style during the leadership race.
Trudeau calls out Poilievre for 'questionable' ideas
Speaking to reporters at a Liberal caucus retreat in New Brunswick, Trudeau congratulated Poilievre on his victory and said he's willing to work with the Conservative leader on the country's challenges.
The prime minister also said he wouldn't hesitate to call out Poilievre for espousing what he called "highly questionable, reckless economic ideas."
"What Canadians need is responsible leadership. Buzzwords, dog whistles and careless attacks don't add up to a plan for Canadians," Trudeau said.
He criticized Poilievre for previously pushing cryptocurrencies as a way to "opt out" of inflation. The value of Bitcoin has tanked in recent months, wiping out billions of dollars of savings.
"Anyone who followed that advice would've seen their life savings destroyed," Trudeau said of Poilievre's crypto pitch.
WATCH: Trudeau speaks about the new Conservative leader's 'questionable' ideas
After congratulating Poilievre on his win, Trudeau went on to say that while he would work with all parliamentarians, he's troubled by some of the new leader's rhetoric.
"Fighting against vaccines that have saved millions of lives, that's not responsible leadership," Trudeau said, referring to Poilievre's gestures of support for some truckers opposing Ottawa's vaccine mandate for cross-border travel.
On the sidelines of the Liberal retreat, a number of MPs said the party has to pivot to counter a new Conservative leader who mobilized hundreds of thousands of Canadians and captured a stunning 70 per cent of the popular vote in the party's leadership race.
Some said they would like to see the party adopt more centrist positions to counter Poilievre.
"We must return to a federal centre, centre-right party," said one MP, who spoke on the condition that they not be identified. "We need a government that is down-to-earth and less woke."
"Poilievre's party can't fill the centre," said another.
"He came out with 70 per cent support, so I would say that's pretty unifying in and of itself," Thomas told Global News on Monday.
Pierre Poilievre was declared the winner of the Conservative Party of Canada's leadership race on Saturday, receiving a resounding 68 per cent of the party membership's vote.
In his acceptance speech on Saturday night, Poilievre didn't waste any time calling out the Trudeau-led Liberal Party of Canada.
"There are people in this country who are just hanging on by a thread. These are citizens of our country," Poilievre told the audience. "We are their servants, we owe them hope, they don't need a government that sneers at them, looks down on them, calls them names, they don't need a government to run their lives - they need a government that can run a passport office."
Thomas was a part of that audience on Saturday, and says the room was filled with optimism as they listened to their new leader.
"I can tell you that the room was full of excitement and energy and momentum," Thomas said.
"I think as a caucus we're looking forward to moving into the future behind a leader who we believe has vision and passion and the competency to lead Canada well."
The Conservatives were plagued with internal division under former leaders Erin O'Toole and Andrew Scheer. University of Lethbridge professor of sociology Trevor Harrison says Poilievre will have to prove he's more in tune with Canadians than his predecessors, if the Tories are to return to power for the first time since 2015.
"He brings a kind of freshness, and at this point I think there's a certain fatigue with the federal Liberals," Harrison said. But he believes Poilievre's combative style could prove challenging when it comes to appealing to a wide range of voters across the country.
Duration 6:07
What Alberta should expect with Pierre Poilievre named as new federal Conservative Party leader
"Many of the things that he is associated with -- support for the convoys, being anti-Liberal, anti-Trudeau, and the libertarian appeal to freedom -- these are things that sell very well in Alberta, but again its to break out of the heartland of conservativism here to actually win a national election."
Speaking at the Liberal Party retreat, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau congratulated Poilievre on becoming the leader of the Opposition.
“We all need to work together. Now is not the time for politicians to exploit fears and to pit people one against the other. As you all know, the Conservative Party picked a new leader over the weekend,” Trudeau said.
Trudeau added that the government has been making “every effort” to work with all politicians and will “continue to do so.”
“But this doesn’t mean that we’re not going to be calling out highly questionable, reckless economic ideas. What Canadians need is responsible leadership,” Trudeau said.
The next federal election isn't expected until 2024.
--with files from Rachel Gilmore, Global News
Pierre Poilievre pits the 'have-nots' against the
'have-yachts'
Ethan Bronner and Brian Platt, Bloomberg News
Pickup trucks pack the parking lot of the Best Western Lamplighter Inn. On an August evening in London, Ont., the hotel’s ballroom is standing room only. The Conservative Party rally is attracting rugged folks, many from outlying hamlets: farmers, health-care workers, bus drivers, pensioners, and a handful of students.
