Mamma Mia!

Mia Rabson gets into the political mud flinging surrounding Crocus in today’s Free Press. She lays out the positions held by the various parties and then goes on to consult with Paul Thomas, a University of Manitoba politics professor who asserts:
And an endless delay in government business will upset voters, who are already disengaged and distrustful of politicians. "Up to a point the public will tolerate these tactics," said Thomas. "People are turned off by the negative theatrics of it all and they don't want to see it."

The article does a great disservice to its readers by going to the wrong talking head. The issue at hand is not what political party is doing what but rather how the NDP being “asleep at the switch” affects Manitobans who are investing their hard-earned money in the capital markets.

From the CFA Institute website:
Directors are representatives of shareowners and are charged with overseeing management — whose role it is to oversee relationships with employees, customers, suppliers, and neighbors — and, as stewards of corporate assets, are responsible for overseeing the investment of those assets in a manner that maximizes shareowner value.

The fact that the NDP were made well aware of the liquidity problems with the fund coupled with the fact the Province had A REPRESENTATIVE ON THE BOARD does not bode well for investors’ confidence in our markets. The question we should be asking is whether or not the NDP owed a fiduciary duty to Crocus shareholders AND all Manitoba investors. If so, did they do everything in their power to ensure that they held themselves to this standard of care? I think there is only one way to find out.

Introducing the New 007

Although Daniel Craig received critical acclaim for his performance in Casino Royale, there’s an even better person for the role. He is suave. He is charismatic. He is handsome. He is also the master of stealth taxation. He is none other than our very own Gary Doer.

So before the year is over be sure to watch for Gary in the upcoming 007% - Taxes Are Forever. Judging by the bags of shwag the NDP has planned for voters, the marketing budget for this one is HUGE – it’s sure to be a bankbuster err blockbuster.

Thankfully, we have already seen the script. Our intrepid hero sneaks past the defences of the wary taxpayer and expands the PST. In a red-hot housing market, he then tells these taxpayers that under his leadership, they have seen their home equity values soar. If you must pay more in sales taxes, costs tend to increase – these costs expertly slip under the radar of a bull market. Just when the public starts questioning the accountability of school boards and increasing school taxes, he professes to have no control over the educational tax component of the public’s property tax bill and vanishes.

Release date for this action adventure? Spring or Fall, 2007. Watch for it – the legacy we are bestowing upon our children depends upon you the viewer following this complicated plot and seeing past the Hollywood magic…

The Perpetually Blooming Crocus

Once again, I find myself watching the NDP handle business matters with a level of trepidation usually reserved for watching my children trying to be all grown up by using “big people” glasses or dishes. While you want to support their efforts, you can’t help but wonder what is going to get broken in the process. Unfortunately for Manitobans, our capital markets can’t be fixed or replaced as easily as smashed kitchenware.

From Sunday’s Free Press:

On Saturday, Selinger several times cautioned reporters there are two distinct issues that should not be confused -- the possibility Crocus foresaw in 2000 of future cash flow problems, and, as a separate issue, the value of the fund's investments, which Selinger emphasized were not under discussion in 2000.

The Blackberry Addicts, quick to vilify Hugh, added:

That the opposition is happy to confuse the liquidity and pacing issue with the actual problems with the value of Crocus's investments that led to shares stopping trading in 2004 is not at all surprising.
They want the confusion.
But that Manitoba news outlets are happily following along, confusing the issues is doing their public a great disservice.
In effect, they are lying to Manitobans.

Confusion? Lies? Unfortunately for Today’s NDP, liquidity is inextricably linked to valuation no matter how much our esteemed orange-scarfed investment gurus may argue otherwise. If investors were extended the courtesy of being made aware of liquidity concerns with Crocus, same would have eroded their confidence in the fund. This in turn would affect the price they would be willing to pay, regardless of “valuation” gamesmanship. For an illustration of just how important liquidity is in any business, click here.

The NDP are supposed to be the stewards of our capital markets. What do they think is happening to investor confidence in said markets if they keep making a mockery of them? While shell games belong on street corners, they don’t belong on the corner of Broadway and Osborne…

Book ‘Em, Danno? Not in Winnipeg

Dan Lett’s most recent post touches on the crime debate facing our fair city. Apparently, Winnipeg fares no worse than any other urban centre. The debate is being fueled by “diatribists” (I hope this won’t require any “diaspora”-esque clarifications at a later date) who are merely engaging in histrionic political posturing.

Lett elects to critique the diatribists on their use of anecdotes. His critique is itself unfortunately devoid of any hard data that would effectively refute those apparently embroiled in political gamesmanship (an irony doubtlessly duly noted by a smarty pants wife). I would personally have used per capita auto theft statistics if I were to accuse someone else of posturing. After all, if there truly is no problem then this could surely be corroborated with some effortless number crunching.

Another contention is that those of us concerned with crime suffer from a distinct lack of cosmopolitan experience:
“It’s just immature, and evidence that you haven’t received many stamps in your passport, to try and make anyone believe Winnipeg has a bigger problem than other cities.”
Believe it or not Dan, some of us unwashed masses HAVE traveled and lived outside of the confines of the Perimeter. I felt much safer walking the streets of downtown Toronto in the wee hours of the morning than I do walking the streets of Winnipeg on a warm summer afternoon. The most colourful homeless person I frequently met in Toronto sang a cheery song of “If you’re happy and you know it, spare some change.” Here, the most colourful street people I have encountered were urinating on a luxury car in an Impark lot, urinating on Main Street, accosting my wife on multiple occasions and throwing each other into a plate glass window. The plural of anecdote may not be data but at least my anecdotes are predicated on first-hand experience.

