Vancouver Secrets

California Completely Misses The Point

As California continues to melt down, an article today in the Oakland Tribune forecasts the challenge (tax revenue) and completely forgets where the money actually comes from.

They point out the welfare will need to be cut, along with schools, and state workers…

Enrollment in California classrooms could swell, public colleges may further limit enrollment and raise student fees, state workers could face another year of furloughs, and the poor may stop receiving welfare unless Schwarzenegger and lawmakers agree to raise revenue.

Since February, California has made nearly $60 billion in adjustments to its annual spending plan. That has come in the form of cuts to education and social service programs, temporary hikes in the sales and income taxes, an increase in the vehicle license fee and one-time infusions of cash from the federal stimulus package.

The stimulus funding and temporary taxes will begin to end at the end of 2010, leaving less revenue for the second half of the fiscal year that will begin in July. Compounding California’s problem are lawsuits that have reversed several of this year’s budget decisions, contributing to a $6 billion deficit in the current fiscal year.

The state also has been unable to adopt prison and health care cuts it passed in the last budget.

Here’s a novel idea:

Make the state friendly to business and people who pay taxes. Raise tax revenue by allowing people to make money. Profits = Jobs = Tax Revenue.

Creating a climate for growth is the only way out – increasing taxes and relying on handouts will only continue the death spiral.

The liberal idea that you can tax  or spend your way out of a financial crisis has really paid off so far.

If they want to be genius, all they need to do is rid themselves of the laws that kill business, cut social spending and lower taxes… it will bring people and business back to the state and the tax revenue they so dearly need.

In BC, we have a government that is following California down this road… HST will be a killer, along with the new taxes we’ll be blessed with after the Winter Olympics. (No one has an inkling of how much the games will actually cost us.) Health care is already being rationed and as it increases in percentage of our budget spending, it will continue to rapidly decline.

The statistics for B.C. are daunting: Promised surpluses turned into record deficits; over 40,000 private sector jobs disappeared; exports fell by 25 per cent; and the number of EI recipients more than doubled.

If BC hopes to avoid the same fate as California, maybe now would be a good time to use the HST introduction to kill off personal income tax. Or to bring in a flat tax? At minimum, lower the provincial sales tax rate to counter the punishing effects HST will have on all the new items that will be taxed.

It may even save the Campbell Liberals from extinction.

The only reason they are introducing HST is the bribe that comes along with it… this one-time payment from the Federal Government is short sighted and will prove to cost more than they can imagine.

2010 should be the year of jobs, not taxes. Unfortunately, we are blessed with left-wing policies that ignore where the money comes from.

Daniel Hollinger at Hollinger International has links to articles on school reform

Harper Could Use Prorogue To Save Canada Billions

With a Parliament prorogue until after the Olympics, I think he should have taken a few more steps to save us some serious money:

- Use the period to layoff all MPs and make them apply for  (un)eployment insurance. This would be an eye opener for them. maybe a few would run off and get real jobs.

- Layoff all Parliament workers and support staff – again a few would get real jobs and we’d breath new life into the place.

- Shut down all government departments that are not deemed essential. This would give us a taste of life without government for two months and Canadians would realize that we don’t need most of what they provide.

Which of these would be missed:

Assisted Human Reproduction Canada
Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency
Atlantic Pilotage Authority
Currency Museum
Blue Water Bridge Canada
Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions
Canada Emission Reduction Incentives Agency
Canada School of Public Service
Canadian Artists and Producers Professional Relations Tribunal
Canadian Biodiversity Information Facility
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Canadian Dairy Commission
Canadian Firearms Program
Canadian Grain Commission
Canadian Heritage
1. Aboriginal Affairs Branch
2. Canadian Conservation Institute
3. Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board
4. Canadian Heritage Information Network
5. Ceremonial and Canadian Symbols Promotion
6. Exchanges Canada
7. International Affairs Branch
8. Official Languages
9. Sport Canada
10. Values and Ethics
11. Virtual Museum of Canada

Canadian Human Rights Commission
Canadian Human Rights Tribunal
Canadian Intergovernmental Conference Secretariat
Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation
Canadian Pari-Mutuel Agency
Canadian Polar Commission
Canadian Race Relations Foundation
Cape Breton Development Corporation
Multiculturalism
Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation
Canadian Ice Service
Clean Air On-line – Canada’s Clean Air Act
Climate Change
First Nations Statistical Institute
Great Lakes Pilotage Authority Canada
Interagency Advisory Panel on Research Ethics
Laurentian Pilotage Authority
National Battlefields Commission
National Energy Board
National Farm Products Council
National Film Board of Canada
Networks of Centres of Excellence
Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
Pacific Pilotage Authority Canada
Public Service Staffing Tribunal
Registry of the Specific Claims Tribunal of Canada
Species at Risk Public Registry
Western Economic Diversification Canada

Shutter them and 2010 deficit is solved.

photo credit: solidstate_

What Do These Papers All Have In Common?

