Three out of four Ontario residents agree that communities are better off when governments and not private companies provide public services, according to poll results released by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario.

"The capitalist perversion of 'donations,' 'free,' and 'tips,' have now rendered new definitions for those old concepts and words. When I was young, people tipped according to the quality of service rendered. Tipping was voluntary and it actually was 'earned.' Nowadays, if a person simply hands you a cup of coffee, from less than a foot away, they glare if you do not tip. My assessment of this is capitalist employers are using 'tips' as a supplement to substandard wages, forcing employees to aggressively panhandle, really, under the guise of 'voluntary tipping.' Another dirty capitalist ploy is advertising something as 'free,' but blocking all entrances to the event with aggressive 'donations' volunteers who literally will not let you enter the event without glares and often a scene, if you actually try to go to the 'free' event without paying. Often 'suggested donation' really means 'admission price,' and I wish people would be honest and just say what they mean."

"[...A]s United Airlines prepares to dump its pension obligations on the federal government in the largest default in U.S. history, it looks like the last curtain is about to fall on traditional pension programs.

When the government insurer, PBGC, takes over pension plans, benefits are often reduced due to legal limits. Of United's underfunded $9.8 billion, just $6.6 billion is guaranteed.

The government estimates that defined-benefit programs are underfunded by $450 billion."

Washington -- It's not news that China has become trade enemy No. 1 in

Washington.

But the harsh anti-China rhetoric on the home front is really just a

sideshow to a global race for power, influence and resources.

The Bush administration has slapped tariffs on imported Chinese clothes and

is threatening further sanctions if China doesn't inflate its currency in

the next few months. An angry U.S. Congress is vowing much worse -- a

blanket 30-per-cent tariff on the hundreds of billions of dollars worth of

Chinese goods imported into the United States every year.

"The 'Declaration of Brasilia' to be endorsed this Wednesday calls for close political and economic ties between South America and the Arab world; demands that Israel disband its settlements in the West Bank, including 'those in East Jerusalem', and retreat to its borders before 1967; criticizes US 'unilateral economic sanctions against Syria', which violates principles of international law; and forcefully condemns terrorism. Israel is also implicitly criticized for holding an undeclared nuclear arsenal. The declaration also calls for a global conference to define the meaning of terrorism, and defends peoples' rights to 'resist foreign occupation in accordance with the principle of international legality and in compliance with international humanitarian law'."

NEO LIBERALISM A FAILURE IN CANADA

"Public Policy wonks, both from the left and right, the soul of capitalism; the TD Bank, and Stats Canada all agree that for twenty boom years of capitalism in North America, Canadian workers still have yet to benefit.

Tax cuts have produced no measurable effect for the average Canadian family for twenty years. And in fact have contributed to the continuing immizeration of Canadian workers. When Jim Stanford of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) and the Chief Economist for the TD.Bank agree on this empirical fact, when will the Conservative right wing admit that their policies do nothing for us but lots for our bosses."

Welcome to the Alberta Reich. Once again, Herr Klein has allowed the fox to run the hen house. In doing so the all too predictable has happened.

Instead of admitting that provincial regulation (or non regulation ) of the Alberta stock exchange is a FAILURE and a SCANDAL of insider trading proportions. The Alberta Reichstadt circles the wagons in defense of its own, while Ralph goes golfing.

Just a few hundred people picketed the latest IMF-World Bank spring meetings - a far cry from a few years ago when it seemed no summit of world financial institutions was complete without thousands of protestors on the streets.

"Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez reiterated
his opposition to the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) on
Tuesday, saying his stance seems to concern 'Mr. Danger'
-an apparent reference to U.S. President George W. Bush."

"Venezuela said yesterday it will raise income tax on private oil projects to 50 per cent as part of a campaign by President Hugo Chavez to increase revenue from the energy sector."

"Mr. Chavez, a self-described socialist revolutionary who often blasts U.S. foreign policy, has vowed to use Venezuela's oil revenue to fight poverty."

"Mr. Chavez has criticized the 1990s [oil bidding] deals for 'robbing' Venezuela by giving foreign businesses access to natural resources under terms unfavourable to the OPEC nation. He has also launched investigations into tax payments by oil companies."

"Buenos Aires -- In threatening to get a local court to void possibly adverse

rulings by a World Bank-sponsored arbitration tribunal, Argentine Justice

Minister Horacio Rosatti insists he is acting as any responsible attorney

general would under the circumstances."

"Argentine law 'gives the same civil and property rights to foreigners as (Argentine) nationals, but never did anyone think that the foreigner would have more rights than nationals,' Rosatti said."

"[Bank of Montreal] has had [an] arrangement with Ottawa-based [anti-abortion group] LifeCanada for 10 years, and now that pro-choice customers know about it, they are beginning a drive to boycott the bank. When I ask whether BMO approached the anti-abortion group or it approached BMO, the bank says it doesn't keep
records that old, which is odd. I do, and I'm not even a bank."

Update [2005-4-11 8:37:12 by ron]: BMO refuses to renew contract with LifeCanada!

"Like other major oil companies, ChevronTexaco already has been flourishing, thanks largely to a rapid run-up in oil prices that has pushed U.S. gasoline prices well over $2 per gallon, squeezing consumers and businesses alike.

ChevronTexaco earned $13.3 billion last year, the most profitable year since its inception in 1879. Unocal earned $1.21 billion last year, nearly doubling its profit from the previous year."

Petaquilla Minerals chairman-CEO steps aside temporarily due to legal issues

Richard Fifer the chairman and chief executive of Petaquilla Minerals Ltd. has stepped aside temporarily due to an investigation into allegations of irregularities while he was the governor of Panama's Cocle province.

Petaquilla is a Canadian-based mineral explorer focused on developing a property in north-central Panama containing copper, gold, silver and molybdenum, a specialty industrial metal.

I wonder how hard it would be to set up your own lender/borrower hook-up site? What do we need banks for anyway?