Bank of Canada to Trudeau: now it's over to you, dude
There never was any drama expected Wednesday morning. The nation’s central bankers, ferried around Ottawa in their dark cars, have no intention of lowering interest rates. Not now. Not ever if they can help it.
So the Bank of Canada level stays at one half of one percent. Chartered bank primes are stuck at 2.7% and five-year mortgages are a tad under three – but with an upward bent once the spring housing market abates. All that talk about negative interest rates for the country is just that. Wind. Won’t happen. Even those waiting for Armageddon will be bitterly disappointed. No locusts. Nor squirrel stew.
In recent weeks a lot has changed. The dollar rebounded to 75 cents and oil – still volatile – has surged. (WTI touched $38 on Wednesday – a monumental advance of 30% in less than a month.) Suddenly Bay Street’s not so slippery with gore. The TSX is a star performer, positive for 2016 while US markets still struggle in the red. The snap-back this blog talked about in January, as commodity prices tested 20-year lows, is here. At least for now. But it’s looking more and more like most heartache’s in the rear view.
Did I mention exports have increased, despite the oil disaster? Plus America (despite Trump) is on a roll. The latest jobs numbers killed it, and the Fed will be increasing its rate once or twice (so markets think) in 2016. Inflation’s back, which means deflation isn’t. And the global economy is, like me, tepid but compelling. Besides, it’s spring. Bunnies. Ponies. Asparagus. Less Adele. So much to rejoice.
Mostly, though, the Bank of Canada has Trudeau. The banker dudes are so happy to be laying it all at the feet of the coming budget and the ocean of red ink our hot PM is about to unveil. The latest consensus estimates are for a deficit of between $18 billion and $22 billion this year – despite the new soak-the-rich tax, neutering of TFSAs and the expected anti-corp Doctor Tax to be unveiled on March 22nd.
When government purposefully spends more money than it takes in it’s called ‘fiscal stimulus’. This is different from the engineering down of interest rates (by the central bank). That’s ‘monetary stimulus.’ As of the end of this month, we’ll have both. Doesn’t happen often, and results this time from weak business investment in Canada and mountains of accumulating household debt. Those are the things Ottawa sweats over.
When I was interviewed by the 30-something rebel, Jesse Brown, who runs that infamous Canadaland site on Wednesday he said, “So what? Why should anybody care about how much government spends when it accomplishes good stuff like building bridges and putting people to work?”
Lots of T2 supporters think this way. They like tax-and-spend politicians as much as they abhorred Harper-style neocon austerity. So when the March budget happens, all that spending will be applauded – by the unions, the CBC (big budget boost coming there), aboriginal groups, environmentalists, and a rainbow of special interest groups. It’ll also play to Liberal supporters, and the young. There are a ton of people who don’t recognize that today’s deficits are tomorrow’s taxes.
As the comment section here so richly evidences, they also like taxes. They wish this was Norway, with its 50% average income tax, 25% GST and corporate levies ranging as high as 78%. By the way, the basic guaranteed public pension in Norway (available at age 67) is 88,730 krone, or about $14,000 Canadian. Maybe this is why you’ve never seen a retired Norwegian tourist in Canada…
While we’re on the topic, Norway taxes capital gains like all other income. And there’s a wealth tax, too. So if you have a net worth of $250,000 or more (in CAD), there’s an annual payment equal to .85% of it. Oh yeah, and your taxes are posted online, for your employees or ex-wife to ogle.
It’s worth mentioning this because once government – supported by a pliant or naïve public – starts moving down the tax-and-spend, cradle-to-grave path of ‘progressive’ change, it’s hard to stop. Taxing success (our new upper bracket), making it harder to save (the TFSA cut), discouraging investing (upping capital gains taxes) or whacking risk-taking entrepreneurs (new regs for corps) suggest we’re already on this journey. Running fat deficits so government can bloat does the same.
Promising everything to everyone is easy. But math is still hard. Careful what you wish for.
220 comments ↓
DJ Phantom
GREAT drone.
Garth Rocks.
I wish for more Norwegian women.
Oh Garth, you do make me giggle.
“And the global economy is, like me, tepid but compelling. Besides, it’s spring. Bunnies. Ponies. Asparagus. Less Adele. So much to rejoice.”
In Ontario the teachers are already talking strike again next year. Their new contract hasn’t even been written, yet they’re already against it. They’ll get what they demand though; after all, they’re the ones who form the minds of the young voters. As we can see, the return on that investment has already paid off.
Of course the bought-and-paid-for CBC will get their kickback in the budget. Are they still banging on about Duffy’s paid-back-$90k on a daily basis?
#2 pathcontrolmonnk on 03.09.16 at 5:17 pm
Careful of what you wish for, you wouldn’t want a strong and independent woman telling you what to do with your life, or listing off reasons why you shouldn’t hang out with your boys.
I lived in Norway for 1 year, Sweden for 7 now. It really isn’t all that terrible Garth. Ya I cringe at the marginal 57% I am paying, and an average tax of 48% is a kick in the groin, but there are some serious benefits, like paid tuition, help for the disabled and their families, and a strong social safety net for those down on their luck. I find value from that extra 5-8% we pay in tax compared to my home in Ontario. Not saying it’s possible to mirror this in Canada, but having lived and worked on both continents, there are aspects that make living here a happier existence.
I miss H and F.
Actually, more F than H.
I thought the demise of H would be an impossible thing to lament. Yet, I’m almost managing it.
Harpercon austerity?!?…………NOT!
We don’t forget that easy.
Tell me again about the austerity of Harper. Increased the Debt by $ 300. Billion in less than 10 years. I am more concerned about how close to estimate the Government is. Will their actual spending and deficit be close to what they predict. The Harper and Mulroney Conservatives always came up with a ‘valid’ reason why their unplanned deficit materialized.
I would much prefer a Tax and Spend Government than a just Spend Government.
http://allthecanadianpolitics.tumblr.com/post/123727678142/national-debt-by-canadian-prime-minister
Harper added $170 billion of new debt, not $300 billion. Most of it was during and immediately after the credit crisis. — Garth
Two days ago one share of BRK/A finally settled in my account. Will continue to accumulate at least 1-2 shares per year. And I plan on keeping this highly diversified portfolio for the next seventy years.
Well the economy needed juice some how, I’m glad they’re pulling the fiscal gun because the monetary one was shooting blanks.
“Today’s deficits are tomorrow’s taxes.”
Similarly, all of the bubble-blowing stimulus that has been thrown at Canada’s housing market since 2000 (lax lending standards and record low rates) will result in tough economic times for Canadians as Canada’s enormous housing bubble dedlates.
Economies always go through years of difficult resetting as housing prices inevitably go through a deep decline (which often takes prices back to pre-boom levels or lower).
Think Japan, the US, Ireland, Iceland, Greece, etc., as some examples.
Years of artificially inflated housing prices due to a massive debt boom brought on by bubble-blowing policy simply doesn’t fix a weak economy. There is no successful example of this in any country.
Canada’s 16 year debt boom has done nothing to fix the economy. All it really has done is produce what is, perhaps, the biggest housing bubble the world has seen.
There is no easy way out of this for Canada.
Once Canada’s housing bubble is in deflation mode all of the economic problems that have been hidden by rising house prices will become evident. Many families with too much house debt will be forced to deal with the economic devastation that comes with making bad money decisions.
Just like Americans, Canadians will learn that taking on a mortgage comes with risk, that mortgages aren’t good debt and that all debt must be repaid.
It simply isn’t different in debt-bloated Canada.
#It’sBetterInNorway!… #JustAskFrank”TheFixer”Tagliano… #MPAA:R[Language&Norwegian’Stimulators’]
https://youtu.be/W4B3gAkb1fg
I still say, Garth needs a remedial class; for the people who believe, you can tax and spend your way to prosperity:)
It’s odd that you pick norway as some kind of something we should not be. Life is not about how much money you have or how much cheap crap from china you can afford but how happy you are. People from Norway are, on average, much happier with their lives than Canadians. If there is a causal link between higher taxes and life satisfaction (which i think is likely over simplistic) then Bring it on.
References:
http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/countries/canada/
http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/countries/norway/
Norway, 7.4. Canada, 7.3. And you want a 25% GST for that amount of extra happiness? — Garth
GDP per capita must be crushed by all those high Norwegian taxes.
Or…maybe it’s higher than both Canada and the USA?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita
Is it any surprise that people want to buy a home when the bank is actually paying them to borrow money?
Here’s a recent example of curious bank behaviour for blog dog consideration. While I understand that the rates mentioned below are promotional in nature, here’s a “major” financial institution offering 2-year mortgages at 2.24% and at the same time giving out 2.5% rates on deposits.
I’m no financial expert, but it seems to me that the spread on rates is supposed to go the other way. The elfin deity (RIP) is going to burn a hole through his coffin with the RPMs he must be doing spinning in his grave.
This will not end well…
M51MB
I’ve decided to take on my old crusty curmudgeon persona on a couple decades early.
1) People voted for more government. They want higher taxes, better government supported pensions, and guaranteed fiscal equity. Without recognizing it limits opportunity.
2) Those same people turn their noses up at: economic impact studies, decades of scientific research (ie modern medicine), believe whole heartedly in “banksters” “Ponzi schemes” etc, and feel just owning a house would make it all feel ok.
Sometimes you get what you deserve. It just sucks that fools get to bring down other people with them.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/raymond-toddler-death-trial-stephan-1.3481958
A sad example of fools who know better. And are self entitled enough to act with their own uninformed misguided assumptions.
“Harper added $170 billion of new debt, not $300 billion. Most of it was during and immediately after the credit crisis. — Garth”
You both are wrong. The Harper debt added total was approximately $263B.
http://www.bankofcanada.ca/markets/government-securities-auctions/goc-t-bills-and-bonds-outstanding/
October 2005 = $382B
October 2015 = $645B
Difference = $263B
Incorrect. The debt to which I referred was the accumulated deficits during the eight years of Conservative rule. Outstanding debt includes interest, over which policymakers have no sway. — Garth
Well, BC is already a banana republic, why not share the stupidity? I fear we are already at the beginning of the end–a generation raised by the have-it-all parents now feel like government is their parent. Luckily Canadians were smart enough to elect someone with a different perspective, someone who never had anything handed to him…
#Oh,TheIrony… #TheUtmostIrony… #Or,”ParadiseLost”?…
[VancouverSun] – BC NDP sells headquarters to foreign buyer: Burnaby building fetches $2.15 million
VICTORIA — The B.C. NDP, which has spent months attacking the government over the issue of foreign ownership in Metro Vancouver’s real estate market, sold its party headquarters last year to what appears to be foreign investors.
Land title records show the NDP’s former two-storey headquarters building at 5367 Kingsway in Burnaby sold for $2.15 million on April 15, 2015, to a company called Utmost Enterprises Ltd.
Utmost Enterprises, which was incorporated just two months before the purchase, lists a registered office at 120-3751 Shell Road in Richmond, which happens to be the same address as an accounting firm whose website says it specializes in “non-resident taxation” practice.
The accounting firm, Lam Tam Lau & Co., would not take questions from The Vancouver Sun on Tuesday.”…
http://www.vancouversun.com/business/sells+headquarters+foreign+buyer/11771478/story.html?__lsa=bbef-4950
vreu; what no terrible graphs to show how market in Victoria is declining? Could it be because the spring market brisk?
I also miss the comparison to cherry picked US cities……
Here’s a recent example of curious bank behaviour for blog dog consideration. While I understand that the rates mentioned below are promotional in nature, here’s a “major” financial institution offering 2-year mortgages at 2.24% and at the same time giving out 2.5% rates on deposits.
