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Carolyne Wang

How paying people's way out of poverty can help us all - The Globe and Mail - 0 views

www.theglobeandmail.com/...singlepage

Income Inequality Tax Cuts Homelessness Set Annual Income Unemployment

shared by Carolyne Wang on 02 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • there’s an increasing awareness, among even the country’s most wealthy, that poverty reaches beyond the tables of the hungry and digs into their own pocketbooks
  • When people are poor, out of work or homeless, it hurts the bottom line of all Canadians. And as the country struggles to maintain a shaky recovery amid growing global economic uncertainty, that’s not a hit they can afford to take.
  • If Ottawa and the provinces fail to make this a priority, Tory Senator Hugh Segal predicts, “over time, we will begin to run out of the money that we need to deal with the demographic bulge because it will be consumed in the health care requirements of the poor, which will increase. It will be consumed in the costs of the illiteracy and unemployment which relate to poverty. ... And it'll be unsustainable.”
  • ...22 more annotations...
  • It’s already on the radar of some provinces: One of Christy Clark’s first actions as B.C. Premier was to raise the province’s minimum wage for the first time in a decade and offer a tax cut for low-income families. Ontario has launched a sweeping review of social assistance programs that Community and Social Services Minister Madeleine Meilleur has admitted are failing the province’s neediest.
  • Despite Canada’s reputation for a strong social safety net, the country is becoming economically polarized. And the decades-old dominant economic dogma that growing wealth among society’s highest earners would trickle down to those less fortunate is being challenged by an alternative approach: Eliminate crushing poverty among the lowest earners, and wealth will trickle up.
  • The ranks of the working poor have swelled as minimum wages fail to keep pace with rising costs and social assistance levels drop.
  • The recession widened the chasm, and a subsequent recovery hasn’t closed it.
  • On paper, almost as many jobs have been added as were lost during the financial crisis. But they offer fewer hours and less pay – and some of the hardest-hit sectors aren’t coming back.
  • Food bank use hit a record high in 2010. Tellingly, more of the people using those food banks have jobs – they just don’t make enough to pay the bills or feed their families.
  • As the incomes of the country’s top earners have risen, the incomes of Canada’s lower- and middle-income earners have stagnated.
  • Mr. Masciotra is part of a growing group of skilled labourers on the brink. The métiers in which they’ve worked for years are no longer economically viable: Many well-paying blue-collar jobs are being replaced by minimum-wage, service-sector ones. And that’s causing significant shifts on both sides of the border, notes MIT economist David Autor.
  • “I have records of over 100 jobs I have applied for,” he said. “I have looked really hard. ... But I haven’t been able to get a job yet.
  • Tony Masciotra is diversifying himself. The Argentine-Canadian father of two went back to school immediately after being laid off from his tool and die job at Ford Motor Co. in Windsor three years ago.
  • It gets more complicated, and more economically detrimental, if the people who’ve lost jobs aren’t the ones being hired to new ones.
  • They enter what Robin Somerville of the Centre for Spatial Economics calls “structural unemployment.” And if they leave the workforce entirely, they fall off the radar of unemployment stats: The numbers look better precisely because they’re worse.
  • The drop is even more significant because more Canadians are putting off retirement. That should mean more people in the workforce. But it doesn’t: So many younger workers are dropping out entirely that they outweigh the older ones sticking around longer.
  • “If you’re losing opportunities in some areas, and you’re not replacing them with opportunities of equal or greater value, then the overall level of income in the economy is reduced. And the ability of people to go out and buy goods and services is reduced.”
  • Homelessness costs taxpayers money – in both foregone wealth and social service spending.
  • Some see a solution in a 40-year-old experiment: In the 1970s, Manitoba wanted to see what would happen if it guaranteed poor people in a few communities a set annual income.
  • The philosophy behind this is simple: People are more likely to stay in school, out of emergency rooms and out of jail; they contribute to the economy through their purchases; they’re more likely to move eventually above the poverty line and pay taxes.
  • The irony is that Canada already scores high compared to other OECD countries when it comes to helping the elderly. Where it falls short is where it matters: The working-age poor – the ones who should be contributing to the economy.
  • $134,000 Estimated amount for emergency shelter, emergency hospital care, law enforcement and other social services for one homeless person in Calgary, for one year
  • $34,000 Estimated cost to proide supportive housing for one person in Calgary, for one year
  • $12,555 Average cost of hospital stay for non-homeless patient at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto
  • $15,114 Average cost of hospital stay for homeless patient at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto
Benjamin Gray

