TransAlta Culpa (Again) ?

A bottomless pit of contrivance?
(from office.microsoft.com)

A few days ago in Alberta, a heat spike was forecast. The power-generating giant TransAlta seems to have anticipated its own spike as two of its large coal-fired electricity generating plants were shut down for “unscheduled maintenance” creating a classic supply and demand divergence—huge demand with limited supply, with the resultant classic free-market spike.

Are we surprised? Why shouldn’t this be the rational, transnational strategy for all corporations that “live and breathe” the bottom line? Makes perfect cents (by the trillions).

Oh, and yes! We have seen this before. As recently as February of this year at:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/transalta-accused-of-manipulating-energy-prices-in-alberta-1.2554508?cmp=rss (*) Quote:

“Alberta's power-generating giant TransAlta has been accused of market manipulation again.
“The power company is in trouble with the province's electricity watchdog — the Market Surveillance Administrator (MSA).
“It says the company shut down some of its power plants on four occasions during peak periods in 2010 and 2011, driving up prices.
“TransAlta rejects the allegations, but the case is already prompting calls for tougher regulation of the electricity market. …
“… this isn't the first time TransAlta has faced allegations like this.
“The company was fined $370,000 in 2012 for market manipulation.”

So what does free market really mean? Free to manipulate supply and demand for profit? Free to get off almost scot-free when caught? Free to repeat in endless déjà vu?

And what power-generating corporation has not clued into this “spike and spin-dry” strategy? When weighing gains and losses, who can resist?

So, in years to come, will our current free-marketeer defenders be judged as blind and deaf to “realities” (as passionately unobserving) as those we have judged from the so-called “dark ages”?

Is dummkoph-ish the word that springs to mind for our day (and for all of us who sit back and let this happen time and again)?

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* See also: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/transalta-admits-to-manipulating-electricity-prices-1.976969

High-Frequency Déjà Vu

If you are a believer in “free-markets” and laissez-faire, perhaps an excursion beyond Milton Friedman (& company) might prove useful.

Here is one suggestion:

Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis © 2014

In trying to unravel a Wall Street mystery, several people, hired and headed by Brad Katsuyama of RBC (Royal Bank of Canada), pursued the threads of evidence and history. One of those pursuers was John Schwall who went “digging around the Staten Island library” looking at other Wall Street scandals. Here is how Lewis describes it:

Several days later [John Schwall had] worked his way back to the late 1800s. The entire history of Wall Street was the story of scandals, it now seemed to him, linked together tail to trunk like circus elephants. Every systemic market injustice arose from some loophole in a regulation created to correct some prior injustice. “No matter what the regulators did, some other intermediary found a way to react, so there would be another form of front-running,”^[1] he said. … He’d learned several important things, he told his colleagues. First, there was nothing new about the behavior they were at war with. The U.S. financial markets had always been either corrupt or about to be corrupted. Second, there was zero chance that the problem would be solved by financial regulators; or, rather, the regulators might solve the narrow problem of front-running in the stock market by high-frequency traders, but whatever they did to solve the problem would create yet another opportunity for financial intermediaries to make money at the expense of investors. ... (p. 103)

So, here is a suggestion for those who “worship at the altar of the free-market”² (like conservative Gerry Nicholls²). Please: open your eyes and ears to the high-frequency déjà vu of the faux-free, faux-efficiency, faux-self-correction, faux-hype, etc., etc., surrounding corporate capitalism.

from office.microsoft.com

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1. “Front running is the illegal practice of a stockbroker [or high-frequency trader, et al.] executing orders on a security [or buying/selling] for its own account while taking advantage of advance knowledge of pending orders from its customers [or other investors, buyers, sellers, or brokers.]. …” quoted from  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_running
2. Quote from conservative Gerry Nicholls at minute 9:50 on CBC “The Current”: episode titled, “What is the Future of Public Broadcasting in Canada?” broadcast May 14, 2014.) http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/podcasts/current_20140514_13102.mp3

Mor[t]al Hazard ?

If a family member or friend who had psychopathic tendencies took out an insurance policy on your life, would you be concerned?

What if a group of strangers engaged in a betting pool concerning your mortality?

What if your corporate employer secretly or deceptively (or even openly) planned to profit from your insured death, or the death of your loved ones?

Well, it’s all part of a growth industry in free-market capitalism as described in chapter 4, “Markets in Life and Death” of Michael J. Sandel’s book, What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets.

