tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141615629701321642.post1203345190983644872..comments2024-01-07T08:41:13.864-05:00Comments on C A I T I - O N L I N E: Canada’s press and politicians: Form over substanceBrent Fullardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08515599756822506137noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141615629701321642.post-63924842849107693502009-05-11T17:36:00.000-04:002009-05-11T17:36:00.000-04:00Why is Canadian democracy like syphilis?
Answer: ...Why is Canadian democracy like syphilis?<br /><br />Answer: it takes many years for the symptoms to occur.<br /><br />Why is professional journalism in Canada not like syphilis?<br /><br />Answer: there are no symptoms of professional journalism in Canada.Kephalosnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141615629701321642.post-28981113626652802662009-05-11T11:59:00.000-04:002009-05-11T11:59:00.000-04:00kirbycairo:
Thanks for asking. In a nutshell, the...kirbycairo:<br /><br />Thanks for asking. In a nutshell, the reasons are solely related to how managers of corporations are compensated, and as you know, they are VERY well compensated. Killing trusts did different things for different corporate managers. As the CEO of Manulife, killing trusts meant Dominic D’Alessandro was killing the competition for Manulife’s alternative investment products like life annuities or Manulife’s Income Plus (launched the week after Halloween 2006). If you are Michael Sabia of BCE, killing trusts means not having to be beholding to unitholders and making a personal fortune from the LBO alternative that was waiting in the wings. If you are Paul Desmarais Jr., killing income trusts meant being free to acquire companies like Putnam Investments that are “non-accretive” to shareholders and not having to get shareholder approval. If you are the CEO of Suncor, then as Rick George told a crowd of investment managers in New York, you can go back to acquiring natural gas reserves in Alberta for a song, as opposed to paying full value, and we all know how much natural gas that Suncor burns to extract oil from the tar sands. If you are Murray Edwards you love killing trusts, because it allows you to buy junior oil companies on the cheap. Gwyn Morgan was opposed to income trusts for the simple reason that Encan converting part of itself (mature oil fileds) would have meant triggering capital gains in hsi hands, so rather than being against income trusts for the spirrious arguments he advaced about phony "tax leakage", he was simply motivated by a desire to avoid capital gains and avoid paying his fair share.<br /><br />Now he writes for the facile and vapid Globe and Mail ROB.<br /><br />These are the reasons and motivations behind why these people with privileged access to Harper and his CONs in office wanted to kill income trusts. Their agenda was advanced by the highly unscrupulous and immoral Mark Carney who was the mastermind behind the conspiracy theory known as “tax leakage”. As a good Goldman Sachs foot soldier, he knew that income trusts represented a democratization of the capital markets that ill serves Goldman Sachs as the bespoke investment dealer to corporations and institutional investors. A retail product that was sweeping Canada was the last thing that Goldman wanted to see or was well positioned to compete in. The foray of Canadian dealers with the advent of IDS’s (Income Depository Receipts) was something that Mark Carney had an active hand in killing while at Goldman Sachs working out of the Toronto office. Goldman succeeded in killing that nascent development in the capital markets through the US accounting profession and the development of a set of impossible standards to meet, called euphemistically, the Ten Commandments.<br /><br />In Canada,. It was easier to kill income trusts, as it just required a deaf and dumb and totally gullible set of lame on the take politicians, who have no regard for the facts or what the consequences of their actions will be. Just like virtually everyone on Canada’s freakin’ press. <br /><br />BTW: The main driver for these corporate managers is their compensation by way of stock options, which are taxes at HALF THE RATE of income from employment that they represent and is an insult to the people who receive such tax treatment and actually have CAPITAL AT RISK. I guess it will take something larger than a global financial meltdown to topple these lame corporate managers rule of the roost and to get rid of abusive tax measures that just fuel these corporate managers' greed and avarice. We are paying for it, on a at least two levels, if not three.<br /><br />Brent FullardFilliblusterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06563618107971013947noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141615629701321642.post-30798437696287941872009-05-11T11:06:00.001-04:002009-05-11T11:06:00.001-04:00I read this Blog all the time and I am still not s...I read this Blog all the time and I am still not sure I understand the issue. Ok so the Government said that they wouldn't tax income trusts but then they did because, they said, they were losing revenue. But you say, and I believe you, that the net result of their policies was actually a greater loss of revenue and hurting a lot of average canadians. But I don't understand what the motivation behind all of this was. Is it just a corporate agenda which lets corporations pay less tax while shifting this burden to the average tax payers? I don't mean any disrespect .. I am just trying to understand an issue that seems very complicated.Kirbycairohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17528654183160305877noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7141615629701321642.post-27402775745057175012009-05-11T10:06:00.000-04:002009-05-11T10:06:00.000-04:00We are screwed!!
A "wuss-ified" press c...We are screwed!!<br /><br />A "wuss-ified" press combined with 'wuss-ified" politicians can only lead to a massive centralization of power in the PMO just where it does not need to be.<br /><br />Centralizing power makes MPs redundant & of no use.<br /><br />Centralizing power means that if the media wants "the" political story or needs a bail-out , then it`s kow-tow city as they pucker-up looking for the right behind on which to plant their compliant lips.<br /><br />The only advantage of this power point is that decision making is made easy---it has become "my way or the highway" in both the government offices or in the media boardroom.<br /><br />The problem is that this leaves the rest of us poor boobs wandering in the wilderness without a say.<br /><br />Dr Mike<br /><br />PS---I wonder what Elizabeth May is doing for next 4 years---hmmmmm.Dr Mikehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16915911929286615081noreply@blogger.com