Here I Go Again

I was quite surprised. It turns out that there were quite a few interesting articles that I looked at in the media over the past few days on which I wish to comment. That is primarily what I do on this website of mine.

Again, I don't think that I can comment in this article about every one of the interesting things I have seen but I hope that I will be able to do comment on some of the others in subsequent ones.  That is my plan after all but sometimes I have difficulty fulfilling it because the media all of a sudden provide new stories on which I wish to make some remarks.

Here are a number of interesting matters that I have read about that I think deserve a mention from me.

FORMER US PRESIDENT FEE

It must be nice to retire from one's job as President of the United States.  While it obviously is very difficult to find a comparable job, nevertheless there are ways that one can still make money to help out on one's life. Take this example from Former President Obama about which I just read:

"Former President Barack Obama has agreed to accept $400,000 to speak at a health care conference this year sponsored by Cantor Fitzgerald, a Wall Street investment bank.

The lucrative engagement, reported earlier by Fox, was confirmed by a person familiar with the speaking agreement. A spokesman for Mr. Obama declined to comment on the speech.

Out of office for about three months, Mr. Obama has begun the process of cashing in. In February, he and his wife, Michelle, each signed book deals worth tens of millions of dollars. And Mr. Obama’s spokesman confirmed last week that he is beginning the paid-speech circuit.

A $400,000 speaking fee for addressing the Cantor Fitzgerald conference is a sharp increase from the amounts typically paid to his predecessors. Former President Bill Clinton averaged about $200,000 per speech while former President George W. Bush is reportedly paid $100,000 to $175,000 for each appearance." (Michael D. Shear, New Your Times, April 26, 2017) 

It going to be one fantastic speech because he will be doing quite well with it. Consider that "Mr. Obama…was paid $400,000 a year as president."

WINDSOR REAL ESTATE MARKET

The real estate market in this City seems to be doing extremely well at this time. We are obviously behind the price increase seen in other areas but the price rises these days are not all that bad for people who want to sell their homes here. However, I just wonder how long this price increase will continue. I may be wrong anyway in what I am thinking considering this:

"Windsor’s real estate market has become so hot, sales agents for the majority of listings are restricting bids to one day — a strategy reserved for the nation’s most competitive housing markets in Toronto or Vancouver.

“It first started (in Windsor) about six or eight months ago,” said Denny Laurin, a broker/manager at Re/Max Preferred Realty Ltd. “But now we are in a situation with ample buyers that, for a seller, the best product to serve them is the multiple-offer situation.”

Re/Max Realty released its spring market trend report Tuesday which showed Windsor and Essex County had the largest price jump from a year ago — at 17 per cent — than anywhere in Canada except the Greater Toronto Area and Kitchener-Waterloo." (Dave Battagello, Windsor Star, April 25, 2017)

I am surprised that the article did not suggest that the prices were increasing because a lot more people were going to be finding much better paying jobs here especially because of the increasing business in the Automobile Industry and that more people would be employed in the future. Rather, here is what was being said as the main reason for the price increase:

"The Re/Max report suggests the housing market is being driven by a large number of retirees flocking to Windsor from other communities.

Frequently, they have sold their family homes elsewhere — often the GTA — at a premium price, which leaves them flush with funds to purchase an equivalent property in Windsor’s more affordable housing market and still have plenty of cash left in the bank."

Oh sure, retirees would like to live here but would they be all that interested in spending so much more money in our area considering that prices have risen so high so quickly? Is our area really so attractive that it convinced so many retirees to spend so much more money to live here? That is a question that we will have to see answered.

ANOTHER AMBASSADOR BRIDGE STORY

I just don't get what is going on. I am not going to get into a long discussion because as far as I am concerned just about everything going on now makes no sense at all to me.

Of course, the Governments remarkably have still told us that 2 new bridges are going to be built across the border between Canada and United States. One is the new Ambassador Bridge and the second one is the Governments new bridge. Naturally, that makes little sense because traffic has declined significantly and will hardly grow large enough to fund the billions of dollars required to build 2 new bridges in the foreseeable future. Moreover, it probably violates legislation that is in place today which would not support legally a new Governmental bridge given that is supposed to be built in Windsor as far as I am concerned. It will make a nice Supreme Court of Canada case if that happens and probably one in the United States as well.

I am sure that you have heard about the new Governments bridge that expects to be built in a year or so and how tough the Governments are and how successful they will be:

"Chairman Dwight Duncan said he's not concerned, especially with the Moroun-owned properties.

"We anticipate they will continue to fight, and we'll fight back," he said. "We have yet to lose anything in the courts. I've been through so many fights on this and we won every one of them."

The timeline for the bridge completion is unclear, and will be determined based on construction conditions, but it could be a four-year project.

"The Morouns are fighting and you know what? We won every battle," Duncan said. "We're going to keep our pedal to the metal and we're going to make sure we're going to get this done and there's not an individual out there that in my view is going to be able to stop us." (Dana Afana, MLive.com, April 29, 2017) 

As far as I am concerned, this is so absurd a position. Nothing has risen giving the legal right to build a Governmental bridge in over a decade since this all started and when I was first got involved in writing news stories about this. If there is such a big need for it, and the right to do so, why wasn't one done already? How long would it take to finish litigation in such a major case opposing any such action considering it has not even been started yet: another decade or more?

