With Greece on the verge of default, we’re about to learn how little has really changed since governments around the world wrote the last round of bail out checks to prop up failing financial institutions. Just as the collapse of the US subprime mortgage market rippled into nearly every corner of the global financial system, [...]
Is there heartache in the heartland? As Albertans shoulder the weight of a new $4.5 billion budget deficit (not to mention the burden of equalization payments to the rest of Canada) despite the fact that they own the world’s largest oil reserve open to private investment, some might suggest that something is seriously amiss in [...]
There are many factors associated with Barack Obama’s plunging popularity. Botched health care reform certainly hasn’t helped. Neither has a near double-digit national jobless rate, nor a $1.6 trillion budget deficit. But what outrages American voters most is the billions of dollars given to Wall Street investment bankers, who continue to live la dolce vita [...]
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his Midwestern colleagues had better think twice before banning carbon-dirty fuels such as the oil made from Canadian tar sands. If they don’t like the fuel Canada has to offer, their only other choice is to get off the road entirely. Like it or not, synthetic oil from Alberta’s tar sands [...]
As North American taxpayers take a look at the gleaming new models on display at Detroit’s auto show this week, they might well ask themselves just why they poured billions of dollars into saving GM and Chrysler when no one else would. Politicians, local car dealers, parts suppliers and the auto workers’ unions told them [...]
If you think you’re eating local now, you haven’t tasted anything yet. Food and energy are intertwined at many levels, not the least of which starts right at the production stage. Behind the green facade of the farm gate lies one of the most energy-intensive industries in the world. From fertilizer to farm machinery, most [...]