Category: Economy

NDP Nexen decision a boneheaded political move

Today, the federal NDP held a Parliament Hill press conference during which MPs Peter Julian and Hélène LeBlanc announced, for the first time, that New Democrats believe the federal government ought to reject a $15-billion bid by the Chinese state-owned firm CNOOC for the Calgary-based oil-and-gas producer Nexen. 

In doing this, they certainly have public opinion on their side. Two Abacus Data polls commissioned by Sun News Network show the idea of the Chinese taking over Nexen is deeply unpopular in every region of the country and among supporters of all parties. (Poll 1 | Poll 2)

This was a boneheaded move politically from a party that, in my judgement, has made some otherwise very smart moves to counter any number of stereotypes its political opponents are trying to foster that an NDP government would kill jobs, investment and prosperity.

Continue reading NDP Nexen decision a boneheaded political move

So, President Kikwete, can you help us work through our Nexen problem?

Jakaya Kikwete and Stephen Harper
OTTAWA – Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete “schools me” after I asked today how his government would handle a foreign investment opportunity from a country that doesn’t share Tanzania’s and Canada’s democratic values. This pic was snapped in 237-C of the House of Commons by PMO photographer Jason Ransom.

The Tanzanian President, Jakaya Kikwete, is in Canada this week on an official visit. This afternoon, after meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the two men took some questions from reporters. The press were allotted a total of four questions, two from each country’s press corps. The Canadian press corps gets further subdivided into one English-language question and one French-language question. Hélène Buzzetti of Le Devoir asked the French-language question,  a question that was really only for Harper as it was about the Port of Montreal. The English-language reporters — CP, Bloomberg, Toronto Star, Reuters, Postmedia and Sun — came to a consensus that we wanted to ask Harper about the Nexen deal and I drew the straw to put the question to the PM. But, given that Tanzania also relies heavily on foreign investment to develop its resource sector, I thought it would be interesting to hear President Kikwete’s views on how Tanzania handles investment proposals from companies that originate in countries, like China, that do not share Tanzania’s democratic values.  Continue reading So, President Kikwete, can you help us work through our Nexen problem?

Debunking the "our banks are the best" meme

The World Economic Forum’s annual Global Competitiveness Index is out today. See the hi-lites and political implications here.

But can we trust this “Index”? To my layperson’s eyes, there seems to be some serious flaws with the methodology the WEF uses to arrive at these “rankings.”

First, the common understanding of a “ranking” is that the benchmarks being used to develop a ranking, the judge or arbiter of these rankings, and the objects being ranked all have something in common. Continue reading Debunking the "our banks are the best" meme

Carney vs Myers: Economists face off over "dead money"

The line story on Bay Street’s favourite newspaper, The Globe and Mail, had a great eye-catching headline courtesy of Bank of Canada Mark Carney:

This is Dead Money

Carney, responding to questions from reporters, noted that Canadian companies (not including banks and insurance companies) now have $562 billion in cash in the bank, up from $370 billion in 2009. That $562 billion represents about 13.2 per cent of total assets — an all-time high — compared to 10.3 per cent of total assets in 2009. Continue reading Carney vs Myers: Economists face off over "dead money"

A Bloomberg columnist argues that economists should stay out of politics

Quite frankly, I find Laurence Kotlikoff’s argument here absolutely absurd:

Some 500 of my colleagues in economics, almost all academics, have signed a statement applauding former Governor Mitt Romney’s economic plan and condemning President Barack Obama’s handling of the economy. The statement amounts to an endorsement of Romney’s presidential candidacy. As such, it represents a disservice to the economics profession as well as to the statement’s signatories, five of whom are Nobel laureates.

The decision of the 500 U.S. economists, many from the leading ranks of the profession, to trade in their credentials as economists for that of campaign workers is just the latest sign that something’s rotten in economics.

Read the rest at Economists Risk Labeling as Political Hacks – Bloomberg.

The Flaherty Retreat: The Invite List

The Department of Finance just provided the “invite list” to Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s sixth annual policy retreat, held this year as in other years, at the beautiful Wakefield Inn and Spa in Wakefield, QC, just up the road from Ottawa. This meeting is closed to the press and public and is held under what are known as Chatham House Rules. Here’s the names of the 22 people Flaherty is meeting with this afternoon.

Continue reading The Flaherty Retreat: The Invite List

Canada Day at NASDAQ — as Canada's tech darling sinks

John Baird at NASDAQ
Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird marks the conclusion of a successful trip to New York City and the beginning of Canada Day celebrations by ringing the NASDAQ Stock Market Closing Bell. (Handout photo)

Ever since Netscape’s stock market moonshot debut launched the dot-com boom back on Aug. 9, 1995, any self-respecting tech company has wanted its shares traded on NASDAQ. So it has been with Canadian tech companies. And that’s where Research in Motion’s shares trade in the United States under the ticker RIMM. Continue reading Canada Day at NASDAQ — as Canada's tech darling sinks

US Congressional Research Office on Canada and the TPP

Chris Sands of the Washington-based Hudson Institute brings my attention to a recent publication from the Congressional Research Service, the U.S. Congress rough equivalent to Canada’s Library of Parliament, published on May 30 which provides Congress with a comparative trade and economic analysis between the U.S. and those countries in and about to be part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks. Canada announced it would seek to join the TPP talk at the G20 in Mexico a week ago.
Here’s one of the notable paragraphs I took from that study. I have bolded what I thought to be the most interesting line: Continue reading US Congressional Research Office on Canada and the TPP

Getting oil from Kitimat to the open ocean: Can we do that?

I’m looking to tap the brainpower of the blogosphere for a very specific question:

Can we safely move oil from Kitimat, B.C., down the Douglas Channel, and into the open Pacific Ocean?

Continue reading Getting oil from Kitimat to the open ocean: Can we do that?