Perhaps we should ask ourselves these questions:

▪ What happens when a company’s investment strategy includes profiting from the death of their employees? Or clients? Or consumers?
▪ What happens when the death of someone will prove more gainful than their life?
▪ What happens to shareholders when they invest in “death futures”?
▪ What happens to our moral compass when we begin to link another’s death with investment and windfall profit?

http://office.microsoft.com ~ MC900448659

▪ What can the profit motive not justify over time?
▪ Should we be concerned?
▪ Are we being individually sucked and suckered into the vortex of psychopathic behaviors?
▪ Are we déjà vu the Roman Coliseum yet?

Perhaps to get a better handle on this free-market trend, we should extend the sunshine law to require an obit list of corporate and unrelated beneficiaries of deceased persons?

A Plague of Psychopaths ?

In the 1970s, Robert D. Hare developed a Psychopathy Checklist-Revised [1985 / 2003] (PCL-R),¹ setting out the following character traits and behaviors:

glib and superficial charm	denial
grandiosity	parasitic lifestyle
need for stimulation	sexual promiscuity
pathological lying	early behavior problems
cunning and manipulating	lack of realistic long-term goals
lack of remorse	failure to accept responsibility for own actions
callousness	many short-term marital relationships
poor behavioral controls	juvenile delinquency
impulsiveness	revocation of conditional release
irresponsibility	criminal versatility

In the first century A.D., the Apostle Paul wrote: “THIS know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be

lovers of their own selves	false accusers
covetous	incontinent
boasters	fierce
proud	despisers of those that are good
blasphemers	traitors
disobedient to parents	heady
unthankful	highminded
unholy	lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God
without natural affection	having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof
trucebreakers

from such turn away.” (New Testament 2 Timothy 3:1-5)

Do we see the commonalities? Not only are we encountering more and more of these personality disorders in real persons, but within the business world, we seem to have created a surfeit of psychopathic faux-persons, as well:

The Pathology of Commerce

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5hEiANG4Uk&list=PLFA50FBC214A6CE87

For the full documentary, entitled “The Corporation,” see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y888wVY5hzw OR https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6zQO7JytzQ

Not every person (or faux-person) manifests all behaviors, but maybe it is time we began to see and name such behaviors for what they are. And to remember that psychopaths also manifest strongly as bullies and narcissists, (though not all bullies and narcissists are psychopaths).

The latter-day proliferation of psychopathic behaviors is causing incredible pain, suffering, loss, and waste, exacerbated by uninformed (and often overworked) court officials and church pastors. When will our courts and churches become venues for relief from the glib, superficial charm, grandiosity, pathological lying, cunning, and manipulation (etc., etc., etc.) of psychopathic bullies?

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1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hare_Psychopathy_Checklist

Bawdy Politics ?

(OR, Alas! Alas! Wo is US!)

In remembrance of the 120th year of the death of

Joseph Ferdinand Keppler (1 February 1838 Vienna – 19 February 1894 New York) … an Austrian-born American cartoonist and caricaturist, who greatly influenced the growth of satirical cartooning in the United States;^[*]

and the 125th year of the publication of his The Bosses of the Senate^[†], I repost his sadly enduring look at puppetry, power, and “bawdy politics”:

The Bosses of the Senate by
Joseph Keppler [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
First published in Puck 1889.
page URL: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AThe_Bosses_of_the_Senate_by_Joseph_Keppler.jpg
file URL: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/The_Bosses_of_the_Senate_by_Joseph_Keppler.jpg

How many déjà vus before we actually VU? and then DO something about this?! And that includes especially you: SCOTUS, POTUS, SOTUS, and HOROTUS!

PS: If “bawdy politics” can describe the (past and current) Senate, what might we call the House^‡?!

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* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Ferdinand_Keppler
† http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Bosses_of_the_Senate_by_Joseph_Keppler.jpg
‡ (being the House of Representatives, which, in this age of abbreviation and economy, may be shortened to HOR, which surprisingly!! may be a synonym!)

Has Anyone Noticed ?

AWAKE !!
to the price-tag of
delusion.

Once upon a time, Adam Smith said:

People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. (The Wealth of Nations, p. 148—I.X.I)

Once upon a (more recent) time, foreigners (in this instance, meaning non-residents of the USA) could surf the commercial web for best price and most current product and actually order it from a US company without having a US billing address for their credit card.

Now, one is beginning to encounter online merchants, even ones as big as HomeDepot and Walmart, who refuse to sell online, if the purchaser cannot provide a US billing address. As recent as ten months ago, this was not so. So what is the deal?

