Where Is The Monument To The Victims Of Capitalism?

I'm beginning to weary of fruitlessly championing the truth, and sometimes I am quite unhinged by it.
Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, Part 1, Section Thirty Two, Constance Garnett Translation.

It doesn't happen often in Ottawa that an issue arises where every level of government rises up in an uproar, but that is exactly what happened when the 'Harper Government' announced the building of the Victims of Communism monument, at a site that was reserved for the new Supreme Court Building, located at the most prime location in downtown Ottawa. This was no doubt done to celebrate the 'Harper Government's many successes pleading before this august body.

 

proposed victims of communism monument...

The local burg(h)ers of Ottawa would be even more alarmed if they did their research a little deeper and discovered that the said monument stands to raise a ton of cash far in excess of its initial costs. There has been no report from the 'Harper Government' where the said hoped for excesses are going to go.. As always in Ottawa if there is even the semblance of smoke you can be utterly certain that at some point there will be fire. You see Dear Reader, if you are so inclined to celebrate the memory of a long gone "loved ones" misfortune of running into communism, you can have the loved ones name inscribed on the above mentioned monster, or rather monument, for a very small fee, not un-adjacent to one thousand dollars! Why just do the math! The sky is the limit!

 Now in Canada there has been very many social systems in vogue over the many years that Canada has been a Colony and later as a nation state. The first system that was found in use by Native Canadians was the tribal system. Then the French brought feudalism, that had a hell of a run from 1600 until well into the beginning of the 20th century! Along the way we also experimented with indentured labor and even slavery, just like in the United States! But the hands down winner was of course the best worst system of good old capitalism. And in the early days it was rabid tooth and claw, right out of Das Kapital as written by Karl Marx.

You had the lumber barons, the rail barrens, the press barons, and of course you had the mighty banking barons. And they have nearly all carried on into the kinder and gentler world of today, many of them such as say the Bank of Nova Scotia in there unbroken histories... But we never tried communism in Canada at all, not even once, that the Oracle of Ottawa is aware of. So The Oracle of Ottawa thought that it would be probably much more fitting to have a monument to The Victims Of Capitalism.  

 It as all tentative so far, but I have some basic ideas for the monuments basic design. In the center would be a huge hand cast in Pyrex Glass holding a very real steel double edge dagger! The glass hand would signify Adam Smith's Invisible Hand, but the real reality would be the 100 foot long dagger! Get it? When you play around in capitalism the invisible hand is bound to get you right in the back, even if you do every thing right...

Then, of course, we must high light the wonderful upside of capitalism in its unregulated glory, just like the 'Harper Government' pushes. How about this? We would have cast in bronze two young girls sorting medical linen waste, just like in the 19th century. Of course these children never got to be teenagers, let alone get into the ages of the double digits. Isn't the invisible hand awesome?

Then to one side we could have the tribute to the great bankers of the world. Such as that one old house in Europe that used to loan money to one country and with their underwriting fees would make a loan to the enemy of the first customer! Why, the first classic two fer! Then with the profits from the gouging interest rates of all the customers, you could sell both sides arms and create a virtuous cycle of misery and death. Yes Sir! Capitalism, how awesome is that? The 'Harper Government' should know this story very well, They are very close friends with the bankers that bought their own state in the Middle East.... 

When To Sell A Stock

" investment is grounded on the past whereas speculation looks primarily to the future."
Benjamin Graham, David Dodd, Security Analysis - Principles And Technique, p. 66

When the Oracle of Ottawa bought his first stock he was called a fool, then later on, having survived and thrived, he was called lucky, continuing on until the time of this writing, people just call the Oracle of Ottawa "Sir". As mentioned many times before in this humble blog, stocks have been very good to the Oracle of Ottawa. Now the Oracle of Ottawa is not Warren Buffet, nor does he ever want to be. The Oracle of Ottawa has no desire to be listed as one of the richest Canadians. The Oracle of Ottawa just wants to enjoy a benevolent level of prosperity, read all the books he has never read, so far, and write the truth to power in his blog, completely unowned by any corporate whore.

Capitalism? Nuttin' to it!

Right from the start the Oracle of Ottawa had no trouble on what and when to buy. There is a ton of literature and success stories on that. The Oracle of Ottawa is an old time value investor. He simply seeks a stock that is priced at or below its book value, between two and ten dollars and  with a P/E ratio of less than 10, with a dividend between 2 and 55 percent and recently, a P/S ratio less then 3. The Oracle picks one stock every month, which he calls "Stock of the Month". Been doing it for years and years.

Soon the Oracle of Ottawa had a pretty wacking portfolio of stocks very deep into the money. But the great Oracle sweated on when to sell a stock. The Oracle of Ottawa found the decision to sell much much harder then the decision to buy. Oddly enough, every one else the Oracle knows, has the same problem in reverse. They always sell a double right away and sweat about what to buy next.  Don't be like everyone else. Taking a mere double will never make you rich. The Oracle discovered that buy and hold is still very powerful, and that it is not unusual to get a ten to fifteen bagger! Ya, you read that right, 1,000 to 1,500 percent profit is not out of the ordinary with the Oracle of Ottawa.

Then, after much gifted thought, as the Oracle of Ottawa is an "85", he realized that it could all be reduced to a simple rule of thumb (ROT), or what the undergraduate text books refer to as heuristics. And the rule of thumb is: NEVER OWN A STOCK YOU WOULDN'T BUY. When the statement arrives at the end of the month, the Oracle lists all his stocks in the money by percentage difference of book to market value. Then he lists the top 19 stocks in order for the month past. Yeah it does take a while to do it by hand, especially when you own way over 100 different stocks!  Then you go through the list checking the fundamentals on your favorite quote sight, and you sell the stock that has gained the most, but appears to be at the point of being unsustainable. i.e. Sell that stock that you presently own, but would never buy.

