Hello my friends!

I want to wish you and your’s the best of the season and a healthy and prosperous 2012!

I will be off taking a break and will return January 4, 2012.

Enjoy every second of this special time of the year!

The Canadian Society of Technical Analyst will be holding its first monthly seminar of the fall on

Wednesday October 13, 2010 at 7pm in room J320 at Sheridan College

To register for this event go to :

http://www.csta.org/index.php?categoryid=3

Seating is limited so register now.

Dan Mathieson is running for another term as Mayor of Stratford, Ontario. I had the opportunity to meet Dan and the team at the Mayor’s Office in Stratford and believe that they offer the best choice for its residents.

My endorsement is based on Mathieson’s drive to attract business to the city and create the jobs that have kept unemployment in Stratford substantially below the national and provincial averages.

Vote for Dan Mathieson!

Hello my friends,

May friend Jack, the seven year old who has helped raise over $150,000 for the SickKids Hospital that serves the Greater Toronto Area is holding his 4th annual Lemonade Stand this Saturday May 29th in Oakville, Ontario. 

If you are in the area please drop by or please use the links from the site below to make a donation to this worthy cause.

Thanks for your help – it is greatly appreciated!

http://www.jackslemonade.com/

If you live in the GTA and want to support a candidate who is all about serving the public please join me in supporting Rob Ford For Mayor.  I live in Oakville and can only support him with dollars which is always a good thing, but even more important if you live in Toronto and want to see things improve please give Rob your vote.

http://www.robfordformayor.ca/

Today I had the unique experience of having a very large, older, former resident of the UK, get in my grill about my having a conversation on my cell phone at a local McDonald’s in Oakville.

The chimp in question interrupted my call to a dear friend in NYC to tell me to stop talking, in a very loud voice mind you, and that it was offending him.

I quickly informed my fellow patron that McDonald’s is not a library and that he was in public. He immediately got over torqued, where upon he raised his voice to the point that I had to drop my call and ask for the manager of the shop.

Clearly if I was in violation of the a widely held policy of McDonald’s I would have apologized and moved on. The manager came over and made it clear that I was welcome to use my cell phone in the shop and that the former resident of the UK would have to be on his way.

He then went on to say he had bought his breakfast at the store and all I had bought was a cup of coffee. I had to let him know that before arriving at McDonald’s I had spent $520 getting my car repaired at the MasterMechanic in the plaza plus another $100 at other merchants.

At that point the large, older, former resident of the UK  invited me out to settle things up on the sidewalk. I always like when that happens. I countered his offer, as I have many times, by suggesting that he beat me senseless in front of witnesses so that I could have him charged under the criminal code and sue him for damages.

His response was to say is that all I could do is talk. True. I can and have talked my way out of many close calls. But its like I always tell my 6 1/2 year old daughter – use your words and get some adult oversight on the bullies.

If you are offended by people using their cell phones in public maybe you should stay home, there’s lots of it going on!

Make it a great November!

Lou at work spreading the word about capitalism

I was notified today that I was nominated for The Best Lecturer Competition. It is an honor to be recognized.

TVO’s Best Lecturer Competition, now in its fifth year, plays an important role in showcasing the province’s great educators. A nomination is a testament to the impact professors have on their students, and their passion for teaching.

You can read more about the competition here.

Before I suggest to the boss that we launch an online discussion forum (aka “bullboard”) I thought it would be a good idea to find out if there’s even interest in one.

After you create an account on Happy Capitalism, you could start discussions, add your US$0.02 to an existing topic, or just read what other Happy Capitalism fans write.

What do you think?

Signed,

Jimmy the Intern

Its been a few weeks since I posted after the change over to the new site format. I am a dyed in the wool technophobe and having to learn a new system always requires that I am in the right frame of mind to even get there. Plus the holiday season kept me very busy spending time with friends and family.

Before I go any further I wanted to thank Michael Hainsworth from hainsworth.com for all his efforts in taking happycapitalism.com to this new level and to Ken Reid from impressionnewmedia.com for launching the site in 2007. They are both extremely talented in many fields and its their efforts that have allowed this capitalist to get online.

With 360 days left to make money in 2009 lets not waste time:

Hey Lou, I love hearing you in the mornings on 640 and your defence of the free markets. However, I’ve been surprised by your repeated endorsements of stimulus through infrastructure.  I also favour that policy, but think tax cuts (or even a tax holiday for two months) would be far more successful in stimulating economic activity in the short term. I thought you might want to check out this editorial from Investor’s Business Daily which supports a stronger emphasis on tax cuts than on infrastructure: http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=315792191143684 Best regards, Jonathan

Hi Jonathan, Thanks for listening to AM640 and for the link to IBD. Both are greatly appreciated! I agree that tax cuts make their way into the economy the fastest but perhaps with not as much of a bang. My research indicates that for every dollar in tax cuts you get about $1.50 in additional spending in a three year period while one dollar of spending on infrastructure generates about $3.50 in additional spending over ten years. Its a question of quick nickles or slow dimes. The other thing to keep in mind with tax cuts is leakage. Some of the cash gets spent on goods from other countries and some of the cash gets used to pay down debt. Some even goes into savings. Clearly the problem with infrastructure spending is that we tend to ignore it till its too late or our backs are against the wall. Think of New Orleans. $2B to fix the levees was viewed as too expensive for a decade till Katrina nearly destroyed the city.  The final cost of saving New Orleans have been estimated at $200B. A stitch in time saves…. I guess my point is that with bridges and highway overpasses collapsing and roadways needing repairs we have failed to maintain the legacy we inherited. In addition I don’t believe that  we have done enough to continue to expand all of our social infrastructure. Regarding the Japanese model cited in the IBD article they got it wrong in that they didnt expand infrastructure, they gold plated it. Too few projects at too high a cost is not the way to go. If we want our investments in infrastructure to create the most economic impact we have to look to private public partnerships ( P3) like the 407 Highway and if we are going to build roads  we should look at the opportunities to develop the land around them. That’s a sweet kicker if you do it right. Today Obama is suggesting that their $775B stimulus package will have a $300B tax cut component which works out to 40% of the total. Maybe a little of both will work. But trust me we have to stop wasting resources and we need to commit to maintaining and expanding our transportation, education, energy, sewage, water, and communications infrastructure! Happy Capitalism!