Central bank ditches economic rebound prediction
Globe and Mail
March 14, 2009
HORSHAM, England — The Bank of Canada seems to have ditched its prediction for a made-in-Canada economic rebound next year.
Speaking to reporters at the Group of 20 finance ministers meeting in Horsham, Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney hinted strongly that his last forecast for 3.8 per cent growth in 2010 is no longer valid. “Clearly the risks are breaking to the downside,” he said, referring to the string of grim Canadian and international growth data in recent weeks.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
The man who lied to Canadians about tax leakage, sings a new tune
Will Michael Sabia complete the vicious circle, he helped create?
Any one who actually thinks Michael Sabia pursued the conversion of BCE into an income trust for any reason other than to assist the Harper government in shutting down income trusts is either naïve or delusional. If I am wrong about that, then Michael Sabia in failing to get permission for BCE to convert to an income trust, will have to go down as one the world’s worst lobbyists, since this is a person who was extremely tied into Ottawa on both the political and bureaucratic fronts, having served in senior capacities in the civil service and having been appointed as one of 10 appointees to the NACC.
These connections, together with the easily demonstrated policy argument that income trusts DO NOT cause tax leakage, should have easily allowed the gifted Michael Sabia to have gained the requisite permission from the Department of Finance, where he worked a Director General of Tax Policy, for BCE to have converted to a tax maximizing income trust........assuming however that was his real goal, as opposed to playing some game with the public and his shareholders to kill income trusts through the faux crisis he allowed to ensue, and be falsely reported upon by the news empire at his disposal, namely BellGlobeMedia, now CTVGlobeMedia.
Now we have Michael Sabia becoming the CEO of Caisse, which is one of the largest pension funds in the country, which is a most unwelcome development for income trust investors.
These large pensions funds, like Caisse, were extended an exclusive carve out by Flaherty from the draconian 31.5% tax on income trusts and the growth constraints imposed on income trusts. Why? Because they got a separate deal from the deal that governs RRSPs. Why? Because they have clout with Ottawa and average Canadians do not. Thanks to Flaherty’s corrupt thinking, these pension funds are able to acquire the undervalued and devalued income trusts from average Canadians and through the mere act of taking these trusts private, the pension funds are absolved of paying the 31.5% tax or abiding by the growth constraints. This is Flaherty’s corrupt idea of leveling the playing field. Affording unfair economic advantage to the 25% of Canadians with pensions, that are being denied the 75% without pensions.
How does the mere act of taking an income trust private, deal with all the alleged evils of income trusts? By definition it does not, but then these alleged evils are all phantom evils in the first place and have zero basis in fact.
Flaherty created a situation where these pension funds are incentivised to act in a PREDATORY way, much like the incentivised predatory lending practices in the US subprime market, where the pension funds can pick up these devalued trusts and own them free of the 31.5% tax and the growth constraints.
Michael Sabia played a pivotal role in creating the false circumstances, or faux crisis, that provided the Harper government with the excuse it needed to renege on its election promise concerning income trusts. Now, as the head of the Caisse it will be interesting. and most hypocritical to see to what extent Michael Sabia exploits this enormous loophole in tax legislation that he helped create, as his predecessors at the Caisse have and as OMERs, PSP and many other advantaged pension funds have done so and continue to do so, as recently as the purchase of Teranet Income Fund by OMERS in December 2008.
Where are the Opposition parties, like the Liberals, when in comes to protecting Canadians from these grossly unfair tax policies and the obvious predatory practices that they have resulted in, and which were obvious from the outset were going to occur? Who is on first?
Jon Stewart is right: The Financial Media ARE the problem
For the sake of entertainment and enlightenment, I hope you caught the debate this past week between Jon Stewart of the Daily Show and the talking heads on the business news network, CNBC.
I know the White House did.
We know that things have devolved to a pretty pathetic state of affairs when we have to rely on the Comedy Network to provide us with insights not afforded elsewhere, about the active role played by the main stream news media in fostering financial falsehoods. This great debate began when Jon Stewart took CNBC”s Rick Santelli to task for dumping on Obama’s plan to help mortgage holders avoid default. Rick Santelli’s callous rant from the trading floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange amounted to a nonsensical argument of “let’s blame the victim (mortgage holders), at the same time that we bailout the guilty parties (Citibank, Wamu, AIG etc).”