The Oracle of Ottawa will provide a simple example of two stocks. One is a very large REIT that the Oracle purchased many years ago when it was not a very large REIT. He paid $2.60 a share at the time. Today the REIT is one of the TSX 300 stocks, and is selling for nearly $27.00 a share. Another ten bagger. But it is still paying a monthly dividend with an annual yield of nearly 7 % ! And its P/E ratio is under 7! Aside from the price, this is still a value stock. Keep this one. Now going done the list, the Oracle sees that he has another stock that he bought for around two bucks that is now pushing 15 bucks a share, and the dividend yield is only a lousy 1.4%, and worst of all it is at 100 times earnings. The Oracle will sell this stock as soon as possible. It is now a growth, momentum darling. Never Own A Stock You Wouldn't Buy! Get it?

Sheeple - You Gotta Love Them

The Bible invariably uses the sheep as the typical apocalyptic or ideal animal. I suggested in one of my books that the reason for that is that sheep societies are perhaps more like human societies than those of any other animal: because the sheep is gregarious, stupid, and easily stampeded.
Northrop Frye, Symbolism In The Bible, Lecture 4, p. 47

Well Dear Reader, it is that time of year again in the Western World. The coming end of the year holidays known as Christmas And New Years. This used to be the time of the year that the Sheeple used to drive the Oracle of Ottawa just crazy. You know the standard aggravations. Joe the Chinese peasant that tries to back into his parking spot at the mall and takes the doors and mirrors off your brand new car. Or some pathetic trot that whips out a debit card to buy a newspaper and a pack of gum. The Oracle of Ottawa could go on and on, but he won't.

Sheeple - Learn to love them....

It was just recently that the Oracle of Ottawa has had another bit of profit from his ongoing thinking about thinking project, and that is that you must come to learn to love the Sheeple. There is simply no percentage in getting all Agent Smith with them. Yes they are a disease, a virus, and they do have a lingering odor, that can really get on your nerves. But the Sheeple at the end of the day have many very important qualities. The most important of them is that Sheeple constantly want things, and there is no way to reason with them is there?

Sheeple - Wallyus Simplicus

And if you are a very smart and shrewd person, you will learn to be very interested in what the Sheeple as a herd want next. Especially if you own a ton of common stocks. When the herd of Sheeple move as a group, shit, they can really move a stock, even a once sure as hell soon to be dead and gone stock. Just ask anyone that works for Apple! Now the Sheeple don't know why they want certain things, all they know is that they want what the other Sheeple want, and they will darn near do anything to be good Sheeple to have exactly what the other guy Sheeple wants and / or already has.

The thing that the Oracle of Ottawa has learned is that the Sheeple can make you really stinking rich. You just have to be able to guess somewhat closely what you think they might possibly want in the near future. This means that you must always have a nice inventory of common stocks that in any way could be possibly affected by the Sheeples herd mentality. Just remember that once one of those stocks goes off and turns a ten to fifteen bagger, be smart enough to get rid of it right away to some other sucker, preferably one of the Sheeple who thinks that he is smarter then you.  

Now the average Sheeple come in four common varieties. The Preps, The Wally's, The Trots, and the most common and dangerous, the skidmarks. Now the Preps are at the appex, the Wallys just like the Dilbert cartoon character fills up over 85% of all corporate cubicals at the time of this writing. The Trots are like specs in a Brownian motion, they just smile and hope to get along, somehow.  The skidmarks are the largest, most powerful and certainly the most dangerous of all the Sheeple. They seem to come from all levels of society. There is no understanding them on an individual basis, mostly because most of them don't even know they are alive. And if you investigate into the situation, they really couldn't care less. But when they want something, look out, they can move stock markets around the world, and just as quickly forget about it when they stray on to something more desirable that they had no idea that they wanted....    

Rene Girard - Who IS This Guy?

Yet for all that the table continues to be that common everyday thing, wood. But, so soon as it steps forth as a commodity it is changed into something transcendent.
Karl Marx, Capital, Volume I, p. 82

Rene Girard at the time of this writing is nearly ninety years old. He is the greatest philosopher and Christian alive today that you probably never heard of. The Oracle of Ottawa discovered him on You Tube, quiet by accident while doing up the Richard D. Wolff piece on the best introductory lectures on Marxian thought. Once I heard the famous theory of mimetic desire spelled out, the Oracle of Ottawa was completely hooked. It basically states that all our desires are borrowed from other people. All conflict arises from mimetic desire, and this of course leads to the eventual sure as Sunday scapegoat mechanism.

Rene Girard - Immortal (richly deserved...)

As the "thinking about thinking project" has been progressing, the Oracle of Ottawa kept coming to the same realization over and over; I am missing something really elementary here but I can't put my finger on it. Well Dear Reader, after you become familiar with the basic ideas of Rene Girard, you will soon realize that you have finally discovered the missing and key piece to damn near every thing.  Religion, language, politics, economics and history in the big.

The Oracle of Ottawa quickly realized that this guy must be really dangerous, since it is damn near impossible to find his books or any anyone who has even heard of him. When you happen onto a an actor under these circumstances, you know that you are probably on to something powerful and very valuable. The clincher was when it provided the final and complete piece to my common stock algorithm, which I have deemed the Midas Algorithm For a Portfolio of Common Stocks. Weird how useful and universal a basic idea can be, isn't it?

Among the many advantages of the theory of mimetic desire is that it provides the center idea to understanding many weird books that you know are important but just can't seem to get into. The Oracle of Ottawa will list a few:

1. The Bible - any version...

2. John Milton - Paradise Lost

3. Karl Marx - Capital and most all of his other works.

4. Julian Jaynes - The Origin of Consciousness and the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

5. Arnold J. Toynbee - A Study of History...

6. James George Frazer - The Golden Bough

Once you have even an elementary grasp of mimetic desire you will be able to plow through the above mentioned works with ease and greatly enjoy them at the same time, much unlike the usual crop of ordinary undergraduates...

Now Rene Girard should have won the Nobel Prize by now, but alas he hasn't. He has won something even better than a Nobel, he is an Immortal in the Academy of France! From what the Oracle of Ottawa can find out about this gig it is way better than a Nobel any day. The French People are pretty smart to have something like this, that elevates the best and the brightest, always keeping the spiral in an upward direction, they should all be very proud of this. In Canada and the United States at the present time we are on a downward  Wall - Mart spiral of spend less, live better, which all in only teaches you one thing; You only get what you pay for...

