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Contents contributed and discussions participated by lebiez piranaj

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Car loans drive Canadian consumer debt to record high $26,768 - The Globe and Mail - 2 views

www.theglobeandmail.com/...article5248875 consumer debt auto loans higher
shared by lebiez piranaj on 18 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • Canadian consumer debt hit a record high in the third quarter, driven by loans to purchase new cars
  • The average Canadian’s non-mortgage debt reached $26,768 in the third quarter
  • fastest pace of debt accumulation in nearly two years
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • ransUnion said Wednesday that consumer debt in the third quarter increased at its fastest rate since the end of 2010, jumping 4.6 per cent on an annual basis and 2.1 per cent from the previous quarter
  • the debt levels are certainly moving in the wrong direction
  • Auto borrowing debt climbed 11.25 per cent from a year earlier and 1.84 per cent from the previous quarter
  • One possible reason, Mr. Higgins said, is that during the recession, Canadians held off getting new cars and paid off their leases, driving auto loans lower
  • people have started thinking that it is time to get a new car
  • “Today, people can carry this debt, but if we do get a big shock, like higher interest rates or job losses, then we will get hit.”
  • lebiez piranaj on 18 Jan 13
     
    The article mentions about how auto loans have increased substantially in the past few years and that this may be because auto loans have lower interest rates. But it also mentions that the economy is recovering and another hit could affect us because we are borrowing so much. 
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Canada Household Debt Much Higher Than Previously Thought; Housing Bubble Bust-Out Now ... - 2 views

www.huffingtonpost.ca/...-housing-bubble_n_1967269.html Canadian debt finds higher housing bubble thought money household
shared by lebiez piranaj on 18 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • Canadians, you’re more indebted than you think.
  • StatsCan now says household debt amounted to 163.4 per cent of household income in the second quarter, up from 161.8 per cent in the first
  • Canadians are now carrying more debt than Americans and Brits were at the peak of their housing bubble half a decade ago
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  • A recent Capital Economics report estimated a construction slowdown would cost 115,000 jobs across Canada
  • lebiez piranaj on 18 Jan 13
     
    Canadians are more than ever drown in debt. When it comes to comparing with the neighbor (US) we are carrying more debt than them. Market observers argued that Canadian consumers will no longer be able to hold up rising household debt.
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Canadian Household Debt: Poll Finds We May Be In Debt Longer Than We Think - 1 views

www.huffingtonpost.ca/...n-household-debt_n_940426.html canadian debt poll finds money saving tips
shared by lebiez piranaj on 18 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • TORONTO - If experience is any indication, many Canadians could find themselves in debt years longer than they originally expected, according to a new poll issued Monday by CIBC.
  • For example, Canadians 25 to 34 on average told the pollsters they expected to be debt-free by age 44. However, the poll found that only 18 per cent of those now in the 45-to-54 age group were, in fact, debt-free.
  • "Being debt-free is a long-term financial goal for many Canadians, and this poll suggests Canadians are actively looking ahead to the stage of life they will be in when they successfully pay off all of their debt,"
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  • the poll also disclosed that many Canadians see themselves as having debt for the long term, with eight per cent of poll respondents believing they will be into their 70s before their debts are paid off and 10 per cent of respondents saying they will never be debt-free.
  • lebiez piranaj on 18 Jan 13
     
    According to a poll disclosed from CIBC, tells us that many Canadian are finding themselves in debt for longer periods of time then they had originally expected. 
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What are some good reasons to borrow money? - The Globe and Mail - 1 views

www.theglobeandmail.com/...article4184887 tips saving money debt
shared by lebiez piranaj on 18 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • 2. Buy a car
  • Some people pay cash for a car, but most of us borrow or lease. Always weigh the cost of borrowing against using your own savings.
  • 3. Save for education
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  • Student loans are one of the cheapest forms of debt. They are also a good investment
  • Another way to finance part of your child's education is through a Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP)
  • 7. Pay off debt at a lower interest rate
  • A consolidation loan is a loan at a low rate, which you use to pay off several older loans that have higher interest rates
  • Others pay off their loans and credit cards by increasing their mortgage, which may have a low interest rate.
  • lebiez piranaj on 18 Jan 13
     