This line of logic by the press, of let’s blame the victim, was exactly what played out in Canada with those people who were dumb enough to have taken Stephen Harper at his word that he would never tax income trusts. A whole litany of Rick Santelli look-alikes came to the fore in Canada to argue that income trusts investors were responsible for their losses. None more pointedly so than Jonathan Chevreau in his piece entitled “Earth to Income trust investors: Don’t blame Ottawa for your investing blunders” Nice eh? These Canadians saving for retirement were maligned as being greedy coupon clippers, intent on turning Canada into a couch potato economy with their ponzi scheme investments and their lack of diversification. The fact that these suppositions were advanced as self evident truths, just adds to the media’s complete lack of credibility or intellectual rigor. Some of the mental midgets in the press who adopted this line of argument were Eric Reguly, Jonathan Chevreau, Terry Corcoran, Margaret Wente and Andy Willis. They were enjoined by many others, eager to jump on board the latest financial pop psychology of the day.
The other target of Jon Stewarts disaffection with the financial press was Jim Cramer of CNBC’s Mad Money who was giving financial advice that had no foundations whatsoever. Recommending that people continue buying stocks even though the valuations were unsupportable, arguing that people should just hold their noses and dive in. Jim Cramer was recommending that people buy Bear Stearns, six days before it went kaput. Why?, because he said so. Again this is analogous to the income trust fiasco in Canada, where virtually everyone in the Canadian press, with the sole exception of Diane Francis and Professor William Stanbury, were only too willing and submissive to grasp onto the Harper government’s completely bogus argument that income trusts cause tax leakage. This argument was nothing more than a modern day witch hunt. Tax leakage was the new creationist religion that was seized upon by the incompetent financial press in Canada. This witch hunt about tax leakage was no different than George Bush advancing his false arguments of WMD to invade Iraq. The false arguments of WMD that were shamelessly advanced by the New York Time and the now disgraced reporter, Judith Milller, who has many surrogates here in Canada.
As shameful as that was, and as incompetent and culpable as the US press were in advancing the false notion of WMD, I have a lot more sympathy for their gross error than I do for the Canadians press’s handling of the income trust fiasco. The reason simply being that one doesn’t have to engage in hiring a team of UN weapons inspectors to determine whether income trusts cause tax leakage. And nor is one being asked to prove the absence of something (WMD), but rather the much, much simpler exercise as proving the presence of something (tax leakage). However “proof” is a requirement that the Canadian press thinks it can summarily dispense with? The Canadian press has failed Canadians utterly in the task of providing proof or demanding proof, and as Jon Stewart stated last week, their guilt is not simply the guilt of omission, but rather the guilt of commission. These people in the Canadian press are guilty of being co-opted by those in government and those who stand to commercially benefit from this far reaching tax policy and have lowered their professional standards to the equivalent of the disgraced pathologist Dr. Smith, and are corrupting our democratic system in the process, with their false claims of tax leakage which have caused significant harm to many Canadians, the vast majority of whom are seniors seeking to make ends meet.
Over the course of the first four months, the information about the Harper government’s lies about tax leakage had been neatly laid out for all the media to see, including at the Public Hearing on Income Trusts held by Parliament. It was shortly thereafter, when the media had failed completely to report faithfully on what was before it, that I told Diane Francis that 80% of our problem lay with the media, That was probably being generous. It should be expected that Canadian politicians are programmed to lie and deceive the voting public, however it was only through the income trust issue that I came to realize that the Canadian press have allowed themselves to be similarly corrupted.....to their very core. I suggest that members of the Canadian press reflect on why they pursued a career in journalism in the first place. Was it to report on the truth, or was it to act as a pawn in propagating known lies , the propagation of which causes immense harm to others and corrupts our political and financial system? It’s time you people got serious about what you do for a living, and join Jon Stewart.....of the Comedy Network, in doing what’s right for society.
Friday, March 13, 2009
La Caisse hires the guy that Ontario Teachers' fired. Go figure
Former BCE chief takes helm of Caisse
Sabia takes over after $39.8-billion loss at Quebec pension fund manager
Friday, March 13, 2009
CBC News
Former Bell Canada CEO Michael Sabia has been appointed to head the Caisse de dépôt et placement du QuébecFormer Bell Canada CEO Michael Sabia has been appointed to head the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (Ian Barrett/Canadian Press)
Former Bell Canada chief executive Michael Sabia will be the new president and CEO of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec.
Sabia, 55, was appointed Friday after Caisse's board of directors and the Quebec government agreed he is the best choice to lead the pension fund manager through one of the toughest periods in its history.