Marxian Thought - The Best Introductory Lectures

In fact of course, this 'productive' worker cares as much about the crappy shit he has to make as does the capitalist himself who employs him, and who also couldn't give a damn for the junk.
Karl Marx, Grundrisse, Notebook II, The Chapter on Capital, p. 193

It was just in the recent past that the Oracle of Ottawa wrote a little missive on the best introductory documentary on the life of Karl Marx. The post was written to share with what I suspected would be one or two of my Dear Readers that might become interested in such a topic. Much to the Oracles surprise it has been garnering much more hits than first suspected. No doubt it would be really a great public service to the world wide readership of this 'umble blog if the Oracle of Ottawa could direct you to a very high quality introduction to Marxian thought and theory. 

Richard D. Wolff - Feisty as Hell!!

This of course was a bit more difficult than fist imagined. But by total accident the Oracle of Ottawa has found a most excellent source for your continuing Marxian education. There are very many people talking about the works of Marx on You-Tube, but alas, most all of them prove after just the first few words that they have never read any of the great mans work ever in their lives. Wouldn't it be great if there was just one lone Ivy League prof that had somehow gone completely rogue, and became utterly obsessed with spreading the Marxian message?

Well Dear Reader, Richard D. Wolff is your man. Harvard, Stanford, and Yale! Is that wicked or what? And not only that, he was a student of the great Paul A. Baran , The only tenured Marxian prof in the United States, and as fate would have it, one his students was Richard D. Wolff! Well as fate would  again have it, (and doesn't it always?), the wheel of life has turned another full revolution and it is now Richard D. Wolff that is practically the only prof of Marxian thought in the Western Hemisphere at the time of this writing.

The main reason that the Oracle of Ottawa has singled him out is that you don't have to come to Richard D. Wolff already completely read up on Karl Marx. He will instruct you to all the reasons why knowing about Karl Marx is important. He will not harangue you to read Capital, (like David Harvey), after one or two Wolff lectures you will be starting your own collection of the works of Marx, you will be inspired, you will read Capital all on your own, and thank your maker that Doctor Wolff was generous enough to post his lectures on You-Tube for your free viewing and learning enjoyment.

He yells, he spits, he curses, he implores, he sweats. Damn! You won't forget it any time soon. This guy is not very concerned about making the faculty lounge for happy hour. Now the Oracle of Ottawa knows that someone with a resume that contains Harvard, Stanford and Yale, regarding the study of any economics could be hauling a great salary as an indentured slave of a galaxy of corporate over whores. Yet the good Doctor continues to spread his message. The Oracle of Ottawa would love to know what made him go rogue, what the full circumstances were. The Oracle of Ottawa suspects that would be darn near as good as one of Doctor Wolff's lectures. 

Canada - The Right Bears It's Fruit

Attacks are rarely directed at true objectivity, but rather at pretenders who use it to mask their own dishonesty, or perhaps the falseness and injustice of the whole culture.
Theodore M. Porter, Trust In Numbers, p. 3

It seems like only yesterday that the Oracle of Ottawa witnessed the western idiot Preston Manning declare just after the 'Harper Government' majority that Canada is now all but gone over to the Dark Side of the political right. The Oracle of Ottawa, as a public service, to his worldwide audience has decided that it is time to let all the members of the Global Village know how this has all been working out for us here in Canada.

African Rock Python - messenger of the Right...

It was a packed church somewhere in the Canadian Province of New Brunswick today as several hundred mourners gathered for the double funeral of two young brothers aged five and seven, who were constricted to death by an African Rock Python several days ago. No matter where in the world you are as you are reading this, you have no doubt heard about this event through your local vulgar media. CNN International just loved it. It is quite true as you have probably suspected, that it is illegal in Canada to own this animal privately. And yes, we have (had?) a Federal Law that contains a huge list of scummy animals from the Third and other worlds that are not allowed in Canada, my once nice clean country, under any circumstances. Things like an Indian mongoose for example. But Dear Reader, did you know where the owner of this snake got it from? Sitting down? It was given to him by the provincial government of New Brunswick! Along with twenty six other restricted animals that the government seized! The Oracle of Ottawa can only imagine that the local governments budget has been cut so down to the bone that they could no longer afford bullets to do their mandated job. And the Right bears it's fruit.

Preston Manning - God of the Right

Recently in the Province of Quebec, a huge train of tanker cars containing "crude oil" was left out side a small town called Lac-Megantic. The unattended 73 car freight train simply rolled down the hill into the center of a small town and of course derailed and blew up, killing at last count 43 people, and creating a fire storm that resembled a little Dresden. But the upside of all this is that everybody in Canada now knows for sure that  there really is a God. The said fire bombed town was in the riding of the 'Harper Government' Minister of Industry and Development! You just can't make this stuff up! The Oracle of Ottawa remembers very well and clearly how the sock puppets of the 'Harper Government' stood up repeatedly in the House of Commons on many occasions and stated more than once that it was not the governments job to tell a capitalist pig how to run his / her  company!  And the Right bears it's fruit.

Prime Minister Harper - Lackey of the Right

Recently in the Province of Ontario, cancer patients in southern Ontario were informed that their chemo drugs have been discovered to be watered down by about 10%! The "honest mistake" was made by a private sector contractor, who's accountant must have figured that a one percent drop in concentration would result in a ten percent plus rise in profit. Who would ever know, right? And it certainly is not up to the Federal Government, or as it is now known, the 'Harper Government', to step into such situations and interfere with the divine workings of the Invisible Hand, is it? And the Right bears it's fruit.  

