Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 21, 2001, Winnipeg, Manitoba A8 i Fakki Macii 2001 editorials Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights empty optimism finance minister Paul Martins Bright and cheery View of the Canadian Economy grows More Remote from reality with each passing his refusal to face facts and give canadians the full Story about their National Economy can Only undermine the Confidence of Consumers and investors and delay a return to sound and sustain Able Martin should quit evading his duty and produce a Martin last delivered a budget on he changed his policy on cutting taxes on the eve of the election economic conditions have changed dramatically since so much so that both the Bank of Canada and the Federal Reserve have ceased worrying about the danger of inflation and have repeatedly Cut interest rates to encourage consumer Confidence has Auto motive and electronics manufacturers have Laid off corporate profits have shrunk and prices on All world Stock markets have Martin continues to exude the fundamentals of the Canadian Economy Are he keeps yet Federal Reserve chairman Allan Greenspan and the Federal open Market in cutting another Hal Point off their interest said yesterday that the recent production cutbacks could continue for some since global economic conditions show potential weak demand and production in the the fed remain the Central Bank did not repeat its former View that recovery could be expected in the second half of this in Montreal Bank of Canada governor David Dodge exuded All the optimism he could in the he Clung to the which the Federal Reserve seems to have that growth would rebound in the second half of the even if it Dodge Paul mar tins tax cuts and the Bank of Canada interest rate cuts should help support growth of demand in Canada in the second half of the he could not bring himself to forecast an actual recovery in the second Martin owes parliament a he is accountable to parliament for his economic Leader ship and for his management of Federal taxes and he also owes the country a the country needs to know that the government is not merely whistling in the dark but has a thorough grasp of the strengths and weaknesses of the Cana Dian Economy and a definite plan for moving Canada improving productivity and seizing the economic opportunities that rapid global scale change offers to Canadian Martin Speaks of delivering in May an update of his october update of his february this sounds too much like a fresh Load of empty opt tending to show that the government is blow ing a full dress carefully prepared and fully is the proper Way for the govern ment and the country to look squarely at the eco nomic facts and Deal with bogus democracy the mayor and Council of elected by the Public on a program of cutting realty delivered an instalment of tax Cut this school trustees of the cites 10 school who Are elected by hardly raised school taxes in Defiance of the popular spending what the councillors had in the Agassiz school which includes school taxes have been increased sharply this students have been Drifting away to the schools of neighbouring school Tak ing with them the provincial Grant Money that is based on for fear program cuts would drive More pupils the trustees squeezed the taxpayers in the seven Oaks division of the trustees raised the tax rates and then tried to Tell homeowners that the taxes had in effect been once a increase in the provincial property tax credit is taken into these and other failures of accountability show that Manitoba system for managing its Public schools is not because the school finance system is impenetrable the Public has no Means of holding trustees accountable for their trustees commonly blame the ministers Grant rules for All unpopular and since the Grant formula cannot be described in Plain eng Lish there is no Way of proving their excuses right or trustees do not take the heat for exercising their taxing Powers they adopt a invoice the municipal Council and the Council taxes the voter turnout at school Board elections is so minute that the elections Are the few people who vote return the the uninformed about the candidates and their merely pay the Bills when tax time a Strong Case can be made for abolishing elected school boards altogether and putting All the schools under the ministers direct control with a Parent committee at each trustees should think of something useful to do or else Brace themselves for drastic the Anatomy of a Bubble by Sebastian Mallaby after last weeks Stock Market people Are dusting off their japanese japans Bubble was inflated during the spectacular growth of the fuelled by productivity gains even More marvelous than those of the United states in the ensuing japans firms ramped up investment spending by an extraordinary six per cent of the Gross Domestic product the same increase Amer ican firms registered during the in both this unsustainable spending was Justi fied by the supposed discovery of a paradigm busting magic in a new economic Model in the yet these economic comparisons Are usually with a cultural Japan is a pet kind of the United states is individualistic and the United states will recover is this True at the it deserves some wary bubbles can be inflated Only if people move in and if they Are closed minded enough to ignore warning in the United something like this plainly has occurred not but certainly in the High tech whats Silicon ground Zero of that High tech actually has More in common with Japan than you might in both Japan and the homogeneity fostered an intense loyalty to the wider in this gave Rise to the term Japan the weenies of Northern despite their libertarian often behaved like Valley the startups crowding the area Between the san Francisco Bay and the Foothills of the Santa Cruz mountains Are linked by shared personal relationships and a shared business As in this culture gives Rise to a Para Dox intense Competition among firms is tempered by remarkable in regional a smart Book on the sociology of the Berkeley Annalee