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(Jan 11)... Do you realise that in 55 weeks you will have reached 25 years of Wednesday nights?
Could be a good time to create a coffee table book covering the issues that have arisen in 25 years of round table discussions.
It will be Jan 31st 2007...1300 Wednesday Nights, or 25 years.
That's impressive.
Marc Nicholson
Map & directions to 33 Avenue Rosemount, Westmount, QC, Canada
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Welcome to Wednesday-Night 1245 Jan 11th 2006
Be sure to check here for last week's Summary
RECESS IS OVER!
Greetings, salutations and obfuscations to all.
Trusting that , having duly enjoyed a period of jollity and merriment under tropic skies or in the not-so-frozen northern wastelands, you are now prepared to feast on a buffet of newsworthy events and prognostication of the economic, political and geopolitical variety.
For an hors d'oeuvre we offer treats from oriental cuisine: continuing liberalisation of the Chinese yuan along with conclusions of a recent report by UBS's chief Asia economist Jonathan Anderson that :
"China's state run firms are no more loss-making than their US-listed counterparts" and
"Chinese firms are not subsidised by China's government or its state owned banks in any meaningful way". news.bbc.co.uk
and revised economic growth figures for China that exceed previously published reports news.bbc.co.uk
We add a little sushi: The OECD forecasts Japanese economic growth will slow to 1.9 percent this year, from 2.2 in 2005. The China-Japan talks on energy resources in the Eastern China Seas stall, while the tug-of-war continues over which countries will become members of an expanded UN Security Council and Japan has opted out of the G-4 (Brazil, Germany & India) to hold bilateral talks with the U.S. bloomberg.com/japan
And where we would be without nan in the ongoing debates on the respective importance of India and China? For those who subscribe, we recommend the New York Times piece of December 15 that points out that:" As recent investments by Microsoft, Intel and Cisco Systems attest, corporate America has come to view India not just as a source of low-cost talent but also as an emerging economic power to be reckoned with." nytimes.com/
For our next course (fowl), dare we mention avian flu in Turkey (sorry! That is worthy of Peter Trent).
Savoring the stew: events south of the border (Abramoff, Alito, et.al.) seem destined to cause some severe cases of heartburn. And there's always Cajun cuisine from New Orleans, spiced up with a development plan or two or three.
Austria has been tasked with reviving debate on the EU's future after the rejection of the constitution by French and Dutch voters last year - diplomacy by sachertorte?
Digesting the indigestible: The Leaders Debate - did it change your mind, turn your stomach, or leave you in a profound state of torpor? Will Canada's federal elections change anything? ww.cbc.ca/canadavotes/Tony Deutsch reminds us that all these electoral promises may bear bitter fruit. He cites the recent story in the New York Times: "A 78-year-old Italian woman is suing Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi because her pension has not been raised despite his pre-electoral pledge five years ago."
For our pousse-café, we offer the headline for the New York Times: The World Isn't Flat, but Its Yield Curve May Be www.wednesday-night.com/interest.asp to which our inimitable Tony replies "I know as much about this as all others who read this stuff".
Events in the Middle East defy our culinary metaphors and are not appropriate subjects for levity. We are appalled by the news item from Afghanistan concerning the man who was beheaded by the Taliban for educating girls and believe that this event serves to underline what Robert Galbraith has been trying to tell us all about the difficulties faced there by our Peacekeeping troops. The constant barrage of news of bombings and kidnappings in Iraq continues, and the struggle of Ariel Sharon for his life bodes ill for the future of any form of peace with Palestine. Equally, the situation in Africa, where millions are starving is hardly appropriate material for discussion of banquets of topics.
Finally: is anyone surprised by the news item today "Cellphones fray nerves, study finds" We wonder how much it cost to find out what everyone already knew?
Come help us choose the menu and enjoy a dégustation of topics. For updates, corrections, sudden changes in topics, please check back here.
Diana & David Nicholson
Wednesday Jan 11, 2006 cc WHO tells Turkey 'no reason to panic' over bird flu outbreak
Turkey has no reason to panic over the bird flu outbreak, a World Health Organization official said Wednesday, urging Turks anew to avoid sick or dead poultry suspected in the rapid spread of the deadly H5N1 strain.
Tuesday Jan 10, 2006 ts Futures markets betting on Harper
The majority of traders on an Internet-based futures exchange believe that Stephen Harper's Conservative Party will walk away with the coming Canadian election.
Meanwhile, The Election Stock Market run by the University of British Columbia's Sauder School of Business, which has been accurate in past elections, suggested the Conservatives would win 128 seats, with the Liberals winning 97, the NDP 25 and the Bloc Québécois 57. As of yesterday, 194 investors had bet a total of $46,160 on the UBC market, an average of $237.93 each. UBC Election Stock Market.
Sunday Dec 18, 2005Montreal Children’s Hospital
September 16, 2005 HeyMath! is an E-learning system that supports the work of teachers in teaching and assessment, whilst helping students in Grades 5 - 12(Ages 10+) build a strong foundation in Math and become independent learners.
