So the U.S. has become the model for what other countries don't want to do with their markets. Don't you wish we had capable, efficient and timely regulation for our markets? Hey, a girl can dream!

Industry leaders and regulators in several countries including Canada, Australia and Germany have adopted or proposed limits on high-speed trading and other technological developments that have come to define United States markets.

The flurry of international activity is particularly striking because regulators have been slow to act in the United States, where trading firms and investors have been hardest hit by a series of market disruptions, including the flash crash of 2010 and the runaway trading in August by Knight Capital that cost it $440 million in just hours. While the Securities and Exchange Commission is hosting a round table on the topic on Tuesday, the agency has not proposed any major new rules this year.

In contrast, the German government on Wednesday advanced legislation that would, among other things, force high-speed trading firms to register with the government and limit their ability to rapidly place and cancel orders, one of the central strategies used by the firms to take advantage of small changes in the price of stocks. A few hours later, a committee at the European Parliament agreed on similar but broader rules that would apply to all 27 member states of the European Union if governments also give their approval.

In Australia, the top securities regulator recently stated its intention of bringing computer-driven trading firms under stricter supervision and forcing them to conduct stress testing, to protect “against the type of disruption we have seen recently in other markets.”

The broadest and fastest changes have come out of Canada, where this spring regulators began increasing the fees charged to firms that flood the market with orders. The research and trading firm ITG found that the change had already made trading more efficient by reducing the crush of data burdening the market’s computer systems.

Now Canadian trading desks are preparing for rules that will come into effect on Oct. 15 and curtail the growth of the sophisticated trading venues known as dark pools that have proliferated in the United States. While the regulation has been hotly debated, many Canadian bankers and investors have said they don’t want to go any further down the road that has taken the United States from having one major exchange a decade ago to having 13 official exchanges and dozens of dark pools today.

In response to recent student protests over proposed massive tuition increases, Quebec's Premier Jean Charest is pursuing a law that would shred the civil rights of the citizens of the province, particularly students and unions. Quebec's government proposed to increase tuition by 75 percent and students have responded with a massive strike that has lasted for months. While tuition in Quebec is relatively low, the massive spike would be a shock to many students and would decrease college accessibility and force many more students to go into debt.

Charest, who leads the most conservative government in the province in decades, has responded to the protests by proposing a draconian law that would take away the rights to freedom of speech, assembly and association in an effort to stifle the protests. Charest has done little to invite public input on the proposed law, sparking more anger from opponents.

The bill threatens to impose steep fines of 25,000 to 125,000 Canadian dollars against student associations and unions — which derive their financing from tuition fees — in a direct move to break the movement. For example, student associations will be found guilty if they do not stop their members from protesting within university and college grounds.

During a street demonstration, the organization that plans the protest will be penalized if individual protesters stray from the police-approved route or exceed the time limit imposed by authorities. Student associations and unions are also liable for any damage caused by a third party during a demonstration.

These absurd regulations mean that student organizations and unions will be held responsible for behavior they cannot possibly control. They do not bear civil responsibility for their members as parents do for their children.

Freedom of speech is also under attack because of an ambiguous — and Orwellian — article in Bill 78 that says, “Anyone who helps or induces a person to commit an offense under this Act is guilty of the same offense.” Is a student leader, or an ordinary citizen, who sends a Twitter message about civil disobedience therefore guilty? Quebec’s education minister says it depends on the context. The legislation is purposefully vague and leaves the door open to arbitrary decisions.

...

The law will remain in force only until July 1, 2013. The short duration says it all. It amounts to a temporary suspension of certain liberties and allows the government to avoid serious negotiations with student leaders. And it grants the authorities carte blanche for the abuse of power; just hours after it passed, police officers in Montreal began to increase the use of force against protesters.

If Charest has success with these tactics, how long will it be until conservatives in the U.S. follow in his footsteps?

Today in a joint press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, President Obama made it clear that any Republican effort to try to force approval of the KeystoneXL pipeline project by attaching a rider to a payroll cut extension bill would fail.

