blueblood

By boat sinking ability, the largest. Those Greek triremes can't sink much

Not that low, there's healthcare to pay for. But the provincial tax is flat, everyone who lives in Alberta coughs up 10% regardless of income.

Which is a pittance to entitlements. Defense is already being cut, but in he unique case of the usa, cutting defense is a delicate balancing act.

The kicker is the high corporate tax rate in the USA. Take out the loopholes and if they are stuck with a 35% corporate tax rate, that's a recipe for an exodus and slashing workers.

Alberta provincial income tax...

We have Cain and perry floating a flat tax idea. Good idea or bad idea? My link I like it that it simplifies the tax code and ensures a wide tax base. Also sets market certainty which helps out economy. Hard sell for lower middle class though, and that's where the votes are...

Oh there was consultation. Rural western canada voted tory blue knowing full well the tory's plans for the wheat board

You have to realize that producers have other crops than wheat for rotational purposes, money making, etc. Those other crops are typically non-board grains. And big and small producers alike grow them. These days those non-board grains provide better returns per acre than wheat. Getting on the net is no big deal, I look at prices every half hour on the smartphone. I've heard of guys negotiating canola delivery contracts over email right in the middle of running the seeder (thank you gps autosteer). Typically guys will go to the delivery point and the agent there has a variety of delivery contracts for producers to sign. Another thing of importance is that all crop prices are sold by world prices. Hence the debate of whether pooling returns are better or not. A pool can't arbitrarily decide what the price of wheat will be for its customers. So I reality everything a producer grows is at the mercy of the market. Guys do futures contracts and spot prices for delivery of products at any time of the year. For example I have delivery contracts of canola for jan. March and july. Guys have got around the market glut at fall time by buying on farm storage and can deliver their product when the price is right. The supposed advantage of the cwb was at one point in time it controlled 20 percent of world wheat exports and it itself would play the futures game with its customers. By controlling 20 percent they figured they could manipulate the world price a bit by timing delivery. However that market share has dropped like a rock, and there have been studies on both sides debating whether or not the cwb can play the market better than how guys do it with non board grains. The rule of thumb is if you can't propey sell your grain, farming isn't a good idea. Its just as important as working in the field.

Your pretty much correct. I saw a number that was 21 percent, but that may be SKs numbers. But ill say that's a wash, for simplicity sake we'll go 1 in 5. Lots of guys don't because they don't know about it, don't want tp deal with setting one up, or they still want to be able to write down their losses for income tax purposes. No two outfits are alike and incorporating works for some and not others. Msj can fill in the blanks on the accounting side. As for the cwb. Their performance is debatable with many studies supporting each sides claims. I am in the camp that thinks it should be voluntary. The simple fact of them kicking and screaming for the DPCs, the 40 tonne minimum amount of grain sold thru the cwb to vote in their elections for starters. The fact that board grains share of the canadian crop is dropping like a rock, the fact that more producers are going to corn, canola, and pulses. The fact that there has been hardly a peep out of australia when their board has went. And the fact that if you read their literature, its their scare tactic tone, if I have to be scared into something to buy into it, somethings up. As for small farmers being run out, that's bs because they are going big into nonboard grains just like everyone else. Then there's the hauling into the usa bit, it will be nice to do so without spending time in the clink and it will force canadian delivery points to up their prices. As for the cwb not surviving, ask smallc about co-op stores in western canada and how they dominate rural western canada. Then there is the argument about not having assets, well just about every farmer has poured money into on farm storage, the new board can regulate how much grain each farmer sells to maintain its pooling situation. If you check out producer.com, and read the blogs there is some good balanced literature on the subject.

After being explained how hedge funds work, all you can say is money has no morality??? Outstanding

But they're making money, and by investing money in those contracts, they provide incentives to producers to start making more, and if more gets made the price drops and the hedge fund adjusts to that. It's providing liquidity, albeit volatile liquidity.

Hah!!! I and many others did not get a plebiscite voting form. Whats even funnier is that we have landlords and "producers" with only 40 tons of wheat or less voting as legitimate farmers, and when reform on who gets to vote was thrown out there, the cwb and their supporters threw a hissy fit. THose plebicites have as much credibility as an election in zimbabwe. If so many farmers love the wheat board and it works sooo well, why isnt there a canola marketing board and a pulse marketing board and a corn marketing board, and a soybean marketing board?

Client buys an oil delivery contract on the NYMEX for 80$ per barrel expecting the price to rise. Price rises to 100$ for said delivery contract and the client sells that delivery contract. Client has the option to pocket the 20$ per barrel profit or roll the contract over to the next delivery date. Say enough people sell their contract at 100$, demand drops and the price falls to 95$, client can re-enter and makes money. Welcome to the futures market. THat's why the price of oil jumps around like a yo-yo. Sounds like they're creating wealth for their clients to me.

They provide returns for their investors, you have to pay to play.