In the northern reaches of the Province of Alberta, raw tar sand, otherwise known as bitumen, has started to mysteriously seep from the ground, and has been proven to be impossible to stop. It is now contaminating 
the water table of a small band of Canadian Aboriginals, not to mention that lake and all its tributaries. Clean up costs are estimated to be in the tens of millions of dollars. The monster large oil company in question claims it is all news to them, or rather until the intrepid members of the local vulgar media found out that it is leak from a SAGD mining of tar sand in the immediate area, that has somehow found another route up to the surface of the Earth due to an unknown number of rock fractures. Now it is taken as Gospel out in the western Canadian oil patch that it is no business of the Federal Government to impose foolish and expensive restrictions on dollar seeking oil companies.(3-D sesmic is not that expensive, but it does cost money...) The market will take care of all that, along with the Invisible Hand. It is not the governments business to tell an oil company what to do. And the Right bears it's fruit. 

Now we are out to Vancouver, British Columbia. Where upon this week it has been found that a local Chinese peasant has been running a dental practice out of a spare bedroom of his private home, in a very, well, somewhat nice street somewhere in Vancouver!! It hasn't been going on too long, only about twenty years! And the said buck-toothed peasant (irony?) didn't have too many patients, only about 1,500, well maybe a lot more than that, the police are still searching for his patient records, nothing yet. The said buck toothed Chinese peasant had very many dental tools, but from the video that the Oracle of Ottawa saw on the CBC newscast, it would probably be safer to get your dental work done at a GM dealership, at least my mechanics tools are bright and gleaming! Since there was no instrument sterilization equipment found as of yet, it has been recommended to all former patients to get tested for Hep A, Hep B, Hep C and while you are at it, get the AIDS test also. It seems that the Bucktoothed "dentist" was very popular with the high and low end downtown hookers of Vancouver Island. But certainly it is not for the Government of any level to interfere with an industrious person that just wants to make a buck for crying out loud
And the Right bears it's fruit.

Detroit And The Death Of Capitalism

The creation of a work of art, like an act of love, is our one small "yes" at the center of a vast "no".
Gore Vidal, The Selected Essays Of Gore Vidal, p. 14 

Detroit is not very far from the Oracle of Ottawa's bunker in south-end Ottawa. Why it is just a drive down the 416, a right onto the 401 to Windsor and then cross the bridge. Why even the two biggest local Detroit TV stations are included in the Oracles TV cable package, it is darn near like being there! In another Black Day In July, this time on July 18, 2013, Detroit has filed for Chapter 9 Bankruptcy, the largest filing of its type in the history of the United States (so far). 

Joe Louis Monument - Detroit

How in hell can the thirteenth largest city in the United States of America go bankrupt? And Detroit is not just another City, it was and still is to some extent, the Motor City, the Arsenal of Democracy, the Mother F*cking Big 'D'! In 1950 there were 1,850,000 in Detroit, as of 2013 there are 701,000.  You hear all kinds of causes, the most often heard is "white flight" caused by "deindustrialization". But if you dig into the nut of the matter you will soon discover that the real cause of the decline of Detroit is the charter townships!

It is impossible in Detroit to start up a Regional Municipality of Detroit! Although there is "only" 701,000 people in the old core of Detroit now, there is at present, over 5,000,000 people in the Detroit Metro Area! Now the Detroit Metro Area consists of 330 local governments (!) which by the 1947 legislation can never be annexed into an efficient administrative body! The Oracle can hear all the people in Canada and the European Union saying the same thing; How nuts is that?

At the time of this writing in Detroit there are 90,000 abandoned lots, 70,000 abandoned buildings, and 31,000 abandoned houses! The word is that you could place Paris and Bremen in the empty parts of Detroit and still have room left over! If you don't believe the Oracle of Ottawa just check out Google Earth and go for a street view walk in Detroit, or enter Detroit on You Tube and you can watch for hours in utter amazement and horror at how insane the whole mess really is. Why even the pigeons and shit hawks have given up on Detroit!  It is truly just about beyond comprehension! Is this the efficient result of Adam Smith's invisible hand?
 

Another favorite excuse of the right wing wack balls in the United States is that it is all the fault of Detroit being strongly Democrat for the last 50 years! But if that is indeed true why can't the Oracle of Ottawa find at least one small Detroit in the European Union or in Canada? And there are many cities in the European Union and Canada that are as old or much more older than Detroit! You will be able to come only to one conclusion, Detroit is not a disaster of circumstance, it is simply a disaster of governance.

In Quebec The Train Go Boom!

"Shit has its own integrity"
Gore Vidal, The Selected Essays of Gore Vidal, p. 23

The Oracle of Ottawa thought he could take the summer off. The hit rates on blogs just tank in the summer, readers and most bloggers have a life after all. And to tell you the truth Dear Reader, the Oracle of Ottawa was getting tired of talking to himself. Blogging is a lot like being married to French girl, you talk to yourself a lot, and you learn to get used to it.

Christian Paradis brings industry to Lac-Megantic!

It was at a fine posh summer social engagement when the television came on just after the first smoked hamburgers were being delivered from the "smoker", when the Oracle of Ottawa first got ear of the massive tragedy of seventy tanker cars that somehow rolled down a hill of several kilometres in distance to derail and blow up inside of a town center at a place called Lac-Megantic Quebec in the middle of the night,early Saturday morning. It was Saturday evening when the Oracle of Ottawa caught the French CBC live coverage. They said it was a crude oil fire. What the hell is crude oil doing in a small town in Eastern Quebec?

Much to the Oracles utter surprise was the galling show up of the minions of the 'Harper Government' like this train wreck was a great photo - op! Denis "Blinkey" Lebel the minister of Transport made a very long appearance, no doubt the Liberals were practically cumming in their shorts as the awesome Minister made his own Liberal attack ads for the next general election. To the Oracle of Ottawa it was full 'Harper Government' surreal, as the Minister babbled about how safe rail transport is as the town behind him was going up in smoke! Only the 'Harper Government' could be so utterly insane. This was followed up by the Local MP for Lac-Megantic, who just happened to be Christian Paradis! The Minister of Industry for the 'Harper Government'! It all couldn't have happened to a nicer and more deserving guy, could it? It certainly appears that he brought much industry indeed to his home town....

This will make for very interesting Question Periods come September. One wonders if Minister "Blinkey" Lebel will still be of the view that it is not the Governments job to insure the safety of the general public by regulating private corporate transportation companies. The Oracle wonders how much fun we all have watching that come the fall.