From the transcript:

PRESIDENT OBAMA: First of all, any effort to try to tie Keystone to the payroll tax cut I will reject. So everybody should be on notice. And the reason is because the payroll tax cut is something that House Republicans, as well as Senate Republicans, should want to do regardless of any other issues. The question is going to be, are they willing to vote against a proposal that ensures that Americans, at a time when the recovery is still fragile, don’t see their taxes go up by $1,000. So it shouldn’t be held hostage for any other issues that they may be concerned about.

And so my warning is not just specific to Keystone. Efforts to tie a whole bunch of other issues to something that they should be doing anyway will be rejected by me.

With respect to the politics, look, this is a big project with big consequences. We’ve seen Democrats and Republicans express concerns about it. And it is my job as President of the United States to make sure that a process is followed that examines all the options, looks at all the consequences before a decision is made.

Now, that process is moving forward. The State Department is making sure that it crosses all its t’s and dots all its i’s before making a final determination. And I think it’s worth noting, for those who want to try to politicize this issue, that when it comes to domestic energy production, we have gone all in, because our belief is, is that we’re going to have to do a whole range of things to make sure that U.S. energy independence exists for a long time to come -- U.S. energy security exists for a long time to come.

So we have boosted oil production. We are boosting natural gas production. We’re looking at a lot of traditional energy sources, even as we insist on transitioning to clean energy. And I think this shouldn't be a Democratic or a Republican issue; this should be an American issue -- how do we make sure that we’ve got the best possible energy mix to benefit our businesses, benefit our workers, but also benefit our families to make sure that the public health and safety of the American people are looked after. And that’s what this process is designed to do.

Good. I especially like the part about not letting them hold the payroll tax cut hostage to Republican agendas. Mitch McConnell was appropriately pissy, too. Gotta love this little hissy he threw:

"The President started getting heat from the environmental activists he’s counting on to stuff envelopes next year, so he put off a decision until after the election," said McConnell. "If this episode tells us anything, it’s that the President is clearly more concerned about getting himself reelected next year than getting somebody in Nebraska or Kansas or South Dakota or Missouri a job today."

McConnell's comments were part of a larger effort among Senate Republicans to pressure Obama to use a visit from Canada's prime minister on Wednesday as an opportunity to reverse his decision on the pipeline, which they saw will create jobs. The proposed pipeline would carry oil from Canada to American refineries on the Gulf Coast.

Hey, Senator McConnell. Stuff THIS. You're gonna pass a payroll tax cut and UI extension if you have a prayer of any of your party getting re-elected next year.

Signed,

Happy Envelope Stuffer

Nevermind hockey. Canada still gets the last laugh. via Zaius Nation.

Open Thread below....

USA started off with a goal within the first minute of the game, overcame being outplayed badly for most of the first period and then took it to the all world Canadian hockey team with a dynamite effort.

It's not the medal round, but we get a bye now as the country of Canada tries to figure out what just happened. Ryan Miller was outstanding in goal stopping almost everything they threw at him and the young US team. Brian Rafalski scored 2 goals and an awesome open net goal by a diving Ryan Kesler sealed the win.

Now they get a few days off and much needed practice time to get ready for the next round.

Rest In Peace, Deborah Yesner, a pioneering blogger and researcher for the movie "OutFoxed."

reed writes: Canada joins the US in staring into the eyes of defeat in Afghanistan

43 Ideas Per Minute: Music of the Decade

You Are Dumb: The End of The Innocence

Dependable Renegade: For the love of God and all things holy, someone, somewhere, please delete Meghan McCain's twitter account.

Mike is away this week; Round up by Blue Gal.

This video shows how scientists were misled. They thought the healthy ice was expanding, when it was actually thinning and spreading out over a wider area. I can't wait until all the right wingers who've been triumphantly pushing this as proof there's no climate change acknowledge they were wrong. I'll just sit here and hold my breath:

WINNIPEG–One of Canada's top northern researchers says the permanent Arctic sea ice that is home to the world's polar bears and usually survives the summer has all but disappeared.