Its a promo rate. The assumption is, someone is gonna get all excited over the 2.5% “rate” at PC Financial, stick $5-$10k there (because, lets face it, how many people have a lot more except the gray hairs who wouldn’t be caught dead “banking” at a grocery store??), and forget about it a few months later when the rate inevitably reverts to 0.5% or whatever the long-term rate is. Additionally, as the theory goes, bringing someone into the overall Loblaws “infrastructure” has value to it as well.
Its really no different than the first 3 months of Bell Internet service being cheaper. Or car vendors offering to make the first month or two of new car financing payments.
I’m no financial expert, but it seems to me that the spread on rates is supposed to go the other way. The elfin deity (RIP) is going to burn a hole through his coffin with the RPMs he must be doing spinning in his grave.
The spreads achieved by the banks, on both sides of the border, in percentage terms, have almost never been greater than they are today. That’s why the FIRE sector has been so vibrant, able to pay the huge bonuses, extravagant spending, and large shareholder dividends.
The future higher rate environment will likely both compress spreads as well as reduce the overall value of lending. Quite toxic to the overall “FIRE” sector. Unfortunately there’s still quite a few analysts and even bank CEO’s running around trying to claim the contrary. Either they’re mathematically ignorant, or they have alterior motives such as trying to unload their stock onto the masses who might be brainwashed by such.
#201 lisa thomson-The Great Escape… on 03.08.16 at 7:08 pm
”I noticed new ‘added on’ signs attached to sold signs. They say “Sold for well over asking price”. I’m serious. This is a sign realtors can tack on after their mighty sale. This is scary.”
Today when out on a walkabout in Mt. Pleasant, Van. I saw two signs on same property. One had “Sold” shown and on the other “Too Late”. This one sold 2 weeks ago and was sold within a few days of the sign being in the ground.
#215 Mark on 03.09.16 at 1:54 pm
Mayor Robertson doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
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You win Mark. I will concede to you on this one.
If there is anyone knows better about not knowing what one is talking about it is you.
1 in 8 condos in 604 empty , good call on the no ham Garth, must be all those locals leaving them empty.
12% of condos occasionally unoccupied or held as investments in the downtown core of Vancouver is an utter non-event. — Garth
“Outstanding debt includes interest, over which policymakers have no sway.”
Okay, its your blog, play all the word games you want, but for most of us in the real world who have debt, debt service is an ongoing expense. The Liberals under Chretien and Martin were able to hold debt, including debt service costs steady for nearly a decade. Including during a period in which an entire sector of Canada’s economy, the tech sector, collapsed. Debt exploded under the Harper regime despite record low interest rates and a lot of the double-digit 70s and 80s Mulroney/Trudeau Sr. debt having rolled off the books.
Get your facts straight Garth, no neocon austerity in the Harper govt. according to the Financial Post. If you care about spending less, don’t vote Conservative.
http://business.financialpost.com/fp-comment/conservatives-vision-hardly-conservative
That pic is of my drone. I told the stupid mutt he could sniff my ass if he just put on the harness.
Then I flew him into a tree.
^ ^
With dogs, the laughter never stops **
An interesting conversation took place amongst our group of east GTA hockey parents following the boy’s semi-final defeat in the run to a Provincial championship. With the remaining ice time paid for, a refund of monies left in the team budget back to the Parents was mentioned. Several parents supported the idea of finding another out of town tournament to attend. This would mean hotel and meals for at least two days. Another parent was quick to point out that some of us don’t work for the government and need the money back. Things got a little tense back and forth until the manager stepped in to settle it down. Indeed, the parents proposing to spend more had at least one Ontario government job in the family. The rest were either self employed, or factory downsized. Our association is having trouble keeping kids at the rep levels due to the cost. The house league grows each year with very talented players due to the costs involved at the higher levels. In our own situation, my wife just accepted a new job after her employer pulled up stakes and moved to the southern U.S. (sold the land in Toronto for, you guessed it, more condos). She took a 37% pay cut to stay in her field. In fact, most of our middle class friends have at least one government job in the family as an anchor. In Ontario, we are led by a socialist, activist provincial government. A government supported largely by public sector unions. As the public sector thrives, the Liberal government borrows to meet payroll each year, increasing the Province’s net debt to eye watering levels. Sadly, our family income still won’t qualify us for the free tuition handed down in the recent Provincial budget. We are qualified to pay more tax though. Fear it won’t be long before many of our friends in the public sector will have to consider house league only.
Fortunately, I have been a fan of Garth’s since those heady days in the 1980’s when I purchased my copy of ‘Garth Turner’s Financial Rescue’ at the local Coles Bookstore. Advocating gentleman farmers, bunkers, Hummers, and Harley’s, our host stood firmly on the side of the little guy. I can remember dutifully filling out the tax protest coupons in the Toronto Sun after each provincial or federal budget. Proud to say that, despite the career setback, our family is financially secure and has the resources to build our own bunker (post real estate correction, of course) when the Provincial payroll starts to run dry. Thanks Garth, for your public service and dose of reality over these many years.
New Zealand GST: 15%
Australia GST: 10%
UK VAT: 20%
Canada: GST:5%
If our GST had not been lowered, the government would have a surplus and more money than it knows what to do with
While we’re on the topic, Norway taxes capital gains like all other income. And there’s a wealth tax, too. So if you have a net worth of $250,000 or more (in CAD), there’s an annual payment equal to .085% of it.
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Doesn’t seem outrageous. 1 mil net worth = wealth tax of $850. Yearly I’d imagine.
Now use a calculator. — Garth
There has never been anything as harmful to Canada as was that hair-doo harper.
No, maybe the Dief was equally bad.
So the way I see it you stimulate in a down turn and you contract in an expansion…. Paul Martin had the right idea and so brought Canada back from the depths of peril. JT is doing the correct thing too as Canada and the world are going through a contraction…
That you do not point that out is silly as certainly you know better….
Well, T2 was a drama teacher… not a math teacher.
# 22
Here’s a chart to remind you of how poorly Victoria’s housing market performed compared to other Canadian cities in the recent past.
This was, of course, after realtors like you made promises of big price gains to buyers in 2010.
It isn’t different now. Nothing has changed here in Victoria – I’ve seen no sales stats that support claims that wealthy buyers from Chna suddenly discovered Victoria right after rates were lowered in early 2015.
Many Victoria families will buy near the peak and sell for substantial losses – again.
They’ll be able to thank you and your fellow “professionals” for that.
Enjoy this chart. I’ll post more in the future for you.
. . . . . . . . . . . .House Prices. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. .Percent Above/Below March 2010 Price Level. .
. . . . . . . x = Toronto, * = Oak Bay. . . . . . . . .
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+25%. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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+20% . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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+15%. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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+10% . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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+ 5%. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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….0%. . . x*. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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– 5%. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . *. . . . . . . . . . . . .
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-10%. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . *. . . .
—————————————————————————–
. . . . . . March . . . . . . .March. . . . . .January. .
. . . . . . .2010. . . . . . .. 2012. . . . . . .2014. . .
(sources: Victoria’s R/E board, Toronto’s R/E board)
We can safely assume that Oak Bay’s 10.6% price plunge was actually more than that since the information comes from the Victoria board’s frankenumber price index.
Some other areas of Greater Victoria saw much bigger price declines.
Prices in Toronto increased 23.3% over the same period of time.
Your accusations come with no support. Making accusations without proof makes you look bad, not me.
Incorrect. The debt to which I referred was the accumulated deficits during the eight years of Conservative rule. Outstanding debt includes interest, over which policymakers have no sway. — Garth
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Makes me wonder how much of the 18-22 billion deficit will be going towards interest.
Can’t think about this right now. Stocking up on popcorn so that I can plunk down on the couch to watch what Sophie is wearing to the State dinner tomorrow. Haven’t had this much fun since Mila was wearing Chanel.
12% of condos occasionally unoccupied or held as investments in the downtown core of Vancouver is an utter non-event. — Garth
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Lol occasionally? Whatever Garth twist it anyway you want but stats are stats.
#26 Westvan on 03.09.16 at 6:10 pm
1 in 8 condos in 604 empty , good call on the no ham Garth, must be all those locals leaving them empty.
12% of condos occasionally unoccupied or held as investments in the downtown core of Vancouver is an utter non-event. — Garth
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I read 12% sitting empty for at least a year
I hate the way that this country has been governed during the current administration. The last one was rotten too, but in different ways.
Btw, that poor dog’s owner deserves a slap. I’ve had unexpected events crash my drone more than once.
#30 Penny Henny on 03.09.16 at 6:21 pm
While we’re on the topic, Norway taxes capital gains like all other income. And there’s a wealth tax, too. So if you have a net worth of $250,000 or more (in CAD), there’s an annual payment equal to .085% of it.
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Doesn’t seem outrageous. 1 mil net worth = wealth tax of $850. Yearly I’d imagine.
Ha ha. My bad. I guess that what annual means.
Oh wait, the pic was photoshopped. That’s okay then.
I think Mark is 1 sharp cookie. People are just jealous and resentful.
“… the basic guaranteed public pension in Norway (available at age 67) is … about $14,000 Canadian. Maybe this is why you’ve never seen a retired Norwegian tourist in Canada.” What a silly statement. Just how is one supposed to identify a retired Norwegian tourist? Do they sport Viking horns? Also, given that the whole population of Norway is less than that of the GTA, just how many of that country’s elderly tourists can one expect to encounter? Norway is a very rich country. According to Global Age Watch, less than 2 percent of elderly Norwegians live in poverty and Norwegians over the age of 60 have an average income only 1 percent lower than the rest of the population. http://www.helpage.org/global-agewatch/population-ageing-data/country-ageing-data/?country=Norway
This love of taxation by some is not really a mystery.
Its an ideological position, not an economic one.
Crudely, government good, business bad. Which easily encompasses the position that extreme socialism (the new communism) good, capitalism bad. Eating out of dumpsters good, not freezing in the dark bad. Primitive good, technology bad. Hair shirt good, silk shirt bad.
Everything the opposite of what works.
There is some illusion that people in government are more ethical, more pro-social, more egalitarian focused, and more hard working than anyone else.
Bad news: a human is a human, and each and every human is in business for her/himself. Lie? Cheat? Steal? Take a payoff? Biz or Gov, all people in them are equally likely to break the rules. Also the opposite: Kind? Generous? Caring? Equally likely.
What works is a system that plays to our humanity — that we are first individuals, not social insects. Our DNA defines us as a species of individuals. We are wired for deal making, competition, achievement, cooperation of mutually agreed benefit. Also a bit of greed, and a bit of empathy. We are each unique.
You cannot put this kind of an animal in a cage suited to social insects and think you are making a better world (or better human). We thrive when we are able to gain something for ourselves. Those who can achieve great things won’t be achieving much of anything if you hold them back, as if everything good can only come from government.
We do need government for many reasons. And business needs regulation, sometimes strong regulation. But government should not be the purpose of our existence. And that is what ever increasing taxation does – makes our purpose as humans ever more dedicated to working for government, and less able to achieve things on our own.
Eventually, all you can afford to do is exist and do what GovCo tells you. At no time in history was that ever a good thing.