Time Is Running Out

The Favorite phrase of the Obama administration. Now that anyone is buying it anymore.

It started with the financial industry rescue – which, at the time, was believable. Unfortunately there’s no end in sight. In 2010 we’ll have as many, if not more, bank failures, foreclosures and business collapses. If you want proof of  what happens when government jumps into business look to the Ford VS GM yearly results.

The stimulus - Canada’s included. The cry was we need it NOW, and they haven’t spent much even after 6 months. It was a con to get money for political payoff and to further their agenda. Look for round 2 in the US. Thankfully Harper has kept a lid on ours.

American health care reform - they are trying to jam this down America’s throat even though it doesn’t actually start to reform anything until they’ve collected years of taxes. If you’d like to see just how big of a dog it really is, read this legal review. The reform is purely social engineering and will do nothing to improve costs or quality of health care. There will still be millions uninsured, although they will face fines and jail for not being insured. Americans hate it and it has awakened the silent majority.

Our world – we’re all going to drown soon, the globe is heating up faster than ever, our ice cap will be gone in a few years… and NOW is the time to transfer all of our money to the third world. Fortunately Copenhagen collapsed. That’s what happens when you gather the world’s Marxists and dictators together. It was meant to be a foreign-aid bonanza… or at least they hoped for one. They’ll try again in Mexico.

Obama-change has broken the bank… and now China is warning it can’t buy US debt. This should be a dire warning, but it’s apparent the Obama agenda trumps common sense. The Chinese have been sending the message for months, but no one is listening.

Onward they go, forcing massive spending bills through. California could be first to collapse – It already costs 2.35% a year of principal to insure Californian municipals against default, according to CMA DataVision, nearly as much as it costs to insure Greek bonds. The treasury will need to be buying these soon, and it doesn’t have the money.

2010 doesn’t look good, thanks to the Obama-looting in 2009. The US will see skyrocketing taxes, higher unemployment, and huge government growth.

The progressives are in a panic, because they know this is will be a short-lived opportunity – where they have complete control – to radically change the US to their socialist ideal. Obama’s first year makes Jimmy Carter look like a genius.

Real Hope’N'Change should come later in 2010, when congress is voted out. Hopefully, Republicans will embrace the tea party ideals, and we’ll see a return to sanity. The odds of the Nancy and Harry show being around in 2011 are slim to none.

Let’s hope it’s not too late.

The real fallout in Canada hasn’t even started yet, and when it comes, we’re in for a shock. We continue to spend at an unsustainable rate and Canadians today are deeper in debt than ever. Oil is the only thing holding things together right now. If commodity prices were to drop substantially, we’re in big trouble. A second world financial crisis (which is inevitable) would drive commodities down.

Time to slow down and start putting money away… rainy days may be just around the corner.

photo credit: 2create

Each Canadian To Chip In $3,000

Unbelievably, in the Vancouver Sun:

A leaked draft version of the agreement on the table at the Copenhagen climate conference reveals plans for a massive transfer of wealth out of Canada. This transfer will come in the form of new taxes and the establishment of a new world government body for climate change housed in the World Bank.

The two-per-cent tax on GDP alone would cost Canada some $26 billion. The $2-a-tonne tax would add up to $500 million per year. And the tax on international financial transactions would soak untold billions. This total tax grab is at least $26.5 billion, or over $3,000 a year for every Canadian family– not including the tax on financial transactions or plane trips.

This idea would be bad enough even if the cash was meant to stay in Canada. But it is not. The scheme is designed to send this cash to 49 developing nations for them to reduce their CO2 emissions and to create so-called green projects. These 49 countries include the likes of Uganda, Burundi and the Sudan.

Pray for these frauds to fail…

Here’s a great round up on the global warming hoax.

photo credit: mondays child

Canadian Musicians May Get A Windfall

Pirates against pirates…

You got to admire the Canadian Recording Industry Association… after they fleeced us for buying blank CDs, they’ve come up with a new way to get money into someone’s pocket.

Members of the Canadian Recording Industry Association, including the Big Four (Warner Music Canada, Sony BMG Music Canada, EMI Music Canada, and Universal Music Canada), face the prospect of damages ranging from $50 million up to $6 billion due to their use of artists’ music without permission.