Wednesday Oct 12, 2005 Bird Flu: How Concerned Should We Be? Please see!
Interest
and inflation
rates are rising, but in the context of continuing economic
growth of our interest & esp the Flu bug
Some weeks ago, ... Kimon Valaskakis. ( School of Athens,) commented that "information overload leads to information under-use".
OPEC
We remind you that given his devoted following, Jacques Clément's Reports on the Economy are now published on their own special pages and are linked from each week's summary page.
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UNITED STATES
Current Beige Book
June 15, 2005 Fed reports growth in 11 of 12 regions Beige Book: Retail mixed, jobs improve, price pressure up
Note
Wednesday-Night creates charts and follows stocks, including timely related financial news items, in which Wednesday Nighters are interested and in order to demonstrate a service that could eventually be developed and marketed. Wednesday Nighters are invited to participate and help to test the service.
see WN Flip charts
QUOTES of the EVENING from recent Wednesday Nights
From #1242 21 Dec
- Nobody wants to invest when there is going to be a civil war tomorrow
- The business of subsidies is not about the West helping poor Third World countries; the business of subsidies is about making the West feel good
- Climate change will be much more influential in the future of agriculture
- This year, the insurance companies suffered double the highest losses ever
- The U.S. contributes four times as much to its cotton growers as it gives to Africa
- Rice costs ten times more in Japan than in Korea
- Not all subsidies are created equal… We must draw a distinction between building a nation and maintaining trade
- Now that you can make money out of climate change, it will happen
- You need a huge infrastructure, roads, airports, power generation – build a little city, aircraft and then you have to get the oil out (of Alaska). The only good thing is that the melting of the permafrost will make it a quagmire and nobody will be able to build any of the infrastructures required (for oil extraction)
- With oil at $60 a barrel and extraction costs in the Tar Sands estimated at $20 a barrel, the members of the Petroleum Club want the federal government to subsidize the Tar Sands!
- If we reduced oil consumption by seven percent 7% in North and South America, we wouldn’t have to import oil
- The manufacturing sector has been the only loser to the high Canadian dollar
From #1241 14 Dec
- If there were no global warming, we would be caked in ice
- How many people are really distressed about the effects of global warming in Canada – just look at the temperature outside
- There has been a change (in Iraq) People say, ‘why should we die?’ The jury will only be judging on this in ten or twelve years. Twenty percent don’t see us as liberators, eighty percent do
- Why has Tony Blair not faced the same problems [over intervention in Iraq]? Maybe Bush should have done a Blair
- What would Saddam have done with all the extra (oil) money (if he were still in power)?
- The U.S. supported him (Saddam Hussein) a long time when there were other countries (such as Iran and Syria) that were just as fascist
- (President) Bush has dismissed every military commander that has said that the army is underequipped and undermanned
- Maybe (Abu Musab al-)Zarkawi doesn’t exist
- In a military sense they didn’t need more troops however Turkey's refusal to allow the Americans to move across the border forced the Americans to abandon the pincer movement on which plans were based
- Saddam has done very well in court, citing American torture at Abu Ghraib … he's going to be there forever
From #1240 7 Dec
- The campaign seems to be: we are buying your votes with your money. It is the wrong approach
- Income tax cuts encourage people to earn more. G.S.T. cuts encourage people to spend more
- I think that the disaffection of the electorate is affecting civility
- I would like to see an extremely weak Conservative government in office just long enough to crack open some of the sacred cows
- Paul Martin’s reputation in public finance was unassailable. What happened to his popularity? Should he have given it (the inquiry into the sponsorship scandal) to the RCMP instead of (to) Gomery? The sponsorship (issue) was not his, maybe, but it has dogged him throughout his career. We do not really know him as a Prime Minister
- G.M. is reactivating itself as a company in China
- Historically, when interest rates go up, gold goes the other way; as oil prices go up, the same thing is happening in the price of gold
- If everyone implemented Kyoto, it would buy us ten years at most. Three volcanos, or ironization [the reaction between the salt water and iron that affects the temperature of the oceans] of the oceans would buy us more
- The other fascinating purpose of Kyoto is to monetize the value of the exchange credit
Past Quotes Best or All
Notes by Herbert Bercovitz OWN & Edited by Diana Thébaud Nicholson OWN
2005 W-N Links for #1240
Tuesday, December 27, 2005 12:05 AM Dear David and Diana,
Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year 2006! I'm in Oz for the festive celebrations and have been racing around the country - Sydney for a 40th wedding anniversary at which I was a bridesmaid; up to the OutBack to see all my rellies (as we say in Oz); a week on Kangaroo Island in the Flinders National Chase wilderness; and now off to Pearl Beach 100km north of Sydney for New Years Eve. ook forward to seeing you early in January although it does mean a return to cold and snowy Montreal. Happy New Year.
Love Margo [Margaret Somerville, Dr]
Hi David and Diana:
We will be away until mid April. We missed the entire Montreal winter scene
last year and we got hooked. 'Hope to see you in the spring.
Thank you for thinking of us. Happy New Year!
Ginger and George Petty
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