Sabia takes over on the heels of the fund's $39.8-billion loss in assets last year, the largest annual recorded drop in the Caisse's 43 years of existence.
Sabia held the top jobs at Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) from 2002 to July 2008 after serving in other senior positions within the group.
China heeds Jonny Chevreau's advice about diversification, and its holdings of Ponzi Nation securities
Jonny Chevreau is the guy who fashions himself as the "Wealthy Boomer" in the Financial Post, whatever that means, and based on whatever qualifications that involves, beyond ego itself.
Perhaps it means that he works for the Financial Post as some kind of shill for the Harper government to help the government expropriate Canadians wealth. If that weren't the case then why would he have attacked the victims of Harper's income trust policy as opposed to attacking the totally lame and fraudulent foundations on which that policy was based......as Diane Francis chose to do?
The best piece of Jonny's brand of shill journalism was the one entitled: Earth to income trust investors: Don't blame Ottawa for your investing blunders
This was a treatise on why the money lost on income trusts was investors' fault, and nothing to do with the government having said one thing and doing the exact opposite. Part of Jonny's reasoning was that these investors weren't diversified enough and that income trusts were Ponzi schemes. So the question for Jonny is how exactly does one diversify against the lies of the Harper government?......move out of the country?
I met with Jonny shortly after this article of his was written and told him that a person could be 100% invested in income trusts and still be adequately invested, since at the time there were over 235 different income trusts, spanning many diverse industries and because income trusts themselves are a form of diversification, since they embody the attributes of both debt and equity.
That was to no avail, as the guy was too busy writing his next piece on behalf of the Harper government, by misportraying who CAITI was and what or mission was, and on whose behalf.
I am glad to say, however that it appears that China has taken Jonny's wise advice, and decided perhaps a little diversification away from the true Ponzi nature of US Treasuries perhaps is actually a wise thing. They must have gotten this from the Wealthy Boomer/Shill Journalist:
China Uneasy About Proportion of Holdings in U.S. Treasuries
SHANGHAI, March 13 -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Friday that he is "worried" about the country's vast $1 trillion holdings in U.S. Treasuries and that China will pursue a policy of diversification when comes to its future foreign exchange holdings.
Tom Hanson, award winning photographer
Award winning Canadian Press photographer Tom Hanson, who passed away suddenly on Tuesday at the age of 41, was married to the love of his life. Catherine, the daughter of David and Lorraine Marshall of Cornwall Ontario, to whom we send our deepest condolences.
David and Lorraine Marshall have been fighting for justice from Stephen Harper on the income trust matter since the night that Harper broke his solemn promise to them, and from the time that they learned shortly thereafter that Harper’s tax leakage argument is a total fabricated hoax. I have not met two more decent and honest people on the income trust matter over the last two and half years, than David and Lorraine Marshall.
It is interesting that Stephen Harper felt the need to appropriate Tom Hanson’s image in comments that he made in the House of Commons on Wednesday when he stated: "Tom was a talented photojournalist who distinguished himself both by the quality of his work and his character," Prime Minister Stephen Harper told the House of Commons in a statement Wednesday. "Through his photos, Tom helped to chronicle our story as Canadians."
David and Lorraine Marshall were the ones who organized the rally on Parliament Hill on October 31, 2007. Stephen Harper and Jim Flaherty were so concerned that the media spotlight would have once again turned on their devastation of Canadian seniors like David and Lorraine Marshall on the occasion of the first anniversary of his income trust betrayal, that they took the unprecedented step of pre-announcing on that date (of all dates?), the reduction in corporate tax rates. This was designed to obscure the press’ attention and Canadian’s attention from the one year anniversary of Harper’s betrayal and the event that David and Lorraine Marshall had arranged for that day.
This is because Stephen Harper, unlike Tom Hanson, has no interest himself, in chronicling our story as Canadians. Quite the contrary. If he did, the attached photo taken at David and Lorraine Marshall’s rally on Parliament Hill would have been front page news that day, and not some lame announcement about reduced corporate tax rates. Also attached is a video of the testimony that David Marshall gave at the Public Hearings on Income Trusts, which conveniently wasn’t covered by the Canadian media either. ( David appears at 3:58 mark).
In that testimony David states: “As it turns out, one of the biggest mistakes of our lives life was believing in Stephen Harper”. That is but the tip of the iceberg of David’s testimony that wasn’t covered by the press, or the testimony of the three other individuals who spoke before Parliament, William Barrowclough, Donald Francis and Jean-Marie Lapointe.
