Is it an equalization plan? Is it an income support plan? It sure ain’t an insurance plan – but the Employement Insurance plan is what we got.
Here’s Western University economist Mike Moffatt followed up by former Human Resources Minister Monte Solberg talking about the changes the federal government announced today on EI.
Continue reading Employment insurance: Moffatt on the policy; Solberg on the politics
Two news items. Draw your own conclusions. From the New York Times:
Eduardo Saverin, one of the founders of Facebook, officially defriended the United States in September, giving up his American citizenship for the more tax-friendly residency status of Singapore.
Mr. Saverin, who was born in Brazil and has lived in Singapore since 2010, plans to remain in the Asian island nation indefinitely. Singapore has a maximum personal income tax rate of 20 percent and no taxes on capital gains Continue reading Facebook founder 'defriends' U.S. over taxes. Something for M. Hollande to take note of?
Mike Moffatt, an economist and assistant professor at Western University in London, Ont., and I assess NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair’s claim that Canadian resource development, particularly in the oilsands, have given Canada’s economy “Dutch Disease”:
Two national institutions, the Bank of Canada and the newsmagazine Maclean’s, are out with new publications today with starkly different conclusions about the real estate market and household debt in this country. As it’s still relatively early, I have yet to read either but look forward to doing so. In the meantime, we’ll let BMO Capital Markets deputy chief economist Douglas Porter officiate on the substantive issue at hand: Housing crisis or no? Here’s his thoughts from his morning comment (with his emphasis but my hyperlinks): Continue reading Housing bubble crisis? Maclean's vs. The Bank of Canada
A couple of years ago, Chrysler and General Motors needed billions in taxpayer-funded bailouts from both Canada and the U.S. to survive. Looks like the investment paid off. Chrysler, GM and Ford all posted profits for 2011 — the first time that’s happened in a while — and GM, in particular, posted an all-time record profit. Its 43,000 blue-collar workers in the U.S. will each get a $7,000 profit-sharing check this spring. Continue reading I guess the bailouts worked: GM posts record profit
Abacus Data went into the field to sound out Canadians about some of the choices the government is facing with this spring’s federal budget. Tonight on the Daily Brief, Abacus CEO David Coletto gave us the numbers on what he found. Turns out, Canadians want the government to fight the deficit. But we’re not unanimous about how to go about that. You can bet the government itself is in the field with focus groups and polls testing out their ideas on the same issue. Continue reading Poll: Should government cut the civil service? Are you prepared to do without?
I’ve travelled to a lot of spots around the world covering Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s international travels and I cannot recall him ever generating the kind of positive press he’s getting in this morning’s China Daily, the English-language state-run daily newspaper here. Continue reading Free trade and a praying PM: Canada is front page news in China
In Davos, Switzerland last week, Prime Minister Stephen Harper had this short bit in a much longer speech that touched on many topics:
“We have already taken steps to limit the growth of our health care spending over that period. We must do the same for our retirement income system. Fortunately, the centerpiece of that system, the Canada Pension Plan, is fully funded, actuarially sound and does not need to be changed. For those elements of the system that are not funded, we will make the changes necessary to ensure sustainability for the next generation while not affecting current recipients.”
That set off a firestorm of political debate back in Canada that continued all week. Yesterday, Continue reading Solberg: "Bit of Keystone Kops" politics from Harper on OAS changes
At a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum:
The European Central Bank continued to draw praise for providing emergency cash to banks and avoiding a credit squeeze.
“There is not going to be a Lehman-style moment in Europe,” said Mark J. Carney, governor of the Canadian central bank, referring to the collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers in 2008, which helped set in motion the financial crisis. But he added, “That is different than having a well, fully functioning banking system.”
via In Davos, Europe Is Pressed for Debt Crisis Solution – NYTimes.com.