/polemic
#4 Ray:
No, not lately, although I’d prefer it to the current incarnation of the CBC. The latest version constantly posts articles of praise for our great leader, as well as articles, almost daily fawning over the thought of cramming ever more third world Muslims into the country, but what really differentiates the new CBC from the Harper CBC is the fierce level of censorship which has been enacted regarding public comments. In typical “progressive” fashion, any comment that disagrees with the official narrative, no matter how respectfully articulated, is blocked. After all… MY FEELINGS MIGHT GET HURT!
Who Wants To Buy Conrad Black’s Mansion? The price is right… http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/bidding-closes-in-auction-for-conrad-black-s-toronto-mansion-1.2810098
Pretty rosie today Garth.
Disagree on global economy, seems stagnant and PRC will struggle yet again this year…so much for commodities.
Oil and gas still in the dumps and will probably go down. How long do you think Russia and the Saudi’s will continue their oil pricing policy with Iran ramping up production?
So, huge budget deficit that will take a few years for infrastructure spending to take place and so what are you left with?
Same what we have now. One shock to YVR RE and 416 RE and we will have a recession, a job loss recession.
Still say by mid-year this will take hold, if not sooner.
There is nothing to report that indicates a recovering economy and too many things to report that indicate an economy headed towards a recession (recall recent GDP and Jobs reports slightly negative or near 0%)…to much down, not enough up.
Great post today and last one as well. Most of our deluded comrades who support these lefty parties will come to realize how catastrophic this will end up being
They will not stop until they have stolen all of our money. Destroying the currency via artificially low rates and rapid junk credit growth and massive government spending will makes us all poorer. Don’t envy the public sector retirees. Most will end up in the poor house 5/7 years from now as their buying power will be drastically reduced at just the wrong time in their lives.
We have seen this movie time and again. Just recently in the PIIGS countries.
All you need is a pocket calculator and simply start with your gross income and start deducting all items from that number. Then add up all taxes, user fees, etc and you will see that for the vast majority of us working stiffs, the largest or 2 nd largest deductions are government typically followed by banks/ mortgage and insurances
Welcome to the neo liberal economic end game
JO
Harper added $170 billion of new debt, not $300 billion. Most of it was during and immediately after the credit crisis. — Garth
The Chief wants the banks to pay bank the 58 billion
Harper added $170 billion of new debt, who ate the big slice of that debt. in other word
who are the big suckers of that debt?
It is not the question of who accumulate the deficit the most, what matters is the debt has some real benefits to the citizens. You can not move to UK as well sir.
Now Canada is trying a basic income, Britain can ignore it no longer
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/now-canada-is-trying-a-basic-income-britain-can-ignore-it-no-longer-a6919486.html
LOL @ “But math is still hard. “.
When Jim Prentice said that, he could have saved a lot of laughter or scorn by following it up with “for the NDP”…instead of staying silent, where it was taken as “for women”.
but no doubt, math IS hard…how the hell do you “miscalculate” by over 10,000 million dollars AT LEAST. that’s a million dollars mis spent 10,000 times. that’s a lot of homeless to house : including refugees.
Isn’t that pic Pug abuse? I don’t know too may dogs that think UAVs are cool. Never mind being attached to one.
“The couple has been told they need to go $100,000 over asking”
http://www.news1130.com/2016/03/09/burnaby-family-outbid-16-homes/
Wow. Now we’re talking BUBBLE!
#6
If we could trust Canadian politicians to actually use the revenues from huge tax rates to look after society’s most vulnerable, then I’d have no problem with it whatsoever.
However, here in Ontario we have Kathleen Wynne using our money to pay off public sector unions, to reward her cronies and throw away on utter, utter waste. Just last week it was revealed in the G&M that the Liberals are looking at shuttering schools for the disabled, citing the need to save money. However, there is billions for UPX, a billion on gas plants, a billion on eHealth, $100m for some vague promise on stopping the murder of aboriginal women, $4m on union “negotiations”.
Meanwhile at the federal level we have $2bn given away no-questions asked to other countries in the name of “climate change”, a billion or so rushing in refugees with little planning, a few hundred mil to CBC, etc. etc.
So, in summary: no thanks.
I really wish Nemesis would learn how to use hashtags properly.
Buying a canada bond for 1.9% or whatever is just an approval for the govt to increase your taxes by the same amount at maturity. How else can they pay the yield? Taxes is all they got.
And T2 is dining tonight with the biggest debt binger in the history of the planet. BHO increased the US debt from 9 trillion in 2008 to more that 19 trillion just 7 years later.
“five-year mortgages are a tad under three”
I just locked in 5 year at 2.34%, that’s a tad less than a tad under 3.
The market right now is ban-fing-nanas. In my neighbourhood towns are going for >800 and semi >1mil and I’m north of Toronto. It’s hitting ludicrous speed in such a short time.
One of my neighbors in the vacant house up the street came home for a few days from China. I thought I’d go and introduce myself. I asked him what he did over in China. He said he was a doctor.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3030037/Livers-kidneys-corneas-removed-11-000-live-political-prisoners-WITHOUT-anaesthetic-year-China-claims-documentary.html
#32 VREU…why do you assume that I am a realtor? Based on what? Is it because I had the audacity to state your graphs are lame (which they are) and that I questioned you for comparing Victoria prices to cherry picked US cities?
By the way I also never suggested HAM was impacting Victoria prices. But hey why let the facts get in the way
No rate cut today but I’ll bet anyone we see another rate cut before any rate hike. 100% sure.
As for Garth’s focus on the housing bubble, the stock markets are in the same boat…wish you could time the burst of both yet they will happen.
“People from Norway are, on average, much happier with their lives than Canadians.”
haha ya right, why is their suicide rate higher than ours then? why is their heroin use and overdose deaths so high?
“While we’re on the topic, Norway taxes capital gains like all other income. And there’s a wealth tax, too. So if you have a net worth of $250,000 or more (in CAD), there’s an annual payment equal to .085% of it. Oh yeah, and your taxes are posted online, for your employees or ex-wife to ogle.”
————————————-
I gather you think this is bad? The Norwegians love it. Also, speeding tickets are not flat. They are adjusted proportional to income.
“By the way, the basic guaranteed public pension in Norway (available at age 67) is 88,730 krone, or about $14,000 Canadian. Maybe this is why you’ve never seen a retired Norwegian tourist in Canada…”
Yes, and the equivalent pension in Canada (OAS) is $6786.90 (2015). So what is your point? Like no retired Canadians in Norway? Or do you wish to see even our puny public pension eliminated?
Socialism has a track record of about 100 years of failure, yet 90% of people are leaning towards it.
This is something that I could never understand.
Can anyone tell me why this happens?
Does the government really think they can just double the capital gains tax and nobody will do anything? Rich people living off of big portfolios will leave the country and then they will get zero capital gains tax from those people. Canada is not as great a country as we’re all brainwashed into believing.
This is to say nothing of the provinces which are in even worse fiscal shape with no safe havens among them now that Alberta has elected a socialist government.
Provinces cannot print their own currency, will we see QE to bail them out, or hard debt defaults?
Taxes will never cover the debts incurred in the past 40 years. Not in Ontario, Canada at the federal level, Japan or the US where just the funded portion of the federal debt now stands at $19,112,876,896,495
A new monetary system is necessary and that includes gold as its main pillar.
The whole system is stupid. If electricity was never invented we would never have had these problems. The Amish know how to live man.
The true, and if correctly predicted here, test of the market will be the much anticipated interest rate hike.
Each 1% increase in interest rates should account for a 10% decrease in price.
Now if prices in Vancouver and TO continue to skyrocket after a rate hike, then we know that interest rates are not the variable that will cause prices to correct.
In one short year or so, we will know whether the interest rate theory is simply an emperor without any clothes.
If there is no change in prices, then we will be forced to deal with the ‘fact’ that prices are influenced by an influx of foreign capital; a never ending supply of families coming to Canada; and boomer rich parents subsidizing their offspring purchases.
Of course, at the current rate of price increases, waiting a year or two to ‘find out’ may severely cost you.
off topic
bitcoin was suppose to be, free and fast, but isn’t.
Bitcoin’s Capacity Issues No ‘Nightmare’, But Higher Fees May Be New Reality
http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-capacity-nightmare-fees-reality/
#6 “I lived in Norway for 1 year, Sweden for 7 now. It really isn’t all that terrible”
Straw man. No one claimed it was terrible. (Although if you are a woman or LGBTQ it is becoming increasingly dangerous in northern Europe).
I suspect you are late career or comfortable with a typical job. If you are ambitious, the high tax rate, tax on wealth, high corporate tax (etc) would be a huge turn off. I’d be relocating fairly quickly if I were trying to start up a business in that environment.
Taxation and redistribution don’t create wealth. Production does. If the former were true, Yugoslavia and Cuba would have been paradise.
We’re still suffering from a demand slump. Businesses aren’t investing because they don’t believe they’ll be able to sell additional inventory, hence fiscal stimulus is necessary.
Rate increases, balanced budgets and lower marginal tax rates will not boost demand.
@ #18 Joe Schmoe on 03.09.16 at 5:56 pm
what an interesting little worldview you’ve created there.
A Mississippi farm story
Hillary Clinton and her driver were cruising home along a country road one evening when an old cow loomed in front of the car. The driver tried to avoid it but couldn’t.
The aged cow was struck and killed. Hillary told her driver to go up to the farmhouse and explain to the owners what had happened. She said that he should resist any request from the farmer to pay for the animal, but she said, “you killed it, so if they have to have money, it will come out of your pocket!” She stayed in the car making phone calls.
About an hour later the driver staggered back to the car. He had a wild look in his eye, was holding a half-empty bottle of expensive wine in one hand, a huge Cuban cigar in the other, he was smeared all over with lipstick and was wearing nothing but a smile.
“What in the world happened to you,” asked Hillary?
“Well,” the driver replied, “the farmer gave me the cigar, his wife gave me the wine, and their beautiful twin daughters made mad passionate love to me.”
“I had just stepped inside the door and said, ‘I’m Hillary Clinton’s driver and I’ve just killed the old cow.’ The rest happened so fast I couldn’t stop it.”
Keep Smiling
15 that guy !
Is a burden to society, stop smoking dope , dope !
Nothing is free get a job or jump !
Won’t support losers , or any other pot head looser , or just strait people that want a free ride, effen lazy stupid !
What your great grand parents think of you now !
I know you don’t care !
That’s why I don’t care about you , cause you don’t care!
Your kind are like a wart!
You know like something your always trying to get rid of!
Only the pounders will survive, !
Zombie nation, for the rest !”the kid will save you , gonna legalize pot ,more zombies pot heads think there cool , why wouldn’t you think that when half your brain cells are dun and the other 50 are like permanently altered !!!
Despite Trump.? He’s got it. Playing the Herd perfectly.
This is a must see video
http://www.prisonplanet.com/is-this-the-most-powerful-donald-trump-video-ever.html
Garth, you can diss Norway all you want BUT check this out.
Norway has been named the best country in the world to live in – for the 12th year in a row.
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a measure of basic human developments within 188 countries, released by the UN in its annual Human Development Report.
https://www.google.ca/webhp?client=aff-maxthon-maxthon4&channel=t18&gws_rd=cr,ssl&ei=dcfgVprzEYvwjwO56YSgBg#channel=t18&q=Top+10+countries+to+live+in
The tax is 8500 on 1M$ worldwide assets (give or take, there is a threshold that is tax free and allowable deductions for mortages and stuff)
Although in Penny Henney’s defense, the rate should be expressed as .85% not .085% in the blog post.