The next major plank in Lett’s argument is that other urban centres have bigger concerns than petty crimes such as auto theft:
“Try and look at this debate through the eyes of residents in other cities. You think anyone in British Columbia watching the Willie Pickton murder trial is worried about the violent crime rate in Winnipeg? You think Torontonians are shocked by the pellet-gun shooting last week in Winnipeg as they watch the trial of a gang of youths responsible for the Boxing Day drive-by shooting murder of teenage girl? And what of Edmontonians — you wonder how much sleep they are losing over the state of our mean streets as they track a serial murderer who could be responsible for as many as a dozen vicious attacks on prostitutes?”
This clever assertion neglects to mention that Dan’s very own Winnipeg Free Press recently featured a story on the unsolved murders of many local sex-trade workers. Does that not constitute a “vicious attack”?

A local radio show (and likely subject of Lett’s post) sought the monetary costs from MPI for car theft and vandalism. If I remember correctly, the total tally came to $59 million. That would be the equivalent of 590 homes for the homeless. It could also pay the annual tuition for the ALL OF the full-time undergraduate students at the University of Manitoba with money to spare. This $59 million does not even include the deductibles paid by the victims or the losses from acts that go unreported.

Dan, maybe we would be able to solve poverty and dysfunction if we weren’t so busy paying for auto repairs. Money is a finite resource – once it is spent, you can’t use it somewhere else. $59 million and counting is one heck of a societal opportunity cost – one well worth acknowledging and eradicating…

Captain Green Caught Red Handed

Tom Brodbeck exposes a chink in David Suzuki’s environmental armour in today’s Winnipeg Sun. Apparently Captain Green is using a luxury tour bus (albeit diesel) to spread the environmental gospel.

Apparently there is a hierarchy in the environmental new world order. At the apex we have the Cadillac Escalade-driving Al Gore and the Luxo-bus-riding David Suzuki. The rest of us plebs are the ones that are expected to jam ourselves onto subways and spend hours waiting for buses.

I believe that we all should be concerned about global warming. Oil that took millions of years to produce is being consumed at much quicker rates. If the message is being spread by bourgeois environmentalists, however, responsible consumption becomes a tough sell.

Brodbeck also touches on Suzuki’s puzzling “carbon neutral” exercise in justifying use of his vehicular Taj Mahal. Apparently the environmental havoc being wreaked by a luxury coach can be negated by donating to green technologies. Can a murderer absolve themselves of guilt by donating to a family charity? Can a molester elude prosecution by donating to an orphanage?

WestJet flies planes on a regular schedule. If Suzuki and his entourage elected to fly on one of said planes, they would only marginally be adding to the fuel that is already being consumed. This could be rendered “carbon neutral” by staying in a hotel. The hotel is ALREADY consuming a fuel like natural gas to maintain room temperature. An extra 8 bodies in the hotel would lessen the work needed from the heating equipment. That would be TRUE carbon neutrality. Maybe even carbon negative…

Thanks for Nothing Anita

Liberal MP Anita Neville was on Marty Gold’s radio show last week. During same, she feigned righteous indignation that a Conservative MP dare suggest that our city has a problem with crime. We are, after all, an artistic and cultural centre.

Anita, I would just like you to know that TWO members of my family were victims of attempted car thefts/break-ins this weekend. The incidents occurred within HOURS of each other on the SAME day. The only member of my family that HASN’T fallen victim to this type of crime is the one that resides in another province. Some of us, myself included, have had this happen on more than one occasion.

While I appreciate our city’s great arts scene, I would appreciate it more if I didn’t have to deal with the broken windshield and smashed locks that occur while I am taking in the performance.

Will This Ever Enter the Debate?

I am currently making my way through Tim Harford’s The Undercover Economist. A section that will be near and dear to the heart of every Canadian is the one analyzing public vs. private health care. Harford states that Britain’s public system has a 25% satisfaction rate while America’s private system has a 17% rate. I challenge anyone to find another industry with such low levels of customer satisfaction.

The book then goes on to expand the debate beyond the tiresome “all or nothing” 100% private vs. 100% public rhetoric that seems to mire the dialogue here in Canada. Singapore uses “forced saving and catastrophic insurance to make sure costs were manageable but keeping the power of patient choice at the heart of the system.” Imagine a system that operates sort of like a pension plan for most procedures except for extraordinary (i.e. “catastrophic”) circumstances.

And what are the outcomes?

“The typical Singaporean lives to the age of eighty, and the cost of the system (both public and private) is a thousand dollars per person – less than the cost of the bureaucracy alone in the United States. Each year, the typical Singaporean pays about seven hundred dollars privately (the average American pays about twenty-five hundred dollars privately) and the government spends three hundred dollars per person (five times less than the British government and seven times less than the American government).”

Perhaps it’s time for our “experts” to broaden the debate?

Motivational Tunes:

Blue Man Group – I Feel Love

Dio – Rainbow in the Dark

Morrissey – We Hate it When Our Friends Become Successful