    The article talks about strategies on how to save for things like education, on saving for a car, how to pay off your debt at lower rates as well. 
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Even Boomers are getting pummeled by student loan debt | Business Insider | Financial Post - 1 views

business.financialpost.com/...-pummeled-by-student-loan-debt boomers student loan business debt
shared by lebiez piranaj on 17 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • Americans over 60 still owe 4.2% of student loan debt, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
  • Ten per cent of those loans are delinquent, while another 11.2% are in default.
  • Three factors account for the loans: Attending college after high school, going back as an adult, or co-signing for a child’s loans
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  • Stay organized
  • The government’s National Student Loan Data System tracks all your federal student loans, making it just a bit easier to stay on top of what (and who) you owe money to
  • See if you qualify for debt forgiveness
  • Have a talk with your lender
  • Consolidate monthly payments
  • consolidating the loans might make things easier—that is, if you don’t choose a predatory service
  • Pay off private student loans first
  • Private student loans almost always have higher interest rates and less repayment flexibility, so it’s best to address them first, says Miranda Marquit, personal finance writer for Yielding Wealth
  • Depending on your professional field, you could qualify to have part or all of your federal student loans erased
  • If you’re having trouble keeping your head above water, just calling your lender could cut hundreds of dollars from your monthly tab
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Canada must address growing income inequality: Broadbent Institute - 1 views

www.vancouversun.com/...story.html inequality canada income growing poverty address
shared by lebiez piranaj on 17 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • Canada is moving in the wrong direction and must address its extreme and growing income inequality, according to a new discussion paper from the Broadbent Institute
  • affordable housing, improvements to Employment Insurance, “fair” taxes and a national prescription drug program — is needed to address the problem.
  • “It’s not as if we don’t have the wealth, but it’s the distribution of the wealth that really matters.”
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  • between the mid-1990s and the late 2000s, Canada had the fourth-largest increase in income inequality out of 17 peer countries. Canada was ranked 12th out of those countries, a slip to “below the average.”
  • Most Canadians grew up with the expectations that their son or daughter could be whatever they want to be, whether it’s a hockey player or a brain surgeon … now the reality is, if you want to live the ‘American dream’, you should move to Sweden
  • There is no “single magic bullet,” to achieve greater equality
  • a commitment to equality must come from all levels of government, leadership must come from the feds,
  • The federal government has many of the key levers — especially income security programs, a progressive tax system, and transfers to the province — needed to combat inequality,
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Canada Income Inequality: Governments Effective In Softening Wage Gap, Study Says - 2 views

www.huffingtonpost.ca/...lity-government_n_1918093.html canada income inequality governments wage gap study
shared by lebiez piranaj on 17 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • Researchers at the Ottawa-based Centre for the Study of Living Standards looked at how much taxes and government benefits helped to even things out between the rich and the poor in Canada over the past three decades
  • They found that taxes and spending have persistently dampened inequality, but not enough to stop the increase in inequality over time
  • before-tax income inequality rose 19.4 per cent over three decades
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  • income inequality was 44 per cent less severe than it would have been if governments had not intervened.
  • Transfer payments – such as old-age benefits or family benefits — were responsible for most of this dampening effect, while taxation accounted for about 30 per cent of the reduction
  • Governments were most active in redistribution of income in 1994, they found. If they had kept up that level of redistribution, they would have eliminated half of the rise in inequality over three decades
  • Canada ranks 24th out of 35 countries in terms of equality in the late 2000s
  • Canada was one of the least active countries in terms of using tax or transfer policy to redistribute income, ranking 25th out of 30 countries.
  • lebiez piranaj on 18 Jan 13
     
