February 2012 Edition
TICKETS
By next Christmas, all Canadian airlines will be required to advertise the full price of airfares. For consumers, it means online promotions and print advertisements of seat sales will have to list the final cost of the ticket, including all taxes and surcharges. Today, the total cost can typically be 50 per cent more than the advertised base fare. Similar legislation has been in effect in Europe since 2008.
DEFAULTS
Among companies rated by Standard & Poor (S&P), there were just 44 corporate defaults around the world in 2011, down from 81 for the whole of 2010 and far below the record 265 in 2009. Most are in America (home to around half the companies tracked by S&P). Seventeen of the defaults came from missed interest or principal payments and 11 from bankruptcy filings. Consumer goods and service industries accounted for the most defaults followed by transport. After making up a quarter of defaults in 2009, only five media and leisure companies defaulted in 2011.
CLEANING
Efforts to create self-cleaning cotton fabrics are bearing fruit in China. Engineers have created a chemical coating that causes cotton materials to clean themselves of stains and remove odours when exposed to sunlight. Researchers say the treatment is cheap, non-toxic and ecologically friendly. Retail experts say the innovation could be a hit with clothing manufacturers. The substance is already used in self-cleaning windows, odour-free socks and stay-clean kitchen and bathroom tiles.
AIRSHIPS
A Yellowknife (NWT) airline and a UK hybrid vehicle company have signed an agreement in principle to develop and bring in the first specially adapted airships to the land of bush planes and ice roads. For years, it has been proposed that airships could be used to haul equipment and supplies which would change the economics of development in remote areas. Airships require neither ice roads or runways and use far less fuel than planes while having a massive lift capacity.
EMISSIONS
The tiny super-rich Gulf state of Qatar will host the U.N. climate negotiations in 2012. Qatar has the world's highest per capita carbon dioxide emissions. At more than 50 tonnes per head, emissions are seven times those of the U.K and more than triple those of the U.S.
TRADE
Mexico's Senate has approved a free-trade agreement with Peru that aims to double trade between the nations, valued at US$1.46-billion. The agreement will give Mexican producers of wheat, beans, corn seeds, beer and tequila immediate access to Peru while Peruvian farm goods and textiles will gain greater access to Mexico. The accord covers over 12,000 products. An existing Mexico-Peru trade deal signed in 1987 covers 765 products. The agreement will increase Mexican exports to Peru to $2.7-billion per year.
COCOA
Prices for cocoa are suffering their longest period of decline in a half-century as more beans pile up in West African ports than distributors can sell. Forecasters see no end in sight for the glut in the face of weaker-than-normal global demand. The Ivory Coast output of cocoa increased by 16 per cent in 2011 while prices have declined by nearly 20 per cent creating a global surplus of over 300,000 tonnes.
AIRLINES
The merger of two major Latin American airlines, Brazil's TAM and Chile's LAN, has created the largest carrier in the region. The new airline LATAM is valued at about US$14.5-billion and will represent six per cent of global air transport. Last year, the two airlines flew more than 45-million passengers and 755,000 tonnes of cargo. The new airline will fly to 115 destinations in 23 countries with a workforce of 40,000.
CHAMPAGNE
The French industry expected a bumper holiday season, a significant recovery from just two years ago when it slashed production in the face of the global economic downturn leaving tons of grapes rotting in the fields. By the end of September 2011 the champagne industry had shipped 192-million bottles and the festive fourth quarter is always the strongest accounting for a third to half of annual sales. In 2008, sales fell to below 300 million bottles for the first time in five years. Last year the industry shipped 320-million bottles worth US$5.5-billion and may have shipped 340-million bottles by the end of 2011.
SHOWERS
A survey, using innovative technology, has offered an insight into people's showering habits in the UK. The survey, that recorded 2,600 showers by 100 families over a ten-day period, found that the average shower lasted eight minutes, much longer than previous studies suggested, using almost as much water and energy as the average bath. An eight-minute shower uses 62 litres of hot water compared with an average bath's 80 litres.
DOCTORS
Canada has saved nearly C$400-million by poaching doctors from Africa, while the African countries that trained those doctors have lost billions of dollars as a result of the medical brain drain. Wealthy countries like Canada are benefiting significantly from those African losses as thousands of doctors continue to emigrate from African countries. More than 22 per cent of Canadian physicians are foreign trained. In Saskatchewan, more than half of practising doctors are foreign-trained. It is estimated that Canada, Britain, the U.S. and Australia have saved more than $4.5-billion by recruiting doctors from just nine African countries.