The Next Pope - My Top Three Picks

In the Bible poverty is a scandalous condition inimical to human dignity and therefore contrary to the will of God.
Gustavo Gutierrez, A Theology Of Liberation, p. 165

The Oracle of Ottawa was mildly shocked at the news of the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI as it rolled past the bottom off my screen on the news crawler while I was checking the market open. It was in no way the feeling of utter dejection that the Oracle of Ottawa felt at his election! And I remember the occasion very clearly. The inside power of Opus Dei had a lot to do with this screw-up. At the time I felt it was all going to be a total fail, and history has proven me correct.

Of course the world bookmakers have already opened book on the next Pontiff. But what are the qualities that the Oracle of Ottawa and all the world want in the next Pope? It has to be someone of the political left, and it has to be someone that understands that the social contracts of the world are under constant attack. It has to be someone that understands that the Roman Catholic Church is only as big and powerful as its members. With all that in mind the Oracle of Ottawa will share his picks for the next Pope. I will start with my third choice, ending with my favorite last.

Cardinal Francis Arinze

 For my third choice, the Oracle of Ottawa has to go with the book-makers favorite at 3-1 odds. And that gentleman is Cardinal Francis Arinze,of Nigeria. He is a strapping, good looking man but alas he is 80 years old at the time of this writing.... Hugely respected, but in tight with the right wing that made him. At the end of the day, not a chance.

Cardinal Luis Tagle - The Prince...

 My second choice is Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle. Aged 55! And now presently the Archbishop of Manila and Cardinal of the Holy Roman Catholic Church. Deeply involved in many social issues, and being from the Philippines, the Oracle of Ottawa has heard there are quite a few of those presently outstanding in his patch. This guy seems to have the iron and the spine of a real Italian Prince. And he is sharp as hell (or rather heck), in that it is recorded that he could recite the complete Rosary at the age of three years. No doubt a good choice, but guys like this scare the hell out of the Oracle of Ottawa!

For the Oracle of Ottawa's first choice a small disclaimer must first be stated in that all this data and biographies are in earnest. The Oracle of Ottawa is not having the dear reader on, and that the Oracle of Ottawa takes this issue seriously. It is just that my favorite choice, not even the Oracle of Ottawa could make this up! 

Cardinal Reinhard Marx (seriously...)

The Oracle of Ottawa's first choice for the next Pope is Cardinal Reinhard Marx  (59 years old), former Bishop of Trier, Germany, really! Like the Oracle of Ottawa said, you can't make this up! And pardon me but there is a warm resemblance to Karl Marx, which really makes the Oracle of Ottawa wonder could he be even distantly related? And the good Cardinal has written a book recently (2008) entitled "Das Kapital: A Plea For Man" !! The good Cardinal truly believes that capitalism and the messes it creates requires a "fundamental social debate" Amen to that Your Eminence!! Now if you are a clever Catholic punter, the Oracle of Ottawa is sure that you could get the good Cardinal at around 500-1 at your local bookmaker, and the more the Oracle digs on Cardinal Reinhard Marx the more he is very impressed. This is the Pope the whole world really, really needs. And right now, if not sooner!! 

This is the Pope the Holy Roman Catholic Church  and the whole world needs. Now, Right freaking NOW!!

The Best Karl Marx Documentary

The process is so complicated that it offers ever so many occasions for running abnormally.
Karl Marx, Das Kapital, Buch II, p. 500

It is a great comfort to the Oracle of Ottawa that there are still in existence some organizations that have the greater good at the top of mind. One of those organizations is the great BBC of the United Kingdom, and another is the Open University. Recently they have collaborated to produce a series of documentaries of the worlds greatest economists. The first episode covered the legacy of John Maynard Keynes, The second episode was on Hayek, and the third and greatest episode was on the subject and modern rising influence and seeming rebirth of Karl Marx.

Karl Marx - 1870

 The series was hosted by a most beguiling young lissome lass by the name of Stephanie Flanders. The host and the series reminded the Oracle of Ottawa of John Kenneth Galbraith and the series The Age of Uncertainty. It was eerie how Ms. Flanders has the same ability to captivate as did the great John Kenneth! The Oracle of Ottawa loved the lavish production in HD. And the stops at all the major way-points of the life of Karl Marx. It was just entrancingly fascinating. You could really tell that Stephanie Flanders totally "gets" Karl Marx, and it truly did shine through and is most worthy and without fault.

Stephanie Flanders

 What the Oracle of Ottawa enjoyed the most, and found most impressive, was the quality of guests that made themselves available for very frank and candid interviews for the Karl Marx segment! The Oracle of Ottawa won't give them away, save for one, Sir Mervyn King, yes that Mervyn! Governor of The Bank of England! Damn! That Stephanie Flanders sure has some kind' a pull. The Oracle of Ottawa damn near fell of his chair! And dear reader, it was all awesome, and perfectly and seamlessly edited. And Sir Mervyn really knows his stuff, you could tell that he actually read a lot of the texts of Karl Marx.

Could it be? This documentary was very recent. Could it have played a role in present day events? Could this appearance and rather forthright honest opinions have cost Sir Mervyn his reappointment? Is this the real reason that Mark Carney, the Judas head of the Bank of Canada and the International Stability Board has been named the next Bank of England Governor? The Oracle of Ottawa is of the opinion that the only thing that Mark Carney knows about Karl Marx is that he never made partner at Goldman Sachs...

But be that as it may. The Oracle of Ottawa digresses. There were two small omissions that were missed that would have really rubbed salt into all the right wingers watching the aforesaid segment, that the Oracle of Ottawa must really point out. The first being the lack of mention of Karl Marx's neighbor in Highgate Cemetery. And that is the fact that Herbert Spencer  , who coined the term "survival of the fittest" has a forever face fronting view to the great monument erected in the honour of the now great and again up and coming friend and contemporary Karl Marx! In one of the most ironic grave placements in the history of economics and science, they are forever "grave buddies"! And as you watch the whole episode you can readily see who has won the prize for fame for all time! The second slight omission  was at the last of the episode when the question was bandied about what change could be possibly made or what could replace capitalism as it now exists. 