    This article talks about how the government is doing very good with reducing the inequality with the tax cuts and all but that they could be more aggressive. It's suggesting that we need a new redistribution plan but mainly focuses on what it counts to be the most important thing in getting rid of the debt, the governments role in all this. Asks questions like what if the government had made different decisions. 
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Ontario Income Inequality: Canada's Largest Province Facing Growing Poverty, Cuts To So... - 4 views

www.huffingtonpost.ca/...equality-report_n_1839075.html growing poverty cuts inequality canada income
shared by lebiez piranaj on 17 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • "Ontario's budgets for the last 15 years have repeatedly prioritized tax cuts while casting concomitant cuts to social programs as necessities rather than choices,"
  • there is a growing income gap among Ontarians
  • between 1981 and 2009, Ontario had the country's second highest increase in the poverty rate
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  • the percentage of Ontarians living below the low income measure rising from 9.4 per cent in 1981
  • It blames tax cuts coupled with reductions in social programs for many of the problems it outlines."Ontario's budgets for the last 15 years have repeatedly prioritized tax cuts while casting concomitant cuts to social programs as necessities rather than choices," the report states.
  • lebiez piranaj on 18 Jan 13
     
    There is a widening gap in terms of inequality in Canada and it goes on to say that its being blamed on tax cuts for such inequalities, the article goes on to state that the inequality may be the reason for the province to be facing this growing poverty. 
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Canada's Income Inequality: What Is It, And How Bad? - 1 views

www.huffingtonpost.ca/...lity-by-numbers_n_1545900.html poverty canada income inequality growing
shared by lebiez piranaj on 17 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • income inequality could be “the new global warming.”
  • in the last three decades income for the richest Canadians has increased far faster than it has for the poorest
  • As the income gap widens and rich neighbourhoods become unaffordable for middle- and low-income families, good schools become less accessible
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  • As of 2009, the average Canadian family had an after-tax income of $60,000, an increase of 16 per cent from the Canadian average of $52,000 in 1980
  • the top 10 per cent have pulled ahead of the pack
  • The average income that families in the bottom 20 per cent make from employment has decreased by 60 per cent since 1980, whereas the average earnings in the top 10 per cent has grown by 45 per cent
  • Canada’s Gini was estimated to be 0.32 – a middling value
  • More telling is that in the past decade, Canada’s Gini has risen faster than all but five of the OECD’s 34 countries
  • Wilkinson says that as the income gap widens, problems related to social status increase
  • lebiez piranaj on 17 Jan 13
     
    The article talks about how income inequality is increasing in Canada. It talks about how the rich are getting a bigger income over the years then the poor. 
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For richer, for poorer | The Economist - 1 views

www.economist.com/21564414 gini coefficient disparities inequality income distribution
shared by lebiez piranaj on 16 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • the share of national income going to the richest 1% of Americans has doubled since 1980
  • rise in disparities all along the income distribution
  • best-known way of measuring inequality is the Gini coefficient
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  • global inequality has started to fall even as inequality within many countries has risen
  • inequality rises in the early stages of industrialisation as people leave the land
  • inequality has been on the rise for three decades
  • people at the bottom and even in the middle of the income distribution are falling behind not just in relative but also in absolute terms
  • Too often high-tax welfare states turned out to be inefficient and unsustainable
  • Europe France’s new president, François Hollande, wants a top income-tax rate of 75%
  • The mainstream consensus has long been that a growing economy raises all boats
  • of the tendencies that are harmful to sound economics, the most seductive and…poisonous is to focus on questions of distribution
  • Some societies are more concerned about equality of opportunity
  • The unstable history of Latin America, long the continent with the biggest income gaps, suggests that countries run by entrenched wealthy elites do not do very well
  • America’s presidential election is largely being fought over questions such as whether taxes should rise at the top
  • a big driver of today’s income distributions is government policy
  • a lot of today’s inequality is inefficient
  • reflects market and government failures that also reduce growth
  • it is about attacking cronyism and investing in the young
  • lebiez piranaj on 16 Jan 13
     
