Tuesday’s Econ 101 Post: high drama, all over the place! Who knew economics could be this exciting?
Jan 22nd, 2008 by nancyzimmerman
If it’s not one thing, it’s another.
1. Our loonies caught fire, literally, at the Canadian Mint.
2. The Bank of Canada lowered its rate to 4%. Hallelujah, my mtg loc went down again :0.
But here’s the blood-curdling part. Royal Bank made murmers that they might not lower their rate (banks don’t have to, but they do, to compete with one another). Why should that make your hair stand on end? Because the Bank of Canada moves its rate to ensure our economy stays on track. Banks lower their rates to be competitive so they can make their global shareholders high profits. If all the banks colluded to keep their rates high, they would essentially be controlling our economy.
ps: I like to think that Citizens Bank (for whom I work parttime, and owned by a credit union) would have been Canadian and Citizenship oriented enough that we would lower ours… and everyone would leave the BigBanks to do business with us instead.
3. A physician at St. Paul’s (Vancouver) Hospital describes his fight to save a homeless man’s life, and pleads for housing – stating this death should be explicitly listed as ‘death by homelessness’.
4. And just when I was tempted to believe the sky was falling, ie., recessssssssion, it turns out it’s not:
