UK

The Heart of the Matter
Paul Summerville • April 26, 2010

The surge in support for the Liberal Democrats in the election in the United Kingdom may now end up in Nick Clegg becoming Prime Minister. Are British voters turning their backs on the two parties that have dominated the Parliamentary landscape since the 1920s not because Clegg is the new young thing but because the electorate is thirsting for a different system of government?

A brilliant essay in the New Statesmen makes the case for a British Republic. Canadians should take note.

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World
Smart Picks -- Canada's Turn, Historeeee, Nancy's Bill and the Rest, Health's Future, Moscow on the Thames, Strong Loonie
Paul Summerville • March 22, 2010

Now its Canada's turn. Typically smug Canadians watching the to-and-fro and occasional crash-and-burn of the US health care debate confident that all Canadians have health care coverage need to be reminded that Canada's system is not sustainable. A combination of prevention, funding, and delivery solutions that will eventually include more private delivery (already about 25% of Canada's health care is privately delivered) needs to be put on the table for action. We'll soon see that this debate in its own way is as divisive in Canada as elsewhere.

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World
Smart Picks -- Breaking Point, Feeling Good Can Be Stupid
Paul Summerville • March 17, 2010

Maybe this is what's happening. I can speak virtually for free to almost anywhere with anyone on the planet. I can see what is happening to almost anyone living in a major urban centre anywhere. The state can be a vehicle for social justice and it can be a beast. Over time human beings will tend to emphasize with each other. Of course it doesn't happen quickly, it doesn't happen seamlessly, it doesn't happen quickly but it happens. A thoughtful article on this idea from the Financial Times. 

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World
Smart Picks -- Money Under the Mattress, Bankrupt Us!, What About Justice, Chinese Tremors, Bubble Hunter, UK Coalition
Paul Summerville • March 14, 2010

When everything is fine human beings tend to bring their future spending into the present. Longer vacations at a better hotel, bigger houses with new furniture, an appetizer and a dessert at the restaurant. When things aren't fine human beings tend to restrict their spending. Staycations, downsizing, dinner in, rented DVDs and not the theatre.

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World
Smart Picks -- Economic Futures, 2 Anniversaries, Deutschland Uber Alles, Arctic Suez
Paul Summerville • March 10, 2010

What role should the state play in creating the conditions for economic growth? A question of excellent futures surely. A report commissioned by the Conservative Party headed by David Cameron is framed by the expectation that the 'government is responsible for change'. Maybe that's the problem.

March 9, 2009 the Great Recession bottom, March 10, 2000 the peak of the dotcom bubble. What have we learned from these two anniversaries?

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Smart Picks -- Tightwad Tories, Making Room, Changes, Stay In School, Making Cars, The Future
Paul Summerville • March 8, 2010

As my good friend David from London (the small one) is fond of saying, in Canada when the government announces that the rate of growth in spending is going from 5% to 3% it is presented (and usually reported) as a cut in spending by 2%. Nonsense. The Conservatives ought to have their feet held to the fire for their scandalous mismanagement of the country's federal finances and the press ought to do their jobs by pointing out that programme spending is forecast to rise in nominal terms by 10% over the next 5 years.

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World
Smart Picks -- Tim's Class, War Porn, Paying for Gold, China Stirring, Canada's Dark Futures, A World Far Away
Paul Summerville • March 4, 2010

Spent 90 minutes yesterday with Professor Tim Kemp's International Management class http://www.bus.camosun.bc.ca/~kemp/ at Camosun College in Victoria. Great discussion about the risks of too much market and too much state. Paul Krugman touches on this today in his blog, and Big Picture makes the case for a strong consumer protection agency in the US. What function do movies about war play particularly since Saving Private Ryan they are so 'realistic'.

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World
Smart Picks -- Countries in Crisis, Iran Countdown, Dumb and Simple, China's Arctic Voyage, Measuring Excellence
Paul Summerville • March 2, 2010

The recent earthquakes in Haiti and Chile provide a convenient metaphor for the financial and economic crisis's that many countries are trying to manage. How strong is the foundation of the economy to withstand shocks? Greece and by implication Europe is in the middle of a full blown crisis, the United Kingdom seems on the verge, Canada and Japan on the legacy of crisis. Iran and its nuclear capability is coming into view again swiftly, what will Russia and China do?

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World
Smart Picks -- The Mess We're In
Paul Summerville • February 28, 2010

Now back to reality. However distracting the Olympics have been ('we did own the podium we did!') the global economy is a mess. Poorly regulated financial services industry, unbalanced economies, people borrowing and consuming well beyond their means, and governments being forced to pursue extreme measures just to keep the whole system from collapsing. Every country, company, household and individual should imagine themselves trying to navigate a schoolyard full of bullies without an ounce of sympathy.

Steel yourself, the worst is yet to come.

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World
Smart Picks -- Steyn's Bullseye, Canada's Runaway Budget, Becoming Excellent in Brazil, Iceland, Pakistan, UK and USA
Paul Summerville • February 27, 2010

Mark Steyn of Maclean's shines a very harsh light on Canadian political correctness. With the federal budget coming soon thoughts on the difficulty of cutting, health care, and the high cost of aging. The only way to cut spending is to identify and cut programmes not touchy feely 2% across the board nostrums. Health care costs are best contained in the current system by prevention and health education.

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Twin Virtues: Inequality of Outcomes & Equality of Opportunity©

LimeSpot: Own Your Experience.

Leveraging Social Networks for Profit.
 
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The LimeSpot enabled revolutionary new sales channel.
 
Ultimately, the most successful societies find the balance between the twin virtues of inequality of outcomes and equality of opportunity.
 
The new politics must marry the twin virtues of unequal outcomes and equality of opportunity.
 
When too few get too much everybody ends up with less.
 
Can it be that striving for equality of opportunity however imperfect the process not only benefits the individual but also creates benefits for the society as a whole that are unintended but wonderful?
 
Economics must be a 'moral enterprise' as much as politics claims to be. Economic outcomes need to be framed in terms of right and wrong not just efficiency if only because these often align in surprising ways.
 
My vision of Canada is that any Canadian child from a family of limited circumstance can expect to have a chance at lifetime of unlimited opportunities.
 
Tax policy should be founded on the principle of generating steady tax revenues sufficient to maximise environmentally sustainable economic growth in order to fund fair government.
 
Public policy should be designed to decrease inequality before the law and increase equality of opportunity.
 
Capitalism is not the problem; the problem is what we do with capitalism.
 
Content is always more difficult to argue than conspiracy.
 
Let the state regulate and the market operate (most things).
 
Welfare strategies are best designed as a hand up not as a hand out.
 
Political debate should not be fact free fighting.
 
Explanation lasts longer than eloquence.
 
Always favour empowerment over dependency.
 
The most enduring public figures are embraced for the causes they fought for and not the concept of themselves they hoped others would remember them by.
 
Find your voice and don't be the echo of somebody else.