Irish Bailout & Eurozone: Merkel Position on Bondholder Responsibility Endorsed; Panel’s Support for IMF Bailout Weaker than for Greece; Bailout of Spain Seen as Likely, German Withdrawal Possible
Booze and Business - Sharp decline in use and tolerance of alcohol - Mainly for legal reasons
Pensions and Bill C-501, Weak Support for Passing Bill C-501 - Governments Should Reduce the Generosity of Public Sector Pensions
Potash Decision: Strong Support for Harper Decision among Normally Free Trade-Oriented Business Panel
Foreign Airline Access - Open Skies Policy Wins, Emirates Lose
Governments Get Poor Grades for Consulting Business on Disability Laws and Regulations
Foreign Ownership of Canadian Telecoms Business Panel Divided on Whether to Loosen Regulations; Increased Competition Would Improve Prices and Options; Intense Panel Opposition to Ownership Stakes from Foreign Governments and Companies Operating from Overseas Dictatorship
Advice to a Young Person Contemplating an MBA Get Job Experience First, Then Decide An MBA Provides Better Financial Skills than MA/MSc’s But MBA Holders May Have Inferior People Skills
Early Preparation for Business Success
The Most Efficient Route to Business Success - Strong Undergraduate Engineering Degree and C.A., Probably Experience Overseas and Chinese Language
The Single Most Important Skillset - Excellent Oral and Written Communications
Money, Guns, Jets, and Agenda for Parliament Money - Control Spending and Priorize Debt Repayment; Arctic Sovereignty More Important than U.N. Prominence Guns - Government and Opposition Earn Failing Grades for their Debate Performance, Only Slightly Better than the Performance of the Registry Itself Fighter Jet Purchase - the Right Decision
Non-Compete Clauses in Employment Agreements - Most Companies Have Some Form of Non-Compete Clauses for Some Employees and They Ought to, Say Business Panelists, But Non-Compete Clauses Are Difficult to Enforce
Obama: Almost Entirely Blameless for the Recession But Confidence in White House Economic Management Is Moderate and Falling
Foreign Workers in Canada: Government Programs Desirable But Verifying Credentials Can Be Problematic
Battle over Potash Corporation - Ideal Solution is for Our Tax Climate to Favour Our Own Company Becoming a Larger Global Player
CEOs/Business Leaders Tend to Favour Companies’ Legal Rights to Dual-Class Share Structures; Beleive That Voting Shares Should Be Worth Many Times more than Non-Voting Shares
Business Leaders Divided about Whether to Extend Infrastructure Spending Deadline Beyond March 31st; Great Doubt that Any Federal Government Can Do Much for Canada in Light of the Global Economy; Federal Politicians Much More Capable of Harming than Helping our Economy—Ignatieff More Capable of Causing Harm than Harper by 4:1
Gulf Oil Spill - Third in a Series BP and U.S. Government Both to Blame; BP Won’t Gain Much from Replacing CEO
New Securities Regulator Vital for Canada’s National Interest, Efficient Markets, and Investor Confidence Regulator Will Have Head Office Despite Claims to the Contrary Business Leaders Divided about Toronto for Head Office Harper/Flaherty Earn Good Scores for Their Performance
Nobel Prize Economist Paul Krugman on Long Depression Rather than Great Depression—Neither, Says Business Panel; We’re in a Severe Recession
Provincial Deficits and Debt Loads: Cut Spending Across the Board, Privatize Some Healthcare Functions, Say CEOs and Business Leaders
G8 and G20 Hosting Gets Mixed Response Goals of Stronger World Economy, Isolating Iran, Better Bank Regulation, More Government Transparency, and Fighting Protectionism Are All Desirable, Says Business Panel. If Summit Goals Were Actually Achieved, the Price Tag Might Be Justified
China's Foxconn Scores Poorly with Business Leaders But Apple Won’t Suffer Fallout from Poor Conduct of Its Supplier; Foxconn’s Wage Hike - Forerunner of Wage Inflation
G-8 and G-20 Agendas - Business Leaders Priorize Government Spending Prudence, Bank Transparency, and Stopping Iran Getting the Bomb
Oil Exploration Policy after the BP Disaster - Governments Caught between Environmental Pressure for Tougher Regulation and against Development vs. Ever Increasing World Demand and Unreliable Supply
The Economic Crisis in Greece: Part 2 of 2 - European Bailout Right Thing to Do But Greece Will Not Recover, Portugal and Spain Probably Next, and Canada’s Economy Stronger than U.K. or U.S.
