A letter appears in today’s Globe and Mail in response to recent direction given by Minister Flaherty to private mortgage lenders over mortgage rates. The letter was written by Steve Pomeroy, one of Canada’s leading housing policy experts. Here is the full text of the letter: – Glass-house mortgages Twice
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Politics and its Discontents: Patterns
Hmm… do I detect a pattern emerging here and here and maybe here? Just wondering. Recommend this Post
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Canada Loses Billions in Revenue to Tax Havens
By Canadians for Tax Fairness | Feb. 18, 2013: The growing use of tax havens is costing Canadians an estimated $7.8 billion annually, the executive director of Canadians for Tax Fairness has told a Parliamentary committee studying the issue. “Tax haven use is at an all-time high in Canada,” C4TF’s Dennis
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Oh Canada – Our Bought And Sold Out Land (VIDEO)
Via YouTube: Dan Mathews has done us all a favor, with his educational documentary, as he reveals common misconception in how we deal with banks. Watch and laugh as Dan catches our politicians off guard with some simple questions. These questions are simple, but you’d be surprised who actually has
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Go Back To Sleep America, At Your Own Peril
I never reprint other people’s writings, no matter how good – but I will make an exception for this. This article is a true must-read. Please, take the time to read it. Then act. Good morning America. It’s time for a new day. Kudos and warm thanks to Jill Dalton
Continue readingCanadian Progressive: Grieving Father Struggles to Pay Dead Son’s Student Loans
Article by Marian Wang | ProPublica, June 14, 2012, 10:05 a.m. A few months after he buried his son, Francisco Reynoso began getting notices in the mail. Then the debt collectors came calling. “They would say, ‘We don’t care what happened with your son, you have to pay us,’” recalled Reynoso, a
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Dave Coles writes that the Harper Cons are using their power to protect the privacy of international arms dealers, while at the same time demanding stringent reporting requirements for labour unions and their members: Labour unions are among the few institutions that
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your weekend. – In keeping with the theme of my column this week, the Mound of Sound highlights the distinction between a “plutonomy” which serves as the source of easy profits, and a “precariat” which businesses are looking to treat as irrelevant (except when they need
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Lori Wallach discusses the corporate coup underlying the Trans-Pacific Partnership which the Cons are so eager to force on Canada: (T)rade is the least of it. Only two of TPP’s 26 chapters actually have to do with trade. The rest is about new
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Canada: Land of Mines and Banks
Just in time for Canada Day, the Globe and Mail’s Report on Business issued its annual Top 1000 rankings of the thousand largest publicly traded companies (by assets) in Canada (ranked by profit). I blogged about this last year as well. It’s such an interesting snapshot of Canadian business it’s worth
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: US family net worth crushed by financial crisis
The US Federal Reserve today released its triennial examination of incomes and net worth of American households in the Survey of Consumer Finances. It shows the crushing effects on net worth of a housing and financial bust unparalleled since the great depression. The shocking results of this study overviewed in
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Complete details of 2008-09 Bank Support
Readers of this blog will have hopefully read my report “The big banks big secret” which examines the $114 billion that Canada’s banks received during the 2008-09 financial crisis. Its major finding was that at some point three of Canada’s five big banks had received support worth more than their market capitalization,
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: To start a real revolution, learn from Iceland first
The people of Iceland forced their corrupt government to resign. They created a public assembly to rewrite the constitution. The banks were nationalized. The people decided not to pay the debt that private banks created. It was a revolution, a … Continue reading →
Continue readingCuriosityCat: The London Whale: The Massive Gambles our Regulators and Banks are taking and why You will pay
We have all heard of the London Whale and his role in betting $100 billion (that’s $100,000,000,000)on derivatives and losing several billion for the proud and now humbled JPMorgan. And there’s one article you just have to read to understand why this can happen, has happened, and will happen, and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Andrew Coyne is rightly alarmed at the Cons’ move to short-circuit any debate about major policy changes through an omnibus budget bill. And Bea Vongdoaungchanh reports that the biggest of those changes is to set our environmental laws back by half a
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: The Big Banks’ Big Secret
The CCPA today released my report: “The Big Banks Big Secret” which provides the first public estimates of the emergency funds taken by Canadian banks. The report bases its estimates on publicly available data from CMHC, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, US Federal Reserve, the Bank of
Continue readingPolitics and Entertainment: James K. Galbraith: Inequality and Instability
More at The Real News More at The Real News More at The Real News More at The Real News
Continue readingThe extremely illogical logic behind your credit rating and debt repayment
This is what I find excruciatingly bizarre about the way banks conduct their business on loans, credit cards, personal lines of credit and other lending vehicles: That you may have paid back your entire loan to them, but because you haven’t made the payments on time your credit rating suffers. Although
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: A Bank for the Taxpayer’s Buck?
Hi all, I interrupt your regular blog viewing to bring you one of my infrequent posts, this time by a guest contributor — Alan Milner — who for reasons of job security, must remain anonymous. With no further ado: ******************************************************************* A Bank for the Taxpayer’s Buck? The Canadian tax system
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: BMO Professor vs. Bank Regulation
Last week, the C. D. Howe Institute was out with an op-ed contending that Canadian household debt is not worth worrying too much about: “There does not seem to be a strong case for restrictive regulation of consumer credit products, such as tight caps on interest rates.” The C. D.
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