Melting Moment, IMET, Myanmar / Burma, Business & China

I Had a Melting Moment

Topic: Hansard from rosemarie59 5/08/2005 20:01:05

Speaking of what goes on in the house, and it's amazing how much you can read on this link which is verbatim from Question Period, that you DON'T read in the newspapers.

Go to: Frost Hits the Rhubarb

Thanks. I'm delighted! Usually, I just get hacks from a far-flung part of the world or email with fake headers. Monkey business.



Slogans: Circle of Confusion Magazine (circleofconfusion.ca) -- Take a break and check these.


Integrated Market Enforcement Teams (IMET's)

Police report 33 current investigations into Canadian financial crimes CP, May 19, 2005

OTTAWA (CP) - Financial crime specialists have at least 33 investigations on the go involving Canadian firms with a market value totalling $55 billion, says the RCMP.

[. . . . ] Best known are probes of finances at high-tech company Nortel Networks and Royal Group Technologies, German said following a presentation to the Senate banking committee Wednesday. [. . . . ]

Stand up for democracy in Myanmar Posted by Stockwell Day on 09:18:38 2005/05/10 from an article by him in the National Post, May 10, 05

On May 3 and 4, delegates of the government of Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) attended a meeting of senior economic officials in Toronto -- at the invitation of the government of Canada. Ken Sunquist, Assistant Deputy Minister of International Business at International Trade Canada, co-chaired the meeting. He responded to protests about the invitation by asserting that while "we discourage companies from trading and investing in Burma," we could not miss an opportunity to "show them the benefits of working together toward a different future."

This is typical of the sheepish line our government takes whenever an opportunity appears to make repressive regimes pay a price for their brutal suppression of their own people.

Myanmar's ruling junta is a savage regime. [. . . . ]

Many journalists are languishing in Myanmar's prisons. [. . . . ]

[. . . . ] Instead of talking about business opportunities, we should be telling Myanmar's junta about our commitment to the promotion of democracy and human rights -- and how this commitment is forcing us to contemplate the speedy termination of diplomatic recognition.

The fact that the Desmarais Power Corp's TotalFinaElf is in Myanmar / Burma would have nothing at all to do with this, of course.




Ted Fishman: China, Inc.: How the Rise of the Next Superpower Challenges America and the World, ISBN: 0743257529 -- Search for the review: "China's Economic Viability Is All in Its Numbers", May 10 2005

[. . . . ] Fishman contends that China is well poised for success by wielding a competitive advantage Japan, the last global entrant, could never provide, an endless and cheap supply of workers. Lots of statistics fortify the strength in China's numbers - there are more workers there than people in this country, there are more Chinese who have studied English there than people who speak English here, and the state owns all the factories and machinery over there versus the capital that has to be invested privately here. Couple this data with an authoritarian government that can manage industrial policy without the distractions of public opinion or politicians running for re-election, and one can see China's preferred position pretty clearly from Fishman's perspective. However, the author is almost too preoccupied with the data and not enough on the culture itself. Unlike Japan, China is a country divided into haves and have-nots ruled by a heartless regime that crushes all dissidents. [. . . . ]

Global Manufacturing - The China Challenge

[. . . . ] * Wal-mart – Buys $18 billion from China, providing a direct link to the US consumer

A massive shift in economic power is under way. A tenfold surge in high-quality Chinese imports at below US manufacturing costs is changing the landscape. In the US, the message is loud and clear – cut your price at least 30% or lose your customers.

[. . . . ] Meanwhile, America's trade deficit with China keeps soaring to new records. It's likely to be more than $150 billion in 2004, and about 12% of that through the world's biggest retailer: Wal-Mart. All the other large retailers (Target, Home Dept, Sears, K-Mart) are following suit.

A new book, "The Chinese Century" has a clear message: If you still make anything labor intensive, get out now rather than bleed to death. Shaving 5% here and there won't work. You need an entirely new business model to compete.

America has survived import waves before, and it has lived with China for decades. But now something very different is happening. The assumption has always been that the U.S. and other industrialized nations will keep leading in knowledge-intensive industries while developing nations focus on lower skills and lower labor costs.

That's now changed. What is stunning about China is that, for the first time, a huge country competes both with very low wages and high tech. Combine the two, and America has a problem.[. . . . ]

Note my comments on hacking above.


Solutions for the China Challenge