Are these companies colluding with their international sister companies to protect turf and prices? Just try to checkout online without a US billing and shipping address if your preferred seller is a US company. Let’s take Walmart.com and Walmart.ca for example:

▪ Check out the 13 bath toys available online at Walmart.ca
http://www.walmart.ca/en/baby/bath-supplies-toys/bath-toys/N-2437
against the 130 available online at Walmart.com
http://www.walmart.com/browse/baby-toddler-toys/bath-toys/5427_491351_976819?tab_value=all&catNavId=%3Cc%3aout+value%3d%27491351%27%2f%3E&ss=false&ic=32_32&
(If these web addresses change or become defunct, just try your own product comparison.)

▪ Check out the $13.87 CDN and $9.68 USD price differential for the very same “Summer Infant Tub Time Tea Party Set.”*

▪ Check out the increasing inability to purchase what you want from the online store you prefer if you are deemed "foreign."

Sometimes, it may be the reverse when savvy US shoppers encounter a unique product and price in another country and are locked out by drop-down-box address exclusions. Is it because companies are “sacrificing” sales to non-competition covenants with sister companies? Just try to buy a great online deal from HomeDepot.ca if you live in the US.

Some seem to be using “fraud management filters” (such as that offered by PayPal) to exclude orders from foreign-based IP addresses—not for the sake of fraud protection, but solely to justify refusal to sell. For example:

“PayPal gateway has rejected request. The transaction was refused because the country was prohibited as a result of your Country Monitor Risk Control Setting.”

Yes, fraud can be an issue, but when the billing and shipping addresses have been in PayPal’s database for years and have been used innumerable times without problem or complaint, surely fraud technology is smart enough to know that!? So, can there be some other reason to exclude willing buyers from certain markets?!

Thus, if one is travelling or temporarily outside the US, their US PayPal account with its US-issued credit card and its US verified billing and shipping addresses can be rejected because the online purchase was attempted from a foreign IP address.

So much for free trade with certain merchants, unless you are free to travel to the US (or other country of choice) and present your credit card in person and carry the item away. And so much for being able to buy certain US items and have them shipped to family or friends in the US (or elsewhere).

A work-around suggested by a customer service rep at HomeDepot.com was to travel to our local (foreign) HomeDepot (3-hr round trip) and purchase a gift card in order to complete our desired transaction online with HomeDepot.com.

So, how do these definitions jive with current and evolving realities?

A free-trade area is a trade bloc whose member countries have signed a free-trade agreement (FTA), which eliminates tariffs, import quotas, and preferences on most (if not all) goods and services traded between them. If people are also free to move between the countries, in addition to FTA, it would also be considered an open border.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_trade_agreements#Lists_of_free_trade_areas

United States antitrust law is a collection of federal and state government laws, which regulates the conduct and organization of business corporations, generally to promote fair competition for the benefit of consumers. The main statutes are the Sherman Act 1890, the Clayton Act 1914 and the Federal Trade Commission Act 1914. These Acts, first, restrict the formation of cartels and prohibit other collusive practices regarded as being in restraint of trade. Second, they restrict the mergers and acquisitions of organizations which could substantially lessen competition. Third, they prohibit the creation of a monopoly and the abuse of monopoly power.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_antitrust_law

Competition law is law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies.
Competition law is known as antitrust law in the United States and anti-monopoly law in China and Russia. In previous years it has been known as trade practices law in the United Kingdom and Australia.
The history of competition law reaches back to the Roman Empire. The business practices of market traders, guilds and governments have always been subject to scrutiny, and sometimes severe sanctions. Since the 20th century, competition law has become global. The two largest and most influential systems of competition regulation are United States antitrust law and European Union competition law. National and regional competition authorities across the world have formed international support and enforcement networks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competition_law

Isn’t it time we consumers and citizens awoke to the fraud of “free markets”? ’Tis a complaint as old as capital itself!

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* http://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/summer-infant-tub-time-tea-party-set/6000039572745
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Summer-Infant-Tub-Time-Tea-Party-Set-4pc/20525944

A Mathematical Ceiling ?

