Once upon a time...

You probably heard by now about collapse of trade negotiations at the last WTO meeting.

Some of you probably remember the time when nations could actually come together and solve problems. When international summits were more than just a big photo op.

I don't. I'm not old enough (22).

I've read about it in history books though.

Textbook Monopolies

I apologize for the complete lack of blogging lately. Who would have thought it's easier to blog when it's zero degrees in and the sun goes down at four then when it's 25 and the sun goes down at nine.

Anyway, the latest issue of our campus newspaper, the Martlet, informs me that the new copyright act will make it so, "bookstores aren't allowed to purchase from cheaper places like the United States or the United Kingdom."

I find this interesting. Fist of all, it has nothing to do with copyrights. Second, it takes money from students and universities and places it in the hands of Canadian book publishers.

Possible reasons: The book publishers have better lobbyists than do students (or the students are lobbying the wrong people).

Students don't know who to blame for high book prices, but they would know exactly who to blame for higher tuition fees. Making higher textbook prices a smart political move.

Who's stabilizing who?

A professor once told me the only economists that support rent stabilized apartments are the ones who live in them.

But what about politicians?

Great idea, Wrong target

Some of you may have heard about ruinediphone.com. It's a newly formed protest group trying to get Rogers to lower the price of the IPhone in Canada. They claim that cell phone prices are higher in Canada than in the U.S. and other countries.

They're right. However, they're wrong to blame this all on the cell phone companies. Companies everywhere charge as much as the market can bear. Rodgers is no different.

The difference is that Canada doesn't allow any foreign competition into the market. Therefore lowering competition. So how about sending all those signatures to Ottowa instead of Rogers?

After all, they're supposed to be on our side right?


Here is the video form ruinediphone