Leveraging debt to boost returns - The Globe and Mail - 0 views

www.theglobeandmail.com/...article1976407

leverage

shared by Benjamin Gray on 03 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • Nearly one in two clients – 46 per cent of those polled in the bank's private banking division – are using leverage as an investment strategy.
  • Using borrowed money to mini- mize taxes has also become common. Changing the mindset of the investor has been key, said Robert Doyle, head of client structures for RBC. In the past, such leverage was generally used as a short-term strategy rather than a long-term foundation for building wealth.
Peter Shishkov

Commodity prices rise amid economic turbulence - 0 views

news.yahoo.com/...commoditiespriceweekly

Greece Commodity Prices

shared by Peter Shishkov on 01 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • Peter Shishkov on 01 Jun 11
     
    Lately, oil price is extremely volatile due to disappointing economic data from the US and eurozone, uncertainty about a potential debt-restructure in Greece and weaker oil demand from the US, China and Japan. Gasoline demand is expected however to pick up in the coming weeks as Americans take to the road for their summer holidays. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) or light sweet crude for July climbed to $100.35 a barrel from $97.41. Gold and Silver remain to be the safest investments during problematic economic times. As a result the precious metals have increased in price: on the London Bullion Market, gold jumped to $1,533 an ounce from $1,491 the previous week; Silver rose to $37.69 an ounce from $34.80.
alex yesikov

The 10 Banks Which Pose the Greatest Systemic Risk - Seeking Alpha - 1 views

seekingalpha.com/...ose-the-greatest-systemic-risk

Systemic Risk USA Banks Top 10 Future

shared by alex yesikov on 30 May 11 - No Cached
  • cently described the process that NYU uses to generate their results: The first step that Engle and colleagues propose is to calculate what they call the Marginal Expected Shortfall (MES) associated with a given financial institution. This is an estimate, based on recent dynamic variances and correlations of observed stock prices, of how much the stock valuation of a given institution would be expected to fall today if the overall market were to decline by more than 2%. This is essentially a time-varying tail-event beta, details of whose estimation can be found here.
Kevin Yeo

Canada should match U.S. exemptions for cross-border travellers - The Globe and Mail - 1 views

www.theglobeandmail.com/...article2033327

Trade Border US Canada Exemptions

shared by Kevin Yeo on 03 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • We have learned this month that the Canadian government is resisting efforts by the United States to increase exemptions for cross-border travellers in both countries. We believe this is a mistake. Canada’s interests are generally better served by lower trade barriers with the United States.
  • First, under NAFTA, most products manufactured in the United States or Mexico are not subject to Canadian duties. Therefore, the duties collected are on the small fraction of goods manufactured overseas. Indeed, a 2007 Senate report noted that customs revenues amounted to just $95-million annually – just 0.04 per cent of federal revenues.
  • Cross-border purchases pressure Canadian retailers to be more competitive and provide better, cheaper services to Canadian shoppers.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • we must recognize that public policy should be designed to benefit all Canadians, rather than a few large retailers. The currencies of resource exporters such as Australia, Canada and Brazil have appreciated sharply in recent years. We should all enjoy the higher standard of living the strong dollar entails, rather than allowing retailers to monopolize these benefits.
  • Therefore, we must embrace, rather than reject, the economic forces that drive the new U.S. thinking on this issue. Matching the $1,000 exemption would help Canadians realize greater gains from trade, while allowing CBSA to focus on its core mission.
Alejandro Enamorado

ROHAC: Income inequality doesn't matter - Washington Times - 1 views

www.washingtontimes.com/...ncome-inequality-doesnt-matter

income inequality rohac

shared by Alejandro Enamorado on 03 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • income inequality is not a useful measure. Measures of inequality tell us nothing about the living conditions of the poor, their health and their access to economic opportunity.
  • one should think primarily about lifting developing countries out of poverty rather than about reducing income disparities in wealthy countries.
  • Focusing on income inequality rather than drivers of poverty, obstacles to economic opportunity and systematic injustice obscures what really works and what does not in the realm of economic policy
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Putting in place restrictions on executive bonuses, taxing financial transactions and corporate profits does little to mitigate the flawed incentives that have led to exuberant financial booms. A genuine solution would consist of eliminating bailout guarantees to the banking sector, thus reducing the existing incentives for gambling with other people’s money.
  • the rise of cheap imports from countries such as China and new forms of large-scale retailing, epitomized by Wal-Mart and Sears, which have given the low-income groups access to goods that previously were enjoyed only by the rich. In terms of the actual material conditions of living, developed countries appear to be more equal than ever before.
  • growth of executive remuneration in the financial industry cannot be dissociated from a cozy relationship that has long existed between policymakers and bankers
Kevin Yeo