The Economic Crisis in Greece: Part 1 of 2 Greece Unlikely to Recover Urban Turmoil and Violence Not the Main Economic Problem
Harper and Flaherty Score with their Opposition to a Special Bank Levy
Goldman Sachs Very Likely Guilty of Fraud, Say CEOs/Business Leaders on COMPAS Business Panel
Business Panel Concurs with Fraser Institute Report Saying Infrastructure Spending Did Little for the Economy; Panelists Reject Heavy Spending as Cure for Economy’s Ills, Attribute Harper Budget to Pressure from Public, G8, and Opposition Parties
Business Panel Agrees with White House Concern about Chinese Currency Manipulation, But This Is Perceived as Lesser among Beijing’s Sins
Housing Prices Expected to Continue Rising Because of Inflation Expectations with Hiccups Because of the HST
Mining Ethics Bill (C-300) Should Come from Government, Not Backbencher; Good Idea Should Apply to All Sectors, Not Just Mining; Some Concern about Imposing Our Moral Standards on Others and about Exodus of Mining Companies from Canada
Harper-Flaherty Budget Earns Strong Scores Very Strong Praise for Canada’s Leadership in Lower Taxes and Abolition on Tariffs for Manufacturing Inputs; Concern about Longterm Debt; Division of Opinion about Whether Harper - Flaherty and Chretien - Martin Budgets Are Significantly Different
Financial Literacy for Canadians - Schools Should Teach the Value of Avoiding High Cost Debt, Higher Education, RSPs, and Owning a Family Home
NL Premier Danny Williams Gets Business Panel Support; Williams’ Surgery in U.S. Seen as Less Hypocritical than Prime Minister Martin’s Use of Private Medicine in Canada; Support for Private Medicine Now Outpolls Government Healthcare Monopoly More than 3:1
Pre-Budget Advice to Flaherty: Less Worry about Deflation and Less Support for Spending, Top Spending Recommendations - Pensions/RSPs and National Debt Paydown; Top Cut Recommendation—the Environment
Globalive Controversy and Foreign Ownership: Strong Support for Opening Up Opportunities for Foreign Players along with Mixed Opinion about National Security Aspects
Charitable Giving: Divided Opinion about Corporate vs. Shareholder Responsibility and Proper Corporate Practices; Priority Should Go to Audited, Local, Child-oriented Charities
Bank Reform and Volcker Rule: Consensus Support to Prohibit Banks from Investing (Hedge Funds) But No Consensus on Bank Size in Canada or U.S.
China: Google Controversy a Turning Point Large Majority of Business Panelists Perceive China as Mistreating Tibetan, Uyghur, and Falun Gong Minorities; Large Majority See Western Investments as Vulnerable to Arbitrary Chinese Legal System
Armed Forces: Widespread Support for C.D. Howe Recommendation That Employers Be Compensated for Disruption of Reservist Employees Leaving for Active Duty
Air Travel, Terrorism, and Inconvenience: Inconvenience to Rise, Especially in Cross-Border Flights; More than 80% Support Profiling of Passengers; 79% Support Bonded Travel Certificates; Increased Inconvenience May Be Less of a Threat to Air Travel in 2010 than Desire to Cut Costs
Chinese/Indians to Outperform Global Economy, U.S./Russians/Arabs to Underperform, Japan and W. Europe in Between