Saxenian describes How an Engineer at one company would Call a Friend at another for technical advice and even work on his rivals in this kind of sharing is most common within or families of the web site of Caufield the valleys preeminent venture capital boasts its commitment to establishing a West Ern version of the this mix of Competition and cooperation helps explain Why Japan and the Valley have yielded the two most impressive Industrial Suc Cess stories of the past 50 might it like Wise explain Why they have yielded two of the most spectacular financial bubbles homogeneity and cooperation ensure that smart ideas Are disseminated but they also can allow illusions to particularly the illusion that the ethos shared passionately by All members of the group is an invincible for Mula for the japanese believed so strongly in the magic of their Model that they didst pause to ask if anything was wrong As they bought in one another firms and drove Stock prices to comic the denizens of the Val Ley believed so strongly in the Power of their technology that they thought nothing of Tak ing As opposed to actual and floating them on the Stock in both the real madness set in when outsiders who could read neither japanese characters nor Huml code bought into the ethos and threw dumb billions at so the Standard contrast Between group think Japan and the individualistic United states is at least for the periods in which the bubbles were what about the pos Bubble phase Here the answer May be More japans big firms and Banks responded to the bursting of the Bubble refusing to Cut their work forces or recognize the extent of their bad Amer ican by already Are firing workers by the there is no sign of there complacency from a Dif Ferent in japans financial it was the Banks that held Many of the shares that yet they refused to but in the United it is households that hold the shares in Mutual funds or retirement and which in Sharp contrast to firms show Little appetite for despite having lost trillion of wealth Dur ing the Stock markets decline last con Sumers went on a spending splurge in january that was financed by billion Worth of fresh Japan May be a kind of but dont bet too heavily on the Cul Tural contrast with the United individualistic America is not perfectly Clear Sebastian Mallaby is on the editorial Page staff of the Washington Post Woodpecker strikes and again i was at Home recently when a Neighbour came pounding at the he was in a on his Way to but Felt compelled to Stop and warn me of the Ter Rible thing he had seen in our its he a Bird is destroying your i got a jacket and rushed to the Corner where two mature Manitoba Maples have stood sen Tinel since who knows what i As my Neighbour had was there were two Gap ing holes in the older the one that keeps hanging on despite losing two major one came Down in a the the Low limb that once swept Over the Street and from which a swing once a brought Down by a Container truck that had no obvious business in the neigh at the base of the tree was a pile of Wood a couple of buckets i was staring dumbfounded at the carnage when the Bird dropped into one of the holes and started hammering Wood chips it was a but a Wood Pecker like nothing i want to see again in my it was the size of a with a great red mop of Spiky like a punker with a Day glow Dye Job and a Mohawk i i grabbed a chunk of ice from the curb and let i didst miss by but a near miss didst ruffle its it simply moved to the far Side and started pounding away i rushed the i slogged to the tree through knee deep Snow in slow Yelling and waving my it eyed really annoyed and flew i was now close enough that i could see both How big the holes were and also As life threatening holes in Trees they were things of seemingly chipped with the skill of a i called an exterminator who sold for a bottle of stuff that is supposed to taste so bad that the Woodpecker would not come Back for and it it came Back for thirds and fourths and adding another great Hole and enlarging the two already cutting Halfway through the which is about 30 inches in by now it was Clear that the Woodpecker was after larvae that had burrowed into the trunk for the a Clear sign that the tree was coming to its the Wood soft and i wrapped the wounded trunk in and finally the Woodpecker gave Neighbours would Stop and com offering opinions about the Wood i thought that it must be a red headed others thought it was perhaps a downy a Neighbour told me it was it was a pleated the Bird that inspired the Woody i consulted some Bird books and searched the sure a pleated Woodpecker is what it pleated woodpeckers Are fairly common in Manitoba boreal where they serve As executioners for aging pounding holes in rotting Wood in search of burrowing thus weakening causing them break and but they Are rare in in birder David Hatch tells me that Only one has been spotted in Winnipeg this hanging around the Assiniboine River about half a mile East of my a species they Are especially fond there seems Little doubt that my tree was attacked by the Only pleated Woodpecker in the As much As my Neighbours talked about the they seemed More concerned about the Fate of the which we agree looks i love those two Maples on the and think of them As but it has become Clear in recent weeks that they Are not not they Are neighbourhood Trees that belonged to the neighbourhood Long before i a couple of Days the Neighbour who identified the species of Woodpecker that had wreaked so much stopped by and reminisced about How the tree had been there when he was a kid and How he cant imagine it not being there in the he had been examining the tree and wanted to share his plan to save if he at least we can say it went in rare Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free presses 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 vol 129 n0104 2001 Winnipeg free a division of newspapers division of Thomson Canada limited published seven Days a week at 1355 Mountain Manitoba r2x pm 6977000 a member Manitoba press Council Rudy email Nicholas Wrick Deputy ;