Well the Oracle of Ottawa has the answer for this! It is the greatest economic concept that you have probably never heard of. And it was coined by the aforementioned John Kenneth Galbraith. And that concept was called "countervailing power". Perhaps you should look into it.

The fastest and most brilliant hour of television of 2012... They can't make this go away, it will always pop up somewhere... (But as of January 2015, it has been made to completely vanish...)

Was Ayn Rand A Total Fraud?

A mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure.
Francis Bacon, Essays, Of Truth

It was simply astounding to the Oracle of Ottawa how big a role Ayn Rand played in the last American election. It was even more astounding to the Oracle of Ottawa how many dead head Americans of the raving right wing actually live by this insanity. But to the relief of reason and the world, sanity and a wicked Democrat ground campaign, (that was not outsourced), won out.

Ayn Rand and Objectivism - Where they belong...

The Oracle of Ottawa remembers well as a younger man reading Atlas Shrugged. It was the first thousand pager that the Oracle ever read. It was followed by most all of the other titles. The Oracle of Ottawa still has a mint copy of Atlas Shrugged in first edition hardcover, with a mint dust jacket, as a monument to the gullibility of youth. Yes the Oracle of Ottawa was quiet a fan. But it did not spur an interest in economics, that was down by the 2008 financial meltdown and Karl Marx. That really got me interested in economics...

For old times sake the Oracle of Ottawa recently hit up Ayn Rands article on Wikipedia and was amazed at how deep the content was, and the fact that it is fully cited! You could not imagine the Oracle of Ottawas shock when he came upon the cited fact that the woman who cursed and campaigned all her life against government and all forms of welfare that is paid for by the taxpayer, discovered much to his surprise that Ayn Rand collected Social Security and Medicaid!! And that fact is cited and referenced!

How is that possible? As of 2007 the woman had sold over 25 million copies! How was it at all possible that she was busted skint at the end of her life? Only in America, one can guess. Where were all her rich and adoring fans? And you would think that with all that money she must have made from the fruits of capitalism that she must have had a killer portfolio of common stocks. But alas no. Come to think of it now, Ayn Rand didn't have a clue how a real company operates in the real world. Do you ever remember any of her characters in any of her "novels" ever referring to the stockholders? Hell no, the main characters acted like it was there personal company. How many railways bigger than a spur line were ever held privately in the last century?  It was all so totally insane. But to a sociopath it is all in a days work...

Another myth that was often propounded and repeated many times in the last campaign by Ron Paul among others was that Atlas Shrugged is the greatest novel next to the bible!! But alas the Oracle of Ottawa must disavow my unlearned American friends of this lie also. Check out the List of best selling fiction authors on Wikipedia... Ayn Rand is no where to be found, and never was, or ever will be world class.

The first American Psycho?

Globalization - How It Will End

In the end, we can't outsource more than 100 per cent of manufacturing, we can't transport goods with zero energy, and we can't enlist the efforts of workers and count on their buying our products while paying them nothing.
Richard Heinberg, The End Of Growth - Adapting To Our New Economic Realty, p. 12

Yes, the Oracle of Ottawa has been tardy as of late, but he has hit a very rich patch, yet again, with the ongoing "Thinking About Thinking" project. This one has been very productive, and is being pursued on several fronts all at once. William Greiders "Globalization - One World Ready Or Not", Anthony Kenny's "A New History Of Western Philosophy", Hans Kung, "Does God Exist?" and Rene Descarte, "The Meditations", in a most excellent and full translation. Arthur Schopenhauer; "The World As Will And Idea".  And, oh yeah, David Hume, "A Treatise Of Human Nature", now that sucker was tough! But the Oracle of Ottawa is deep into volume three of the unabridged edition, which was a real bitch to find, you believe me! 

Rosa Luxemberg

Yet even though the Oracle of Ottawa was off his usual prodigious amount of pensive missives, last month was an all time record month in the "hits" department! Ye Gods! Perhaps less is more after all! But the Muse is rising again just as the scum always rises...and the Oracle of Ottawa is feeling up to explaining how the dreaded age of Globalization will actually come to an rather abrupt and ugly end. Also the Oracle of Ottawa will share some possible investment tips that you might want to consider in the ongoing future, which will soon belong to the people that created it in the first place.

The New World Order losses its hard on....

It was Rosa Luxemburg that originally figured out how globalization would end, way back, in the early 20th century! Why, it can, and still could be argued that she even predicted globalization! She saw some things much further out than Marx himself did. She correctly predicted the future algorithm of big capital in the far future with an uncanny accuracy that makes the Oracle of Ottawa shudder with envy and awe. She predicted that as big capital grew larger and larger it would fan out farther and farther on the face of the Earth in search of new Surplus Labour. Farther into the future, she predicted that since the resources of the Earth are at the end of the day finite, big capital, or otherwise known today as Multinational Corporations (MNE's), could literally run out of new surplus labour, that it would underpay for and then ship the product to the "developed" world for the same price as if it was made in the first world! Got that? Now we all know it is that kind of thinking that will eventually get you dead at the age of forty seven. And that is what happened to Rosa Luxemberg.

Well, it dawned on the Oracle of Ottawa recently that we are very near to that time. Now a lot a very real weird things will seem to happen all at once. And if you don't understand the game plan, it will all appear as chaos and anarchy. As the past endless supply of surplus labour dries up, and the MNE's have no other next cheap country to open up in, costs will start to rise. The Oracle of Ottawa suspects that around this time, the Chinese peasants will make their move. And like the Boxer Rebellion  it will all rise up at many places all at once, and when it gets going it will all be very interesting CNN coverage. Party officials of whole areas hanging off of freeway light standards and overpasses will continue for months, possibly years.

Of course this will cause a massive shortage of stock for the dollar stores of the Western World. Not to mention all the other more valuable manufactured goods. So the moral of this story is that if you still have that huge milling machine and drop forge press, you might want to put it some place in the back room so to speak. There may be a very big demand for such tools again in the near future...     

Chris Hedges explains the collapse of globalization....