Reference
Tiger54
Not sorry , but I do include all you pot heads in my summery ,even if you think it does not infect you and alter your brain, I see it every day slow mo driving , oh just relaxe bro, no brain or low brain motor functions, saying things like sketchy,or I diddent know bro like the machine just rolled over and cut my arm off really sketchy like wow bro it had a mind of its own!
No rate hike today and will bet a rate cut ever before a rate hike in Canada.
Rate hike in USA soon? Doubtful.
Garth will be right about the Van/TO bubbles…not if but when.
#123 BK
From your post yesterday if a young person invested $10,000/yr every year for 40yrs they would have around 2.2 million,welcome to the 1% club,sadly few will join.
Ever since I got here ,I’ve always been told that White Rock is the safe part of Surrey.
I never have a reason to go out there, but at the moment I am helping a Chinese developer that got in over his head.(surprise ,surprise !)
Anyway I go to get something out of my van and 3 rcmp officers ,one male ,two female guns drawn are raiding the house across the street from where I am working and my van is parked out front on the raid house.
They parked two blocks away and walked as quietly as the could but I did not see any one arrested.
One thing that did catch my eye and would please the Metrosexual Messiah in his gender equity mission, was that one of the females had the biggest gun.
The other two had pistols drawn whilst the one at the back had some semi automatic looking rifle.
Just another day at the office…
M41BC
Is that the Bumbardier C series we are gonna pay $1 billion for?
Todays deficits are tomorrows axing of social programs. See Greece. You can’t get blood from a stone. Taxes can only go so high and then tax increases reduce government tax revenue. Then social programs are cut. That is what Canada will be facing.
#66 Death for Metal on 03.09.16 at 7:38 pm
The whole system is stupid. If electricity was never invented we would never have had these problems. The Amish know how to live man.
______________________________________
They are always looking for fresh blood too. If you’ll marry their daughters. They take care of ya realll swelll!
Its a promo rate. The assumption is, someone is gonna get all excited over the 2.5% “rate” at PC Financial, stick $5-$10k there (because, lets face it, how many people have a lot more except the gray hairs who wouldn’t be caught dead “banking” at a grocery store??)
I genuinely don’t understand the disdain for the grocery bank, they’re owned by CIBC. Money in, money out. Why pay for these services when you don’t need to? Considering the ridicule [email protected] gets on this blog I fail to understand the value RY, TD et al. are providing to you.
Of course, I’m not parking my wealth here. If people can’t figure out it’s a promo rate then they obviously have no idea what to do with whatever money they may have.
@#73 John Martin
Good one.
If you read the comments on the independent.uk article from people that have lived there (by choice, not because they were born there and had to) it doesn’t sound all that great.
Thanks for the post today Garth. I agree with the “Dutch Guy in BC”. I do hope that our Canadian society takes a swing to the left to emulate more the Scandinavian countries than the free-wheeling capitalist markets of Hong Kong with its extreme income/wealth gap and widespread speculation. Living in a society where the ratio of top to lower income earners is 4:1, where university tuition is heavily subsidized (in contrast to the U.S.), with a wider safety net and universal child care benefits, does not mean we will all be standing in a queue to get our weekly rations of beets and cabbage. Do you think that there are blogs in Norway, Denmark, etc.., where people are fretting about house prices rising 30% in one single year, where studies are made of owner-occupied condos and the problem of rabid speculation in the housing market to enrich a few? I think not. Perhaps living in a more egalitarian society would allow people to focus on other more meaningful pursuits, and would make for a better less dog-eat-dog society for us all. If we can take steps in this country to reform the tax system to achieve these goals I am all for it. For whatever it is worth I am classified as a “high-wage earner”.
inflation coming to China. just like the US.
Bobs ur uncle on 03.09.16 at 5:50 pm
GDP per capita must be crushed by all those high Norwegian taxes.
Or…maybe it’s higher than both Canada and the USA?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita
#17 Goober on 03.09.16 at 5:52 pm
———–
Yes, those Norwegians sure have an ultra advanced super progressive economy don’t they?
Or…maybe they just cut down trees, dig stuff out of the ground, and pump Oil like there is no tomorrow?
Yep, that’s what they do. Stone Age era resource economy, but they at least have the brains to embrace it. Without natural resources, they would be a third world country.
Don’t leave yourself so open to easy refute…
I continued reading the comment section I know why
Yesterday was smoking man , today Mark…
I love the blog dogs
Theres a cheeky show on Netflix about Norway. Its called Lillyhammer starring a gangster on the run character Steve Van Zandt ( guitars for The Boss) . It’s insight into what a whiny ‘rat on thy neighbor’ nanny state/police country Norway has become now that everyone is incredibly poor and the state has power over every aspect of your life. It shows Norway as a spineless inbred cesspool of progressive social engineering and where the greed of Liberalism has led Norwegians. The producers, who are all Norwegian, paint Norway as a liberal toilet where life has been suppressed in favor of the elite unions and bureaucrats, watch and see for yourself.
Wow, Orange shots just raised their 1year GIC rate to 1.6% from 1.2%
https://www.tangerine.ca/en/rates/historical-rates/index.html
I will be rich!!! (Not)
#69 james on 03.09.16 at 7:43 pm
#6 “I lived in Norway for 1 year, Sweden for 7 now. It really isn’t all that terrible”
Straw man. No one claimed it was terrible. (Although if you are a woman or LGBTQ it is becoming increasingly dangerous in northern Europe).
…………………..
If your a straight white male, successful in business, it’s getting dangerous to be living in Toronto.
#69 James:
…If you are ambitious, the high tax rate, tax on wealth, high corporate tax (etc) would be a huge turn off. I’d be relocating fairly quickly if I were trying to start up a business in that environment.
Funny you should mention “relocating”, with the feeble loonie and RE costs, there is a combined YVR brain drain and an inability for companies to attract outside talent. Gregor, Christy et al keep waffling on about BC’s promising IT industry, the reality is there are only 2 IT companies worth mentioning and their talent is getting poached by US companies offering 40-50% salary increases even with lateral moves . As for RE, well mid-century bungalows in SF/SV are still only 1/2 to 1/3 of YVR.
So all the young, smart people leave, because you know, free market economy.
Communism is here people.
Thanks a lot
we need land value tax.
VREU
you poor delusional muppet. I live in Oak Bay and you don’t know much about it, do you?
Get out of your cubicle, turn off the Hello Kitty calculator and take a look outside.
Whenever governments get more of my money, they piddle it away on useless political initiatives or use it to buying votes from special interest groups and unions. I’ll hopefully be voting for O’Leary, whatever party he chooses to run for.
I have had enough of the current clown show. I am not emotionally bonding with refugee initiatives, carbon taxes, bike lanes or even panda bears. I’m an emotional wreck. Please crowd fund for me.
Only you can prevent an accident!
Pot heads can’t ,they cause them, be a professional driver and do circles around them
#26 Westvan on 03.09.16 at 6:10 pm
1 in 8 condos in 604 empty , good call on the no ham Garth, must be all those locals leaving them empty.
12% of condos occasionally unoccupied or held as investments in the downtown core of Vancouver is an utter non-event. — Garth
______
That article you’re no doubt referencing has been posted several times here since it came out. If you actually read it, you’d also know that the reported percentage of unoccupied properties is *unchanged since 2002* …so how does that fit into the narrative, Westvan?
Mark: Either they’re mathematically ignorant, or they have alterior motives such as trying to unload their stock onto the masses who might be brainwashed by such.
ulterior
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ulterior
#35Victoria Real Estate Update
Thanks for tbe numbers from 2010. If 2010 comes back we will all be in good shape knowing your figures.
Has it occurred to you that 2014 is so…..2014?
Get out of your parents’ basement, the real world is a different place.
Canadians have gorged on debt and the Liberals are delivering on their promise of fast food outlets on every street.
We live in a country where telling someone they are fat is politically incorrect.
I can see the problem here will require an intervention that nobody’s going to be happy about.
Norway sounds like Cuba in some ways, but instead of everyone getting a paycheck monthly, they get their pay, and are taxed to the point everyone is left with the same amount.
Neither sound fun to me.
What ever happened to the American Dream….you work harder and are rewarded for your efforts.
Perhaps Trudeau will hear about that the next few days……
#227 A Canadian Abroad on 03.09.16 at 4:02 pm
————————-
That really is the whole debate. What is a “fair” rate of tax to pay?
Is it fair that the rich and corporations exploit loopholes and illegally hide money from taxation?
What about historical rates of tax? Corporate earnings and income are now taxed at their lowest rates ever, aren’t they? If it’s not “fair” now, then it’s never been fair?
#85 David on 03.09.16 at 8:30 pm
——————————-
It takes weeks getting a bank draft through PC financial (good luck buying a house in a hot market that way). There are no tellers (sure you can use cibc but they don’t treat you as customers).
RBC unlimited banking is free if you have multiple products with them (CC, mortgage, and $25 monthly contribution to a cash TFSA, which you can deposit back into a chequing account quarterly).
Basil Exposition: In our own situation, my wife just accepted a new job after her employer pulled up stakes and moved to the southern U.S. She took a 37% pay cut to stay in her field.
that got my attention. There is some irony: while house prices in Vancouver increase as foreign money enters the market, wages in Toronto decrease as employers leave the market.
#83 BS on 03.09.16 at 8:27 pm
———————–
1/3rd of CURRENT CPP contributions are paying for the debt that was incurred to implement CPP benefits across the board in 1966.
#75 Smoking Man on 03.09.16 at 8:04 pm
—————————————-
No, this is the must see Trump video:
https://youtu.be/cRly-0wwl_g
#27 Mark on 03.09.16 at 6:10 pm
“Outstanding debt includes interest, over which policymakers have no sway.”
Okay, its your blog, play all the word games you want, but for most of us in the real world who have debt, debt service is an ongoing expense. The Liberals under Chretien and Martin were able to hold debt, including debt service costs steady for nearly a decade. Including during a period in which an entire sector of Canada’s economy, the tech sector, collapsed. Debt exploded under the Harper regime despite record low interest rates and a lot of the double-digit 70s and 80s Mulroney/Trudeau Sr. debt having rolled off the books.
———
Mark:
Stop.
Just stop.
@#92, Sally Turner. TV series “LillyHammer”, on Netflix is Hilarious. Smoking Man is the Star.
PB43
#112 IHCTD9 on 03.09.16 at 9:24 pm
#27 Mark on 03.09.16 at 6:10 pm
“Outstanding debt includes interest, over which policymakers have no sway.”
Okay, its your blog, play all the word games you want, but for most of us in the real world who have debt, debt service is an ongoing expense. The Liberals under Chretien and Martin were able to hold debt, including debt service costs steady for nearly a decade. Including during a period in which an entire sector of Canada’s economy, the tech sector, collapsed. Debt exploded under the Harper regime despite record low interest rates and a lot of the double-digit 70s and 80s Mulroney/Trudeau Sr. debt having rolled off the books.
———
Mark:
Stop.
Just stop.
….
This is the closest to democracy your ever going to get in the western world. Let Mark rant. Every thousand or so posts he nails it. I figure those are the odd times he drinks.
I’m drinking now, my thump cane up with this.
Sometimes the most introverted pessimist makes the best extraverted opportunist friend
#64 Francesca on 03.09.16 at 7:22 pm
It’s because socialism appeals to one of the greatest weaknesses in human nature i.e. jealousy and a fixation with wanting what others have, without earning it.
Advocates of socialism have always denounced capitalism as a “selfish” ideology, while quietly ignoring the much greater vice of jealousy inherent in socialism.
But the tenth commandment was “not thou shalt not be selfish…….it was “thou shalt not envy thy neighbour, nor desire to have his house, his wife, his sheep, his cattle or anything else that may be his”.