U.S. will be Canada's top export market in 2040 - The Globe and Mail - 0 views

www.theglobeandmail.com/...article2044537

Canada US trade future

shared by Kevin Yeo on 03 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • Canada has spent years -- and a considerable amount of money -- trying to convince exporters to look beyond the mighty U.S. market and seek customers in fast-growing emerging economies, such as China, India and Brazil.
  • And to some extent, it’s worked. The United States accounted for 75 per cent of total exports last year, down from 85 per cent in the mid-1990s.
  • But a new forecast of long-term export trends by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade suggests the United States will still be our dominant merchandise export destination in 2040, grabbing virtually an identical share as today, at 75.5 per cent.
dylan huber

Relation between income inequality and mortality in Canada and in the United States: cr... - 0 views

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/...PMC27328

Inequality Income mortality

shared by dylan huber on 02 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • Canadian provinces and metropolitan areas generally had both lower income inequality and lower mortality than US states and metropolitan areas
  • 1% increase in the share of income to the poorer half of households would reduce mortality by 21 deaths per 100000.
  • income inequality was not significantly associated with mortality.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Canada seems to counter the increasingly noted association at the societal level between income inequality and mortality.
  • no relation within Canada at either the province or metropolitan area level
Steven Iarusci

Canadians load up on mortgages, cut card debt - 0 views

www.montrealgazette.com/...story.html

credit card debt mortgage rates bubble housing

shared by Steven Iarusci on 02 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • The bank set aside $145million in provisions for credit losses, down $104-million as more customers repaid their loans.
    • Steven Iarusci
      Steven Iarusci on 02 Jun 11
       
      BMO is the bank in question.
  • consumer credit-card balances are declining as bank customers start to heed warnings about taking on too much debt
  • On the residential mortgage side, Mr. Downe said he expects to see growth start to "soften" in the coming months
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • record household debt levels have left this country vulnerable to economic shocks
  • the Canadian banks will report a slight increase in profit for the quarter as they contend with the impact of declining consumer borrowing, moderating capital markets activity and other headwinds.
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  • With domestic household debt levels hovering close to where they were in the United States prior to the financial crisis, many observers are warning that Canadians need to start paying down debt if the economy is remain on level footing
  • anadian consumers continue to pile on mortgage debt despite repeated warnings that they need to crank back on borrowing if this country is to avoid a painful real estate correction
  • Canadian consumers continue to pile on mortgage debt despite repeated warnings that they need to crank back on borrowing if this country is to avoid a painful real estate correction
  • growth in the overall home loan market "is continuing to be more robust,"
  • Canada's fourth-largest lender on Wednesday kicked off second-quarter bank earnings season with a 7.5% increase in profit on the back of lower provisions for bad loans
Susan Cui

Bad housing advice of the day, Philly edition | Felix Salmon - 4 views

blogs.reuters.com/...vice-of-the-day-philly-edition

Housing Price Advice Gold vs House

shared by Susan Cui on 23 May 11 - No Cached
  • house prices are falling, gold prices are rising, and therefore before you go ahead and buy a house, you should probably consider whether you’d be better off buying gold instead.
  • house prices are falling, gold prices are rising, and therefore before you go ahead and buy a house, you should probably consider whether you’d be better off buying gold instead.
  • homes are not an investment, they’re more of a consumption good.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Maybe you’ve saved enough for a down payment. But should you bet your money on home prices, even with a tempting low-interest, fixed-rate mortgage? Or is it financially smarter to continue renting and invest the money in an asset that could appreciate for at least another few years?
  • Being “financially smart” is not the same as investing in whichever asset gives you the highest return over some given time horizon.
  • Essentially, Arvedlund is proposing an exotic relative-value trade here: she’s saying that houses will underperform gold, or that the price of a house in gold is going to go down rather than up.
  • the price of a house in gold has gone down, and you would have been financially better off buying gold than taking that money and using it as a down-payment for a house.
Chris Li

The Progressive Economics Forum » Garbage In, Garbage Out - 4 views

www.progressive-economics.ca/...garbage-in-garbage-out

Outsourcing Garbage Collection

shared by Chris Li on 24 May 11 - No Cached
  • contract-out garbage collection for half of the City of Toronto as soon as possible as the first step to outsourcing everything we can by next year.
  • Much of the rationale for contracting-out is that private waste collection will save the city many millions of dollars.   However, these figures are based on misinformation and distorted statistics. 
  • Toronto’s costs in 2009 were $72.22 per tonne.  Costs for Mississauga and Brampton as part of the Peel regional municipality were $106.79 per tonne.  Vaughan’s costs were $168.40 per tonne.   The other regional municipalities also had higher costs: Durham at $85.74 per tonne and Halton at  $86.79 per tonne.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • costs for residents of Toronto for private waste collection will increase by at least 20% a year or more than $6 milllion per year and could be 50% or $16 million higher. 
  • From their estimates they claimed that Toronto could save $49 million per year from contracting-out all its waste collection. 
  • they used an econometric technique called “fixed effects regression” which effectively engineered the results they were looking for.  
  • “The most recent studies have found no difference in costs.  Cost savings from privatization erode over time….”.
Susan Cui

