Cervelo story in the Globe & Mail

bjw@mambo.ucolick.org

On Jun 13, 7:19*am, Ryan Cousineau <rcous...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I had no idea McCain was notable outside Canada, Cirque is a good
> example, Maple, though I've had to support their stuff, is a pretty
> niche thing, and Bombardier...
>
> It pains me to say this for a lot of reasons, but Bombardier is an
> example of how to create a billion-dollar company using only a billion
> dollars of public grants and subsidies.

In their line of work, that's not such a bad ROI. If you look
at their competitors, I doubt many (or any) of them are free
of subsidies, fat defense contracts, and the like - Boeing,
Alstom, Embraer, presumably Siemens, etc.

Anyway, given there are so few companies in the niche of
building subway cars and other rolling stock, no Bombardier
would mean higher prices for NYC subway cars and regional
rail. In other words, Canadian taxpayers used their hard currency
to subsidize much-needed improvements to crumbling public
infrastructure in exchange-rate-battered developing countries,
such as the USA. That seems like a laudable form of
international development aid.

Ben

Donald Munro

bjw@mambo.ucolick.org wrote:
> Anyway, given there are so few companies in the niche of building subway
> cars and other rolling stock, no Bombardier would mean higher prices for
> NYC subway cars and regional rail. In other words, Canadian taxpayers
> used their hard currency to subsidize much-needed improvements to
> crumbling public infrastructure in exchange-rate-battered developing
> countries, such as the USA. That seems like a laudable form of
> international development aid.

Perhaps they're planning on purchasing NYC. Hope they've got good
flood insurance though in case Greenland keeps melting at the same
rate.