A better retirement than gov't pension. Perhaps they should start saving money and not blow it on 400,000 dollar houses and brand new cars. Except that there is more use for investment fund managers than liberal arts grads. Lots of investment dollars going to the BRIC countries, maybe those grads should look at ways for helping facilitate that and making money off of it.

Now your getting it, that's the market at work. If enough people do so, guess what, the bank doesn't do things like that anymore. And that's whats going on, note canadian bank expansion into the USA.

How is that irrelevant, that's what hedge fund/investment fund managers essentially do!!! They provide their customer's money and in exchange for providing said money to various firms they take a share of the profits or stock value and pass that along to their customers and collect a fee for doing so.

Everybody hedges. Here's an example. In 2008 Westjet hedged their fuel inventory for the year by betting the price went up. So they bought all their fuel and watched month after month as fuel prices went up. As a result their passengers got to have cheaper flights without WestJet' s margins being affected, and more people flew on WestJet. Oh curse those handsome devils and their hedging!!! Hedging doesn't make you as much money as making a legitimate profit. Hedging only cuts losses. It also cuts gains. Hedging is betting on all the horses in the race. If you think hedging is the ultimate money maker, I suggest placing a bet of 100$ or how much you can afford on both teams in the stanley cup final to win the stanley cup.

Except that those investment fund managers are helping out with people's retirements so they don't all live on that pittance of a gov't pension, and they invest and provide capital to firms that supply jobs all around the world making it a richer place for everyone. It says that those protesters wasted their time and money in university and should have went into commerce and can become hedge fund managers and join in the party as well. Hell if there's enough of them they wouldn't be making millions, there would be so much their compensation would come down.

and pray tell how a company opening lets say a mine is supposed to get funding other than going to a bank and having to make interest payments?

How are we the predatory wealthy? does being different and being good at something make you a predator. Remember that people freely buy things from corporations and get satisfaction from using their products, and in turn the corporation gets paid. What's predatory about that? It goes the other way, if the protestors don't like living in a free society, they are free to emigrate to places that are more in line with their mindset, yet they willingly choose to live in a society with corporations in it, why is that? Wages are set by what the workers are willing to work for and how much companies are willing to pay. That's it that's all. There might be some things that are unaffordable and prices adjust based on where demand is. Remember if there is no money, there is no demand. If gas prices get too expensive, fewer people drive and increase the supply of gas. Companies wanting to get rid of the gas have to drop prices. All you have to say is my analogies are stupid is your response to them? No debate on their points? Score one for team blue. In western canada, there are lots of jobs. Perhaps if americans and easterners would lower their cost of labour they could have jobs too. If I give someone 50K to start a business and take a 10% royalty, and that business takes off, and my net worth from all my other stuff as well gets to 100 million dollars and the person doing the start up gets 1 million, who cares? There's a gap but everyone is fine. Ordinary Canadians supported austerity during the Paul Martin tenure as finance minister, and Harper's plan to cut spending by 19 yrs. of fiscally responsible gov't, which has cut cut cut. THe only education that is needed is for those university grads/students protesting about how business and the economy works.

Oh I don't know, the corporations don't create anything, it's all the corporations fault, the corporations are destroying the world for starters. I mean really, and O'Leary took him to task for it. Kevin O'Leary has helped out more people than you or I have. He doesn't have to appear on Dragon's Den, he doesn't have to invest in start ups, he doesn't have to give financial advice that he uses to make money, he doesn't have to have an investment firm that helps people with retirement and at the same time provide capital to start projects. He might be mean, but he's honest and does give advice. You think that ripping somebody apart when they mortgaged their house on an obviously stupid idea in order to get them to stop is being disgusting; that's tough love. I think its valuable that our society has somebody like that to show the other side of looking at things.

Hmm, Chris Hedges spouting tin foil hat nonsense and uncle kevin letting him hang himself. That was a gem, thank you!!! I was waiting for the tongue lashing and it never happened. If that's offensive, hedges needs to see a shrink

Watching the debate tonight, it looks like Perry did much better, Cain got hammered, Romney was well Romney

How is there a problem with the gap, when the bottom end of our society gets to enjoy amenities that people in third world countries can only dream of? A poor person can drive a clunker car, the rich person can have 10 aston martins, but a person in china has a bike, or worse someone in afghanistan has a donkey. What's happening with globalization is that the person in china gets to upgrade to a clunker. What you are failing to realize is that people are different. Some excel at things and some don't. Some take risks and some don't. Some are willing to go the extra mile, and some are fine with making less and having more time/less headaches. Theres a gap in abilities as far as sports go, what your are suggesting is tantamount to some elite level athletes not training so that when a draft comes up for their sport, a general manager doesn't get a good pool to choose from and that results in crappy entertainment for everyone and people watch something else, and the big salaries of athletes evaporates. Or we can look at the story of where the professor decided to give everyone in the class the class average. That turned out to be a disaster, the high average kids stopped studying because they figured why should they work so hard when they are only going to get a certain mark less than they would get in the old system. As a result the average dropped. ...I wonder what those protesters would say if everyone who went to university got the same grade as the class average, and a fail is still a fail. Food for thought.