One part of the complaint says the companies have shown “reckless, high-handed and arrogant conduct aggravated by their clandestine disregard for the copyright interests of the class members in contrast to their strict compliance enforcement policy and unremitting approach to consumers in the protection of their corporate copyright interests.”

The music industry’s has blatantly abused of a certain aspect of Canadian copyright practices—something that the labels themselves don’t even deny doing.

As University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist pointed out on his blog, the issue stems from a change to the law in the 1980s that eventually produced something known as the “pending list.” Essentially, record companies no longer had to get a compulsory license every time they wanted to use a song for, say, a compilation album. Instead, they went ahead and used the song without waiting for authorization or making payment, adding the song to a list of music that is pending authorization and payment. That basically means the record industries could use songs as long as they swore they would get authorization and pay the artist for it eventually.

Instead of keeping up with its tab on the pending list, the recording industry just kept adding songs—without obtaining any rights. The pending list among the lawsuit’s defendants has topped 300,000 songs from both large and small artists alike—300,000 songs that the labels are openly admitting that they have not secured the rights for. In the complaint, the plaintiffs claim that the record companies have been unjustly enriched by the use of their unauthorized music (they have, after all, been selling the music without permission and not paying out).

So once they get their $50 million to $6 billion owed, it would be interesting to see how long musicians and artists in Canada have to wait… and how much they’ll actually receive. Don’t hold your breath.

photo credit: San Diego Shooter

Depression Christmas Gift Ideas

‘Cause you never know when you’ll need it…

Stephen Harper Probably Saved Or Created A Million Jobs

Canada adds 79,000 jobs in November

The Canadian economy gained a surprising 79,000 jobs in November, with the unemployment rate easing 0.1 percentage points to 8.5%, Statistics Canada reported Friday.

“Almost all the employment growth in November was attributable to the service sector (up 73,000), especially educational services,” the federal agency said. Read more here:

It was 5x the expected..

Now if we could just add the jobs “saved or created.” category like Obama did… we’re well on our way to a million.

Who needs a stimulus?

Nancy Pelosi Fan Club

The Dumocrats want to pass another stimulus to complete the looting of America:

Americans Would Accept More Red Ink in Exchange for Jobs

“We have to shed any weakness that anybody may have about not wanting to be confrontational on this subject for fear that we’d be labeled not sensitive to the deficit,” Pelosi said, in a recording posted by Think Progress.

“The American people have an anger about the growth of the deficit because they’re not getting anything for it. … If somebody has the idea that the percentage of GDP of what our national debt is will go up a bit, but they will now — and their neighbors and their children — will have jobs, I think they could absorb that, and then we ride it out and bring money in,” she said.

Audio here:

Try to find a supportive comment here.. or even a civil one. I guess that’s how Americans feel about Nancy and Barry’s stimulus.

Keep dancing.. the horror is almost over. 2010 can’t come soon enough.

Dubai Bites The Dust

Fast Company had a great article in September on Dubai fast collapsing economy, called Bye, Bye Dubai.

“So what they have been able to produce is a miracle.” Or was it a mirage?

Today, an estimated 50% of the slated developments are frozen or canceled. Banks have stopped lending. Housing prices fell 41% in the first quarter of 2009 and are expected to drop to preboom levels. The stock market has plunged 70% from its peak. And people across the socioeconomic spectrum are being laid off — and fleeing — in droves. But even fleeing is harder than it sounds: When foreigners, who once made up perhaps 80% of Dubai’s 1.7 million residents, lose their jobs, their work visas are rescinded and they generally have 30 days to pay their debts and leave. Those who fail to pay risk debtor’s prison. And debt here is now as deep and ubiquitous as the sand itself.

The wealthy, like the Emiratis, remain well cared for. Designer Roberto Cavalli, asked why he spent $30 million on his new Cavalli Club during a financial crisis, replied, “What financial crisis?”

After reading all the comments posted by other readers it is obvious that your view of Dubai is one sided. Governemnt is super efficient here and they proactively work on every challenge. Even in this downturn this place is stable, all job losses is just an indication of market fluctuation. Any company would go for restructuring to steer the company through difficult times.

You should have given an unbiased view of Dubai.

Today, the prospect of a complete collapse in Dubai drove the markets down significantly (S&P 500 equity futures contract show a potential drop on Wall Street of 2.2 per cent tomorrow)… and over the next week we may have another Iceland on our hands.

