Doesn’t happen often, HA! who am I kidding, but I was actually wrong. Last week I stated that the largest peacetime ship procurement project in Canada’s history would not be awarded to the deserving bidder. I was wrong. The Irving Shipyard in Halifax was awarded the contract. Congatulations.

It is obvious that the Conservative government has cut Quebec adrift. It will be interesting to see how long the Quebecois put up with that. After all they have been spoiled over the last forty years. It must be a hard pill to swallow.

Until then, I remain,

A Sour Kraut

The Occupy Wall Street protest and all the others that have spun off this action are going to fizzle and it is a shame. They have missed their opportunity to make this relevant to the populace. The basic idea is sound, yet they have failed to make a media connection.

It is simple. Start talking about how corporate “greed” is affecting Joe and Jane Smith. Over the last thirty years financial markets have been turned into a form of legalized corporate gambling. Financial instruments have been concocted that allow people and firms to make money and not have someone outside of the system understand how things really work. Hedge funds exist to make money by directing markets. No one is interested in making money the old fashioned way, actually producing a good or service of worth, they want to make it by trading “paper”. Try and understand how derivatives work. The whole sub-prime mortgage fiasco is a prime example. Lots of money made on worthless paper.

As an example, through the whole decade of the 60′s oil trading budged the price almost imperceptibly. Now it will make wild swings daily. That is because in the 60′s the only people involved in the market were producers and consumers. There wasn’t any speculation. Prices were stable. Commodities are the same. Basic food stuffs? Yup. As I have said before, we have to get speculation out of the markets for basics.

Start telling the people that the greed on Wall Street means they pay more for gasoline. Tell the people that their grocery bill is sky high because of Wall Street, or Bay Street. Tell them that the food riots in the third world are a result of Wall Street. That is when this action would become relevant and maybe grab the media’s and the public’s attention.

Until then, I remain,

A Sour Kraut

Cliff looked at Mary. She was slumped over the side of the bed, Monica’s hand in hers. Cliff started to walk into the room. He stopped. He looked around. The ceiling. The corners. Even under the bed. He wondered where the cameras were. Microphones too. They must be there somewhere. Must be some kind of recording system. The background noises in the room, the clicking of the pump, the soft beat of the monitors, they would be hard to weed out. Well, as the man in the trenchcoat said, they can do anything. Eliminating some annoying noises from a recording is probably childs play. Cliff felt his pockets for a pen. Nothing. On the bedside table. There was a pen. Cliff strode into the room and grabbed the pen. He sat down beside his wife. Mary lifted her head and looked at Cliff. “She’s not going to make it”, she whispered.

That took Cliff by surprise. He had never heard Mary say anything negative. “She will be fine,” Cliff tried to reassure her.

Mary looked at him and smiled. “Yeah, I guess so.”

Again Cliff searched the room for evidence of something. He turned back to Mary. She had a quizzical look on her face. “What are you doing?”

“What do you mean ‘What am I doing?’”? he responded.

“Why are you looking around the room like you are expecting a plane to land soon?”

“Oh, no reason.”

“Uh huh. You just keep getting weirder and weirder,” Mary sighed.

“Look, there is a lot going on right now, with the telethon and everything,” Cliff started. “You have to trust me. Okay.”

Mary chuckled, “Okay Sherlock, I have never trusted you before why should I start now?”

“Really, you have to trust me! Okay.”

“Okay, okay. I will trust you.”

Cliff reached for a prescription pad that was on a table. He began scribbling on it. He wrote – Mary, no matter what happens tonight you have to go on like nothing is wrong. You also cannot say another word to me in this room. Once you have read this note pass it back to me. He passed the piece of paper to his wife. The look of amazement on her face showed him that this wasn’t going to be easy. He watched her start to read. Immediately her mouth opened as she began to speak. He quickly put his finger over her lips. She understood by the stern look on his face that she shouldn’t say another word. She passed him the paper. He placed it in a glass of water on the table.

He quickly wrote another and passed it to Mary.

She read it – There is a good possibility that the girl they bring out for the telethon will not be Monica. Monica will be here in her room, safe and being treated. You need to act like that girl is Monica.

Cliff looked at Monica and raised his eyebrows, hoping that Mary would nod. Instead Mary grabbed the pad and pen, wrote something and shoved it at Cliff.

YOU’RE KIDDING RIGHT? – was scrawled on the pad. Cliff shook his head. He wrote another note. You have to understand how important this is for Monica. Please try and act normal. TRUST ME. He passed that to Mary. She read it and stared at it for a while then she passed it back. Immediately she grabbed the pad and pen. She was scratching at the paper now. She shoved it back at him.

Cliff, I am getting angrier by the minute. I don’t know what you are up to, but if you hurt Mary I will never forgive you. Cliff looked at Mary and nodded. She shook her head, got up and walked out of the room. Cliff sat there, in the chorus of clicks and beeps, and took a deep breath. And so it begins, he thought. He leaned over and kissed Monica’s forehead. He whispered in her ear, “Don’t worry, it is all going to get better soon.”

The glass was full of soggy paper now. He looked at it and wondered what he was going to do with the mess. Well, he thought, if I was a real spy I would probably eat it. He reached in with his finger and pulled a piece out and stuffed it in his mouth. He chewed as quickly as he could. The chemical taste was awful. He swallowed hard and reached in for the next piece. It fell apart as he was pulling it out. Ah ha. He took the glass over to the waste basket. He poured all of the paper and water into his hand. With both hands he rubbed the soggy mass together until it was just a lump of paper fibre. He pulled it apart into little pieces and dropped them into the garbage. He turned and looked at the ceiling. “Try and read that you pricks,” he yelled. He strode triumphantly to the door. Pulling it open he nearly ran into the Man. The Man pushed Cliff back into the room.

“Cute trick Cliff,” the Man sneered. “What did you tell her?”

“I told her that you were obviously a man compensating for small physical attributes.”

The Man smirked. “Cliff, you are way out of your league and you are going to pay the price.”

Cliff moved forward and got in the Man’s face. “Don’t threaten a man who has nothing to lose. You will regret it.” With that Cliff shoved his way passed and out the door into the hall. He kept walking and not looking back. His heart was pounding and he hoped that Mr. Big was not noticing that Cliff was unable to walk a straight line. He stood in front of the elevator and when the door opened he walked in, using the chance to steal a glance down the hall. It was empty. When the door closed Cliff drew in a big breath. He held it for a second and then slowly let it out. Maybe the Man was right. Maybe Cliff was out of his league. Either way, he needed to be strong and keep going. To his amazement he was actually realizing that he was kind of enjoying this. Uh oh. That can’t be good.

The door opened. Cliff looked out the door and found himself in some underground garage or equipment room. He looked at the floor button. He had pushed “L” for the lobby. This was not the Lobby. Far accross the “garage” he could see a couple of “trecnhcoats” milling about. Aw crap. I am not enjoying this, Cliff thought. As if out of fog, the Man appeared at the open door. Now Cliff was getting annoyed. “What now!”

“You think that it is that easy to get away?” the Man questioned.

“Nah, if it was that easy, I am sure your mother would have left you on an elevator a long time ago. What do you want this time? Gonna threaten me again?

The Man looked hard at Cliff, “Fred is with us.”

Cliff was stunned. He tried not to look suprised, but he wasn’t sure if he had been successful. “You guys dating, or he works for you?”

“Neither. We just have him.”

“Sucks to be Fred then doesn’t it?”

“He won’t be there to help you tonight,” the Man explained.

“To be honest”, Cliff started, “I never liked Fred in the first place. And as far as his help, I have no idea what he was going to do or could do to help me anyway.”

That put a smile on the Man’s face. “You are something else aren’t you.”

Cliff took the opportunity. “Look, are we going to keep playing these stupid games or are you going to let me go to the lobby?”

“Go.”

With that the door closed and the elevator started up. When the door opened and Cliff walked out into the familiar confines of the hospital lobby, he took a breath of fresh air. No, he was not enjoying this.