Best Way to Fix Housing Market Let Prices Fall (Fast): Tech Ticker, Yahoo! Finance - 3 views

finance.yahoo.com/...-Market-Let-Prices-Fall-(Fast)

Housing Price Best way to fix

shared by Susan Cui on 23 May 11 - No Cached
  • "Fixing the housing market" is usually defined as:Stopping house prices from falling Stopping foreclosures
  • Prices. The best way to stop prices from falling is to let them fall far enough to reach equilibrium, fast.
  • Foreclosed houses are selling like hotcakes because prices are finally attractive enough to draw in new capital.
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • Un-foreclosed houses are NOT selling like hotcakes, but this is because their owners have yet faced up to the reality of how little they are worth (or, put differently, because they don't yet have to sell).
  • The vast majority of plans to "stop prices from falling" involve subsidies of one form or another (tax credits, subsidized mortgage rates, etc.)  These may slow the decline, but they won't stop it
  • subsidizing/encouraging debt-bingeing and homeownership is what got us until this mess in this first place.
  • The fastest and most effective way to stop prices from falling is to let them fall until they've reached equilibrium. And then start rebuilding wealth, equity, and economic growth from there.
  • Lots of Americans are going to lose their houses in the next few years regardless of what we do.
  • Keeping the number of foreclosures as small as possible
  • will just delay the inevitable
  • Importantly,
  • Foreclosures are caused by owners' inability to make debt payments.
  • The best way to stop foreclosures, therefore, is to get people out of houses they can't afford and into houses they CAN afford (whether by renting or buying).
  • the house-price issue
  • (No reason to buy or build now if you think prices will be cheaper tomorrow).
  • Businesses and consumers
  • open up their wallets
  • when house prices stop falling. And the fastest way to get there is to let them fall.
Peter Shishkov

Food, oil prices hit US economy - 0 views

www.peopleforum.cn/redirect.php

USA Commodity Prices

shared by Peter Shishkov on 01 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • Peter Shishkov on 01 Jun 11
     
    Economists have cut forecasts for economic growth in the second quarter following the dismal 1.8 percent pace in the first, with indicators of industrial production, consumer spending and unemployment all appearing soft. Economists said they still foresee a stronger second half, as consumers and businesses adjust to the higher oil price Ian Shepherdson, U.S. economist for High Frequency Economics, said the sharp rise in the price of oil has helped stifle job creation. "The trend in claims has nudged up a bit as companies have responded to the rise in oil prices," he said.
Peter Shishkov

Commodity price index - Annual - 1 views

www.bankofcanada.ca/...commodity-price-index-annual

Commodity prices

shared by Peter Shishkov on 01 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • Peter Shishkov on 01 Jun 11
     
    The new Bank of Canada commodity price index (BCPI) is a chain Fisher price index of the spot or transaction U.S. dollar prices of 24 commodities produced in Canada and sold in world markets, with weights updated on an annual basis. The new Fisher BCPI is also updated using recent commodity production data. The new index, therefore, produces a more accurate and more representative commodity price index.
dani tav

Wonkbook: Debt limit vote, part I - Ezra Klein - The Washington Post - 1 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...AGKSoMFH_blog.html

Government Spending Budget Cuts debt Housing Price

shared by dani tav on 31 May 11 - No Cached
  • a proposal Tuesday that would increase the nation’s ability to borrow money without also making major cuts in federal spending
  • initial request that the nation’s $14.3 trillion debt ceiling be lifted without any accompanying spending reductions
  • politically impossible.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • o get my vote on the debt ceiling..Medicare will be a part of it
  • argued against using $80 billion in taxpayer dollars to try to save General Motors Co., Chrysler and many of their suppliers."
  • economists largely predicted the U.S. recovery would ramp back up as short-term disruptions such as higher gas prices, bad weather and supply problems in Japan subsided
  • he ownership rate is now back to the level of 1998, and some housing experts say it could decline to the level of the 1980s or even earlier
  • Cutting tax breaks for retirement won't raise a lot of money;
  • economy
  • medical school free
Heshani Makalande