Experts around the world believed the ice was recovering because satellite images showed it expanding. But David Barber says the thick, multi-year frozen sheets crucial to the northern ecosystem have been replaced by thin "rotten" ice that can't support weight of the bears. "It caught us all by surprise because we were expecting there to be multi-year sea ice. The whole world thought it was multi-year sea ice," said Barber, who just returned from an expedition to the Beaufort Sea.

"Unfortunately, what we found was that the multi-year (ice) has all but disappeared. What's left is this remnant, rotten ice."

Permanent ice, which is normally up to 10 metres thick, was easily pierced by the research ship, said Barber, who holds the Canada research chair in Arctic science at the University of Manitoba. The team finally reached what it thought was stable ice, only to watch a crack appear just as researchers were preparing to descend onto the floe.

"As I watched, over the course of five minutes, the entire multi-year ice floe broke up into pieces," Barber said. "This floe was 16 km across. Something that's twice the size of Winnipeg, it just broke up right in front of our eyes."

Because she can see it from her house.

From The Canadian Press (syndicated)

Marg Delahunty has braved the wilds of the American Midwest to come face-to-face with Sarah Palin. Comedian Mary Walsh’s beloved character button-holed the former Alaska governor at a recent book-signing in Columbus, Ohio...

"Marg Delahunty" has been compared to the more famous Dame Edna, and Stephen Colbert owes her five bucks, too. Marg is a character, dressed up as some kind of "Canadian Warrior" right winger, etc. Here's a pic of her in full regalia:

I think she's got a Palinesque look to her, but anyhoo...

“We told her we’re from Canada, and we’re just looking for a few words of encouragement for the Canadian conservatives who have worked so tirelessly to destroy the socialized medicare that we have,” Walsh recalled Tuesday from St. John’s.

After being kicked out of the book-signing, Walsh and her crew then waited outside at a loading dock close to where Palin’s bus was parked. When Palin emerged from the Borders bookstore, Walsh said, Delahunty — dressed in a more toned-down version of her trademark warrior princess costume — called out to her.

“Hey, remember us, we’re the Canadians! We came all the way here from Canada!” Delahunty yelled. “When we asked you that question, we didn’t hear your answer.”

Palin strolled over, looking down on Walsh and her crew to tell them that “Canada needs to dismantle its public health-care system and allow private enterprise to get involved and turn a profit.”

“Basically, she said government should stop doing the work that private enterprise should do,” Walsh said.

There are no words, Sarah Palin. No words.

crossposted from Blue Gal; h/t TD in comments for the tip

The Canadian late night show "The Hour" has a regular "top five" list. Here's their to-do list for George W. Bush's lame duck session (2:58). Open Thread below...

File under "wow, our national reputation really is in the toilet": a Canadian court rules that since the US military in Iraq may have forced a deserting soldier to commit "a war crime, a crime against peace or a crime against humanity," he can legally apply for asylum in Canada to avoid further military service. CBC, h/t to commenter 'always interested':

[US Soldier Joshua] Key was sent to Iraq in 2003 as a combat engineer for eight months where he said he was responsible for nighttime raids on private Iraqi homes, which included searching for weapons.

He alleged that during his time in Iraq he witnessed several cases of abuse, humiliation, and looting by the U.S. army.

When Key was back in the U.S on a two-week leave, he said he was suffering from debilitating nightmares and that he couldn't return. A military lawyer told him that he could either return to Iraq or face prison.

Instead, Key took his family to Canada and applied for refugee status.

Citing a case from the U.S. Federal Court of Appeal, [Canadian Federal Court Justice Robert] Barnes said officially condoned military misconduct could still support a refugee claim, even if it falls short of a war crime.

"The authorities indicate that military action which systematically degrades, abuses or humiliates either combatants or non-combatants is capable of supporting a refugee claim where that is the proven reason for refusing to serve," Barnes wrote....

Key's lawyer, Jeffry House, said the ruling expands a soldier's right to refuse military service. Read more...