The second factor that aids the cancer of socialism is that it’s a ideology that aids dishonest public officials greatly since it’s very easy to sell the “something for nothing message” to any population for the above mentioned reason.
Only once in a purple moon, do you have one like Ron Paul, who told a constituent the truth…….”that he does not have a “RIGHT to the goods and services produced by another person.
#113 Prairieboy43 on 03.09.16 at 9:32 pm
@#92, Sally Turner. TV series “LillyHammer”, on Netflix is Hilarious. Smoking Man is the Star.
PB43
…
Your always the star when your a man and look in the mirror naked.
Doesn’t work out so good for woman. No matter how perfect a real man finds her, she will always find flaws iñ the mirror.
That’s the difference between the two genders. Other than that. We’re the same.
Dr Smoking Man
PhD in Herdonomics .
#108 Bottoms_Up,
A bank draft for a hot housing market? Am I on the right blog?
First things first. The U.S. job numbers are a smoke and mirror show, unemployment is much higher. Now onto oil. You do know that Canadian oil trades at a steep discount to the U.S. Our oil is still in the toilet, U.S. oil needs to be over $60 to make our discounted oil viable. Canada is in a recession, getting deeper and deeper. Liberals are great recession generators. No liberal government has run a good economy, the drama teacher will be no different.
The U.S. is in big trouble.
Now foreign buyers. As I have stated before the Chinese are in serious trouble. Their banks are now desperately stopping the capital flight. Many of the immigrants in Vancouver depend on money from China to live. Now that money flow is a trickle. I believe the real estate is over hyping the market to get a demand ahead of the selling foreign assets for capital. The all important cash the king!
I believe we’ll experience a major collapse in real estate, both coasts. The liberal recession, all liberal governments create recessions, will be the deepest Canada has ever seen. T2 will be a one term wonder.
If we all have a picnic this summer I say we bring a dunk tank.
I’m not that rich but if I have to go to my last cent to dunk Mark Farquar for charity then it will be worth it…
#dumpthechump
M41BC
Garth, but I enjoy the looks on people’s faces when I tell them it’s squirrel stew..
“I lived in Norway for 1 year, Sweden for 7 now. It really isn’t all that terrible Garth. Ya I cringe at the marginal 57% I am paying, and an average tax of 48% is a kick in the groin, but there are some serious benefits, like paid tuition, help for the disabled and their families, and a strong social safety net for those down on their luck. I find value from that extra 5-8% we pay in tax compared to my home in Ontario. Not saying it’s possible to mirror this in Canada, but having lived and worked on both continents, there are aspects that make living here a happier existence.”
Yes well, not only are the suicide and crime stats/rape and robbery, horrific because of the drug use and unemployed refugees flooding in but the huge number of zooporn videos ( guys on sheep and goats, girls on dogs and horses) coming out of Norway show that the country is an incredibly sick place in need of an infusion of the human spirit, that has been bled away by the nanny state liberals.
I think Canada should shut down it’s government and join the States…We’d all be better off by far…We wouldn’t even be the largest state and would have a smaller economy than at least 3 maybe 4 states….We’re playing kids games up here and really wasting our collective time..
Don’t worry about the debt it can be inflated away, the rules can be changed at any time to make sure the right people don’t lose their shirts. You have no one to blame but yourself for the amount of taxes you pay. If you don’t like it quit your day job and start a business and follow the tax rules the wealthy play by. CHEERS!!!
People who traveled to Norway tell that there’s hardly much choice in their stores.
Has anyone heard of any products made in Norway?
It seems that they’re just pumping oil and gas and using that money to create jobs that aren’t really useful, but keeps people busy. As long as the population is small and there’s oil they will do ok, but I’d rather live in Michigan than Norway.
There is a ton of good intentioned blog dogs trying to save my soul. Emails.
My response.
My kid is in the rehab business, circling the long branch bungee like a hungry eagle, Everyone out to destroy my fun.
I’ll a pass.
But thanks for caring.
Despite Trump??? I would take Trump over our pompous sorry-ass excuse for a Prime Minister any day – bad hair and all.
Living with no self dicipline is so under rated.
Dr Smoking Man
PhD Herdonomics
Nothing to see here. Move along
http://www.nationalpost.com/m/wp/news/blog.html?b=news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/were-not-realtors-former-wholesaler-reveals-hidden-dark-side-of-vancouvers-red-hot-real-estate-market&pubdate=2016-03-09
Harper added $170 billion of new debt, not $300 billion. Most of it was during and immediately after the credit crisis. — Garth
—-
“Credit crises”, eh? What a nice euphemism… Caused by what, again?
#91 IHCTD9 on 03.09.16 at 8:45 pm
Works both ways dude:
“Yes, those sure have an ultra advanced super economy don’t they?
Or…maybe they just cut down trees, dig stuff out of the ground, and pump Oil like there is no tomorrow?
Yep, that’s what they do. Stone Age era resource economy, but they at least have the brains to embrace it. Without natural resources, they would be a third world country.
Don’t leave yourself so open to easy refute…”
Ditto…
Oh for Eff’s sake. My edits didn’t go thru properly. Here is what I was going for:
#91 IHCTD9 on 03.09.16 at 8:45 pm
Works both ways dude:
“Yes, those _Albertans_ sure have an ultra advanced super _efficient_ economy don’t they?
Or…maybe they just cut down trees, dig stuff out of the ground, and pump Oil like there is no tomorrow?
Yep, that’s what they do. Stone Age era resource economy, but they at least have the brains to embrace it. Without natural resources, they would be a third world country.
Don’t leave yourself so open to easy refute…”
Ditto…
For all my fellow Canucks here that might contemplate a move to Norway, I have a suggestion. Give it a trial run. Move to Fort McMurray next November through March. Dark, cold, dull and very expensive booze. To balance the negatives, the moose hunting is better here and the East Coast waitresses at the diners all call you “sweetie”, “honey” and “dear”. At least your heart will be warm.
#22 Okanagan Man on 03.09.16 at 6:02 pm…
I watch both markets, and while I don’t profess to be an expert like you as a RE agent – I can’t find any evidence of a brisk market in either Victoria or the Okanagan.
Do you have any links to support your statements?
BTW, in our non-cherry picked community in Arizona, our home is still valued at half of what a similar property in Kelowna would be – and yes I did include exchange.
**********************************************
#93 Sally Turner on 03.09.16 at 8:48 pm…
Obviously a documentary series based on your comments, no?
**********************************************
#99 happyman on 03.09.16 at 8:51 pm…
You know RE agents have hit bottom when their only response is ad hominem attacks.
**********************************************
#104 happyman on 03.09.16 at 8:57 pm…
Facts? Links? Anything?
@107 Bottoms Up
“It takes weeks getting a bank draft through PC financial (good luck buying a house in a hot market that way). There are no tellers (sure you can use cibc but they don’t treat you as customers).”
——————————————————————-
That’s why you have a PLC and a secondary bank.
Frikin liberal leech animal.
A burden on my soaring soul, wanting to pull me down at his level.
#108 Bottoms_Up
I’ve ordered bank drafts from pc financial several times and picked them up at a cibc within hours. The tellers were very friendly too.
#21 Nemesis on 03.09.16 at 6:01 pm
#Oh,TheIrony… #TheUtmostIrony… #Or,”ParadiseLost”?…
[VancouverSun] – BC NDP sells headquarters to foreign buyer: Burnaby building fetches $2.15 million
VICTORIA — The B.C. NDP, which has spent months attacking the government over the issue of foreign ownership in Metro Vancouver’s real estate market, sold its party headquarters last year to what appears to be foreign investors.
Land title records show the NDP’s former two-storey headquarters building at 5367 Kingsway in Burnaby sold for $2.15 million on April 15, 2015, to a company called Utmost Enterprises Ltd.
Utmost Enterprises, which was incorporated just two months before the purchase, lists a registered office at 120-3751 Shell Road in Richmond, which happens to be the same address as an accounting firm whose website says it specializes in “non-resident taxation” practice.
The accounting firm, Lam Tam Lau & Co., would not take questions from The Vancouver Sun on Tuesday.”…
http://www.vancouversun.com/business/sells+headquarters+foreign+buyer/11771478/story.html?__lsa=bbef-4950
***************************
Wow!…I didn’t think anyone read the Van Sun anymore.
For the working middle class, the following is the best choice you can make for your family for the future.
–>Institute a wealth tax in Canada and eliminate the income taxes!!!!!!!
Say 1% on assets over $1Million. This includes second homes, portfolios, cash.
For those that send their money out of the country? Well there can easily be but repercussions in place for them.
Now, reread this post. Think.
I met an absentee neighbour of mine and he just came back for a few days from Holland. He’s a dentist.
Lhttp://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/new-brunswick/jacobus-van-nierop-trial-starts-1.3480665
#127
How do I get in on this? Working in Canada is stupid when you can make a fortune selling this pathetic excuse for a country to China.
I have loads of time to hand out thes flyers. I’m just sitting around collecting EI and wonder why our CF18s aren’t dropping bombs on Ottawa instead os Syria.
I live in Oslo and for a short time (about 6 month).
Norway described as high debt, R/E bubble, just recently only.
I could be very wrong, but Norway is like Canada, Sweden is like U.S.A. (I mean Sweden has things of majors about everything compare to Norge)
Norsk are like Canadians, very nice people, not aggressive, patriotic, too.
One thing I found Norway is very different at the time than Canada, they have (had?) very intelligent government.
Not short sighted. Political, educational, city planning decisions are not money driven.
Rich country with very small population (then about 4.5 mil).
Correction (was in 2000)
>I “lived” in Oslo
$123 Francesca
>It seems that they’re just pumping oil and gas and using that money to create jobs that aren’t really useful, but keeps people busy. As long as the population is small and there’s oil they will do ok,
(I am neutral, not defending Norway, but…)
Small population (35 mil only on second largest land in the world), pumping oil & gas, not useful jobs, doing ok….
is it CANADA? Hahahaha
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-08/phantom-goods-disguise-billions-in-china-illicit-money-outflows
89 mjw – google “Norwegian housing bubble” and get back to us.
Additional material
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/business/global/14frugal.html?_r=0
Justin willing to nuzzle Obama for a photo op but what the yanks are saying behind the scenes is that Justin will get nothing but a bad case of the burps. Just ask the taxpayers in Ontario if ‘Green Wynnie’ cost them dearly and lined the pockets of elite Liberal insiders.
Obama’s ‘Green Push’ is for his legacy, nothing else. The ‘new technology he says is worth killing the energy jobs for is and always will be a fat sucking parasite.
“Los Angeles March 1 (Reuters) – Two sun-drenched U.S. states have lately come to very different conclusions on a controversial solar power incentive essential to the industry’s growth.
In California, regulators voted in January to preserve so-called net metering, which requires utilities to purchase surplus power generated by customers with rooftop solar panels. But neighboring Nevada scrapped the policy – prompting solar companies to flee the state.
The decisions foreshadow an intensifying national debate over public support that the rooftop solar industry says it can’t live without.
“Without net metering, it just doesn’t work,” said Lyndon Rive, chief executive of top U.S. residential solar installer SolarCity Corp.
More than 25 of the 40 U.S. states with net metering policies are reconsidering them, according to the North Carolina Clean Energy Technology Center at North Carolina State University.
Opponents raise fairness concerns and argue that the industry no longer needs generous incentives, citing its rapid growth and solar panel prices that have fallen about 40 percent in five years.