'Harper Government' - Dutch Disease

I come no enemie, but to set free
From out this dark and dismal house of pain,
John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book II, Lines 823-824

You really know that the 'Harper Government' is totally out-gunned when in Question Period of Friday last, it was up to the fourth party of one, in the person of Elizabeth May to try to explain to the knuckle dragging Tory back-benchers what exactly Dutch disease was! You could see that the 'Harper Government' just wasn't getting it at all. No one was going to accuse them of a foreign disease, due to, no doubt, fast and loose morals and possibly having something to do with water borne mold! No lefty of any stripe is going to tell a member of the "Conservative Party of Canada" that they are doing their religion all wrong!

Dutch disease...

So it sits to the Oracle of Ottawa to explain it, without the constraints of time limits and the presence of gap toothed, mouth breathing, inbred, knuckle dragging, social-Darwinists, all foaming at the mouth, knowing instinctively that they are in the process of looking stupid yet again.

The term was first coined in the Economist Magazine in 1977, in an article that described the effect of large sums of money entering into a (new) resource based economy, that was once a manufacturing based economy. This happened in Holland in 1959, when a very huge natural gas field was discovered in the area of
of Slochteren, which is located in the north east corner of Holland, more properly called the Netherlands. Well it was a gusher! Why at the present time there is still 2,700 billion cubic meters still left to get up and out! Which is so large that it would still give any gas field in present day Alberta quite a good run.

Well, as you can imagine, the hot new high paying field to work in was the Dutch gas industry! These people came from the present Dutch manufacturing industries, which causes direct industrialization! Along with the currency being re-valued by the world, i.e. greatly upward, this caused the Dutch manufacturing sector to decline even further. Why just like Ontario and the rest of Canada is right now! Dutch disease is also a perfect example of how the "free market" can eat a nation alive! This of course is the 'Harper Government's worst night-mare! A perfect example of "externalities" that proves that unrestricted free market capitalism can be the utter death of a state!

This unwelcome revelation of the facts coupled with the 'Harper Government's buried changes in the last budget bill to gut all the previous environmental safe guards is ironically going to cause the Canadian economy more harm than good! History will prove that the 'Harper Government' is actually creating its own downfall, along with yours and mine, by their slavish following of their primitive 18th century economic ideology! How sweet is that?

Is Canada catching Dutch disease?

If Capitalism Is So Awesome...

In every stock-jobbing swindle everyone knows that some time or other the crash must come, but every one hopes that it may fall on the head of his neighbour, after he himself has caught the shower of gold and placed it in safety. 
Karl Marx, Das Kapital, Volume I,  p.296

If capitalism is so awesome, why was it that atomic energy and the atomic and hydrogen bombs were invented by a bunch of nerdy government contract workers? Employed in something called the Manhattan Project...

If capitalism is so awesome, why was the internet invented by another generation of nerds, that again was working for the government of the United States? Most right-wing wack balls don't even know the origins of the internet! And they will argue quiet hotly, that it was private industry that developed the whole thing and concept!

If capitalism is so awesome...

If capitalism is so awesome and efficient, and the best creator of wealth, why do Canadian people have to retire two years later at the age of 67? And to add insult to injury, they will have to contribute more to eventually receive less.

If capitalism was so awesome, wouldn't we be all retiring earlier? Like at the age of fifty five? I mean if it is true that capitalism is so awesome....why do we even have to work at all?

If capitalism is so awesome, and education is valuable to the continuation of capitalism, why is education becoming more and more expensive, of lesser quality, and the guarantee of less wages than before?

If capitalism is so awesome, why is crime actually starting to look like a promising career choice? I mean, just asking...

If capitalism is so awesome and all, why do we still have children still living in poverty in the richest countries in the world?

If capitalism is so awesome, and so profitable, why is so hard to get corporations to pay their damn taxes?

If capitalism is so awesome, and government such a drag and stifling influence, why is that when corporations "too big to fail" always go to governments for a bail out when their micro-dicks get stuck in the sharpener?

If capitalism is so awesome, why do big or any corporations even have to bother to "lobby"  government?

If capitalism is so awesome, why is it steadily failing you?

Did You Ever See A Corporation Vote?

As Hegel well knew, the ascent of reason has never followed a straight line.
Paul A. Baran, The Political Economy of Growth, p. 298

You know the whole world is in deep do-do when the founder of the World Economic Forum stands up in Davos and finally admits right out loud that something is wrong with capitalism! Now you can't knock old Klaus Schwab. The big hoe-down at Davos is not the Bilderberg Group. All the meetings are covered by accredited Press of the vulgar old media and the the hot new media. Why you can catch quite a bit of it on BBC. The conclusion that you have to come to is that old Klaus is at least really trying to make the world a better place, free of the Washington Consensus.

Klaus informs us that capitalism is busted...

Why even Steve Harper of the 'Harper Government' is in attendance. Hoping that he will hit on some strange, near as good looking as that other young ministers wife, what's his name... But he better pay attention to the lectures, he doesn't have a chance in hell of trapping the hot exotic stuff. Even though he is the leader of a 'super power' it is all Wal-Mart clad muffins for him for ever. Of course, as far as the Conservatives are concerned, there is nothing at all wrong with capitalism. We just have to lower costs, i.e. taxes, and dismantle what remains of the Canadian state even quicker! This will make capitalism work better.

The Keystone XL pipeline has recently bitten the dust. The Gateway pipeline  is no doubt soon going to be toast also and shortly. You know it is in trouble when the federal Minister of Natural Resources, one Joe Oliver, sends out letters and press releases shitting over all the legal NGO's and the environmental lobby for showing up at the hearings!  Of course he doesn't mention the presence of the money of big oil and is always very silent of the monster money from the Peoples Republic of China! Yes sir Bubba! It appears that there are a lot of people in public life that are just now discovering the cost of their fulfilled "ricer" fantasies as provided by the Chinese Embassy! With tapes and video to back up their chits, the China-men want results now!

With all the focused attention on serving corporate interests you would swear to God that corporations voted! The Oracle of Ottawa has never missed a chance to vote when he could. But for the life of me, I have yet to see a corporation vote! Have you? Then you have to ask yourself why the 'Harper Government' goes to such lengths and trouble to serve an entity that cannot finance or vote for them in the next election.What ever could be the driving force?

