July 2011

What happened in our world – the whole world – yesterday? What will happen today? As of July 9th, 2011 the world consists of 196 countries; each country with its own customs, beliefs and over all ways of life. There was a time when distance and governments separated us, but now globalization is unstoppable and continuously reaching new feats: one cannot ignore its potential.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has recently released an 8-minute video that collaborates “unprecedented video snapshots from every country on earth in a 24 hour period1”. With some videographers using a camera for the first time 16,000 people captured footage from over 190 countries1.

This short video reveals many of the accomplishments that the UNDP have already made towards achieving their mission and different ways they are still working around the globe.  Some examples include battling food security, providing health care and education, providing microloans, community development, helping countries cope with disasters, helping small enterprises and encouraging entrepreneurship, and supporting democratic governance.

Aside from showcasing the UNDP, this video demonstrates how connected the world now is. This unity of the world as one implies ideals of equality, opportunity and countless possibilities. The technologies of today offer opportunities for us to work together around the globe to eliminate systemic poverty in our world.

This video called ‘’’One Day on Earth” can be viewed on the UNDP website at www.UNDP.org.

1www.UNDP.org Melissa Leonard

Investologist Prognostication

Jeremy Leonard

“The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is generally understood. Indeed, the world is ruled by little else…” John Maynard Keynes – 1920

“One way or another, the budget deficits are going to come down.” John Mauldin – 2011

Whenever you are making a choice about doing anything (buy or sell), it makes sense to think about what will happen if you do nothing.  As decision makers, it seems we should always be actively choosing between one thing and another.  Long or Short, Resources or Utilities, Equities or Bonds.  Decisions, decisions, decisions.  This month I looked at my investments, wanting to take action, but my decision was to do nothing once again.  So I continue to sit on a powder keg of Canadian dollars that have become remarkably more valuable when compared to United States dollars and remarkably less valuable when compared to gold.

I have read a lot about crisis economics over the last little while.  This is the economics of why things go poorly rather than why things go well.  Adam Smith talked about the invisible hand and how Capitalism and International Trade improve the overall economy – things going well.   Karl Marx talked about the replacement of labor with capital and a falling standard of living earned by the working person – things going poorly.

  • Since Adam Smith we have experienced large periods of things going well interspersed with relatively short periods of things going poorly.  I do not expect that this is going to change.
  • The recent obsession with government debt is overshadowing the corporate picture. The US government has been injecting money into the economy and corporate America has been taking their money off the table at the same time – accumulating cash.  This has caused the markets to go nowhere, but many corporations are getting stronger every day.
  • We have large populations blossoming and joining the middle class as consumers of stuff.  A few billion people joining the world economy with a few thousand dollars per head is trillions of dollars in new demand for goods and services.  Companies paying attention can take advantage of this demand. (GM sold more cars in China in 2010 than it did in America).
  • When there is a drop back into recession territory (a drop of more than 10% in the market) followed by some stabilization, I will commence buying public stocks again.
  • I think that we will see the bottom of the market again very soon.