Pierre Poilievre wades into the crowd of 700, which erupts into cheers. He’s campaigning to take over Canada’s right wing and remove Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He expresses outrage over struggling single mothers who add water to their children’s milk, 35-year-old men unable to afford rent and living in their parents’ basements, the Bank of Canada’s printing of money, taxes on fertilizer and energy, the cost of gasoline, and the mask and vaccine mandates still prevalent in Canada. He blames Trudeau for each, especially rising prices, which he labels “Justin-flation.”
Wealth is flowing, he says, “from the have-nots to the have-yachts.” Elite gatekeepers are standing in your way. “Wokeism” is destroying society. After enumerating the taxes, he lowers his voice and, with the timing of a stand-up comic, says: “I hear it got so cold in Ottawa that someone saw Trudeau with his hands in his own pockets.”
The crowd roars and then waits patiently for up to 90 minutes for a handshake, a private word, and a selfie. This year, Poilievre signed up a record-breaking 300,000 members to his party. Now the question is whether he can turn that embrace and his vow to slash spending into the ultimate political prize.
On Saturday, Poilievre (pronounced Paw-lee-EV in English and Pwa-lee-EVR in French) took a major step by winning his party’s leadership in a landslide. He sees it as the start of a populist revolution in Canadian politics, something that would’ve seemed pure fantasy just a few years ago. Rich, calm, and distinctly liberal, Canada tut-tutted the rise of Donald Trump in the US and Boris Johnson in the UK. Trudeau soared to his first victory in 2015 with talk of “sunny ways,” the idea that his nation of 38 million sets a global standard for well-planned civility, especially compared with the messy behemoth to its south.
But COVID-19, a series of modest scandals and missteps, and the inflation and insecurity punishing much of the globe are posing unprecedented challenges to Trudeau. For the first time in his seven years, more than half the country has a negative view of him. Trudeau’s troubles have prompted speculation that he won’t lead the Liberals into another election, expected in 2025, but he’s repeatedly said he intends to stay and fight.
Like the Republican and Democratic parties in the US, the Conservatives and Liberals have switched roles. The educated rich are now Liberals, while the Conservatives are increasingly the home of the working class. In Poilievre’s words, his party has gone “from suits to boots.” But, in contrast with the US, it’s pro-immigration and gay rights and doesn’t campaign on opposing abortion or making sweeping changes to firearm regulations. This is Canada, after all.
What’s noteworthy isn’t so much that the opposition is gaining at a time of general discontent. It’s that it’s doing so with a candidate so openly associated with the far right who’s drawing support from left-leaning young voters opposed to vaccine mandates. Traditionally, a Conservative in Canada must tack to the center to win and govern. Stephen Harper did just that during his decade in power starting in 2006. The last two Conservative leaders campaigned on a vow of moderation—and lost to Trudeau.
Poilievre offers no centrist message. He cozied up to the truckers’ protests against vaccine mandates last February. Some turned violent. He’s vowed to fire the governor of the Bank of Canada for stoking inflation. He labels the World Economic Forum at Davos a cabal of corporate titans and governing mandarins and says any minister of his who attends will do so on a one-way ticket. He’s also a deficit hawk in the mold of Republican Paul Ryan, former US Speaker of the House, and adamantly opposes any increase in taxes. “We will fight tooth-and-nail to stop it,” he told his party’s caucus on Monday, in a speech that drew standing ovations.
It’s all rather unfamiliar in the placid waters of Canadian politics and has led many in the liberal strongholds of Toronto and Ottawa to compare Poilievre to Trump. It’s a limited analogy at best—Poilievre is 43 and has been a fiscal wonk and parliamentarian for the past two decades, with a staid personal life. A better comparison might be with Trudeau himself. Poilievre is the age Trudeau was when he was elected. Like the prime minister, he’s a polarizing figure who preaches Canadian exceptionalism. His version stresses individual freedom, limited government, and deregulation—making Canada “the freest nation on Earth”—rather than central planning and environmental responsibility.
“If I were to start my own party from scratch, it would be the Mind-Your-Own-Business Party,” he says in an interview after his Ontario rally. “Personal agency is robbed when people can’t make their own decisions.”
