As you know we are now being flooded with stories about shale gas – there seems to be several per day in various media in the province. There are more angry politicians and more calling for a moratorium on…
Continue ReadingShips start here but our hot dogs will be made in Hamilton
As someone who has been in the economic development promotion biz for 20 years, you could not have had a more stark contrast. On the radio in the car I flipped from three stations – the first was reporting from…
Continue ReadingA whizz banger of a day: ships, energy, et. al
Today is one of those days. The Halifax Shipyard will find out if it will win billions in new work. The NB government launched its new – and much anticipated – energy plan. I’ll have to read it to…
Continue ReadingWhat’s going on at UNB?
It’s pretty well known that at the centre of most technology and innovation clusters you will find a university driving much of the research, turning out new IP and entrepreneurs, and feeding the cluster workforce with talent at all levels…
Continue ReadingHyundai kids paying the health care costs of BMW boomers
The Globe and Mail has an excellent summary of a new report on ‘Generation Squeeze’ this morning: A British Columbia study finds that young families in the country are facing growing financial and time pressures even as their baby-boomer elders…
Continue ReadingWe probably should spend a little more time trying to generate wealth before we focus on taking more from the rich
I don’t want to dwell too much on the Occupy movement. I fully support the right to demonstrate in a democracy and I also sympathize with some (some) of the grievances. As I mentioned before, I struggle to understand how a movement that started…
Continue ReadingIs the biggest risk taking no risk?
This is in my opinion an excellent column on the risk of not taking a risk on shale gas development. And not to be glib but this guy is not a physiotherapist from Moncton. Steve McCutcheon is a professional geoscientist…
Continue ReadingEncouraging work later in life
I received an email this morning suggesting I shouldn’t be telling people when they should and shouldn’t retire. This is in reference to my column in the TJ this morning. For some reason the Web version is quite a bit…
Continue ReadingAre we witnessing a shift in self-employment?
One of the frustrating things about the Labour Force Survey is that while we can be comfortable with the data (the survey methodology is strong) we can only speculate as to why a trend may be occurring. Take the issue of…
Continue ReadingWall Street, Beijing?
I am intrigued by these mass protest movements – whether it is the Tea Party or the Occupy Wall Street movements. They are an inevitable consequence of a free and open democracy. For advocates of a pure free market system…
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