There’s a lot of abandoned wealth there also:

Police have found more than 3,000 cars outside Dubai’s international airport in recent months. Most of the cars – four-wheel drives, saloons and “a few” Mercedes – had keys left in the ignition.

This video was made in February.. and it’s been a fast downward spiral since.

It shows that the “too big to fail” assumption is just plain wrong, and it is a preclude of things to come.

They should have used a New York Credit Repair company to help.

Ron Paul Scores One. Finally.

The House Financial Services Committee has approved Rep. Ron Paul’s measure to drastically expand the government’s power to audit the Federal Reserve.

The measure, based on a Paul proposal that has attracted more than 300 co-sponsors, passed, 43-26, as an amendment to a financial reform bill. The adoption of this amendment is an extraordinary victory for Paul, whose libertarian, anti-Fed leanings have often been dismissed by the political establishment.

In August, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was pressured about the growing popular movement to Audit the Fed spearheaded by Texas Congressman Ron Paul.

A visibly uncomfortable Geithner attempts to dismiss the question by stating “I’m sure people understand that you want to keep politics out of monetary policy.” He makes the stunning assertion that conducting an audit of the Federal Reserve—something never before done in its 96 year history—is a “line that we don’t want to cross,” proclaiming that such a move would be “problematic for the country.”

Seems to me the current US administration has already set the record for crossing the line… this should probe interesting. (Sorry for the commercial at the beginning.)

photo credit: MyTwistedLens

Ford Offers An Alternative To Cash For Clunkers

New Car For Cash-Strapped Buyers – From Ford – While Inventory Lasts.

The Average Family Size In California Somehow Went Up.

In a revenue grab (tax theft), California increased withholding tax by 10% for all employees in the state.

It’s fine, they say, we’ll give it back when you file your tax return.

It’s a forced loan to the state. ‘Cause no one else will trust them enough to give them money.

Unfortunately, it will probably mean you’ll get an IOU… just like last year.

Here’s a way to stop this theft; add a kid or two to your employer tax form.

Better yet, add 4 or 5.

If enough people do this it shuts down the scheme.

And it stops it from taking hold elsewhere. Because as we know in Canada, they are always looking for new ways to tax us.

Had enough of the Democrats yet California?

photo credit: David Ortmann

A Picture That’s Worth A Trillion Words

As Obama runs his money-press at high speed, the world’s banks are holding less and less of it… which supports the theory that the US dollar may be in for a collapse.

The frightening trend:

…the second quarter was the only one in which central banks accumulated more than $100 billion in reserves and put less than 40 percent into dollars, down from a 70 percent quarterly average back to 2006.

The complete story here.

Speaking Of Successful Business Models

You can have a government owned enterprise, or you can have free enterprise:

Ford Earns $997 Million, Projects Solid 2011 Profit.

And what are GM and Chrysler up to?

With General Motors cutting brands, some owners appear concerned about parts supplies drying up.

Or,

Can Fiat Cars Save Chrysler?

This should clear up any debate on whether government should run health care.

The Three McDonald’s Restaurants In Iceland Gone.

From Bad to Worse:

McDonald’s Europe has announced plans to close its three restaurants in Reykjavik, Iceland, citing the country’s ongoing economic troubles and high importing costs as the cause.

The restaurant franchises, operated by Jon Ogmundsson, will close on 31 October 2009 – 15 years after Iceland opened its first McDonald’s restaurant.

Mr Ogmundsson said the decision had not been taken lightly, but because of the unreasonable operating costs which they abide by. The restaurants import ingredients from Germany, and with the falling krona, imports have been made prohibitively expensive.

He said: “It makes no sense. For a kilo of onion, imported from Germany, I’m paying the equivalent of a bottle of good whiskey.”

According to reports, meal prices would have to rise by 20% in order to make the restaurants financially viable.

Mr Ogmundsson plans to reopen the restaurants under another name using purely Icelandic goods.

Unfortunately, Iceland isn’t a great place for cows and produce. Maybe they’ll start a whale burger franchise?

I can’t say I’ve heard of McDonald’s ever closing shop due to financial hardship.

Read more on how Iceland collapsed.. and how they’ve turned to women to save them.

A look into the future of socialist nations.

photo credit: smithysteads

Here’s What 1.4 Trillion Can Buy.

Now that the US has overspent by 1.4 trillion, you’d think they’d cut back a hair.

Nope. They plan on overspending by another 1.4 trillion.

I have yet to hear the Obama government mention that words “spending cuts”. It brings new meaning to the line “Socialism is great until you run out of other peoples money”.

Time to start offering Americans Canadian Dollar bank accounts. There’s a killing to be made soon.