Poilievre is speaking after his meet-and-greet. He’s a tactile and talented politician, a hand-holder who solicits stories of hardship that he then takes on the road. Unlike Trudeau, who has dazzle and sex appeal, Poilievre has a kind of anti-charisma charisma, the idea that he’s a plain talker from an ordinary background just like yours.
His targeted voter is someone like Adam Trojek, who was at the London event. A 37-year-old franchisee of Bimbo Bakeries, Trojek voted for Trudeau in 2015 and regrets it.
“He’s been spending money we don’t have,” Trojek says. “During COVID, he shut down too many businesses. I have a 10-month-old daughter, and she will be paying for all these policies. Poilievre keeps asking questions of the government. He talks the way I talk. He never gets the answers. But hopefully he will be the answer.”
Poilievre is no political outsider. He’s been an outspoken Conservative member of Parliament his entire adult life, elected at 25 as the youngest in the chamber from a district outside Ottawa. He established himself as unrelenting at Question Period, the often raucous time set aside for lawmakers to query government ministers. He’s long made fiscal policy a central focus, going hard after big government and Liberal spending. COVID gave him powerful new credibility, as Trudeau ran up a record-smashing deficit of $328 billion (US$254 billion) in the year ended March 2021. Until then, the largest deficit in Canadian history had been $56.4 billion in 2009, during the global financial crisis.
Trudeau argued the pricey pandemic programs were necessary to keep the economy and families afloat. Poilievre predicted the spending would produce skyrocketing inflation that would hammer those holding mortgages and other debt. His prediction largely came true.
Two years ago, when he was the Conservative Party's chief finance spokesperson, the so-called shadow minister or critic, Poilievre told Bloomberg News that Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem “should not be an ATM for Trudeau’s insatiable spending appetites.” He added: “If the Bank of Canada does want to start getting more and more political, then it will be held to the same level of political accountability as other political entities.”
In a leadership debate this year, he pledged to fire Macklem if elected prime minister. His social media accounts regularly target the central bank, saying it can't be trusted to fix inflation after causing it in the first place. He called the Bank of Canada “financially illiterate.”
Slamming Macklem brings cheers at Poilievre's rallies, but it’s disturbed members of his party who fear they're sacrificing their reputation as sound economic managers. Ed Fast, who backed a rival for leadership, resigned as the party's finance critic this spring, saying he was deeply troubled. "Defending the independence of the central bank is not a Liberal talking point," Fast said in a TV interview.
Poilievre's candidacy is therefore also raising concerns about Conservative unity. The modern party is the product of a compromise in 2003, when the more establishment Progressive Conservatives merged with the prairie-based populists of the Canadian Alliance. Prior to the merger, vote-splitting on the right had resulted in three straight election victories by the Liberals; later, the Conservative Party triumphed under Harper.
Marjory LeBreton, a former Conservative senator who was deputy chief of staff to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and later served in Harper's cabinet, witnessed the painstaking negotiations that led to the merger. She says the “great accommodation” of 2003 is now “fracturing beyond repair” with Poilievre's leadership, and moderate Conservatives like her are losing their home.
“I worry that he'll transform the party into something unelectable,” LeBreton says, adding that Canadians will reject someone who only knows how to “go for the jugular.” She points to Poilievre’s support for the trucker convoy, despite its blockade of a city he represents. LeBreton, who lives in Poilievre's electoral district, says he turned his back on his own constituents.
“I’ve been a Conservative all my life,” LeBreton says. “I believe in law and order. To me, this populism just takes a sledgehammer to a cornerstone of conservatism.”
To understand Poilievre’s populism, it’s helpful to start where he did: in a lower-middle-class suburb of the western city of Calgary. The house where he grew up—Marlene, his mother, still lives there—is a split-level of gray shingle and brick with a tiny front lawn and an alley out back. On his street, at the end of the city’s light rail line, men cut their own grass. Pierre was a paperboy for the Calgary Sun and a high school wrestler. He was born to an unwed mother who at 16 gave him up for adoption to the Poilievres, teachers from the neighboring province of Saskatchewan. His father came from French-speaking stock; his mother, English. His younger brother, also adopted by the Poilievres from the same biological mother, works for a Calgary councilman.
