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Salon Magazine Vol # 21

May 16th, 2001

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David Nicholson Technetium

After the recent flurry of truly exceptional evenings, Wednesday Night is back by popular demand in its usual format.
Topics this week may range from the U.S. Defense initiatives and (appalling) Environmental policies to the calculation of need in our health care system - an imperfect and under appreciated science, according to Dr. Mark Roper who will be among us. No doubt there will be the inevitable discussion of the Fed rate. Perhaps the Italian elections. On the eve of the Court challenge to the Mega-Merger, we would also be interested in reactions to the brochure received today and entitled "De nouvelles villes dans un monde nouveau. We like the sub-title "Bien se renseigner pour se faire une juste idée". Has anyone attempted to get an English version?
Whatever the topic, we look forward to your participation.
David and Diana Nicholson

Chris Goodfellow MBA on Gold & Money

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#1002

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INTRODUCTION

May 16, 2001

Wednesday Night Salon # 1002

May 16th, 2001

A NEW FACE

Holly Jonas introduced her guest, Dr. Deirdre Edward who studied at Trinity College Dublin, and earned a Ph. D. in Chemical Pathology. She has published over 70 papers, including some that explored possible antidotes for nuclear fallout. Her late husband, Jack Edward was a Professor for many years at McGill in the Department of Chemistry.

ANTI-MERGER ANTICS

The recent Anti-merger rally in front of the Hydro Building (where the Premier’s office is) was disappointingly small, possibly due to the budget which was one tenth of the very successful rally in December. It did not appear to be well organized, lacking some basic elements of successful promotion, no E-mails, no direct approach to the many residents who work in downtown offices However, on the bright side, one hundred of Westmount’s 400 union workers did show up. The main plus of the event was a rousing speech by Jean Charest, who again committed to rollback the merger once he is elected into power.

THE COURT CASE

The next important date on the Anti-merger calendar is the court case on Tuesday 22nd May. This will be in Room 5.15 of the Palais de Justice, which can hold close to 400 people. Margaret asked that we do our best to fill to court (9-12 and 1:30 to 4:30pm), especially on the first day. First up will be the Westmount team including Julius Grey, Gerard Tremblay (not be to be confused with the candidate for Mega Mayor), and subsequently Guy Bertrand who appears for Baie d’Urfé. The suburbs have four days to present their case; the following week the Quebec government lawyers appear and the final Friday afternoon is reserved for the suburbs’ rebuttal. Concerned citizens are invited to “Come, look Glum, but don’t chew Gum!”

THE ECONOMY

Jacques Clément gave his usual detailed view of the state of the Canadian and U.S. economies. Most of the macroeconomic numbers are positive, with housing starts up 7%. Bonds are up, the stock market has just posted a 3% surge to bring the DOW to over 11,200, and NASDAQ was up also up 3.8%. In the Canadian economy there has been growth in the GDP of 1% and 2% for the first two quarters. However, inflation is a concern with the CPI up to 3.3%. The core inflation, which excludes the highly volatile energy and food sector, was just above 2%. Diana pointed that from her micro-economic point of view the only important measure of inflation is the overall one of 3.3%! Jacques re-iterated that both in the States and Canada – inflation is not a problem. Greenspan is still concerned about avoiding a recession and has made five cuts of 0.5% in the key lending rate over the last five months.

The Price Deflator is the real growth after taking into account the inflation factor. One concern is the recent loss of some 275,000 jobs in the U.S.. Also of concern is the continuing negative savings rate in the States, and people’s indebtedness. Much of this is credit card debt, where the interest is about 20%.

In Canada, the saving rate is about 3.5%, and our tax reduction is in place, while the one in the States is still being discussed. In Canada, some 20% of the population have RRSPs, and this is one of the recommended ways of saving, in case government programs are insufficient or clawed back. Canada’s dollar has been the fifth best currency in terms of maintaining its value against the U.S. dollar and even making small gains. In contrast, the Australian dollar has fallen to 52 cents U.S.

ENERGY AND THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION

The Bush Administration Energy Policy has clear plans for exploration and becoming more self-sufficient. However, given that both Bush and Cheney have strong roots in the oil business and are beholden to generous contributors from that sector, it is hardly surprising that there is little interest in conservation. The per capita ratio of energy use is 63 for the World, 140 for Europe and 353 for the U.S.

Canada is now in a position to leverage its interests (e.g. softwood lumber exports) when the U.S. comes to request an increase in energy exports from Canada to the States. There should be a continental-wide joint energy policy. One that does include a strong call for conservation, investment in new technologies based on renewable resources and plans to reduce greenhouse emissions. The U.S. plan may include building a new coal fired power plan every week. This is clearly unacceptable.

U.S. problems have become world problems, that the rest of the world is expected to solve. It was strongly suggested that the only way to get the message to sink in, was to increase the price for the energy Canada exports to such an extent that U.S. users feel it in their pocketbooks. This will reduce demand and encourage conservation.

OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS

The Industrial Revolution ignored the environment. Our buildings and cities (and many points in our highways) are over-illuminated at night. Birds fly into buildings. It was pointed out that the human body needs complete darkness for several hours to produce melatonin, which is used to control certain cancers. Noise is also a form of environmental pollution, and has to be controlled.