    The article talks about how inequality may have decreased worldwide but it is increasing more and more in specific countries, Canada has fairly high inequality and there are propositions to tax the rich or redistribute income using other strategies. 
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Euro crisis opens old wounds for Greece, Germany - 0 views

edition.cnn.com/...index.html austerity measures Euro Greece Germany
shared by lebiez piranaj on 10 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • A country's economy devastated, unemployment endemic and suicides rising -- this is the reality in Greece
  • Greece -- the birthplace of democracy -- is now reliant on eurozone bailouts and subject to political decision-making in Brussels and Berlin.
  • Merkel met with Greek Prime Minister
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  • a Greek pensioner took his own life outside parliament citing austerity measures for his desperation.
    • lebiez piranaj
      lebiez piranaj on 10 Dec 12
       
      austerity measures- when a government reduces it's spending and/or increases its user fees and taxes so that the country can pay back creditors
  • she pledged German support for Greece but made it clear that Greece cannot -- and therefore will not -- yield on its austerity reforms.
  • Greek police were deployed to keep the protests under control.
  • Some demonstrators evoked bitter memories of the brutal Nazi occupation of Greece from 1941 to 1944
  • Spyros Economides, a senior lecturer in international relations and European politics at the London School of Economics, said Greeks are "not very positive at all" in their views toward Germany.
  • it's also younger people who are unemployed and suffering economic dislocation
  • To stay, the Greeks are coming under intense pressure from eurozone peers --- led by Germany -- to implement further austerity measures of 13.5 billion euros [$17.7 billion].
  • the projected cuts could break down into 11.5 billion euros worth of cuts
  • from pensions and wages as well as the sale of state property
  • and the remaining 2 billion euros from additional taxes.
  • Frank Schaeffler, a German member of parliament in the Free Democratic Party, has previously advocated the sale of uninhabited Greek islands to fund creditor repayments.
  • Schaeffler said: "I am afraid Germany has softened its stance on Greece lately ... Samaras himself has said that Greece is willing to sell off its uninhabited islands."
  • Germany is concerned that a Greek exit from the eurozone could lead to a domino effect
  • could lead to a full break-up of the monetary union.
  • lebiez piranaj on 10 Dec 12
     
    Q1: Do you think putting up their uninhabited islands is a good recompensation method in case Greece doesn't pay off their loans and are the Germans indebted to Greece for their misactions during World War 2? Q2: Do you think Greece should be toughening it's austerity measures even though it might mean increasing Greece's current unemployment rate?
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Consumer debt loads grow at fastest pace in 2 years - 3 views

www.cbc.ca/...transunion-debt-credit.html consumer debt fastest pace
shared by lebiez piranaj on 25 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • Canadian debt loads grew at their fastest pace in two years during the summer
  • Credit reporting agency TransUnion's latest quarterly analysis of Canadian credit trends found average consumer non-mortgage debt jumped 4.6 per cent year-over-year in the third quarter to an average of $26,768
  • Measured on a quarterly basis, debt grew 2.1 per cent in the summer from the second quarter of this year.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • debt loads have increased 400 per cent more than the rate of inflation
  • — with inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index up nine per cent and consumer debt jumping more than 37 per cent.
  • A 11 per cent uptick year-over-year in auto loans to an average of $19,228 was the main driver of the growth in overall debt
  • Canadian instalment loan borrower debt grew 2.3 per cent over the third-quarter of last year to an average of $22,849.
  • Borrowing on lines of credit fell 0.2 per cent year-over year, but grew nearly one per cent since the second quarter of the year and sits at an average of $34,050.
  • delinquency levels — those who are late or default on a loan— continue to remain low across all categories.
  • the number of Canadians missing or defaulting on loan payments fell to pre-recession levels
  • household market debt has risen to 163 per cent of disposable income.
  • "We're moving into the Christmas season so I anticipate we might see another high increase year-over-year when we get to the Q4 numbers
  • lebiez piranaj on 26 Nov 12
     
    1. Despite receiving warnings about Canadian debt issues , it turns out that the average credit card debt has actually decreased by one percent while the year-over-year auto loans are now the main driving force behind the overall growth of our debt, why do you think this is happening? 2. Thomas Higgins, TransUnion's vice-president of analytics and decision services said that he believes the reason why consumers continue to ramp up debt is due to the media spreading overly positive news regarding the economy and throwing the readers into a state false optimism. Do you believe this is the case and why?
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