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Banks begin rising
mortgage rates
TORONTO - Three
of Canada's big banks have surprised homeowners by suddenly raising
their mortgage rates. (CTV) REPORT:
Enhancing affordable housing in Canada
20% struggle with mortgages
Governments should stay out of affordable housing projects
BC HST home pricing
What saved Canada's banking system?
Pension aid $100M to $200M
OTTAWA - The Liberal government's move to top up Nortel
pensions could cost taxpayers $100M to $200M, (Toronto Star) PREVIOUS:
Nortel pension bailout
Ontario to bailout Nortel pensioners
Personal
pension pot drops 60%
Tax revolt
VANCOUVER - When a water pipe bursts these days in a BC
pulp and paper town, residents better dig out their rain boots. Water
and sewer services have been slashed, major infrastructure projects have
come to a halt and court battles are underway in several communities
where pulp and paper companies are refusing to pay millions of dollars
in taxes. (CP) MORE:
Catalyst must pay
Drug money saved banks
VIENNA
- Drugs money worth billions of dollars kept the financial system afloat
at the height of the global crisis, the UN's drugs and crime tsar has
told the Observer. (Guardian
UK)
British tax havens need bailouts
LONDON - Britain
could be forced to bail out one or more of its offshore tax havens at
huge cost, according to early drafts of a Treasury report, because the
economic crisis has wrecked their finances. (Guardian UK) PREVIOUS:
Bankruptcy threat to the Cayman Islands
If
it exists, it can be taxed
Behold the taxman
cometh. Even as taxpayers are struggling to make ends meet in a
crumbling, tumbling economy, your friendly neighborhood (and state and
federal) government is having a hard time making do with the meager
trillions you're throwing its way, so it's relying on an old maxim: If
it exists, it can be taxed. (Fox)
Toxic debt as a business model
Teck Cominco
Ltd., the metals producer that assumed US$9.8B in debt to buy a coal
company last year, was cut to junk by Standard & Poor's because low
metal prices will make it harder to fund or refinance the
debt. (Financial Post) MORE:
Media missed overvalued stock bubble
Job losses prompt
exodus
GUANGZHOU
- Tens of thousands of migrant workers are leaving the southern
Chinese city of Guangzhou after losing their jobs, railway officials
say. (BBC)
Official statistics hide potential for unrest
Building boom becomes a bust
Regulators have been good for us
WASHINGTON - In the midst of this late-September
drama, the Treasury Department issued a five-sentence notice that
attracted almost no public attention. But corporate tax lawyers
quickly realized the enormous implications of the document:
Administration officials had just given American banks a windfall of as
much as $140 billion. (Washington Post)
Black hole in bailout
MUNICH - Prosecutors
in Germany are investigating accusations of insider trading at
Hypo Real Estate,
the Munich-based mortgage lender that has received billions of euros in
government bailouts as a result of risky investments in US subprime
loans. (Spiegel) MORE:
The bottomless pit
Investment advice for dummies
TORONTO - Say hello to
Michael Bryant. He's a lawyer who is
currently Ontario's economic development minister. This week he told
the Canadian Club of Toronto that governments need to decide which
businesses will succeed and which will fail and invest taxpayers' money
- he's starting with $2B in Ontario - in the successful ones. (Sun
Media) MORE:
Ontario Inc. a losing entity
'Government as entrepreneur'
Politicians getting more involved in business
Bossnappers release hostages
PARIS -
French workers released four
managers held hostage for 24 hours at a Caterpillar bulldozer plant,
after the US firm offered to reopen talks on layoffs under French state
mediation. (AFP) MORE:
Another 'bossnapping'
Union
release boss
'Bossnapping'
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British law firm cleared way for cover-up
LONDON -
Linklaters,
one of Britain’s leading law firms, approved controversial accounting
practices that allowed
Lehman Brothers
to shift billions of dollars of debt off its balance
sheet and mask the perilous state of the bank’s finances before its
catastrophic collapse in 2008. (Times online)
REPORT:
Lehman Brothers Chapter 11 proceedings examiner's report
Fraud lawsuit
NEW YORK -
The New York attorney general accused
Bank of America
Corp
and its former chief executive,
Ken Lewis,
of deceiving shareholders and manipulating US officials during the
company’s $50B purchase of
Merrill Lynch. (Boston Globe)
Red tape headache
OTTAWA - A new report from the Canadian Federation of
Independent Business found Canada's SMEs spend $30.5B a year to comply
with government regulations, slightly lower than the $30.9B spent in
2005. (Financial Post) REPORT:
Small business owners seeing red
President unveils $3.83T spending
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama unveiled a multitrillion-dollar
spending plan pledging an intensified effort to combat high
unemployment and asking Congress to quickly approve new job-creation
efforts that would boost the deficit to a record-breaking $1.56T.
(CBS)
REPORT:
Budget of the US 2011 .pdf
'T' is for taxes
We're largely familiar with Generation X and Generation
Y. But perhaps it is time to brace for the emergence of another
generation in the US - Generation T, where T stands for tax. (Financial
Post) MORE:
'D' is for death
Don't forget who saved your bacon
MONTREAL -
Governments won't allow the world's bankers to return to their
irresponsible ways, Bank of Canada governor
Mark Carney
warned, adding
financiers had better get ready for major changes to the way they do
business.
(CTV) MORE:
Mend your ways
Fed hits banks
US clamps down on Wall Street pay
Loopholes
20% of Large Canadian Companies present serious risk
Criminal probe
NEW YORK - Federal
prosecutors are conducting a criminal investigation into whether
Goldman Sachs
or its employees committed securities fraud in connection with its
mortgage trading, people familiar with the probe say. (Wall Street
Journal) PREVIOUS: 'Serious
money' to be made
SEC accuses Goldman Sachs of fraud
Carmaker gets Goldman cash
Geely Automobile
Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs gets $3B bailout
Union cuts back pensions
LONDON -
One
of Britain’s biggest unions - which has campaigned fiercely against
government cutbacks to public sector pensions - is to cut back its
scheme for its own staff.
Unison, which represents 1.3M local
government and NHS workers, can no longer afford its final-salary scheme
for employees and has set out initial proposals to cut costs. (Times
online)
Canadian nobody
wanted to hear
William R. White predicted the approaching
financial crisis years before 2007's subprime meltdown. But central
bankers preferred to listen to his great rival Alan Greenspan instead,
with devastating consequences for the global economy. (Spiegel) RELATED:
G8 leaders cite 'significant risks' to global economy
Canadian deficit predicted to hit $156B over next 5 years
Getting real part 5
As the worst global
recession since the Second World War grinds on workers are facing pay
cuts, unpaid leave and layoffs. Labour strife has swelled. The wealth
hit from battered investment portfolios and falling home prices is
forcing consumers to adjust their expectations, too. (Financial Post)
PREVIOUS:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Household wealth dropped $72B
OTTAWA - Statistics
Canada says
Household net worth declined by $72B,
or 1.3%, in the first quarter as falling real estate values and stock
market woes continued to erode assets. But the agency says the rate of
decline has slowed from the last two quarters of 2008, in which
cumulative losses totalled $438B. (CP) MORE:
Number of EI recipients up 2.7% in April
Job hunters ‘dumbing down’ resumes
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