It would be hard to imagine a clearer contrast with the background of Canada’s current leader. Trudeau’s father, Pierre, was a larger-than-life prime minister, his mother, Margaret, a 1970s symbol of glitz and glamour. Trudeau came of age in sophisticated Montreal with a Kennedy-esque pedigree amid lavish comfort. Poilievre not only comes from the humblest of stock but also from the western province of Alberta, which has long resented the eastern establishments.
“Out here on the prairies, we get it,” says Rick Bell, a columnist for the Calgary Sun, the paper Poilievre once threw onto doorsteps. Sitting in a diner booth where he interviewed Poilievre several months ago, he continues to explain how most there see things: “We’re outsiders. Things need fixing, and they are the very things that were produced by ‘sunny ways.’ Pierre brings that outsider-ness and is taking on the establishment. For Canada, this is very bold.”
Calgary, gateway to the Canadian Rockies, may consider itself marginalized, but it’s hardly poor. It owes its substantial wealth to oil, gas, and cattle, industries with long traditions of opposing government regulation. There’s been a Western US influence from homesteaders, oil workers, and Mormons who moved north. Like Houston or Denver, Calgary holds dearly to its Old West ways, labeling its highways “trails” and its fairgrounds “the Calgary Stampede.”
Its university has famously produced a set of ideas known as the Calgary School, an echo of the free-market Chicago School. Ex-Prime Minister Harper emerged from that incubator, as did Poilievre. Young Pierre was active in the university’s conservative club and in 1999 was a finalist in an essay contest on what he would do if elected prime minister. He’d leave Canadians “to cultivate their own personal prosperity and to govern their own affairs as directly as possible,” he wrote in an early version of his current ideology. He began a political communications company after graduation and was then hired by Stockwell Day, a Conservative politician who took him to Ottawa.
Day became foreign affairs shadow minister and Poilievre his policy aide. As Day recalls, “One cold winter night, he came into my office and said, ‘I am thinking of running for a local constituency here in Ontario.’ I said, ‘Calgary would make more sense. Here nobody knows you, you have a French name, and you’ll be seen as a young punk outsider.’ He didn’t listen and door-knocked his way to victory.”
Poilievre has many qualities that are rare for his party and broaden his appeal. He comes from the West but represents the East. He has a French name and speaks excellent French. He’s married to a Venezuelan immigrant to Quebec with whom he has two small children, yet he’s seen as having an Anglophone’s outlook. Unlike American politicians on the hard right, he’s pro-immigrant and doesn’t want to touch abortion rights. On gay rights, he says, “It should be freedom for everybody, including gays and lesbians, to live their own lives in happiness and without interference from the state.” His focus on pocketbook issues is relentless. “When you inflate asset prices, what you do is you shut the lower-income working classes out of property ownership while inflating the wealth of those who have,” he says.
Poilievre wants to loosen Canada’s green regulations. He doesn’t deny climate change but favors stepping up oil production and pipeline construction. He argues that Canadian environmental standards are superior to those in the Middle East and Asia, and the production fosters employment at home. “Canada accounts for about 2 per cent of global emissions, so what it does really makes little difference,” argues Ted Morton, a retired political scientist who was central to the Calgary School in the 1980s and ’90s. “It’s wrongheaded for Canada to sacrifice oil and gas for climate change, and that’s what Trudeau is doing.”
To some political observers, Canada today feels like 1979 during the rise of Ronald Reagan in the US and Margaret Thatcher in the UK. There’s runaway inflation, an energy crisis, and a Russian threat. Impatience with government missteps and COVID mandates is palpable; Air Canada flights require masking, and pilots all but apologize for it during their takeoff announcements.
Poilievre’s campaign videos feature him talking about issues such as a gummed-up bureaucracy, high taxes, and the loss of tradition. They’ve gone viral. He terrifies many who consider him a demagogue for his embrace of anti-vaxxers and attacks on Davos and the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. as woke gatekeepers.
Three years, the time before a general election is due, is an awfully long time in politics. But no one counts Poilievre out. Because of Canada’s multiparty politics, he needs only to add a small percentage of non-Conservative voters to triumph in an election. “He’s building on a politics of grievance and is really good at coming up with slogans,” says Lori Williams, a political scientist at Calgary’s Mount Royal University. “We have seen conservative populist leaders win all over the world. Why would Canada be different?”
Goldman plans to cut several hundred jobs starting this month
Sridhar Natarajan, Bloomberg News
GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INC (GS:UN)
342.582.48 (0.73%)
As of: 09/12/22 11:15:32 pm (delayed at least 15 minutes)
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is embarking on its biggest round of jobs cuts since the start of the pandemic.
