2009 Article Archives
Are We Fishermen or Fish?
May 21, 2009
Have you ever wondered why jobs are sometimes easy to get, and at other times you are forever sending out resumes and getting no answers. It's a bit like fishing; sometimes you throw a line in and get one on the hook instantly, or wait all day without any bites.
Crows and ravens are the “fishermen” at my place these days. They are looking for scraps of meat, surplus from a supply of same from a local meat retailer for the benefit of my rather well fed German Shepherd dogs: Whenever I dump a load of fatty scraps down by the property fence, the air fills up with ravens and crows, competing for the delicious tidbits. In other words, it is possible to control and manipulate the collective behaviour of a lot of very smart creatures (and ravens are about as smart as we are) by providing them with something they want.
I remember being in Baghdad in 1961 and observing my dad doing the same to a group of local kids in a poor suburb. His intentions were good when, after some prompting, he bought some candy and proceeded to hand it out to the kids. What ensued was rather ugly to observe: the bigger kids brutally hogged the candy, pushing the small ones out of the way.
Now, let's take a look in the mirror. What is it that makes us push one another aside for more? Money does, because money is a ticket to wealth and that is something that most of us want above just about everything else (in spite of claims to the contrary by some righteous folk).
So where does the stuff come from? Does it just appear out of nowhere, or does somebody deliberately make it available, or withhold it, like I do with the meat scraps? Is our behaviour similar to that of the crows and ravens?
I could easily trap a whole bunch of those birds by simply building an enclosed aviary and put the scraps inside, get them into the habit of coming in for a feed without any consequences other than a full belly, and then trapping them at my pleasure at any time.
Is that what is being done to us by the financial establishment when they make money freely available for some time, creating lines of credit, loans etc., at very low rates of interest? Then some kind of event occurs that makes it “impossible” for these poor “tickets to wealth” (money) dispensers to continue their arduous support of worthwhile enterprises. And when this action is taken on a grand scale, as is happening today, it becomes impossible for even the most energetic entrepreneurs to meet their financial obligations: the aviary has a bird proof roof. The financial institutions can then use the coercive power of the state to steal the assets of the people that used to be their financial partners.
In truth, it is a bit like fishing, except we are the fish, not the fishermen.
Helge Nome
Our Financial Disease Greater Than Swine Flu
April 30, 2009
There is currently a big scare about a swine related flu virus (H1N1) causing a world wide pandemic. Last time it was a bird flu virus that caused a panic and resulted in some chemical companies selling a lot of vaccines to troubled governments. In the meantime, people are starving and dying from a plethora of diseases, caused by malnutrition and poverty, on a large scale, without most people blinking an eyelid.
In contrast, I find it rather curious that when financial chaos looms ahead, all the “experts” continuously pat us on the back and say that everything is going to be OK. “Just keep spending and go further into debt to fix the economy”. I have spent considerable time recently looking into the workings of the world economy and the manipulations that take place in that shadowy world. It just about makes your hair stand on end: Fake money is being made out of thin air at a record pace and used to create toxic financial ``products`` that are not worth the paper they are printed on. The face value of these are currently estimated to be in excess of $700 Trillion, yes, seven hundred thousand billion dollars. And way back down the line, they are tied into real assets that belong to real people. So when these ``I Owe Yous`` come due and the contractual obligations attached to them can not be met, the ownership of real assets is jeopardized, creating havoc on Main Street.
In response, our governments are pledging the support of us, the taxpayers, to bail out the crooks that made up all the fancy money, which is just another way of robbing us of real wealth and give it to those people that should be behind bars by now.
There is only one possible conclusion: The people that we have elected to represent us in government are in the pockets of the people that are committing fraud on a grand scale.
If you take some time, and study the relationships between the people that make up the North American Establishment, the border between Canada and the United States simply disappears. The connections are just too obvious. In practice, our “democracy” is a smoke and mirrors job because of our collective apathy. It need not be that way.
Helge Nome
Economist Explains Social Credit Principles
April 30, 2009
Members of the Alberta Social Credit Party, along with invited guests, where treated to a lecture in Social Credit principles at the monthly meeting of the party executive on Saturday, April 25, at the meeting room in Lau's Restaurant in Innisfail.
