Saturday, July 19, 2008
Bay finished
Couldn’t agree more with this article on the Bay and Zellers chains.
I can’t understand how they’ve made enough money to keep going for the past 10 years.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Fallen Nortel boss busted
As one of the many who lost 98% of my Nortel stock value, it’s good to see someone get charged.
It was the sort of “perp walk” scenario Nortel investors have waited years to see.
The Nortel fiasco was almost as big as the Bre-X one, except Nortel took a lot more people down with them, including many grandmothers.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Bald job
This week’s fired-over-a-timbit stupid company story brought to you by Nathaniel’s of Owen Sound.
A 36-year-old waitress at an Owen Sound, Ont., restaurant lost her job this week after she shaved her head to raise money for a cancer charity.
I’m not sure the saying all publicity is good publicity applies to restaurants.
Monday, June 2, 2008
Oil prices solved
A good article showing that, once more, the oil crisis is actually (US) government made.
The underlying cause, of course, is that oil, coal and natural-gas prices have all gone berserk - with no relief in sight.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Open it all up
So Sears may or may not be in trouble.
Grocery stores are closed, but you can get food in restaurants today. Why are grocery store retail workers “protected”, but not those serving you food (and collecting pst/gst).
At least 11 Sears Canada stores in Ontario opened their doors to the public on Monday, even though the provincial government warned the company that it would be against the law.
It’s time to let the stores decide whether or not to open, and not the government.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Flint, ON
Wonder if Michael Moore will write a movie about Windsor.
This once-mighty industrial city survived ups and downs for decades, but now it’s staggering under hits that just keep coming
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Have a lick for Irv today
Another Canadian who made it big in the US dies...sad. Makes me want to get a chocolate fudge for 5c extra.
Irvine Robbins, a co-founder of the Baskin-Robbins franchise that popularized novel ice cream flavours, died Monday at age 90 in California.
Monday, April 21, 2008
GM Settling Suits Over Engine Coolant
The most commented post here is on the GM Dexcool problem. Well, after years of headbanging, it appears (former) GM owners have won!
-General Motors Corp. has agreed to settle a series of class-action lawsuits claiming a faulty engine coolant damaged thousands of customer vehicles.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
US Car debate
A good article on buying a car in the US with your high flying loonie bucks.
A Canadian couple says they were turned down dozens of times when they tried to buy a new car in the United States and are challenging what they regard as illegal discrimination.
Bottom line: hire a broker or US car buying service and save the headache.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Jobs is a genius
More proof that the founder of Apple is quite simply a business genius.
Talk about hype. In the last six months, Apple&#xu2;019s iPhone has been the subject of 11,000 print articles, and it turns up about 69 million hits on Google.
China works
See some great photos of where most of the world is now manufactured.
(click on the left/China to see the photos)
Friday, April 13, 2007
Buzz makes sense
Buzz has started making more sense since getting booted from the NDP.
The Canadian Auto Workers union targeted Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the &#xu2;01Cinsanity&#xu2;01D of the environmental movement Friday as delegates talked strategy with an election ever looming and an Ontario provincial vote less than six months away.
Unfortunately it’s the misguided electorate who are driving the politicians into green insanity.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Gov’t will kill GM
More proof that the government subsidizes GM on one hand, and then hobbles it with the other.
General Motors has put a hold on future rear-wheel-drive vehicles
This is especially bad news for Oshawa.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Strangling Detroit
An interesting post on the differences between US and Japanese car operations in North America.
GM pays $31.35 an hour. Toyota pays $27 an hour. Not such a big difference. But--thanks in part to union work rules that prevent the thousands of little changes that boost productivity--it takes GM, on average, 34.3 hours to build a car, while it takes Toyota only 27.9 hours.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
2007 Sienna
The new Sienna is out, and looking real good.
Ford and GM may be getting out of the minivan business, but Toyota is putting a new, more powerful engine into its 2007 Sienna.
Unlike GM, it appears to have upgrades and improvements too!
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Sucker bets
They’re hard to resist, but it’s clear these warranties are a waste of money.
When it comes to most consumer electronics and major appliances, buying the extended warranty is “money down the drain,” according to consumer research.
Did you know Canadians are the most overinsured people in the world?
Monday, July 10, 2006
Electric dreams
A fascinating article on the inventor of modern electricity, Tesla, and the Niagara connection.
Nothing like a power failure to remind us the electricity is almost as important as water to a modern society.
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Commuter Helper
Here’s an idea some of the panhandlers who plague Toronto should check out.
As he thought about it more, however, he thought that he (as in himself and his body) was actually a valuable commodity and he could sell himself and that is exactly what he did. He walked to the freeway entrance and held up a sign that said,
Monday, June 12, 2006
Watch the market work
Hey, this guy thinks that market forces could actually bring the price of oil down - without government interference! Give the markets time, and they do actually work. The forces of supply and demand are powerful.
Oil prices could drop to about $40 US a barrel in the medium term as new supplies are found, and might fall even further in the long term, the chief executive of BP PLC said, according to an interview published Monday.
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Keeping scaring us
This Jeff Rubin guys makes a living trying to incite panic.
Happy campers with their gas-guzzling trailers and SUVs have a reason to fear the pumps this summer.
The cry wolf principle should apply to him by now. My suggestion? Ignore the guy. He’s usually wrong.
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Too good to be true card
For all you whiners who can’t take the price of gas - go get the Canadian Tire Gas Advantage MasterCard.
Save at least 2 cents and up to 10 cents* off every litre of gas you purchase at participating Canadian Tire Gas Bars.
Swipe the card at the pump and watch the litre price turn back INSTANTLY - up to 10 cents per litre.
I’ve been using it for 2 weeks now, and love it. To top off the 10c/litre off I get (last week I paid 79c a litre), you get Sobey’s dollars.
Clearly they are banking on you to carry a balance, otherwise, I have no idea how they make money. The gas companies insist they only make 1-2% - so something doesn’t add up.
In the mean time, get it while it lasts. I can’t see it lasting that long.
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Boom!
Garth says the real estate boom is over, at least in Toronto.
The real estate boom is over. You may or may not like that news, but it is now official.
Thursday, March 9, 2006
Tim in Kabul
Hybrid Bust
In case you were thinking of wasting your money on a hybrid, you’d better read this.
Another Toyota executive was more blunt in his analysis: “Buying a hybrid is about political correctness, it is not about the money,” he said.
Wednesday, March 8, 2006
Timmys in Afghanistan
The people associated with Tim’s should be running this country. Here’s another example.
Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan are getting their wish — Tim Hortons will be serving double-doubles and doughnuts soon enough.