The Wall Street titan plans to eliminate several hundred roles starting this month, according to people with knowledge of the matter. While the total number is less than some previous rounds, the reductions are a resumption of Goldman’s annual culling cycle that it had largely paused during the pandemic.
The move from the banking bellwether is the surest sign yet of a chill that has set in across the industry amid a slump in revenue after record-breaking years. Analysts expect the bank to post a more than 40 per cent drop in earnings this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The New York-based firm said in July that it planned to slow hiring and reinstate annual performance reviews -- foreshadowing the job cuts it planned to undertake later in the year. It’s an effort to rein in expenses amid what it called a “challenging operating environment.”
The reviews are typically used to weed out the worst-performing staff. Goldman could also reduce the pace of replacing staff it loses because of attrition, Chief Financial Officer Denis Coleman said at the time. Goldman had 47,000 employees at the end of the second quarter, compared with 39,100 two years earlier, aided by recent acquisitions.
The New York Times reported earlier Monday that Goldman was preparing job cuts. A Goldman spokeswoman declined to comment.
Like its Wall Street competitors, Goldman has been hurt by the dramatic slowdown in investment banking as the volatility that’s spurred gains for trading also weighed on capital markets and asset management. While the firm’s trading operation posted a 32 per cent surge in revenue in the second quarter, investment-banking revenue fell 41 per cent, reflecting a sharp drop in underwriting.
Total operating expenses declined in the second quarter from a year earlier as Goldman reduced compensation and benefits, but the company also reported increases in costs from growth initiatives.
Goldman shares are down more than 10 per cent this year and about 15 per cent from a year ago. That compares with a 7.5 per cent drop in the S&P 500 Financials index for the past 12 months.
Biden to boost biomanufacturing to compete with China
Riley Griffin, Bloomberg News
President Joe Biden is poised to sign an executive order on Monday to help expand US biomanufacturing and reduce reliance on China.
The order lays out a strategy to bolster domestic manufacturing that harnesses biological systems to create a sweeping array of products and materials, from new medicines and human tissues to biofuels and food, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified as details of the executive order aren’t yet public.
After Biden signs the order and delivers a speech in Boston on Monday, the White House will hold a summit on Wednesday to discuss the biotechnology-focused initiative and announce investments to scale out domestic research, development and production capabilities, according to two senior administration officials.
Bloomberg News first reported details of the executive order on Saturday.
The US has one of the world’s most robust biotechnology industries and while it has led in research and development, it has allowed high-tech production to migrate abroad. US national security and intelligence officials are particularly concerned about reliance on China’s advanced biomanufacturing infrastructure.
SENSE OF URGENCY
The COVID-19 pandemic created a sense of urgency around developing a clear and consistent industrial strategy, according to two of the people, who pointed to the fast development and production of messenger RNA vaccines as an example of successful domestic investment. Looking beyond health care, the US will aim to advance biomanufacturing in agriculture, energy and other industries.
The order will outline how the US should develop a trained, diverse workforce capable of using naturally occurring processes to create bio-based products and materials, the people said. The Biden administration plans to deploy resources to support scaling out biomanufacturing infrastructure, though it’s not yet clear how much funding there is to back the executive order.
The White House will suggest that improving domestic biomanufacturing will ultimately lower prices, strengthen supply-chain security and develop solutions to address climate change, according to the people.
Engineering biology could be used in manufacturing to account for more than one-third of global output, said the senior administration officials.
Two weeks ago, Biden signed an executive order to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing that’s also part of the administration’s drive to shift the balance of US competition with China.
In May, China’s National Development and Reform Commission released a 5-year plan for bioeconomic development, which described efforts to accelerate new technologies and spur growth in health care, agriculture and fuel. As tensions mount between the the US and China, the Biden administration has looked for ways to curb investment in China’s industries.
Peloton founders leaving in latest shake-up; shares gain
800 Peloton workers laid off
Ian King, Bloomberg News
Peloton Interactive Inc. Executive Chairman and co-founder John Foley is stepping down from the fitness company as part of a leadership shake-up, extending the turbulence at a business trying to pull out of a deep slump.