HISTORY
Last summer, archaeologists clearing the way for a new mining project in the Yukon unearthed a 17th-century Chinese coin providing further proof of a trade route hundreds of years old linking First Nations peoples with Chinese markets and seagoing Russian merchants. The coin was minted between 1667 and 1671, northwest of Beijing. This is the third coin found in the Yukon and were often sewn into armour worn by Tlingit warriors. Visiting Russian merchants offered First Nations traders such goods as tobacco, glass beads, tea, kettles and coins in exchange for sea otter, fox and beaver, furs that in turn appeared for sale in China.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Rich countries spend a lot of money on health, 9.6 per cent of GDP in 2009. In 2009, OECD countries spent US$700-billion on drugs, nearly one-fifth of all health spending. Without drugs, health costs might have been even higher as drugs can prevent costly hospitalizations. The average American shelled out $947 for drugs in 2009. The figure for Canada was $692 and for Mexico $249.
DEBT
British Columbians have more consumer debt than anyone else in the country. The average B.C. resident has C$36,588 in non-mortgage debt, 43 per cent higher than the Canadian average of $25,594. High debt levels in B.C. and Alberta are a reflection of the two provinces' robust economies and higher standards of living. More and more people now rely on lines of credit, with 42 per cent of all non-mortgage debt held in line of credit. 18.5 per cent of non-mortgage debt is in instalment loans and 15 per cent in revolving loans.
MONGOLIA
The world's largest ice-making experiment has been launched in Ulan Bator, capital of Mongolia in an attempt to combat the adverse effects of global warming. The geoengineering trial aims to "store" freezing winter temperatures in a giant block of ice that will help to cool and water the city as it slowly melts during the summer. Scientists hope the process will reduce energy demand from air conditioners and regulate drinking water and irrigation supplies. If successful, the model could be applied to other cities in the far north.
WEALTH
Zhang Yin was the eldest of eight children of a Red Army officer. Today she is one of the world's richest self-made women with an estimated fortune of US$1.6-billion. In the early 1980s working in a paper mill she noted that the waste paper her superiors so casually discarded was actually worth something. Nine Dragons paper, which she founded with her husband in 1995 is now one of the world's largest paper recyclers. Seven of the 14 women identified in Forbes magazine's list of self-made billionaires are Chinese.
COINS
Loonies and toonies may be popular in Canada, but in the U.S. the presidential dollar coin has fallen victim to Washington's cost-cutting efforts. Production of the coins, which carry the likeness of every deceased president has been discontinued. In 2005, Congress passed an act which mandated the U.S. produce four new coins each year from 2007 to 2016. But there has been little demand as most people prefer to carry the one-dollar bill instead of the heavier coin. The U.S. mint has been producing between 70- and 80-million per deceased president but 40 per cent of those produced have been returned to the mint.
TRENDS
The Somerset Council in England has taken action to halt the epidemic of metal thieves by introducing plastic manhole covers. A total of 19 manhole and drain covers made out of wrought iron were stolen in just 48 hours last March. The new plastic anti-skid covers cost about US$640 each and last for 15 years. The metal ones cost $176 but needed replacing every five years. The plastic ones have no scrap value.
The letter business is dying a slow death around the world as texting, online billing and e-mail are making the letter go the way of audio cassettes and Polaroid cameras. Addressed mail generates more than half of Canada Post's revenue and every year there is less of it. First-class mail in the U.S. drops by a quarter every five years. In Britain, the Royal Mail will have delivered 62-million letters a day in 2011 versus 80-million five years ago. By 2016, volume will shrink to 46.5-million pieces.
GAS
According to the industry, over the next 25 years, natural gas activity in Canada is expected to yield C$285-billion in personal income, corporate and indirect taxes across Canada from Western Canadian natural gas production. Royalties from natural gas in B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan should yield $98-billion and earnings by natural gas employees, mainly in B.C., will be $339-billion. Contributions by natural gas to Canada's GDP will be around $1.6-trillion.
FEARS
A BBC World Services survey covering 11,000 people in 23 countries suggests that unemployment is the world's fastest-rising worry. Corruption and poverty still ranked the highest, but unemployment was mentioned by 18 per cent, six times the rate citing it in the first survey in 2009.
WORLD TRADE
With the Doha round of the global free trade talks dead, Canada and dozens of other countries are forging ahead with a deal to open up government purchases, worth as much as US$100-billion a year. More than a decade in the making, the landmark World Trade Organization agreement opens access to potentially lucrative contracts for Canadian suppliers of transportation, telecommunications and financial services. In exchange, Canada will allow foreign companies to bid on billions of dollars worth of purchasing by Crown corporations and provincial governments.
TENDERING
When Scottish police forces published an "invitation to tender" for sandwiches for the force, the description ran to 45 pages and 10,000 words. Their needs can be described in three words: sandwich, chips and drink.
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