Economist Jim Schroeder from Edmonton introduced the basic concepts of Social Credit which explains how money is created and cancelled by banks in a modern economy by the extension of credit to customers. The term “Social Credit” was coined by Scottish Engineer Clifford Hughes Douglas shortly after World War I, when he discovered that a chronic shortage of purchasing power, in the form of available income to consumers, tends to develop in a modern economy.
Schroeder pointed out how this shortage, or “gap” between consumers' purchasing power and the cumulative prices of goods and services available for sale arises, and that it needs to be filled with new money made available to consumers in the form of purchasing power. In the modern world this is done by banks that issue loans that need to be repaid with interest added, whereas, according to C.H.Douglas this new money, or credit, rightfully belongs to people collectively, because the expansion of the productive capacity of the economy is due to their cultural heritage and not to the bankers that are merely responsible for handing out the check books and keeping track of the money.
Schroeder explained that the difference between Classical Economics (with its emphasis on Land, Capital and Labor) as factors of production, Socialism (with its focus on Labor), and Social Credit is that a society's Cultural Heritage primarily determines its productive capacity and has to be factored into the equation, in addition to Land, Labor and Capital. The tools at our disposal, like electricity, available at the flick of a switch on the wall,
multiplies a person's productive capacity tremendously, compared to that of a pre-industrial age worker.
The Alberta Social Credit Party came into being in 1935, during the Great Depression, when a chronic shortage of purchasing power brought about unprecedented hardships, and prompted William Aberhart of Calgary to challenge the sitting United Farmers of Alberta Government in that year's election. His party was swept into office and stayed there for 36 years.
Helge Nome
The Trouble With Bill 19
April 13, 2009
The troubling thing about Bill 19 is the manifest intent of that proposed legislation to take powers that used to belong to the courts and put them into the hands of elected officials, such as “the minister”and give him or her the ability to dictate what you or I should, or should not, do. This was made patently clear by Joe Anglin at the April 8 public meeting in Leslieville. And on the same night some 250 people reportedly showed up at a similar meeting in Innisfail to express their concerns over the proposed legislation.
There is a pattern here; I remember a federal bill that was tabled before the last federal election which dealt with food “safety”, including herbal food supplements, where government officials again were given dictatorial powers to search premises, etc.
We should do well to remember that bureaucrats, not politicians, generally write new bills. And where do the initiatives for these bills come from? I would suggest from vested interest groups with connections into the political party of the day and the bureaucracy. That it why we need to be on guard against initiatives that rob us of our rights and freedoms. We have to exert constant pressure against such attempts and hold our elected politicians fully responsible for their choices.
Alberta has a sick political system where arrogance is rampant and where there is a total dependence upon oil and gas revenues, and regrettably, revenues from casino and VLT gambling for non profit groups. People from these groups spend nights in casinos to create a sense of legitimacy to the gambling that causes so much hardship for gullible people and their families. I think our forefathers would turn in their graves if they realized what is going on today. We are on a slippery slope to a place that is not very nice. The spirit of independence that formed the foundation of The West is wrapped up in a blanket of apathy. It needs to wake up.
Helge Nome
Socreds hold Policy Convention in Red Deer
March 29, 2009
The Alberta Social Credit Party held a successful Policy Convention at the Red Deer Moose Lodge on March 28, 2009. New policies were adopted concerning protection of property rights, citizen dividends and price rebates, ownership of key industries, social services to children and their families, MLA remuneration and support to Alberta oil and gas companies.
Alberta Social Credit MLAs will oppose/repeal any legislation (e.g. Bill 19) that would reduce property owners’ rights in determining the use and disposition of their property.
The Alberta Social Credit Government will issue dividends to each citizen of Alberta over the age of consent and based upon certain residency requirements.
A price rebate will be issued to consumers at the point of sale.
The Buy Back Alberta Company will be established with the mandate of increasing Albertans’ ownership of Alberta’s natural resource and other key industries.