Foley, who helped start Peloton in 2012 and served as chief executive officer for 10 years, is resigning effective Monday, the company said in a statement. Foley took the executive chairman role in February when he handed the reins to CEO Barry McCarthy, a veteran of Spotify Technology SA and Netflix Inc.
Chief Legal Officer Hisao Kushi, another co-founder, is also headed for the exits. He’ll be replaced in that role by Tammy Albarran, who Peloton recruited from Uber Technologies Inc. The chairman role, meanwhile, will be filled by Karen Boone, a former Restoration Hardware executive who currently serves as lead independent director.
Peloton investors initially applauded the changes, sending the shares up as much as 5.3 per cent to US$11.64 in extended trading on Monday. But the rally soon evaporated, with the stock declining more than 2 per cent.
The reshuffling extends a year of upheaval at New York-based Peloton, which thrived in the early days of the pandemic but is now suffering from declining sales and mounting losses. Its shares are down about 90 per cent over the past year, and the company has struggled to work through a glut of inventory.
As part of a turnaround plan, McCarthy has cut thousands of jobs and offloaded operations to third-party providers. But Peloton’s quarterly report in August signaled that his comeback effort has a long way to go.
McCarthy’s goal is to make Peloton cash-flow positive in the second half of the coming fiscal year. “We continue to make steady progress, but we still have work to do,” he said last month, while acknowledging that the company’s financial performance may cause some to doubt the “viability of the business.”
With Peloton’s longtime CEO now out of the picture, McCarthy may have a freer hand to make changes. The executive has said the company should prioritize its digital offering over hardware and is exploring allowing subscribers to beam content from their smartphones to non-Peloton fitness equipment.
Separately, Chief Commercial Officer Kevin Cornils is also leaving Peloton and won’t be replaced. Some of Cornils’s responsibilities will be assumed by Dion Sanders as he takes the role of chief emerging business officer, according to an internal memo from McCarthy reviewed by Bloomberg. Chief Content Officer Jen Cotter will assume control of apparel and accessories, showing that the company remains committed to that market.
Albarran will take over Peloton’s legal operations on Oct. 3. She helped oversee a corporate makeover at Uber, which set out to change its image in 2017 after its hard-charging style led to scandals and a strained relationship with drivers.
Peloton looks to draw on the experience of Albarran and Boone to “help move the company forward into our next chapter of growth,” McCarthy said.
Foley said he plans to build a business “in a new space” after leaving the company. The executive helped turn Peloton into an iconic fitness brand with a loyal following, but was criticized for not forecasting a sharp downturn in demand for its exercise bikes.
Some Peloton investors also had hoped that Foley -- and then McCarthy -- would consider selling the company. But no suitor emerged, and McCarthy has said that he didn’t take the CEO job to oversee a sale.
Wages key to pace of Bank of Canada's remaining rate hikes
Climbing wages run risk of entrenched inflation, warns deputy Carolyn Rogers
Author of the article:Stephanie Hughes Publishing date:Sep 12, 2022 •
Bank of Canada senior deputy governor Carolyn Rogers
says the central bank is wary of a wage-price spiral.
PHOTO BY JUSTIN TANG/BLOOMBERG
Wages appear set to determine the pace at which the Bank of Canada raises interest rates over the rest of the year.
Bank of Canada senior deputy governor Carolyn Rogers said last week that the central bank is wary of a wage-price spiral, as workers take advantage of a record level of job vacancies to insist on salary increases that match this year’s spike in the cost of living. That could cause inflation to become entrenched, as employers likely would seek to recoup higher labour costs by charging more for goods and services.
Following a Sept. 8 economic speech in Calgary, Rogers described the labour market as tight, contributing to the central bank’s determination that demand has exceeded the economy’s ability to keep up with orders. That’s fuelling inflation, which clocked in at an annual rate of 7.6 per cent in July, slower than the previous month, but still well above the Bank of Canada’s two-per-cent target.
Workers are “looking at the rate of inflation and what it’s doing to their purchasing power, their budgets, and they’re looking at the same tight labour markets and they’re thinking ‘I need a raise,’” Rogers told reporters.