I have a dream… yeah yeah, we all do. I had one the other night about making a better arrow. I don’t have a bow, nor have I ever fired(?) an arrow. However, there I was, lying in bed at 2:30am, designing a better arrow. You, see, an arrow should be a two piece design. That will allow you to eliminate the vibration…

Sorry to bore you. That’s just how my pea brain works. The dreamers I really admire are the ones in Nova Scotia that truly believe that the Federal Government is acutally going to award a $25 billion ship building contract to the Irving Yard in Halifax. Irving has the best bid I am told. May be, but that doesn’t mean anything. The decision is going to be made by top bureaucrats and not be politically driven they echo. Ha! and again Ha!. Do you really believe that? Who do the bureaucrats work for? Are you really going to piss off your boss and not listen to their wishes? Nope. The real reason behind the “non political” line is that it gives the politicians seperation from the issue and deniability that they had anything to do with it.

Nova Scotia is bidding against Quebec and BC. There are two contracts, a $25 billion one and an $8 billion one. Hmmm… that makes it easy. Even easier that the Quebec bid didn’t try to win the large contract. They only went after the smaller one. So, Quebec gets the smaller one so the Government doesn’t have to deal with any feelings of Quebec alienation ( even though that contract is going to be filled with cost overruns and missed delivery dates – just look at their record ).

That leaves BC and NS fighting over the main prize. Nova Scotia has one cabinet minister, Defense Minister to boot, in Peter MacKay. A powerful position, but not Mr. Harpers favourite. BC offers the number of seats that can keep the Conservatives in power for years. In addition, a large contract like this has never been awarded to a West Coast yard.

Nova Scotia’s only hope is that the Conservatives have written off La Belle Province and its swing to the orange. If they have realized that they will never stand a chance in Quebec, then NS will get the main prize for being the best bid and BC will get the smaller prize as a stepping stone to something bigger down the road. Its a nice dream.

By the way, writing with your left hand ( in this case my non-dominant hand ) does two things. It frustrates the hell out of you and it produces a bunch of crap you can’t read! Great! Happy, Happy, Happy

Until then, I remain

A Sour Kraut

There has been a great deal of “press” over the past number of months concerning the debt crisis in Greece, the fate of the European Union, the growth of the US and as a result World’s economies. Well friends the times they are a changin.

Governments, economists and shareholders all talk about the importance of keeping the economies growing. Well sure. They have all banked on it. Governements know that they can’t meet their debt and program committments unless the economy grows and they can take in more taxes. That is so true in Canada’s case since the average taxpayer can not afford to pay an increasing share of the tax burden. Shareholders need growth in the economies so that their company’s sales increase and provide higher dividends year over year. In my opinion this is all at the end. The reason for the economic growth of the last thirty years has been free money and stuff. People have been able to get easy credit to buy stuff that was unheard of a generation ago. The two income family has provided the ability to carry more debt. More debt allows more vacations, more renovations and more high tech gadgets. All the stuff that made the economies of the world tick along.

Greece was the first to falter. Not so much on the the stuff they bought, but the stuff they did. Like not pay taxes. Like demand social programs and benefits that a four year old could see were unsustainable. Take away the Greek government’s access to free cash ( easy credit ) and things start to change. The Greek’s were financing these programs and spending on bond issues that just kept coming out to cover the last issue. Think Ponzi scheme with legitimacy. Well the time came when investors started to wake up and smell the stink. The bonds were not that easy to float anymore. There went the easy credit.

Think about your own household and how your life would change without your massive mortgage, line of credit and cards. Scary huh?

We are all in the same boat, just not to the same degree. In North America we have a cash strapped US. We have Canadian’s looking at getting back to the basics while paying off debt. Nobody is sure they are going to be able to retire – except for the civil service. As Mr. Dingwall so plainly put it ” I am entitled to my entitlements.” There are the voices in the wilderness that are starting to comment on the unsustainabiltiy of our Governments spending. Yet we still turn a deaf ear and go la la la la la… I can’t hear you. As Greeks found out, the Irish know all to well, and the Spanish and Italy are starting to learn about, nothing is free. I hope Canadians take notice.

