Year: 2015
For the first time in nine years, the U.S. Federal Reserve hiked their key policy rate–the overnight federal funds rate–by one-quarter percentage point (25 basis points) to a range of 1/4 to 1/2 percent. The policy-making Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) said that the stance of monetary policy remains accommodative, thereby supporting further improvement in…
Unfortunately, Statistics Canada had more bad news for us this morning–a weak November jobs report and a big decline in trade for October–both of which portend a marked slowdown in growth in the final quarter of this year. At the same time, the U.S. released a strong enough November employment report to assure that the…
December 4, 2015
Category: Articles
Government Should Not Tamper With Foreign Home Ownership In Canada
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) yesterday released the results of its 2015 Survey of Foreign Ownership of Condos in Canada and the numbers were lower than previous surveys and anecdotal evidence have suggested. While this is the most comprehensive study to date, accurate numbers on foreign ownership are inherently illusive. Many foreign condo…
The Bank of Canada kept the key overnight interest rate unchanged at 0.5 percent as expected, as the Federal Reserve is poised to hike rates for the first time in nearly 10 years. The Bank’s decision did not, however, reflect complacency with the state of the Canadian economy, but rather a hand-off to the much…
As politically popular as it is to spew “soak-the-rich” rhetoric during an election campaign, the reality is that it is a very inefficient way to raise revenues or to address income inequality. Indeed, it will actually shrink the economic pie. It provides a disincentive to entrepreneurial spirit and work effort and it will make it…
Finance Minister Bill Morneau said today that Canada’s budget is deeper in the red than we were told in the 2015 budget as the economy’s performance has disappointed. He also revised down the government’s outlook for the economy over the next year. According to the Minister, the federal books are short roughly $3 billion in…
November 12, 2015
Category: Media Reporting on Sherry
Starbucks Canada targets youth unemployment with program to hire at-risk young people
“There’s a crisis on youth unemployment and there’s a crisis on the hope that you can achieve, that you can get started,” Luisa Girotto, Starbucks Canada’s vice president of public affairs, said. “It’s not enough to say we’ll hire five, we’ll hire ten. It’s not about making a little dent.” Canada’s national youth unemployment rate was 13.5…
The jobs numbers released today for October exceeded expectations in both the U.S. and Canada. This was a particularly important report for the U.S., because it all but insures that the Federal Reserve will hike rates for the first time in a decade when they next meet on December 16. Interest rates in both Canada…
With the Alberta economy hitting the skids, the Notley government faced conflicting goals–diversifying away from the hard-hit oil sector, stimulating the economy and putting the province back on a path to a balanced budget. In June, the government introduced legislation to increase spending for health care, education and social services. It increased the provincial income…