Better and more efficient service will be provided by Alberta's social services to children and their families by operating many of these social agencies from schools which have surplus space.
A committee of members from the general electorate will be established to determine the timing and amount of increases to the remuneration of MLAs, Cabinet Ministers, the Speaker and the Premier.
Pay increases to the MLAs, Cabinet Ministers, the Speaker and the Premier will be announced prior to an election. If the increases are greater than the increase in the cost of living, a plebicite for the increases will be placed on the election ballot.
Control over environmental regulations will be restored, instead of relying on industry to “police itself”.
A crown corporation, the Alberta Oil & Gas Corporation, will be established so that Albertans could attain better control and a greater share of the profits of the oil and gas industry, as well as assist Alberta companies to become established and grow into majors without being taken over by foreign interests.
Click here for an excerpt from the welcoming speech given by Party Leader Len Skowronski
A Real Action Plan for the Oil Sands
February 16, 2009
It is good that the Alberta government has finally acknowledged its responsibility for managing the development of the oil sands so that maximum benefits accrue to its owners, that is, all current and future Albertans. It is disappointing that its strategy document, Responsible Actions: A Plan for Alberta’s Oil Sands, consists primarily of generalized goals and objectives and few specific actions, responsible or otherwise.
To alleviate this deficiency, I propose that the government execute the following actions immediately.
- Secure a larger share of income from oil sands production. This could be achieved by increasing royalties and/or equity ownership in oil sands projects.
- Cap production of bitumen until all current production is upgraded in Alberta.
- With-hold approval of new bitumen production facilities until upgrading capacity is in place to handle the new production.
- Suspend the allocation of new leases and the approval of new projects until a comprehensive regional plan is developed.
- Limit the use of our valuable natural gas to create the heat needed to recover bitumen.
- Limit the use of fresh water for bitumen recovery.
- Capture the carbon dioxide created during the recovery and processing of bitumen and store it or use it in some other productive process.
- Manage the issuance of development permits so that projects are developed serially rather than in parallel.
- Manage the production of oil so that our export commitment under NAFTA doesn’t increase.
Len Skowronski
Governments Aiding Financial Fraud
February 10, 2009
There are some of us that watch the massive infusion of public funds into the economy with consternation. The conservatives and liberals in Canada have jumped on the bandwagon with the U.S. and hordes of other national governments across the globe in taxing our future, and that of our children, to prop up people that have committed fraud in the financial sector of our economies.
The net result of this process will be that real wealth, owned by average people, will be transferred to people that created fraudulent financial paper (toxic assets). They now stand to gain real assets in return for their “pies in the sky” worthless paper.
And our politicians, acting in panic, and with their own rewards in mind, are selling us out. No; they are giving our wealth away to a bunch of crooks.
The art of creating bursting bubbles in financial markets is as old as the hills. Its success relies on the ignorance and greed of people and on their lack of historical knowledge: What has happened this last year is a replay of 1929, leading up to the stock market crash at that time. A lack of effective regulation and frenzied euphoric market activity is a one way street to a crash. And everybody in the financial world knows it. Finance is their trade, after all, and they are not stupid. They have been there before, or their mentors have.
So the long and short of it is that we have been had, literally. By people who know better but have chosen their course of action to rob us of our wealth. They think we are too disorganized and ignorant to stand up to them.
In the United States the systematic deregulation of financial markets has taken place over the lifetime of several administrations: Reagan, Bush senior, Clinton and Bush junior. Their dirty work is now done and wealth is set to flow into the hands of their masters. If you want to know what is ahead, please google “Iceland Newspapers” to see what my poor fellow norsemen are experiencing right now. And they are just the tip of the iceberg. There have also been riots in both Britain and France that have not been reported in the North American mainstream media so you know who they belong to. Will the stimulus budget work in Canada? No. We are just the caboose on the American train heading down the hill at full speed.