PRECIOUS METALS MARKETS

Gold is expensive to store and thinly traded. Platinum and Palladium (used in fuel cells) are now considered more important. Diamonds are a soft market with de Beers controlling 58% of it although Australia and India are increasing their production of stones. There was a question on “Blood Diamonds” from Sierra Leone and other countries beset with conflicts and civil wars around the world. About 2% of diamond production is affected. It is almost impossible to trace the source of a cut diamond and to say where it originated. There are similar problem with rubies from Burma (Myanmar), and emeralds from Cali in Columbia. Please see W-N latest oh newsBurma

MUHC HOSPITAL PROJECT

Dr. Mark Roper said the new MUHC hospital project was an exciting project. However, given its location in the Glen yards there is a problem with noise from the nearby freeway and train tracks. His recent op-ed piece in the Gazette urges that the authorities assess the need and set the parameters for the new facility. Among the items of concern is the ratio of beds per 1,000 head of population. This was 2.5/1,000 in 1995 and has been decreased to 2.2/1,000. With a population of some 2.9 million, this implies a need for some 8,000 acute care beds, while the Régie argues that 6,000 should be sufficient. Part of the discussion is the ratio of chronic care beds versus long term care beds. The new MUHC hospital has proposed space for 900 beds. An added problem is the aging of the population with the number of people over 65 expected to double by 2020. Emergency Rooms are still overloaded. One guest described a case where a person spent 5 days in ER and only one day in a ward before being discharged. Please see W-N MedicalNotes

Notes by Professor Gerald Ratzer Edited by Diana Thébaud Nicholson.

Diana Nicholson

Edited by Diana Thébaud Nicholson
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Notes for This Wednesday-Night #1002

May 18, 2001

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

A Perfect Storm?

ByTHOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

President Bush is not responsible for America's energy crisis, its current economic slowdown or even for all the tension between the U.S. and China and the U.S. and certain allies. What he is responsible for, though, is managing these situations. And that is what's worrying. www.nytimes.com/2001/05/18/opinion/18FRIE.html

Thu 5/17/01 7:00 PM U.S. ENERGY PLAN CALLS FOR MORE NUCLEAR, COAL, AND OIL PRODUCTION Faced with a growing American energy crisis, U.S. President George W. Bush has unveiled a long-term U.S. energy plan that proposes to ramp up the production of nuclear power, burn more coal, and search for oil in ecologically-sensitive areas - a recipe that brought harsh criticism from his political foes and environmental groups. cbc.ca/cgi-bin/view?/news/2001/05/17/usenergy_010517

Thu 5/17/01 7:00 PM CRITICS ACCUSE BUSH OF 'ENERGY SCAM' Warning of a "darker future" if action is not taken, U.S. President George W. Bush announced plans Thursday to boost the country's energy supply as well as reduce demand. cbc.ca/cgi-bin/view?/news/2001/05/17/usenergy_bas_010517 [Are they going to pay thr bill? DTN]

Thu 5/17/01 7:00 PM INFLATION SOARS TO 10-YEAR HIGH Inflation has hit its highest rate in a decade jumping to 3.6 per cent in April, Statistics Canada revealed Thursday. cbc.ca/cgi-bin/view?/news/2001/05/17/inflation_010517

Thu 5/17/01 7:00 PM DIVIDED REACTION IN CANADA TO BUSH PLAN Like oil poured into water, two very different views of the White House's new energy plan surfaced in Canada Thursday. cbc.ca/cgi-bin/view?/news/2001/05/17/reaxn010517

Wed 5/16/01 7:00 PM CANADA LOSES IMPORTANT SOFTWOOD LUMBER DECISION The U.S. lumber industry has been given the green light to proceed with its quest to penalize imports of softwood lumber from Canada. cbc.ca/cgi-bin/view?/news/2001/05/16/softwood0105016

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April 5, 2001 Shawini-gate
I think we have a clue that Shawinigate has gone on a tad too long when Jean Chretien and the wretched golf course are compared directly or indirectly with Slobodan Milosevic and ethnic cleansing, or when the Hotel Grande Mer and The Hague war crimes tribunal start to orbit each other in the same sentence. http://cbc.ca/news/national/rex/rex20010319.html

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The History of "The Arabian Nights' Entertainments" should read before Wed 1001 May 9th 2001

My contribution:

Last week, I had 87 students write their final exam in my course, "Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Drifting Continents". On the exam, I put a question

"What are the principle tenets of the Theory of Plate Tectonics?"

I estimate 70% of the students called me over because they didn't know what the word "tenet" meant. I was appalled. This is an elective course, and I have students from all faculties and years. Only two of my students in that course are Francophone.

Now, this has to be evaluated also in the context of what is happening in the Quebec education system. Concordia just signed a performance contract with the Quebec government, promising to enrol more students and graduating a higher percentage of those students than we currently graduate.

I see no way of this working without "dumbing down" the university curricula, and teaching in words of one syllable. It is very discouraging.

I also think that a major problem is what is going on in the primary, secondary, and CEGEP schools. I get students who cannot spell (that is universal) and who do not write in sentences. There are systematic problems in the education system as a whole.

So that's my 5 cents worth bye for now Judy

Dr. Judith Patterson [patj@alcor.concordia.ca]

TIRED OF THOSE HIGH PAID TEACHERS!!

I, for one, am sick and tired of those high paid teachers. Their hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work nine or ten months year!

It's time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do, baby-sit!

We can get that for less than minimum wage.
That's right.........I would give them $3 dollars an hour and only the hours they worked, not any of that silly planning time. That would be $15 a day.
Each parent should pay $15 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children.
Now, how many do they teach in a day....maybe 25.
Then that's 15 X 25=$375 a day.

But remember they only work 180 days a year! I'm not going to pay them for any vacations.
Let's see... that's 375 x 180= $67,500.00

(Hold on, my calculator must need batteries!!)

What about those special teachers or the ones with Masters Degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum wage just to be fair. Let's round it off to $6 an hour.
That would be $6 times 5 hours times 25 children times 180 days= $135,000.00 per year.
Wait a minute, there is something wrong here!!!

There sure is, huh????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks to Élisabeth Wojtowicz[elisabeth.alsace@videotron.ca]

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Wed1001 next week Wed1003

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6/Apr/2001 17:27