Net metering credits solar users – at full retail rates – for any surplus power their panels generate above household usage. That means many customers pay no monthly utility bill or even rack up excess credits, which they can redeem later in months when their systems produce less power than their home uses.
For most customers, net metering and other incentives are essential to make solar power worth the steep upfront investment – between $17,000 and $24,000 for a typical system, according to data from research firm GTM Research. For systems that are leased, as most are, net metering creates a monthly savings over typical power costs.
Solar providers understand those consumer economics, which explains why SolarCity last month shed more than 550 jobs in Nevada after the public utilities commission in December voted to end net metering at retail rates. The commission plans to reduce credits and raise service charges for solar customers gradually over 12 years.
On Feb. 9, SolarCity blamed Nevada’s move for a weakened 2016 outlook that subsequently sent its stock down nearly 30 percent. SolarCity rival Sunrun has also pulled out of Nevada.
Solar energy makes up less than 1 percent of U.S. electricity generation in part because of its high cost compared to coal and natural gas. But the industry has grown quickly in states where high power prices and generous solar incentives have made it financially attractive to homeowners.
The federal government offers a tax credit worth 30 percent of the cost of solar panels and installation. In December, the U.S. Congress extended that policy for another five years. It had been scheduled to drop to 10 percent for commercial systems and expire entirely for residential systems at the end of this year.
Such public support helped push U.S. installations to 7.2 gigawatts worth of photovoltaic panels last year – more than eight-and-a-half times the amount installed in 2010, according to GTM Research. That growth, in turn, has brought increased scrutiny of continued public support.
“None of this would be much of an issue today if solar hadn’t been so incredibly successful,” said Benjamin Inskeep, who tracks state solar policies for the North Carolina Clean Energy Technology Center.
Utilities have argued that solar subsidies benefit more affluent homeowners at the expense of everyone else. With solar users buying less power – or even selling it, through net metering – that leaves fewer ratepayers to share the cost of traditional power generation, utilities say.
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc is the owner of NV Energy, the Nevada utility that proposed the state’s move away from net metering. In his annual letter to shareholders last week, Buffett warned that “tax credits, or other government-mandated help for renewables, may eventually erode the economics of the incumbent utility.”
Solar supporters counter that the costs of the traditional grid should fall with the rise of solar because utilities will eventually need fewer power plants and transmission lines.
Net metering, solar companies argue, fairly compensates owners for energy they feed back into the grid – so it should be a permanent policy, not a temporary boost to get the industry going.
“Net metering doesn’t need a replacement,” said Sunrun spokeswoman Lauren Randall.
Sunrun leads The Alliance for Solar Choice, the coalition of solar installers that has been most aggressive in lobbying to preserve net metering. If such policies are rolled back, solar users may decide to disconnect from the grid entirely once emerging battery storage options become more available and affordable, Randall said.
For now, net metering – or its absence – has a major impact on solar adoption. Salt River Project, an Arizona utility, effectively halted installations in its territory last year after enacting less generous rates.
The industry is gearing up for another battle over solar rates in that the state, one of the leading solar markets. The public utilities regulator there is considering the request of a small rural power company, UniSource Energy Services, to reduce net metering rates and add a series of charges for solar users.
The utility, a unit of Canada’s Fortis Inc, said in a regulatory filing last year that residential usage per customer declined 4 percent between 2012 in 2014, in part because of the rise in solar installations.
How the Arizona Corporate Commission rules on UniSource’s rate case is expected to signal how it will approach rate cases from five other state utilities seeking changes to how solar customers are compensated – including the state’s largest utility, Arizona Public Service.
Net metering is also being reviewed in smaller venues, such as Maine and New Hampshire, and in traditionally solar-friendly markets such as Massachusetts and New York.
In some states with fledgling solar markets, officials have tended toward less generous net metering policies. Mississippi approved a plan last year that pays solar users below retail rates for their excess power. Maine is expected to introduce a bill this year calling for gradual rate reductions over time, said Sara Gideon, the Maine legislature’s assistant majority leader.
The Maine policy, she said, aims for fair rates while also giving solar users certainly over their costs for years to come.
The debate has already made waves in Hawaii – where 23 percent of households have solar, far more than any state. The high concentration raised concerns about grid reliability and questions of fairness for the 77 percent of households shouldering traditional power costs.
As a result, the state last year cut net metering rates to half of retail value.
In California, about 3 percent of ratepayers have solar systems. The state’s regulators in January preserved net metering in a narrow 3-to-2 vote but also added fees on solar users. The dissenters favored a less generous framework.
The narrow victory in such a pro-solar state was telling, according to a consultant to utility trade group Edison Electric Institute, which has vigorously opposed net metering.
“That tells you,” said Ashley Brown, executive director of the Harvard Electricity Policy Group, “that the opinion is beginning to change.”
Every thousand or so posts he nails it.
lol
his life story
low bar
The U.S. is in big trouble.
no
Libs will have way worse debt/GDP ratio
too bad
#178 crowdedelevatorfartz on 03.09.16 at 8:23 am
@#69 Brazil Ex pat
“Thank you all for listing all the reasons why we left Canada. Good luck to you all !!”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Hows that Zika thing workin for ya?
Will the Owe-limp-ick stadiums be finished on time and massively over budget?
Will any countries that count show up?
Will the president of Brazil be there to greet them or will she be in jail for fraud?
Brazil, the land that Portugal used as a penal colony …….
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Apparently everyone but you knows that the Zika fear porn is fake like all the virus fear porn of the last 15 years.
As for the rest? You are absolutely right cept that while Brazil is pretty much the same as Canada when it comes to corruption….the women are better looking, the food is fresher and tastier and the weather is “actually” warmer unlike like the supposed “climate change” going on in cold wet and “not warm” Canada.
When you use loaded language it means you have no rational arguments to make. I don’t understand why you feel like you need to push your personal (and self-serving) politics on your readers like that.
I say we tax “success” at a marginal 90% like that commie Eisenhower once did. I hear that was when modern America was forged, including the much beloved middle class.
You get one vote, Garth. For all your millions, you get only one vote. Don’t abuse your audience with loaded language and political propaganda. I thought it was a housing/finance blog.
As much as I love to read about people getting butthurt on the internet, it’s getting old. If you don’t like it, move. Canada belongs to a generation now bigger in number than the boomers. Some of them are still coming of age. If you’re butthurt now, you better find a way of dealing with it because you’re going to be absolutely butt-DEVASTATED once you see what the next years and decades hold.
Bwahahahahahahahaha. Trudeau just agreed to hand over all Canadian travelers information to the US in exchange for more US presence on Canadian soil. What a deal right? Obama wants more info on Canadians when he lets millions of undocumented illegal immigrants across the southern border while ordering the Border Patrol to stand down. Was this just a test to see how far Trudy would bend over?
While Trudy barks at Canadian businesses on behalf of Obama, that hypocrite is ramping his own oil agenda? Harper was right, Obama isn’t worth the phone call. Junior doesn’t get he’s being used by a guy who’ll be wallpaper within a few months.
If Obama can wipe his arse with Trudeau this easily can you imagine what Trump is going to do to our simpering little little pup?
RE: #4 Ray Skunk:
“In Ontario the teachers are already talking strike again next year. Their new contract hasn’t even been written, yet they’re already against it.” – these individuals are going to get trounced. They have stirred up public anger against them in a way that historically has only been matched by a very small number of groups. And we have a very activist government in Queens Park, whom the teachers’ union has recently deeply embarrassed. I predict a bloodbath.
Speaking of stimulation:
Why this is the most untrusted bull market ever?
“As Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Michael Hartnett points out, the surge in market indices has been accompanied by the following:
619 global interest rate cuts
$10.4 trillion worth of asset purchases by central banks
$9 trillion worth of global government debt (or about one quarter of all government debt in the world) yielding zero percent or less…”
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-this-is-the-most-untrusted-bull-market-ever-201257567.html
Video of Richard Fisher, former Dallas Fed president:
“We injected cocaine and heroin into the system and are now maintaining it on Ritalin…”
http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000500187
All hail in wonder of the efficient “free” markets…
#150 John Deere on 03.10.16 at 2:26 am
As much as I love to read about people getting butthurt on the internet, it’s getting old. If you don’t like it, move. Canada belongs to a generation now bigger in number than the boomers. Some of them are still coming of age. If you’re butthurt now, you better find a way of dealing with it because you’re going to be absolutely butt-DEVASTATED once you see what the next years and decades hold.
______________________________
Likewise, if you get butt-hurt reading op-ed’s that disagree with your perspective on things and don’t like it – then don’t read it.
It’s been said more than once regarding the millennials – they are their own worst enemy. Gen X’ers on up won’t be getting butt-hurt, rather they will be laughing their butts off. All the changes made by their preferred Politicians are going to hurt them (and their kids) exponentially worse than us older folks. We’re pretty much set, and Trudeau is making haste ensuring Gen X will be the last prosperous generation in Canada.
#150 John Deere on 03.10.16 at 2:26 am
Yeah right.
A generation bigger and dumber than the boomers. And this is coming from a millennial. Look around. You must see what I see? A lot of us are embarrassed to be Canadian these days.
I’ll say it again: the only people I know who voted for the drama teacher seem to be: lazy pot smokers, lazy students who have never worked a real job in their life, single mothers, head-in-the-sand socialists who always seem hate the US, “simple” people who believe the propaganda they read on the worthless CBC, and special interest groups out for themselves (and who do not care about Canada).
If this represents the majority in Canada, then our most brightest/successful who create jobs will just flee elsewhere as we spiral downward out of control.
#151 SallyTurner on 03.10.16 at 4:35 am
100% after Obama the failure is gone I hope Trump gets elected and the drama teacher is forced to deal with a real leader. It will be hilarious watching him try to convince trump of his stupid policies, always wrapped up in lame platitudes and selfies. Hey let’s bring in more refugees! Trump will laugh in his face, along with 60% (and rapidly growing) of Canada at the same time.
Yesterday, a former American soldier who served in Afghanistan and Iraq was hacked to death by another Arab terrorist scum in Israel. Here’s the story:
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/American-murdered-by-terrorist-remembered-as-great-man-who-left-a-legacy-of-service-447379
How come I don’t hear of:
-any people marching in the streets against this aggression
-any terrorist supporting “boycott” movements condemning this action (and the 50 others that have taken place recently)
-any mention from garbage news sources like the CBC
-any “conspiracy theorists” claiming the worldwide cult responsible for this
????????
Not surprised.
MF
I’ve been online banking with PC Financial since March of 1999. Free cheques, no fees and pay your bills online. What’s not to like?
#64 Francesca on 03.09.16 at 7:22 pm
Socialism has a track record of about 100 years of failure, yet 90% of people are leaning towards it.
This is something that I could never understand.
Can anyone tell me why this happens?
————-
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
– George Santayana
Garth – You sound so surprised by these developments. Millennials are the first generation to grow up without the Soviet menace in the East, and whose first taste of capitalism – downsizing, outsourcing, maximizing shareholder value, absurd ‘management’ bonuses &c. – hasn’t exactly endeared youth to the invisible hand. Besides, most of these kids spent their formative years in daycare, where they were taught, relentlessly, to ‘share’, and were constantly exposed to all the hard left gobbledygook you can imagine. Inter alia, the alleged superiority of the ‘Nordic’ welfare state.
What to do about this is the problem, and, with T2 and his curly locks in office, I don’t see any solution any time soon.
Trump 2016!
#150 John Deere
Oh my, you’re so cute with that “young against the old” anger of yours.