More Royalties for B.C. and Saskatchewan
February 3, 2009
Representatives of the oil and gas industry would have us believe that Alberta is losing drilling rigs to B.C. and Saskatchewan because their royalties are lower and much more generous to the industry. If, indeed, this is the case then our brothers and sisters in Saskatchewan and B.C. are not getting their fair share of their oil and gas wealth. It is our obligation as fellow Western Canadians to alert them of their shortfall. Alberta’s Minister of Energy should call a meeting with his compeers in B.C. and Saskatchewan, encouraging them to review their royalty regimes. They should work towards an agreement whereby their royalties are the same our at least so similar that the oil and gas companies cannot play one province against another.
In so doing, we would help our sister provinces come closer to gaining their fair share of resource wealth and quell the storm against royalties that are bringing Albertans a step closer to reaching up to the average that other world producers receive for their oil and gas resources.
Len Skowronski
Two-Tier or Not Two-Tier? That is the Health Care Question!
January 16, 2009
On September 22, 2008, Calgary acquired the dubious honour of being the place where two-tiered health care began in Alberta. The Copeman Healthcare Centre opened, guaranteeing healthcare services to those willing to pay an annual fee. The Copeman clinic charges its clients a fee of $3,900 in the first year and $2,900 annually after that for its "elite program" where a team of health professionals assess patients and create a preventative health plan. The clinic also has family doctors to help patients with all their medical needs. The physicians bill government for any medically-necessary treatments.
click here for the complete article
Looking Backward to Go Forward
January 12, 2009
Many of us wonder about what is happening in our own economy, and those of our neighbours, at this time. There is talk of bull and bear markets, inflation and deflation and many people are watching their retirement nest eggs shrink day by day. Why is this happening? What is the dynamic behind these events and where is it leading?
To answer these questions, I would like to enlist the service of a man whom many of you knew personally: Alfred J. Hooke, who represented the Rocky Mountain House area in the provincial legislature from 1935 to 1971.
In 1980, during the economic slump at that time, Alfred Hooke published a little book entitled “Looking Backward to Go Forward”, where he recounts what happened to people during the nineteen-thirties because of a lack of money in circulation at that time.
He witnessed the kind of privation that we now find in third world countries, if we get off the beaten tourist track. Economic activity was literally strangled when people in the financial system, bankers, etc. refused credit to farmers, small business people and others because the financial system they were the custodians of was in turmoil.
That turmoil was brought about by excessive speculative activity within the financial system itself which was driven by greed and euphoria. Anyone who voiced a concern over where all this was leading was promptly called down by the “authoritative voices of the day”.
In 1980, Alfred Hooke could see it coming again and on the last page of his book the following statement is made: “I shudder to contemplate what the results will be when the present (1980) monetary policy is reversed, as it was in 1929, and the world is once again plunged into a Great Depression. There is no doubt that such a one will make that of 1929-1939 seem like a mild recession. There is but one answer to avoid such a calamity. We the people must through our representatives, control the monetary policy of our nation, or democracy, prosperity, individual and personal freedom will vanish from this great country.”
Since those words were written, the world financial system has been deregulated, turning it into one giant casino: the worst case scenario from the point of view of Alfred Hooke, who had seen it all before.
So, to find out what lies ahead, take Hooke's advice and look backward.
Helge Nome
Re: Being Ernest by Catherine Ford, Calgary Herald, January 4, 2008
January 5, 2009
As I read through the first two paragraphs of Catherine Ford’s review of “The Good Steward: The Ernest C. Manning Story”, by Brian Brennan, I thought that this was a good, fair-minded review of an excellent book. The reviewer mentioned that Ernest Manning and his Social Credit government retired the provincial debt and turned Alberta into an economic powerhouse. Also, “Ralph Klein didn't invent debt-reduction, Ernest Manning did. The Tories didn't invent the faceoff with Ottawa, Social Credit did.”
Then in the third paragraph, the reviewer slipped into a reporter’s trap: she presented her opinion as fact. She wrote: “Brennan has given Social Credit a human face, even though it is widely--and deservedly—reviled”. On what statistics does Ms. Ford come to the conclusion that Social Credit is widely reviled? On what facts does she base her opinion that this revilement is deserved?
I urge Calgary Herald editors to be more diligent in catching and preventing this type of sloppy reporting.
Len Skowronski