Category: economics

FAVE Podcasts – Pivot & Prof G Show

One MUST LISTEN for me twice a week is Pivot.

That’s Tech guru Kara Swisher and my business guru Scott Galloway.

Galloway is hilariously cynical and critical. 😀 And smart.

Preview or subscribe on iTunes.

… a sharp, unfiltered look at the technology industry, with provocations, predictions and insights from two leading voices in the worlds of journalism and marketing.

Scott Galloway just launched his own podcast called the Prof G Show.

Unfortunately the first episode coincided with the pending economic collapse of the world. Galloway opted to bring in as his first guest one of the most respected Finance experts in the world Aswath Damodaran.

I came away feeling much more optimistic about the other side of this crisis.

IF corporations (and we individuals) have enough liquidity to last out the shut down, the economy could boom again.

Canada is the best nation in the world

People are sick of me blaming Trump for everything that’s wrong in the USA.

If he was gone tomorrow, most of the stupid policies of the GOP would survive. That nation is run by rich people, for rich people. Trump has been a very effective (very dumb) puppet for them.

By comparison, I’d say Canada is the best nation in the world. 

Just a few weeks ago, the US News & World report named Canada as the second best country in the world. The annual survey tabulated a variety of factors, including overall quality of life—where Canada was ranked first.

Switzerland is #1 in that survey. I’d rather live in Canada. 

“Yeah, but…” I hear you stutter. “Come to Alberta and argue that!” you say. Alberta? The province that continues to enjoy the highest GDP per capita in the country? In a country that enjoys one of the highest GDP per capita rankings in the world?

“Our health care system is broken!” you shout. Sure. Which is why our life expectancy is one of the highest in the world, better than the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Ireland.

“But the Liberals are terrible!” You have a point. And, because this is one of the healthiest  democracies in the world, soon there will be a free and fair election and you can toss them out so they can be replaced by the Conservatives who will then be terrible in an entirely different way.

Canada is not broken

Personally I’m sick of people blaming Trudeau for everything. If he was gone tomorrow, the Teck oil sands project would NOT be coming back.

The pipeline would NOT be suddenly completed.

We should be putting together a timeline on progressively phasing out the Alberta Oil Sands developments.

I’m certainly prepared to vote against the Trudeau Liberals in the next election, IF the opposition puts together a better candidate. A better platform.

 

Recapturing energy from gravity fed waterlines

Great idea.

Portland has replaced a section of its existing water supply network with Lucid Energy pipes containing four forty-two inch turbines. As water flows through the pipes, the turbines spin and power attached generators, which then feed energy back into the city’s electrical grid. …

Good magazine

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Building a better Wind Turbine

Here’s a design that won an award from NASA Tech Briefs.

Engineer and inventor Glen Lux has built dozens of vertical axis wind turbines trying to find ways to improve on traditional horizontal axis products.

Click PLAY or watch one on YouTube.

Thanks Warren.

Global migration and the remittance economy

In 1987, reporter Jason DeParle went to sleep on the floor of a shanty in Manila for the first time. He had come to the Philippines to find out more about poverty in the developing world …

… he would spend the next 32 years following their family as they spread out around the world for work and a future outside the slums.

His new book is called A Good Provider Is One Who Leaves and is the story of global migration in the 21st century …

NPR

In the news we hear non-stop horror stories about foreign workers being abused. And those happen.

Very under-reported are success stories.

More than 2 million Filipinos depart each year …

About one in seven Filipino workers is employed abroad, and the $32 billion that they send home accounts for 10 percent of the GDP.

A remittance is a transfer of money, often by a foreign worker to an individual in their home country. …

… in 2018 overall global remittance grew 10% to US$689 billion, including US$528 billion to developing countries.

Global migration is far more good than bad. 

Interview the families affected before you ASSume to know how they feel.