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Financing the United Nations

ByDoug Anderson International Relations, Money

Towards a formula which is dependable and politics proof

Doug Anderson

Jan 18, 2026

The United Nations has numerous problems but all have been exacerbated by financial considerations. Every member is supposed to pay its “mandatory assessed contributions” which are calculated by a complicated formula based on the country’s gross national income, population size and external debt, among other factors.

The problem is that not all countries pay up when they should and some withhold their payments as a way of expressing their displeasure with the decisions made and/or actions taken by the UN.

The UN budget for 2025 was $3.72 billion plus peacekeeping which is a separate budget of $5.38 billion. The United States and China have by far the highest dues which together cover more than 40% of the UN budget.

Over the last two years the United States has an accumulated debt of $3.86 billion, China … More

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Truth matters

ByDoug Anderson Crime & Punishment, Media, Communications, Money

Coping in a post-truth world

Doug Anderson

Nov 08, 2025

Like all of you I get dozens of scam phone calls and emails every day. Very annoying. But, like most of you, I’m pretty good at figuring out what’s real and what’s not. Most of them are phishing for information that they can use later to go after your bank account, max out your credit cards or sell on the dark web.

But we’re not the target of these scams. They’re aimed at the handful of people who for one reason or another are vulnerable – people who aren’t careful, people who are gullible or perhaps the person who’s just had a bad day and isn’t thinking straight. Such people are generally the most financially vulnerable and least able to afford being scammed. In 2021 it was estimated that such scams raked in $50 Billion in the United States. That’s … More

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Investments, Blind Trusts and Mark Carney

ByDoug Anderson Canada, Money, Politics

Why Potential Conflicts of Interests are a Red Herring

Doug Anderson

Jul 29, 2025

Mark Carney is apparently a fairly wealthy man. Wealthy people have to put their money somewhere and most of them are smart enough to realize that the bank is neither the best place nor the safest.

The disclosure of the assets that Carney put into a blind trust shows that he had investments in more than 560 companies through a third-party managed account, That 3rd party will be an investment company that is likely managing the wealth of numerous people and they have the expertise and the technology to pick stocks with good growth potential and below average volatility. They would have been operating under general guidelines set out by the portfolio owner. (e.g. no coal, no napalm, yes to clean energy, yes to innovation, etc.)

Beyond that, the owner would have little involvement and would … More

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Bring These $$ Home

ByDoug Anderson Canada, Economics, International Relations, Money

Trump has poked the Canadian bear and has unleashed a level of patriotism that we haven’t seen before – perhaps ever.  So while the tariffs may eventually get  withdrawn and things may seem to go back to normal we can never again leave ourselves this vulnerable. We need to harden our economy.

Ironically this situation presents Canada with some incredible opportunities. This current wave of nationalism must be harnessed.

50 years ago the government of Justin’s father Pierre, created the Canada Development Corp in order to stem the tide of foreign ownership of Canadian companies and a similar idea is needed today but for different reasons. The Canada Development Corporation was created to invest in strategic industries in order to increase Canadian ownership. The CDC had some success but the Mulroney government shut it down when they took office in the mid 80s. The problem of foreign ownership is still … More