Friday Free for All!
It’s the end of the week again, but this week is a little different with a focus on some of the more bullish developments this past week. Here are a few stories:
- B.C. businesses slightly more optimistic: CFIB survey
- Olympic ticket sales put 2010 Games in ‘positive cash position’
- U.S. home sales climb at fastest pace in last 10 months
- U.S. bank bailout plan ignites stocks surge on Wall Street
- Entertainment software delivers $1.7b boost to Canadian economy
- Richmond-based Kin’s Farm Market to expand
- Immigration boosts population growth: StatsCan
So what are you seeing out there? Post your thoughts, anecdotes and economic news here and have an excellent weekend!
-Dave
note: any conversation on Vancouver, real estate or economics is allowed, please keep it civilized. When posting articles please only quote pertinent points and link to the original instead of pasting the entire article here. Pasting a link into your comment will automatically create a clickable hot-link. Linking to more than one external link within a single comment may cause your submission to get held up in the spam filter.
March 31st, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Value Finder:
Loved reading your experience and seeing how much it matched up with mine. By the way, just finished moving this weekend. Absolutely love living in a ++$1 million dollar condo for a pittance. I have hard-wired ethernet in every room, geothermal heating, a main ensuite that feels like I'm staying at a 5-star Westin, the best kitchen I've EVER seen outside of a restaurant, and a view to kill for.
patriotz, thanks for the note about foreclosures and tenant rights in BC being different than the US. That's the last lingering concern I had about renting this specific overpriced unit.
March 30th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
We have the lowest standard of living of any developed nation.
We have lower wages than any developed nation
We have higher personal ( direct and indirect taxes now over 70%) taxes than any developed nation.
We have high inflation ( forget about the CPI crap issued by the gov) on everything not related to hedonics.
Our Dollar is always in the crapper good times or bad.
Tourists go to Germany, France, Britian etc etc with high labour costs etc, why do we have to discount our buck to -50% to attract people to Canada.
They make movies around the world why do we have to sell our services for 1/2 off or companies won't do buisness here?
The list is a long one questioning why the CDN Peso is the lame duck of the western economies.
We have always had lower interest rates set by the BOC even if it's only marginal at times and that is what keeps bond investors away from Canada versus US investments. The rates are set low to keep hot money out of Canada hence the claim that CDN inflation is lower, it's manipulated lower on the books but it's raging on Main Street.
March 30th, 2009 at 1:19 am
depressionwatch:
If the government were intentionally holding down the CAD we would see inflation, or more precisely higher inflation than our trading partners, as a result. This is exactly what has happened in China as a result of their artificially low currency peg against the USD. Loose monetary policy in the US resulted in rampaging inflation in China. The fact is that for decades consumer price inflation in Canada has been about the same as the US and we have seen lower asset price inflation than the US, i.e. a smaller housing bubble (I will remind everyone one more time that BC is not representative of the rest of Canada).
A related point is that China and Japan, and other exporters to the US, have been intervening to keep the USD high against their own currencies. They have no interest in supporting the CAD because we are a commodity exporter. This results in a higher USD against the CAD than would otherwise be the case, but the Canadian government has nothing to do with it.
The fact that Canada has not seen higher inflation than its trading partners is evidence that the CAD is not being held artificially low. Comparing interest rates in Canada to the US and other trading partners is an indication that the bond market does not believe this either.
March 30th, 2009 at 12:24 am
patriotz:
#151 patriotz , you see I don't believe for a minute that the 'market ' keeps the CDN buck down. Whenever the CDN dollar shows any strength the CDN government starts selling it down with overnight trades in USD that suckerpunch both currency and interest rates that keep the dollar from rising.
The rising oil price was what kept the CDN government from thier old game. They didn't have enough cash to bet against the rising price of oil and that subsequently forced them to intervene less often with outright sales and threats of lower rates. It's all a scam to keep the CDN dollar in the toilet to export cheap on the backs of Canadian buisnesses for the benefit of a few lazy Easterners.
The sick CDN buck keeps buisnesses from growing thier productivity through technology and equipment upgrades which in turn would create far more and far better paying jobs instead of Canada being a stable full of dumb mules sold cheap and easily accessible to immigrants whose own currencies are tied to the Euro , Pound or USD. Everyone benefits from the sick buck except Canadians.
March 29th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Patiently Waiting:
So I can see why the politicians keep the dollar down.
The politicians aren't keeping the dollar down, the market is. It's pretty much all about oil. Oil price drops over 60%, the CAD drops 30% against the USD.
We should be thankful. High oil prices, and the resulting high CAD, benefit only Alberta and Saskatchewan. The rest of the country gets hurt both by high energy costs and the high CAD which hurts exports.
Well of course the recreational property market in BC gets hurt by low oil prices (less Alberta fun money), but I prefer a real economy to building houses and flipping burgers for rich outsiders.