You are just as cute as you’re wrong to assume that taxing more “success” is what the young want, or that it will solve the problem in the long term.
“success” can escape, and it will if it has to. And you -“failure” – will be left with no “success” to work for or tax.
If you were really trying to help your fellow “failure” buddies, you would be trying to be “success”, and then you would understand why this wave of tax raising is concerning.
Just got a notification that the ECB will extend QE and cut interest rates further. Laugh out loud. Didn’t I read this last week, last month, last year?
What a joke the EU is. Hopefully after Brexit this failure will finally fall apart for good.
Oh yeah the “Market” should rally like crazy since We are getting our “stimulus” of the month.
MF
Why would anyone wish the EU to fall apart? Do you relish a lower standard of living? — Garth
#29 Felix,
Why would you let him sniff your butt? Do you feed him Scooby snacks off there?
Not that I think this gov’t is going to be great, but they’ll be marginally better. Plus we won’t have to deal with the constant lies and fear mongering about Muslims and immigrants, and we certainly won’t have to deal with utter nonsense like the barbaric cultural tip line proposal.
Also, how is keeping the TFSA at the same level its been for several years ‘neutering’? The 10k limit increase was lame politics, very transparent in its vote-grabbiness.
‘Vote-grabbiness’? Let’s talk about that vaunted $8-per-week middle-class tax break, financed by successful people. — Garth
#130 Bobs ur uncle on 03.09.16 at 10:59 pm
Oh for Eff’s sake. My edits didn’t go thru properly. Here is what I was going for:
#91 IHCTD9 on 03.09.16 at 8:45 pm
Works both ways dude:
“Yes, those _Albertans_ sure have an ultra advanced super _efficient_ economy don’t they?
Or…maybe they just cut down trees, dig stuff out of the ground, and pump Oil like there is no tomorrow?
Yep, that’s what they do. Stone Age era resource economy, but they at least have the brains to embrace it. Without natural resources, they would be a third world country.
Don’t leave yourself so open to easy refute…”
Ditto…
____________________________
You thread a line between high taxes and high GDP and point out Norway has both, and beats the almighty USA GDP/C
I refute saying Norway’s wealth comes from digging and pumping, and has nothing to do with a super modern economy and its accompanying high taxation.
You come back saying Alberta digs and pumps too.
Yeah, you sure refuted the hell out of me didn’t you…
My point refutes your asserting that high taxation and high GDP are somehow linked. You will now have to refute my assertion by showing how Alberta (since you brought them up out of nowhere) taxes their way to prosperity, and indicate how, without their super high taxes their GDP/C could never be so high.
Good luck.
#45 scumop
Wow, well said. Now try repeating that to a moister and enjoy the DIHL.
Go ahead Garth, tell us how its not true…just the locals are pumping the bubble right?? please…
“It used to be rare that in the 905 we would see multiple offers and product going for over asking price, firm deals with no conditions. Now, offers with eight, 10, 12 other agents are almost normal,” Richmond Hill real estate broker Shawn Zigelstein told The Globe and Mail.
And even though most of their wealth is still parked in luxury suites in the city, overseas buyers are increasingly noticing the potential of the suburban sector, with some sellers even requesting advertising space in foreign-language newspapers.
“They see our market as a safe market to put funds in and they’re coming in and they’re putting their money into homes,” Zigelstein said.
Ah yes, the oracle of truth: a 905 realtor. You’re funny. — Garth
#160 MF on 03.10.16 at 8:55 am
Nope. It’s not about relishing the failure of the EU. It’s about first recognizing that failure and then moving on before it gets worse and drags us all down with it.
MF
The EU is hardly a failure. Allowing small nation states to erect trade barriers and engage in currency wars is 19th Century economics. I bet you’d love the gold standard, too. — Garth
Just got an announcement that the Canadian Western Bank is issuing 5-yr rate-reset preferred shares at 6.25%. I have noticed that over the last several months new preferreds have been climbing from around 4.5% to 5, then 5.5, now this. Indicates to me that market forces are forcing interest rates higher. Eventually the BOC and mortgage rates will have to rise I figure.
‘Why would anyone wish the EU to fall apart? Do you relish a lower standard of living? — Garth’
Nobody has to wish the EU to fall apart. It is quite capable of accomplishing that feat on its own.
#166 MF on 03.10.16 at 9:32 am
I believe circumstances have changed. The lack of trade barriers is being exploited by the migrants who are splitting apart the social fabric of the EU. Last year we heard about Grexit, but it was downplayed because of its relatively small influence. Now we are hearing about Brexit, which is a much bigger indicator. It indicates there are many prople tired of being told what to do by the EU leaders, and unhappy with EU membership. I believe if Britain does decide to leave it will be the beginning of the end of the EU.
We have heard about European “stimulus” again and again. It’s clear to me there are problems facing the EU moving forward and they are proving difficult to tackle. It has moved beyond economics and is now into the social.
As for gold, I’m not a gold bug no.
MF
Lots of T2 supporters think this way. They like open, transparent tax-and-spend politicians as much as they abhorred Harper-style closed, tax the people, giveaway to the corporations and spend on your buddies like crazy while lying about fake austerity
Fixed that for you.
Where do the Harper GST tax cuts and the Trudeau double-the-deficit fit in? — Garth
‘Vote-grabbiness’? Let’s talk about that vaunted $8-per-week middle-class tax break, financed by successful people. — Garth
________________________
Agreed, that was vote-grabbiness too – I never said both sides didn’t do it, of course they do – its politics. Also the change isn’t really financed by successful people – the breakeven on the shift in tax policy is around $220k per year, so very very successful people are also getting a tax break, albeit a minor one.
A much better policy (that would have gotten less news coverage and therefore less votes) would have been to raise the threshold where the next federal income tax bracket kicks in. ie, raise it from $45,282 up to $55,000 – this puts more cash in the pockets of people who will be most likely to spend it, and will give a only a modest income boost to people in higher tax brackets (where consumption is stickier). Of course it would still have to be funded by a an increase in the highest tax bracket (or brackets, if more were to be created), but would be much more effective than the current change.
#167 cramar on 03.10.16 at 9:37 am
”Just got an announcement that the Canadian Western Bank is issuing 5-yr rate-reset preferred shares at 6.25%.”
Here’s some for you.
http://web.tmxmoney.com/quote.php?qm_symbol=cwb.pr.b
#169 MF
Its like the entire advanced world is becoming Japan. Europe is trying to fix their declining birth rate and underfunded social services and tax bases with immigration, but its bringing a culture clash and a rash of social problems. Its not going to get any better soon.
Not sure what the solution is, but I don’t think the a Brexit would help anything. Isolationism rarely does (eg, Japan).
IHCTD9
“My point refutes your asserting that high taxation and high GDP are somehow linked. ”
If you could show me where I asserted that, that’d be nice.
Instead, let’s copy and paste my actual point:
“GDP per capita must be crushed by all those high Norwegian taxes. ” ?
I did not say that high taxes leads to high GDP. But from what I read here often, given their high taxes, their economy should be in shambles and all citizens running for the exits. But the evidence shows otherwise.
So, is that a factor of their resources? Well, that’s patently obvious. But Alberta is often touted as the model in Canada for a productive low-tax economy. If only we were all like them. But is their success due to low taxation, or abundant resources? When you have a shit-ton of oil, tax rates may be less relevant. Looking at Norway, low taxes apparently aren’t the one-size-fits-all path to prosperity.
At any rate, if I were an unemployed O&G worker, I know where I’d prefer to be living right now.
Can you believe Ontario is studying the possibility to give everybody, rich or poor, a basic income? Click to read… http://www.theloop.ca/ontario-is-toying-with-an-idea-to-give-everyone-a-basic-income/
What are your thoughts on guaranteed income?
#158 Sacramento Northern
Good comment. Think first, then write. Unusual.
All except the ‘Trump 2016’ bit, that is. Fortunately, that’s quite unlikely and would be counterproductive.
If Capital Gains Tax increases…
Depending on the amount it increases and the fairness of it all. Then, as investors, we will have to reassess our investments in Canadian businesses and it’s people.
There is risk to invest to grow the Nation and those much be balanced with rewards for doing so. When I speak of risk, I do not mean speculating on a home purchase but actually investing into your country for the benefit of all, not just one.
Yes, lets tax wealth! Hate to break it, but a million or even $3million net worth is very little. Unless the wealth is generating an income, taxing it is foolish. The Americans have a sort of wealth tax, they tax inheritance. Many families have lost businesses and property because they can’t afford the taxes.
I grew up on Tsawwassen Beach. My house was one of the biggest on the beach. 4acres on the beach, one of the most valuable too! Our neighbors, an old couple long retired. They lived in a small cottage but had more land. Their assessed value became higher then our house. Just on their assessment, if they owned other assets, had savings in the bank, on paper they would be millionaires. They where struggling to pay the near $12k property tax. Their son inherited it, a college professor. He uses it as a vacation place now. He does struggle with the property tax. On paper with his two homes he’s a millionaire.
A wealth tax is greedy, when most millionaires are like the above, paper wealth, not real wealth. A real millionaire is someone who can spend a million dollars without worry.
You tax the wealthy folks really want to make it better for people in poverty. Donate your own money to and volunteer at charities in your area! Stop trying to steal mine, to make you feel better.
On a side note: My parents grew up poor. My Dad put himself through university. Got a job. Made a lot of money. In fact in commissions earned, he was the highest earner at his large well known Vancouver brokerage firm. In fact to join this firm in 1980, he was paid a $380k sign on bonus! Most of my relatives, well all blue collar workers. My aunt had an accident and is disabled. My parents pay her rent, buy her grocery gift cards for groceries, pay her utilities, pay her TV, phone, etc and finally give her an allowance for pocket money. A measly $100 per week.
Now I’m not saying rich people should do the above. But more successful liberals/socialist should give their own families more aid, when they are down on their luck. Church members, should give extra to less fortunate in their communities. People should give more to charity, even if you don’t get a tax write off. Liberals/socialist want socialism, start a private effort funded by like minded individuals. Stop trying to use government to force it on the population!
I only support three charities. The first one is Ronald McDonald house. I was in children’s hospital with several kids from rural areas. Their parents couldn’t afford to be in Vancouver. Those kids had no family visitors. So I like this one charity, its the only one that is a hand out. The others are the YMCA, Boy and Girl Scouts. The reason, they teach values and how to succeed in life. They all teach “work” for things.
#124 Smoking Man on 03.09.16 at 10:13 pm
There is a ton of good intentioned blog dogs trying to save my soul. Emails.
My response.
My kid is in the rehab business, circling the long branch bungee like a hungry eagle, Everyone out to destroy my fun.
I’ll a pass.
But thanks for caring.
_______________________________________
In order to save your soul you wouldn’t you have to have one first?
Oh my god, I feel like puking watching the bromance between Obumer and Justina ramming the greenwashing agenda down our throughts.
Go Donald .. can’t take these socialists much longer.
Looking at south America for a permanent escape.
Who is in.
#64 Francesca on 03.09.16 at 7:22 pm
Socialism has a track record of about 100 years of failure, yet 90% of people are leaning towards it.
This is something that I could never understand.
Can anyone tell me why this happens?
—————
1. Socialism ain’t communism.
2. Canadians are not good in History.
Totally agree the Millennials in Canada are staring down a lower standard of living than Gen X. This country is being sold out to those enjoying a free lunch.
