These companies all gots balls…

via www.sloganmaker.net

AIG is a HUGE company with tendrils extending into many countries, including Canada. It is a cornerstone of the mortgage market because it insures high-ratio mortgages. In other words, if you didn’t put down 20-25% when you bought your house, you probably had to pay some kind of insurance premium to cover the lender in case you default. In Canada, it is primarily CMHC that does this with a little additional coverage from AIG. In the USA, AIG covers a substantial percentage of the market.

If AIG had failed, it could have taken down a substantial portion of the banking system with it. The reason AIG is having so much trouble is because of a very small number of its own employees and a SUBSTANTIAL number of corrupt mortgage brokers who deceived them. When the U.S. housing market began to flail around like a steerage passenger on Titanic, it was not the banks who took the first ballshots – it was the companies that insured the mortgages like AIG. Read the rest of this entry »

I know I have said it before – stop wasting shit… right?

Well it applies to this Gasout/fuel boycott bullshit as well. In this case, the waste is one of time.

Temporary fuel BOYCOTTS will not help. Why? Because you CAN’T have the impact you think you have. If you truly simply stop driving for a few days, and could convince thousands of other drivers to do the same and join you in not burning fuel at all for a few days (fuel that you otherwise WOULD Have burned) you could reduce income marginally for a few days. The key word there is MARGINALLY – and no corporation is really going to care about that. The impact you have would be far greater on your local “fuel guy” if he is a franchisée, because he is the guy who needs people to come to his station so he can feed his family. So, if you want to send a message to the little guy, and give a guy who has little control over the price of fuel a good pummelling in the pocketbook, don’t burn gas for a few days. It’s a big waste of time, but as with most slacktivism, it will make you FEEL like you are doing something!

Lately there have been a lot of rumblings from the same typical group of morons wanting to boycott fuel for the Victoria Day weekend. What a FARCE! People open their cottages, and people get out for the first real long weekend of the summer season. They go out in their boats, and on their motorcycles, and their 4-wheelers. They aren’t going to skip that this year with the winter we had, so you are going to get very little response. IF someone “participates”, all they are going to do is buy gas in advance of the weekend, and that doesn’t change a damn thing except the day the company sold the fuel.

The only way to truly make an impact is to reduce consumption EVERY DAY, and work with others to help them do so, too. That means you have to stop wasting gas, and work at being efficient. That’s going to be very painful for some, because automobiles are ingrained in our culture as the basis of freedom.

How do you send a message about gas prices?

1. Call your MP and tell them to stop sending all the Canadian oil in Alberta to the US to profit American corporations and service Canadians first. DEMAND that Canadians come first – we have more than enough oil for our own needs. We need to start ACTING like an oil superpower for the short time we have that status.
2. Drive less, all the time. Car pool if you can, roll all your errands into one trip, take public transit, walk or ride a bike for short trips. Get a more efficient vehicle.
3. Learn to drive as efficiently as possible (see hypermiling.com)
4. Make investments with the money you SAVE by doing the above in companies pursuing alternative energy – just make sure they are bona-fide improvements, and not simply more-of-the-same (like hybrids – a RIDICULOUS attempt by the auto industry to prolong the inevitable demise of the gasoline engine). We need extreme efficiency and renewable resources – currently biofuels USE more energy than they produce and are devastating food markets worldwide.

If everyone works at this, it lowers demand, and will lower prices or at least slow down the rise of prices. Think about it – if there is a 20 year supply of oil left in the world, and we can use 25% less, it instantly becomes a 25 year supply – more time to develop alternatives!

“Gasouts” and boycotts are a waste of time and energy, and generally are just another way for people to pat themselves on the back for doing nothing.

Happy Support the Flower Industry’s Gouging Practices Day!

Yes, today you get to pay extra to buy flowers. Why do they charge more today? Because they can.

In any other industry, if you decided to charge more for a commodity based on nothing more than increased demand for an item, especially when you knew it was coming and prepared for it, you’d have government watchdogs all over you like white on rice.

It is astounding to me how easily manipulated we are in this culture to do the same thing as our neighbours. If you gave your wife flowers TOMORROW, they would cost at most half what you paid to give them today. But, at the same, time, if you gave her the flowers tomorrow and explained this to her, she’d likely get really pissed off at you, and accuse you of being cheap.

Let’s be real here: what is special about Valentines Day? Read the rest of this entry »