Tag: United States

NYT reports: U.S. Tracked Foreigners Leaving for Canada

Interesting …

The pilot project with Canada, conducted from September to January, involved about a third of the traffic across the northern American border, tracking the departure of 413,222 foreigners from the United States. Starting this year, according to Congressional officials who have been briefed on the plan, the information collected at the Canadian border will be used to prevent certain foreigners who have stayed too long in the United States from returning again by revoking tourist visas or taking other steps.The effort relies on an ingenious solution: as foreigners leave the United States to enter Canada — and their passports are checked by the border authorities there — the information is sent back to the United States and recorded as the official “exit” record. By the end of next month, the project is scheduled to be expanded to almost all land border traffic between Canada and the United States.

via U.S. Tracked Foreigners Leaving for Canada – NYTimes.com.

Reaction to resolution of U.S. fiscal cliff drama

Late last night, the U.S. Congressed the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. Read more about that here.

Here’s a comment on that Act this morning from BMO Capital Markets economist Michael Gregory (my emphasis):

“The bottom line is that taxes will be going up for most Americans, ranging from a 2 percentage point increase in payroll taxes for all employees, to higher tax rates on ordinary income, capital gains and dividends for those making above $400k …[There are] more fiscal battles on the horizon. For now, however, we can relish in the fact that the fiscal cliff was averted, political compromise was achieved (yes, 85 of 236 House Republicans voted in favour), and America’s finances are starting to move to a firmer footing.”

Here’s Scotiabank’s Derek Holt and Dov Zigler in their morning note on yesterday’s theatrics in Washington: Continue reading Reaction to resolution of U.S. fiscal cliff drama

US Congressional Research Office on Canada and the TPP

Chris Sands of the Washington-based Hudson Institute brings my attention to a recent publication from the Congressional Research Service, the U.S. Congress rough equivalent to Canada’s Library of Parliament, published on May 30 which provides Congress with a comparative trade and economic analysis between the U.S. and those countries in and about to be part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks. Canada announced it would seek to join the TPP talk at the G20 in Mexico a week ago.
Here’s one of the notable paragraphs I took from that study. I have bolded what I thought to be the most interesting line: Continue reading US Congressional Research Office on Canada and the TPP