Rogers’ remarks came a day after the Bank of Canada opted to raise its benchmark rate by three quarters of a percentage point, the second consecutive supersized increase after July’s one-percentage-point hike. Tiff Macklem, the governor, has said one of the reasons that he’s raising interest rates so quickly is to keep those expectations from taking root, betting that whatever pain is caused now will be less than what would be required to crush inflation if households and businesses lose faith in the two-per-cent target. “Entrenchment” of inflation expectations “would be damaging to the economy,” Rogers said. Still, Rogers emphasized that it was not the central bank’s place to provide advice on setting wages. That point of emphasis followed controversial comments by Macklem earlier this summer that were interpreted by some union leaders as encouraging employers to suppress wages.
“As a business, don’t plan on the current rate of inflation staying,” Macklem said in a July 14 question-and-answer session hosted by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. “Don’t build that into longer-term contracts. Don’t build that into wage contracts. It is going to take some time, but you can be confident that inflation will come down.
Another interpretation was that Macklem was simply urging his audience to believe him when he says the Bank of Canada will do what is necessary to get inflation under control, even if that means courting a recession.
There are signs the economy is slowing. The labour market loosened somewhat in August, as the Canadian economy lost 40,000 jobs, which caused the unemployment rate to rise to 5.4 per cent, a far cry from the 15,000 job gain that Bay Street economists were expecting.
The monthly decline was the third in a row, which tends to be indicative of a downturn, according to Royce Mendes, an economist at Desjardins Group. However, Mendes added that the average hourly wage rate rose 5.6 per cent from August 2021, which was a faster pace than analysts expected.
“We’ll be watching wages closely,” Rogers said. “What we need is that supply and demand to come back in balance across the economy and particularly in labour markets. That’ll take the pressure off wages.”
Jan 17, 2022 ... It moves. Marx writes, “The oscillations of market prices, rising now over, sinking now under the value or natural price, depend upon the ...
However, even if the quantity of the national product were fixed, Marx argues, it does not follow that real wages would be fixed because the wage, which is one ...
Oct 5, 2017 ... In Wages, Price, and Profit, Marx is replying to an old “Owenite” socialist, John Weston, who argues that battles for higher wages are pointless ...
Kitchener-Waterloo
This is no ordinary brick. It was grown in a lab by Waterloo, Ont., students
Social Sharing
Facebook
Twitter
Email
Reddit
LinkedIn
The technology received national recognition after placing as a runner-up for the James Dyson Award
The creators of the Bio-Brick have received national recognition, as runner-up of the James Dyson Award. (Photo credit The James Dyson Award)
Can you grow a brick? Turns out, the answer is yes — and it may be a lot better for the environment and safer for the people working in construction zones.
"Right now, the building supplies industry is responsible for 23 per cent of the world's global CO2 emissions," said Adrian Simone, who is part of the University of Waterloo student team that created the Bio-Brick.
The technology received national recognition this past week after placing as a runner-up for the James Dyson Award.
"The amount of green options available to builders right now is not adequate, there's not enough," Simone said. "The ones that are available are completely priced out, so most people, most builders just can't use them."
This is an example of one of the Bio-Brick prototypes the team grew in their lab. (Photo credit The James Dyson Award)
Simone used to work as a project manager of an asphalt paving company. He said what he saw on site inspired him to try and find an alternative that was safer for workers.
"I would notice that in the middle of the summer, a lot of the guys out there who are laying this asphalt, standing in front of this 120 degree molten tar and the fumes coming off of it, are having horrible effects on their health."
He said be believes the traditional brick-making process may lead to long-term illnesses and injuries.
"The amount of burns that would happen on site were extremely high," he said, noting that even with several safety measures in place, workers would get second degree burns on their shins.
How does it work?
The Bio-Brick technology is still in the prototype testing phase. To put it simply, the brick is created at room temperature and uses bacteria to slowly grow a brick in a mould.
The team begins forming the brick by growing bacteria on agar in room temperature. (Photo credit The James Dyson Award)
Rania Al-Sheikhly, one of the creators, said the brick can easily be grown onsite for any construction project.
"The bacteria can be grown similar to fermentation tanks for beer and things like that, so it doesn't have to stay in the sterile environment, it just needs to be able to grow in a room temperature container for a day or so and then it can be used."
Bacteria is introduced to a nutrient broth "that it feeds off and it allows it to multiply. Then we take our mould and we put the sand in it and we mix in the bacteria. We let that sit for a few hours, drain, add some solution and we just repeat the process for a few days until it solidifies into a brick."
She said recycled sand or demolition waste can be mixed in to create the Bio-Brick, which is just as strong and affordable as the bricks traditionally used in construction sites today.