Banks trim mortgage rates - The Globe and Mail - 0 views

www.theglobeandmail.com/...article2037912

Mortgage rates

shared by Heshani Makalande on 28 May 11 - No Cached
  • Four of Canada’s biggest banks are once again lowering residential mortgage rates at a time when falling government bond yields are cutting funding costs for financial institutions.
  • Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Bank of Nova Scotia and Bank of Montreal are all trimming their posted rates on popular five-year fixed-rate mortgages by 0.1 percentage point to 5.49 per cent among other reductions.
  • The last time they did so was on May 19 when rates for five-year closed mortgages fell by 0.1 percentage point to 5.59 per cent.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • RBC, TD, Scotiabank and BMO are also trimming interest rates on Saturday for a number of other residential mortgage products, including various special offers.
  • This latest round of mortgage rate cuts was prompted by falling yields on government bonds across a range of terms, said TD spokeswoman Barbara Timmins in an e-mail.
  • For instance, the yield on the five-year Government of Canada benchmark bond was 2.33 per cent on Thursday, down from 2.58 per cent on May 2 (the first business day of the month), according to data on the Bank of Canada’s website.
  • Banks usually try to match maturities when they use bonds to finance consumer mortgages. As a result, a five-year government bond would be matched up with a five-year consumer mortgage.
    • Heshani Makalande
      Heshani Makalande on 28 May 11
       
      Currently it is easy to get a mortgage because the interest rates are low. This is good news for consumers who will continue to enjoy record low interest rates on mortgages and other borrowing.
alex yesikov

Collapsing Political Support Threatens Euro; Systemic Risk Threatens World Markets - Se... - 0 views

seekingalpha.com/...c-risk-threatens-world-markets

Systemic Risk Greece Euro

shared by alex yesikov on 30 May 11 - No Cached
  • Per a Reuters article Wednesday, EU banks are stuck with over 100 bln euros of Greek government debt they’re unable to sell, hedge or ignore. However the ECB is in the same situation, and holds so much Greek debt that a default would mean the ECB would need a bailout.
  • Thus the banks, at least the big ones, can do nothing but hope that when the default comes, be it full or partial, they will be bailout out along with the ECB as an unavoidable step to maintaining economic stability in the EU.
  • No one wants to buy the bonds even at record low prices, and insuring the debt is too expensive to be worthwhile.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • That will mean, one way or another: Lots of money printing, a falling EUR and thus likely a rising USD
ngodup yaklha

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/greece-prepares-for-asset-fire-sale/a... - 0 views

www.theglobeandmail.com/...page2

Greece-Deregulation

shared by ngodup yaklha on 04 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • ngodup yaklha on 04 Jun 11
     
    Greece's first privatization effort was launched in the early 1990s under Stefanos Manos, who was minister of economy and finance at the time. Before he lost his job in 1993, the telecom industry deregulation was well under way and public-private partnerships were put in place. Later, banking was deregulated to some degree. But then the political will to keep going evaporated and the deregulation and privatization processes pretty much stopped. Mr. Mitsopoulos says the biggest potential obstacle to the success of the privatization program is a dragged-out process. Fast sales would do two things, he said. It would collect a lot of money quickly, which could be used to pay down debt, and it would deliver the message that Greece is finally serious about making its economy competitive. "All these state investments are burdens on the government," he said. "Privatizations will deliver productivity gains and they can be transformed into tax-paying entities." Privatizations are expected to pick up pace across the EU, as countries with budgets deficits above the 3-per-cent EU limit look for quick debt fixes in the absence of strong GDP growth. The Loterias privatization in Spain is expected to raise about €10-billion, valuing the company at as much as €25-billion, making it the second-largest gaming company in the world, behind casino manager Las Vegas Sands.
Joey Keum

UPDATE 2-Canada unveils plan for jobs, balanced budget | Reuters - 0 views

www.reuters.com/...politics-idUSN0316118820110603

canadians market jobs

shared by Joey Keum on 04 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • Aims to balance budget by 2014 without raising taxes
  • OTTAWA, June 3 (Reuters) - Canada's Conservative government will focus on jobs and growth while eliminating the federal budget deficit, it said on Friday as it unveiled a plan for the four-year mandate it won in last month's election.
  • "We will get back to work on the things that matter most to Canadians: good jobs, security for our families and a prosperous future," Johnston said on behalf of the government.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • "Jobs and growth will remain our government's top priority," Johnston said.
  • "In order to accelerate the return to a balanced budget and to eliminate the deficit one year earlier, over the next year we will undertake a strategic and operating review of government spending," he said.
  • "Our government's plan will put us on a strong footing to resume paying down the federal debt, further reduce taxes on families and continue investing in priorities."
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