Could it be that the Governments know they cannot do so and were hoping that Matty Moroun was going to retire so that they could buy the Bridge from his son and add in another bridge at the existing location.  All the silly things they are doing now just seems to be in my opinion the Governments extending the time until they hope that the appropriate time to speak about buying the Ambassador Bridge with the son arises. To be blunt about it, that is where we will all see that new road system that is being built today really going to go one day. Believe it or not!

I am not going to go into a long discussion about the subject matter because nothing has really changed no matter what the news stories suggest. In addition, when the Ambassador Bridge Company is finally given permission to build their second bridge, and there is no reason as far as I know why such permission has not been granted quite some time ago, then the Governments' position to build a bridge is finished!

PRESIDENT TRUMP'S NEGOTIATING APPROACH

The President is very interesting to me. I just wondered what kind of business person the US President is when he decides on what position he should take when he negotiates a deal and how he determined that position.

Does he really get involved in going in depth in a matter in which he has an interest to take a well thought out position before he takes any action? Or, for whatever reason, does he develop his position in a file quickly without doing a lot of work in it and then pursues his position using all kinds of different tactics to be successful? He is prepared, in other words, to change around in his tactics if needed for whatever reason so that that he gets the result he wants in the end.

Perhaps what is going on now in Canada, the US and Mexico with respect to NAFTA might give us a view of how he handles matters.

Who really knows the answer but what was supposed to be done? There were supposed to be friendly negotiations among all 3 countries.  That changed drastically to the US desiring to terminate the relationship very quickly because it was not happy with what was going on. And then this happened, friendliness once again… Maybe:

"One day after his White House floated a trial balloon about drafting an executive order to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement, U.S. President Donald Trump now says he's fully committed to reworking the deal.

At an event in the Oval Office on Thursday morning, Trump explained his decision not to proceed with the order by saying ending NAFTA would be "a pretty big, you know, shock to the system."

"Now, if I'm unable to make a fair deal ... meaning a fair deal for our workers and our companies, I will terminate NAFTA. But we're going to give renegotiation a good, strong shot," he said.

Media reports about a withdrawal appeared Wednesday morning. By the end of the day, Trump had phone calls with both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto." (Janyce McGregor, CBC News, April 27, 2017) 

Oh, the action that could have been taken by the US Government supposedly would have been horrible but for what the President did to keep it open. Take a look at the proposed "Notice Of Withdrawal From NAFTA" that was produced.   Scary isn't it for Canada but we are so grateful now to him that we will give him some of the concessions that he wants. He becomes a big winner in the US that way doesn't he!

Of course that is not correct, right. Supposedly, Canada is so much smarter and understands now how the US President really acts. It must assume that President Trump is nothing more than a "player" who really doesn't spend the time to think about a matter but just moves ahead on what he wants using whatever technique he can think of at the time. One just has to understand that, deal with him and pretend that he is so "dangerous" in his position that one must seemingly give in to him. So we did it and Canada will be the real winner when NAFTA is finally renegotiated but President Trump can pretend to be victorious in the US. Here's what was written in that newspaper article:

"Late Wednesday evening, a White House statement said conversations with both Trudeau and Mexico's president were "pleasant and productive," and the three would proceed swiftly towards the renegotiation.

Trump said it was his "privilege" to update NAFTA and an "honour" to deal with the other two.

Tweets Thursday, however, made it seem like the other two leaders came to him asking him not to terminate, and he consented.

Far from being on the verge of a trade war, as some had speculated after new softwood lumber duties Tuesday and attacks on Canada's dairy industry last week, "relationships are good," he wrote, "deal very possible!"

A Canadian official said they're getting used to Trump's posturing, and the U.S. president is free to portray things as he will."

Of course, in the end, whoever that "Canadian official" was needs to be criticized for going public and opening his mouth. The last line in what I just quoted is disastrous for us. His comment hurt our position drastically. The reason why I can say that in my opinion is simple. Here is what was said on Saturday by the US President all over again:

"President Donald Trump has again raised the spectre of the U.S. pulling out of the North American Free Trade Agreement, saying America has been on the "wrong side" of the trade pact for "many, many years."

Trump told a rally in Harrisburg, Pa., on Saturday night that he'll try to renegotiate the agreement with Canada and Mexico, but will terminate NAFTA if a "fair deal" for the U.S. can't be reached…

The Financial Times reported Friday it received a leaked draft executive order that Trump had originally planned to sign on Saturday that would have given five days notice of the U.S. intention to leave NAFTA…

"We have been on the wrong side of the NAFTA deal with Canada and with Mexico for many, many years, many decades — we can't allow it to happen," Trump told Saturday's rally. "If we can't make a fair deal for our companies and our workers, we will terminate NAFTA." (Canadian Press, April 29, 2017) 

Sigh, here we go again.