I feel that as soon as the governments come clean, the idea of economic growth will be a thing of the past. Countries and their populations will get back to paying for the basics, not the luxuries. When that happens, growth will cease. Economies will contract to sustain that level of living and expenditure. It will be quite a painful restructure, yet almost inevitable.

Trips to Cuba and the Dominican will become exceptional rather than the norm. Flat screens in every room. Probably not. Stainless steel appliances? Maybe if you own a restaurant. A lot less people will be hanging on the news from Apple about its latest gadget.

Here is a wild thought. Without a market for all the “stuff” China ships out, what are they going to do? With an increasingly strong military, it could get interesting.

Another thing. Remember the reality shows that littered the channels a few years ago. “Renovate My Kitchen”, “Flip this House”, “Flip this …”, Rebuild That…” and more. They are all gone. Now it is “Flip this Finger” and ten shows about people and companies that buy abandoned storage units at auctions. Think about it. A generation ago people didn’t need storage units to put all the “stuff” they bought into. They didn’t have all that “stuff”. Storage units and storage businesses didn’t exist! Now people have so much of it and don’t have the ability to pay their bills anymore so they walk away from it.

Yep, changes is comin’. We’ll see if I is right.

Until then, I remain,

A Sour Kraut

I am trying to learn how to handle ghosts. They are everywhere. The worst ones are those that live in the grey matter. I have an abundance floating in my skull. Paths not chosen, decisions not made, the wrong choices, things not said, the secrets kept.

I have been told to learn from them and move on. I have been told to forget them outright. I have been told to greive, eliminating the saddness so you can deal with the anger. I have been given pills. Yeah yeah. The latest and still unproven is to write in a journal with your non-dominant hand. In this case my left. I am not sure, but I think that this leads to total frustration, leading to the consumption of alcohol, leading to happiness. Trying to read the scribbles resulting from my non-dominant hand, may also lead to complete hilarity ,leading to the consumption of beer and henceforth happiness. I’ll get back to you on that, but it looks promising.

The one thing I have learned is that you can’t go back. What’s done is done. Chalk it up to stupidity, but lost opportunities are just that – lost. People and things move on and as I have learned no one in adult life is willing to give anyone a do-over. They would rather stab you in the back and watch you bleed.

Yet, you can’t go forward until you can put the past behind. It could be that our mistakes are just the crosses we have to bear. Or it could be that our paths and mistakes are exactly the way that fate has predetermined. Mull over that one for a while and not be tempted to slit you wrists.

I envy those people that have blithely gone through life without ever having been faced with a trying decision or a tough circumstance. Looks easy. But I know that I am the stronger person. So there.

Either way, I think that I should get in on this psycho-analytic goldmine. I may be good at it. Sour Kraut – Therapist – The Doctor is In – 5 cents.

Until then, I remain

A Sour Kraut

This past spring, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police complained about their lack of funds. Doesn’t everyone? They suggested that said lack of funds were hampering their ability to properly investigate crimes and delayed their ability to process evidence. Really.

As everyone who knows me can attest, I am no genius. However, my pea brain has a little trouble with one thing. Have you ever passed an RCMP cruiser on the highway? No? Me neither. I spend a lot of time cruising the roads and I usually keep it within ten percent of the speed limit. I never have to stomp on the brakes when I see a cruiser approaching or sitting on the side of the highway. My “speeding” is acceptable and they will never pull me over. Yet, I am constantly being passed by RCMP cars going much faster than myself and without a seeming need to rush somewhere. The gas budget at the RCMP nationwide must be huge. If the research is correct and driving slower will actually increase your fuel economy by gobs and gobs I think that I have found a way for the RCMP to save money. Lead by example as it were.

One of the other things that I have noticed is an RCMP member who commutes one hour to work everyday. I have seen him do this in a regular patrol car, but recently I have noticed that his commuter vehicle is a large one ton truck that is a forensics unit. THis thing must drink fuel like I consume coffee. Me thinks that the RCMP member is not funding this fuel cost himself. While I am sure it is a nice perk for the taxpayer to be paying for RCMP members to drive to and from work, I would rather pay for faster DNA analysis.

But then again, that’s just me. And I am not as smart as the people running the famed Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Until then, I remain,

A Sour Kraut