The same malady has descended to us in the City of Ottawa. Instead of standing up to the 'Harper Government' even symbolically, Gentleman Jim Watson the fearless burger of Ottawa has stated in his State of the City report that he is just going to roll-over and cave. Allowing the 'Harper Government' to dismantle the unionized civil service, that will be replaced by the same people working now on  for minimum wage for some scum sucking Calgary contractor! The same is being planned for OC Transpo, as that international sole sourced contract for the great Ottawa "subway" is soon to be awarded, manned forever with cheap Chinese contract workers? Can't happen? Really...

The perfect metaphoric analogy of the current situation of Canada and the City of Ottawa... Just try to watch....

'Harper Government' Meets The Invisible Hand

Men of wit always turn the discourse on subjects that are entertaining to the imagination ; and poets never present any objects but such as are of the same nature.
David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature, Book II, Part II, Section V, p. 358

What a difference a week makes! Or, who would have figured that the 'Harper Government' would have peaked over the hump so soon! It is all down hill from here Bubba! It is also amazing what you can glean from the Globe and Mail Friday edition. Why if you are very preceptive, and able to think critically in a sane and somewhat linear manner, you can figure out pretty much what is going to happen next week! Take for example the nice compact piece by Dean Beeby, entitled Truce called in CBC dispute...

Mad Hatter looks a lot like.....

It seems that the Tory members of the Access to Information and Ethics Committee have agreed to return the Pandoras Box of sealed CBC documents. I guess the thought of future endless feature programs analyzing the Tory Man Love Triangles from every possible angle (sic) has somewhat taken the inquisitive edge from the stark raving nuts Tory Bund. The Oracle of Ottawa has received  confirmation already that one Mad Hatter press baron in Quebec is just livid. It seems that all the money in the world and a strong Conservative majority is no match to having your hind grinding exposed on the "State Broadcaster" after all! Sort of like, Let's Make It Better, but not right now. I wonder if the Mad Hatter of Qu#b#c#r has figured it all out yet? What month of the day is it?

Mad Hatter & Counsel try to get Aljazeera
back into the Tea Pot....

But if one peruses the want ads at the back of the Report on Business one can see a real ground shaker coming down the road. Why, it seems that ALJAZEERA is coming to Canada! They are posting 15 positions, and a dozen of them are for many multiple candidates! All you poor bastards that have been suffering in abandoned industrial buildings in seedy industrial parks under the guise of Sun Media newsrooms, your Moses (Allah?)  just entered town! Brian Dunstan is going to go over the top after all! You can be a prick, you can have "the power", you can be a jerk that everyone is afraid of, you can pay as little as you can get away with, but only for a while. Even God couldn't run the Sun News empire by himself! Perhaps for the speculative types, a large short sale is in order, along with the purchase and sale of a raft of near options....There will be blood  and gold for the brave.

Even the dumbest Sun news "intern" serf can figure out who will pay more. Sun News Quebec, or ALJAZEERA of Doha, Qatar! It seems that ALJAZEERA is on a mission from God. Money is no object. Many "media" outlets of all persuasions are soon to be picked clean. It will be sheer heaven to watch one certain stock tank to utter oblivion... What insane actions will this cause? Will the police have to be called? Allo Police??

One day you are on top of the world, all powerful, the next day your toast! Will the Harper Government intervene in straight up good old fashioned capitalist competition? Any thing is better than Sun News...

Employment Insurance Canada - A Crown Corporation

The life insurance industry is filled with good people who believe in their work and their companies, but who may never have challenged the assumptions underlying their efforts. 
Andrew Tobias, The Invisible Bankers, Everything The Insurance Industry Never Wanted You To Know, p. 65

It all starts at the earliest school experience. The rights of private property and how capitalism is the most efficient system ever devised. You have get them young. You pretty much buy-in to all the propaganda, since you have nothing to compare it to, and any alternatives are certainly not allowed to be discussed. Soon you are out in the real world, and you start to notice things aren't quite right.

Adam Smith would approve, read the text...

For example, there are three burger joints in your "hood" and they are always empty most of the time. Think of that carbon foot print for a moment! You crawl on saturated freeways, full of empty cars, all really going no where in particular. You fly on business, and notice that there is a constant line of half or emptier jets all going to the same place. Now you start to wonder at the plain insanity of deregulation, and pondering back to 9/11 on and of the wisdom of deregulation, and the brilliance of "open skies" Great idea that was...

Soon the factory you work for is ripping the machines from the floor and shipping them to Mexico or China. Your worthless globalized ass is now unemployed. You have paid into employment insurance for years and now you have to apply for it! What the fuck kind of insult is that? The Oracle of Ottawa has a future solution for this. And it will no doubt happen when the NDP forms government. Or sooner than you think!

Soon to be just a bad memory.....

The solution is a Crown Corporation for Employment Insurance. From your first job, you are their most important client! All the money you pay for your employment insurance goes to Employment Insurance Canada. There mission is to protect you and help you to realize your maximum potential over the period of your working life. When you become unemployed, your first check will be in the mail automatically! No waiting period crap. You will also find information in the envelope of all the "out services" you can access right fuck'in NOW! Just like the pigs in suits! This will include several re-trainings over your working life...

Now, the mandate of Employment Insurance Canada is pretty wide open and the lads are ready to keep it wide open. For example due to such the large "group" of all the workers in Canada EIC will be able to offer insurance pretty cheap. Soon they will be offering full insurance packages and allied services.(i.e. estate planning..) For example you will be able to get life insurance, real cheap and very sweet. Of course the corporate pigs now selling insurance won't be nationalized, we the workers will enjoy watching them starve to death one by one!

Of course some of them will find little low profit niches that will allow them minimum wage. Capitalism in the clean up mode. Capitalism at the service of the people who created it and is supposed to serve. Now as time progresses, Workers Compensation and Canada Pension integrates into Employment Insurance Canada, with constitutional safeguards and protections. After-all the 19th century was two centuries ago....