A [mathematical] ceiling is a [philosophic] term used to describe "the unseen, [unacknowledged, peer-enforced] barrier that keeps [many modern scientists] from rising to the upper rungs of [knowledge and truth], regardless of their qualifications or achievements." (Adapted by this blogger from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_ceiling )

IF Plato (/ Socrates) is right:

▪ that “The Divided Line”¹ as found in Plato’s Republic (Book VI: 509d-513e) describes two ruling powers and four levels of reality;
▪ that the ruling powers are set over two worlds: the visible and the intellectual [/ invisible];
▪ that each level of reality [from Images (A) to Sensible Things (B) to Mathematical Objects (C) to Form (D)] depends on the next higher level to make sense of itself;
▪ that each section has “different degrees of truth and that the copy is to the original as the sphere of opinion to the sphere of knowledge” (Plato);
▪ that each lower level collapses into image as we move to the next higher level, (i.e., “everything is but an image of a higher reality”);
▪ that we have potential to progress through levels of increasing intelligibility and “into a world that is above hypotheses” (Plato);
▪ that mathematics (C) exerts a powerful downward force—a type of “intellectual gravity”² pulling back toward sensible things (B) (i.e., things of the senses), and thus, into a downward turning away from Form (D)—being the “world that is above hypotheses”;

THEN, has modern science fallen victim to the weight of this intellectual gravity, such that it will never be able to discover the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, unless it turns around?

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1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analogy_of_the_Divided_Line
http://www.informationphilosopher.com/knowledge/divided_line.html
2. See The Great Courses/The Teaching Company, Plato’s Republic, Prof. David Roochnik, Lecture 13.

Truly Afflicted (With Riches) !!

Back in October 2009, I wrote the following:^*

“Despite the “neon” warning that:

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God^[1]

most of us, in our fondest dreams, wish we were smitten with riches and that we should never recover—in likeness of Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof.

“The strange thing is—if we go by scripture—there is probably no greater risk to man’s eternal prospects than to have riches. The failure rate is nigh 100%! And we should wish such a test upon our self?!

“Strange too, when we consider the story of the beggar Lazarus and the rich man^[2] At their sequential deaths, the beggar finds himself carried into the bosom of Abraham and the rich man finds himself raising pleas from hell. Where are the justice, merit, and conservative thinking in that scenario? From a trans-world perspective, it would almost seem safer to be a beggar than a rich man! Is that a contradiction or what, to our current capitalistic, individualistic, blessed-driven paradigm?!

“What is it about riches that so afflicts mankind with failure? Is it the sense of merit? Of entitlement? Of ownership? Of self-sufficiency? Of freedom and power? Of basking in glory and honor taken unto oneself?”

Then, 4½ years later, I encounter this revealing video^† that is both a déjà vu and cautionary reminder to those afflicted with riches (or the sensation thereof).

“Money on the Mind”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuqGrz-Y_Lc&sns=em

Dove-tails with last week’s post, ME, ME, MINE^‡ !! and seems another nail in the coffin of (scientifically-challenged) Objectivism.

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*    http://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.ca/2009/10/to-those-afflicted-with-riches.html
[1] New Testament Matthew 19:24; Mark 10:25; Luke 18:24-25
[2] Luke 16:19-31
† Thanks to the blogger at http://barerecord.blogspot.ca/2014/03/247-what-influence-are-we-under.html and his side notes section part-way down his #247 post of 17 March 2014 where I first saw this video.
‡ http://www.dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/2014/03/me-me-mine.html

ME, ME, MINE

(OR Déjà Vu of “The Terrible Twos”?)

This post is in commemoration of the 107th Anniversary year of the founding (1907) of Ayn Rand’s (1905-1982) philosophy of “Objectivism.”¹

Before you swear in outrage at this ridiculous accusation against a two-year-old Ayn Rand, let me swear:

“This commemoration arises out of Ayn’s very own words.”

Check it out yourself: “I was two and a half,” she says, when Objectivism became her philosophy. She says it three times between 8:06-8:38 minutes/seconds.


)

"Ayn Rand Interview with Tom Snyder (1 of 3)" at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4doTzCs9lEc

This video has become very hard to find, but was captured 163 times by the WayBackMachine between Sept. 7, 2009 and March 19, 2023, but even there some postings have been deleted. However, as of today, 11 June 2023, it can be accessed at https://web.archive.org/web/20120617024334/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4doTzCs9lEc . The remarks concerning age of two and a half can still be found after minute 8. If this link fails, try other posting dates for this link at the WayBackMachine: https://web.archive.org/web/20120501000000*/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4doTzCs9lEc.

If “Me, Me, Mine” isn't allowed to describe Objectivism, then Ayn's “truth” has been compromised and her beloved John Galt has failed to get his message across.

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  1. On deeper Ayn-alysis, the more correct term may be Faux-Objectivism, or in the alternative, Subjectivism. For more Ayn-alysis by this blogger, see:
http://www.dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/search/label/AynRand
http://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.ca/search/label/AynRand