Corporate Welfare Shell Game, Corporate Social Responsibility, Punishing Capital & Next Trust Threat

Corporate Welfare Shell Game -- & Social Responsibility

When I first saw this, I was so pleased for the university; then I read a the fine print.

Little-known university now a big part of GM design plan -- Cash infusion 'catapults us into the big leagues' -- University of Ontario Institute of Technology

[. . . . ] The Ontario and federal governments have each committed approximately $200-million toward GM's $2.5-billion upgrade plan, which will create 500 jobs in the southern Ontario communities of Ingersoll, Oshawa and St. Catharines. [. . . . ]

Search: Mike Harris Conservative government





Corporate welfare takes the wheel -- Automakers roll out the profits while Ontario's taxpayers foot the bill Tasha Kheiriddin and John Williamson, Mar. 3, 05, Financial Post

Yesterday, the Ontario economy hit the road to perdition. In the name of job creation and competitiveness, the provincial and federal governments committed $435-million to [. . . . ]

Search: "Corporate welfare is nothing but"




The bottomless pit of CSR policies -- Which will it be? Corporate social responsibility or return on investment for shareholders? Peter Foster, Mar. 2, 05, Financial Post

Corporate Social Responsibility is a proposition with which it is allegedly impossible to argue. If you question its multiplying meanings or its murky metrics, you are accused of espousing "irresponsibility," of wanting to outlaw philanthropy and trash the environment, of being a blinkered ideologue who believes employees, suppliers and local communities should be treated with contempt. This is all, to put it bluntly, baloney.

[. . . . ] Such a notion betrays a stunning misreading not merely of CSRs critics but of the nature and function of markets and profit-seeking companies more generally. It implies that the interests of investors and society are somehow alternatives, even natural enemies. [. . . . ]

Search: practical pitfalls





We must stop punishing capital March 2, 2005, Norma Kozhaya, Financial Post

Search: "Canada is one of the few countries in the world to employ a corporate capital tax", C.D. Howe Institute, Montreal Economic Institute





The next trust threat Jack. M. Mintz, Mar. 2, 05

I have found his work always to be worth reading.

The welcome elimination of the 30% foreign property limitation for pension plans and RRSPs in last week's federal budget could have a surprising impact on the popular $135-billion income trust market. It won't be because of a flight of capital to foreign markets, but instead will result from the possible surging growth of an alternative corporate organization -- limited partnerships, which have been included in the definition of "foreign property" under the now-defunct rule.

[. . . . ] The next trust threat -- Taxation of shareholder income is highly imbalanced, and the end of pension-RRSP foreign content limits heralds a climate for change [. . . . ]