He did what it took to get the shot
'He totally believed in the cause and the need for us ... to have the access we needed to record history'
JAMES MCCARTEN
The Canadian Press
March 13, 2009
Award-winning photojournalist Tom Hanson was known for fiercely defending the rights of reporters and journalists on Parliament Hill.
"He had a gruff exterior," said Graeme Roy, director of news photography for The Canadian Press. "But he was very kind and generous and helpful to anybody. He would set things up on the Hill that seemed to be impossible, and he'd bust through the red tape and he'd make things happen.
"He totally believed in the cause and the need for us to be there, to be present, to have the access we needed to record history."
Mr. Hanson was born May 1, 1967, in Rochester, N.Y., but his family later moved to Montreal. He attended Vanier College in 1985 and spent two years at Concordia University before freelancing for CP in 1989. He was added to Ottawa's small roster of full-time staff in 1992.
"Tom was a talented photojournalist who distinguished himself both by the quality of his work and his character," Prime Minister Stephen Harper told the House of Commons in a statement Wednesday. "Through his photos, Tom helped to chronicle our story as Canadians."
Mr. Hanson's last foreign assignment was, in fact, with the Prime Minister last month in New York - a trip that yielded yet another iconic image, a worm's-eye view of Mr. Harper strolling among the billboards of Times Square.
Moments before the photo was snapped, Mr. Harper apparently warned Mr. Hanson he was about to topple into an open manhole. Conservative staffers joked that other members of the media might not have gotten that warning.
It was clear from the outset that Mr. Hanson's skills as a photographer, coupled with a fearlessness and unique perspective on the world, would serve him well.
One of his most celebrated photos, of a kilt-wearing bagpiper in a gas mask emerging from the protests at the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, was named Picture of the Year in 2001.
In 2002, Mr. Hanson was named Photographer of the Year by a jury of his peers - editors and photographers from across the spectrum of media outlets who contributed to CP's picture service.
Over a career laden with professional accolades, the one from his colleagues was among his most cherished. "This award means more to me than a lot of other awards because it's voted on by people who really know what they're doing," he said.
Frank Gunn, a CP photographer based in Toronto, called Mr. Hanson "our best photographer, period."
Colleagues across the country were shattered by the news Wednesday, none more so than in CP's Ottawa bureau. Those who knew him best say the tight-lipped scowl he sometimes wore while working would melt away in the company of his wife, Catherine.
"Tom was a rapid-fire, cursing cowboy who became a kitten in oven mitts when he was home with the love of his life," Ottawa reporter Sue Bailey wrote in an e-mail. "He was as devoted to her halfway around the world as he was when they were side by side."
Mr. Hanson's other passions in life included hockey, playing the guitar and riding his Harley-Davidson motorcycle, but none could compare with his love for his wife. He wrote and recorded a song about the challenges of a life lived on the road, Ms. Bailey said. "It was a beautiful testament, almost a lullaby, to a bond that neither long distance nor the stress of so much time on the road could weaken."
Alexander Panetta, a CP reporter in Ottawa and a veteran of international assignments with Mr. Hanson, recalled the time in 2006 when they were in Cyprus to document the evacuation of Canadian citizens from war-torn Lebanon.
Mr. Hanson persistently urged Mr. Panetta to keep hydrated, but failed to take his own advice and became seriously ill the same night that the first boatload of Canadians sailed into port.
"He not only got the picture, but he actually got to that boat in the middle of the night faster than Canadian officials did," Mr. Panetta said. "Between trips to the bathroom, he managed to take some beautiful pictures of people coming in from Lebanon."
On a recent trip to Haiti with Governor-General Michaëlle Jean, Mr. Panetta said he noticed Mr. Hanson's cheerfulness - particularly while he was helping a gathering of local children open toys they'd been given by Canadian embassy officials.
"He had a really big presence, but an even bigger heart," Mr. Panetta said.
When he wasn't documenting world events, Mr. Hanson was taking the mundane day-to-day of Parliament Hill and turning it into high art, usually by way of his eye for detail and unique perspectives.
"Not everybody has that gift, has that eye to make something magical out of what a bystander might see as a pretty routine-looking situation," Mr. Roy said.
Tom Hanson
Tom Hanson was born May 1, 1967, in Rochester, N.Y. He died March 10, 2009, after collapsing while playing hockey. He was 41.
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