There are many that think Huawei is just a puppet of the Chinese government and an equal number that think the Huawei bans and bad talk are nothing more than hype designed to stifle a non-Western competitor. We recently wrote two articles explaining some of Huawei’s background: 10 Short Answers To Why Huawei is so Scary To Western Countries Who Owns Huawei? A Fascinating Story but neither our previous articles nor the political hype have clearly explained why countries should…
There are three main factors in our calling for the US economy to stall in the coming months, which will give China the upper hand in trade negotiations: 1 – Government Spending Tax Cuts Stimulation Has Run Its Course The US economy has been booming for the last two years because of historic federal government spending under President Trump: “Trump May Be The Most Fiscally Reckless President In American History. Trump’s behavior on everything and anything having to do with…
From an American perspective, China has a strange confidence the belies and critical weakness that is just below the surface. US President Donald Trump is fond of pointing out that China sells much more to the US than the US sells to China. He believes that this trade imbalance gives him unlimited power to dictate Chinese policy and that belief has lead to the US initiating a trade war. Chinese President Xi Jinping knows that his country has an enormous…
Here are the numbers supporting what you likely already knew. George W Bush was not well liked or respected in the international community, largely because he polarized world leaders into “…those who are with (the US), or with the terrorists” Obama softened the US stance on international issues. He had been called the Consoler In Chief. Trump’s lack of foreign policy planning and his penchant for grandstanding has lead him to take hard line on almost everything. Thus far, he…
We just spent a few hours reading, skimming and searching through the Mueller report and found just two references to Canada or Canadians, both of which are completely innocuous. You may then ask why a negative outcome worth reporting and we respond that it is a question we have been asked to look into. We expected to at least be able to to say that the report was chock full of mysterious inferences about the Russia – Trump relationship but…
If you live in Alberta, BC, Ontario… ok… Canada, or the US or UK or Australia… ok… if you live on planet earth, you have heard about Carbon Taxes. Those that are for them claim they will cure all environmental ills and those against claim they are just another government tax grab. We dug into the facts and came up with 5 Myths about Carbon Taxes we thought you would find interesting: MYTH 1 – Carbon Taxes Don’t Change Behaviour…
Nearly 60% of people in the US, Canada and Britain believe in at least one notable conspiracy theory. This includes: 5% of Americans think airplane vapor trails are poison gas controlled by the government 46% of Americans believe in haunting’s or ghosts 60% of Americans believe the US Government had something to do with the murder of John F Kennedy 55% of Americans believe the US Government is withholding critical information about 9/11 attacks or was directly involved in the…
We have all heard of the bizillionaire who dropped out of College and became fabulously wealthy and happy, but let’s face it, you are not Marc Zuckerberg or Bill Gates. You can also find the odd 90 year old still smoking a pack a day, but again, we both know that won’t be you, so you had better plan ahead and education is the single largest non-subjective predictor of a solid financial future. Let’s quickly look at some of the…
It is understandable that people often prefer to associate with people of their own groups. It is just easier to converse, live with and do business with people that share a similar background. Personally, I find that boring, but understandable. The Great Browning is the notion that over the next few hundred years the concepts of White, Black, Asian, … will all be relegated to the history books as nearly everyone’s skin will be some light shade of brown. The…
With the sad news of the Christchurch New Zealand terrorist attack being carried out by yet another White Supremacist, we had read and seen dozens of news reports with titles like: US terror attacks are increasingly motivated by right-wing views. We started investigating this article believing the major media’s claim that that 70% of terror attacks in the United States are White Supremacist related: Over the last decade, 71% of domestic extremist related killings in the US were linked to…
The first time you heard of antitrust laws being used to break up large companies you likely thought that that it would result in a destruction wealth. Depending upon your political persuasion or past experience with the company, that may or may not have bothered you. However, it is important to remember that the driver behind antitrust law is to increase competition and innovation, there by creating more wealth. In fact, breaking up large companies is usually advantageous to the…
The latest round of American Presidential Candidates has shown that those on the left of the political spectrum are just a as willing to ignore facts and as the political right. This is a potentially catastrophic death spiral. In today’s world voters need to think more and listen less as leaders on both sides of the political spectrum drive to emotion and ignore facts. Politics has always been a perception business and at its heart, the political system is a…
The China vs United States Trade war is a constant discussion in “The West” and is highly visible because it causes companies like Apple to talk about raising consumer prices. China is very different from the United States and here is why the Chinese consumer has very little concern about the Trade War: MEDIA: The Chinese Government controls the media and they are tamping down emotions. Compare this to President Trumps approach of screaming about the trade war daily which…
There is much talk about “Deferred Prosecution Agreements” because of the SNC Lavalin bribery scandals. The insinuation from many media outlets is that a Deferred Prosecution Agreement lets companies go without punishment. This is far from how DPA’s actually work. Here are the top five things everyone should know about Deferred Prosecution Agreements: 1 – What a Deferred Prosecution Agreement Is: A Deferred Prosecution Agreement effectively has the company plead guilty and do whatever the Government prosecutor wants them to…
The “Oil Curse” or “Curse of Oil” or “Resource Curse” is the net negative outcome that is seen with any single industry that takes over a geographic area. The central idea is that when oil is discovered in an undeveloped land, like rural Africa, the initial promise of great wealth results in rapid development and that leads to what economists call ‘externalities’. Externalities are charges that should be calculated as part of the cost of development but instead are pushed…
Donald Trump and friends have been banging on this border wall idea for years and their supporters are energized by it. Our editorial staff have spent days thinking about how Trump supporters could be so insistent that a border wall is needed when it so obviously is not (let’s not argue the pro’s and con’s here, just follow the big picture logic below)… and we think we came up with the answer. In short, Trump / Wall supporters don’t know…