The growing debt crisis through unsustainable social spending is the fundamental flaw of westernized socialism. To get something for nothing is the carrot to which politicians shamelessly pander. This spurs unfunded liabilities, accelerating deficits and rapidly growing national debts. The cycle repeats as more carrots are dangled.
Sound sustainable to you? Sure, let’s suck the teat of our wealth-generating ability until it is dry.
The Rahn Curve is as relevant today as yesterday: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2005/03/the-impact-of-government-spending-on-economic-growth
DELETED
Don’t know about Norway but sure like the peolpe of Norwegian heritage that live here. Was once stranded in Bella Coola (road washed out) and was forced (would not take no for an answer) to stay with a fellow of Norwgian heritage that was born in Bella Coola. Had a great time. Best part of the trip actually. Will always remember his hospitality. Worked with others that became life long friends too. And I think Norway still exports gaffelbiters …
#176 Guaranteed income on 03.10.16 at 11:03 am
What are your thoughts on guaranteed income?
…………
Awesome if your starting a new business and are under capitalized.
Or if your between consulting gigs.
The Socialist don`t think things through.
What is the difference between buying real estate in the late 80s bubble VS the current bubble?
Buying into an inflationary, falling interest rate environment VS buying into a low inflation, flat or rising rate environment.
This spells trouble? Nominal debt will not be inflated away? Wages won’t rise? Asset values won’t rise?
Y/N/M?
I think Garth may be on to something when he says it is domestic credit, not foreign wealth that is fuelling our RE bubble.
This is an excellent 4-part documentary on debt:
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/debt-good-bad-ugly/
Spiralling forces at play here make bubbles inevitable: there is no force that seeks equilibrium in the RE market. Instead a self-reinforcing one where higher prices increase demand, instead of lowering it.
Bram
#182 Ponzius Pilatus on 03.10.16 at 11:49 am
#64 Francesca on 03.09.16 at 7:22 pm
Socialism has a track record of about 100 years of failure, yet 90% of people are leaning towards it.
This is something that I could never understand.
Can anyone tell me why this happens?
—————
1. Socialism ain’t communism.
2. Canadians are not good in History.
___________________________________________
@ Ponzi Pilates
Socialism today versus socialism 30,40,50 years ago are vastly different ideas. The safety net has continued to expand. Check your history.
Does guaranteed basic income sound more like a communist or a socialist idea?
# 151 Sally Turner
Great to see someone else gets it on the Trudeau ego extravaganza. Might be just naivety or perhaps idealistic hope and trust by Trudeau but he is definitely swimming in the shark tank.
With the new Federal Government and such stellar performers as Wynne and Nothead, amongst several others, it brings to mind the old Trooper song ” Three Dressed Up As A Nine ” when looking and thinking about Canada as a country and it’s present circumstances and definitely it’s likely future prospects over time.
That’s why with this dollar rally it may be fundamentally worthwhile to perhaps cut back on the maple a bit more for a bit more diversification from a longer term perspective. However with all the volatility in everything nowadays, who knows any more.
So a bunch of folks who own multi million dollar semi detached and detached crap shacks in Toronto and Vancouver, supported by epic leverage at historically low interest rates, are going to support a “wealth” tax?
200K per year income earners, with no assets other than highly leveraged, junk real estate located in over inflated bubble markets, are going to support increased income tax on the “rich” (ie, anyone earning more than 120K per year)?
I won’t believe it till I see it. I predict this “tax everything and everyone” scheme will be the most unpopular scheme in history. It will rival Wynne’s current “carbon tax” on gasoline and natural gas (how are we supposed to heat our houses now, with electricity? Wood cut from the ravine in the backyard?). People are going to be pissed. As soon as folks start realizing what wealth, capital gains, carbon and income taxes do to their bottom lines, they are going to become very upset. Remember we are not talking about the old folks who socked away cash in good stocks and investments and who own their dreadfully over valued houses, that they don’t plan on renovating any time soon (pink bathroom wall tiles are fine by me…)
We are talking about millennials. People who view a kitchen without granite counter tops similar to how they would view a car without tires or an engine (except they hate cars and none of them have driveways). Who insist on the finest everything that borrowed money can buy. Take a few thousand extra from these people every year, in tax increases, and most of them will not be able to keep up with the payments.
Oh and about creating economic “growth” through government spending, is the government nuts? As soon as they do that, they are going to get an overheated economy, which will require an interest rate hike to “cool down” and then watch as the fireworks begin in the housing market. What the govt should be doing is taking every step possible to make sure we remain in recession. Otherwise the real estate bubble markets, faced with 5 year rate reset mortgages and increasing interest rates, will blow up in a very messy way.
Interest on 1,000,000 at 2.5% per year: $25,000.00
Interest on 1,000,000 at 5% per year: $50,000.00
Here’s hoping that people get a $25,000 per year increase in pay, or this could get messy…..
# 172 Ronaldo
Thanks for the Canadian Western Bank stock charts and info.
I haven’t been into the preferred share investing orgy so i’ve never bothered to look at these things before, but what really stands out in the share description is that these share are non-cumulative with respect to dividend payments. This means if things get bad or if Canadian Western Bank decides to pass on a dividend, the holder is not entitled to the dividend passed on because the right to accumulate is not the shareholder’s.
Why would any person want to invest in something like that? More importantly, is the system so corrupted that such securities from banks can be peddled to the public with a straight face by the banks themselves as well as the borkers ?
No wonder we are so screwed.
No Canadian bank has missed or reduced a dividend payment, not even during the GFC. These assets come with the highest security rating and, in this case, a knock-out yield. That’s why the issue was over-subscribed sold out in minutes this morning. — Garth
For the first time ever (I think) I was chatting about housing with someone who proudly said to me that her and her husband decided about 5 years ago not to use up their savings to buy a house. They rent, max out RRSP and TFSAs, they have not moved in years because their rent is cheap but if they start hating it they will just rent somewhere else.
They love the freedom now and for their future and can’t understand why people are so willing to get into so much debt.
I was impressed.
#187 crappy armchair economist on 03.10.16 at 12:29 pm
What is the difference between buying real estate in the late 80s bubble VS the current bubble?
A bursting RE bubble in a deflationary environment seems more dangerous to me:
The principle sum of your debt, adjusted for inflation, will grow if you pay the interest only.
In a high inflation environment (1980s), the principle sum of your debt, adjusted for inflation, will shrink — even if you pay the interest only.
The winning scenario for the consumer here, is locking in a fixed interest rate for 20 yrs when interest is low.
And then for inflation to hit hard.
Then 20 yrs later, inflation will have withered away your debt to almost nothing. Win!
Inflation helps those with debt. Deflation helps those with cash.
But in both scenarios it is important never to go underwater on your mortgage.
Make sure you have 50% equity, preferably right from the start with a 50% downpayment.
Then even a -50% RE crash will not get the bank to come down on you, and demand coughing up more collateral.
Bram
MF because there’s no us and them only high level smart and ruthless controllers at top of Pyramid.
You recall Gulf War 1, USA beacon of hope and democracy destroyed Iraq on live TV (shock and awe) then retreated leaving brutal dictator Saddam in power? I mean whenever in history has a country been invaded and its leader not toppled? No he was left in full control for a reason.
They had a small girl go before US Congress talking about Iraq solders ripping out incubators. Even Wikipedia today records this as a lie from a PR firm.
Ruthless. We’re next.
No Canadian bank has missed or reduced a dividend payment, not even during the GFC. These assets come with the highest security rating and, in this case, a knock-out yield. That’s why the issue was over-subscribed sold out in minutes this morning. — Garth
_______________
Would you recommend the average retail investor hold individual Canadian bank equities in their TFSA? Seems like a rock solid investment, although I know you favour ETFs to disperse risk.
No, unless you have an overall seven-figure portfolio. And remember that bank equities are not bank preferreds. — Garth
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/should-house-price-spike-stop-divorced-dad-s-spousal-support-1.3483794
“Should house price spike stop divorced dad’s spousal support?
Whacky stuff. Only in Canada?
The ex-wife should sell out, obviously.
Lawyers say rapid rise in Lower Mainland real estate prices makes divorce settlement challenging”
#174 Bobs ur uncle on 03.10.16 at 10:41 am
IHCTD9
“My point refutes your asserting that high taxation and high GDP are somehow linked. ”
If you could show me where I asserted that, that’d be nice.
Instead, let’s copy and paste my actual point:
“GDP per capita must be crushed by all those high Norwegian taxes. ” ?
__________________________________
I stand corrected.
What you point out is interesting, I decided to take a second look at Norway’s NR industries. Looks like it is essentially Nationalized – except done via Government purchasing shares (controlling interest in many cases) in private NR companies. More or less State Capitalism.
While I admit this is fairly smart, I imagine GDP won’t be dipping too much as I doubt the government is taxing and royaltying the crap out of companies it has controlling interest in such that they have trouble keeping in the black :).
It’s probably just the Citizens of Norway being hammered, and if they think it’s worth it they can fill their boots. A Big Mac costs $8.00 in Norway.
What came first in Norway, the Oil, or the big social spending? Oil of course! 52% of Norway’s GDP is public spending by Government using State revenues and tax revenue. It’s easy to see just how nasty the downturn in Oil and commodity prices must be for them right now.
Many folks have accused Harper of “putting all our eggs in one basket” – well Norway has done this 10X over whatever Harper did. That’s how you make serious bank quickly and easily.
I expect Norway has already sailed into rough financial waters in the new for now dirt cheap oil era. Whatever revenue trouble we have in Canada would be 10X worse over there. They are a good example of building a community on Oil, Trees, and rocks, and technology wrought from same – but not much else.
186 Smoking Man on 03.10.16 at 12:28
”The Socialist don`t think things through.”
As B.C. found out in the 70’s with the election of Dave Barrett. Certainly got rid of Whacky’s 500 million surplus in a hurry that the province had at the time. What a disaster that turned out to be. Still feeling the pains of that one.
#181 Smoking Man on 03.10.16 at 11:26 am
Oh my god, I feel like puking watching the bromance between Obumer and Justina ramming the greenwashing agenda down our throughts.
Go Donald .. can’t take these socialists much longer.
Looking at south America for a permanent escape.
Who is in.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
How about we pay for your plane flight first.
#196 James on 03.10.16 at 1:38 pm
#181 Smoking Man on 03.10.16 at 11:26 am
Oh my god, I feel like puking watching the bromance between Obumer and Justina ramming the greenwashing agenda down our throughts.
Go Donald .. can’t take these socialists much longer.
Looking at south America for a permanent escape.
Who is in.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
How about we pay for your plane flight first.
—————-
A one-way bus ticket should be enough.
———
#200 James on 03.10.16 at 1:38 pm
#181 Smoking Man on 03.10.16 at 11:26 am
Oh my god, I feel like puking watching the bromance between Obumer and Justina ramming the greenwashing agenda down our throughts.
Go Donald .. can’t take these socialists much longer.
Looking at south America for a permanent escape.
Who is in.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
How about we pay for your plane flight first.
===================================
Or maybe he could hitch a ride on this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZq3iCn2y74
Went to see [email protected] today for financial advice.
She moved some things around and saved me 1,500 bucks.
Will go back a few times more for more financial magic.
Then I’ll be Richer than I Think.
After the overthrow, first agenda will be to ban all false advertising and testimonials by fake doctors, dentists and pharmacists.
Smoking Man:
Ecuador or Uruguay?
Looks like delinquency rates have started rising in AB, SK, MB, NL.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-calgary-consumer-debt-equifax-1.3484940
No surprise as this blog already described the trend, but still interesting to see the hard numbers. Note that this is for consumer (non-mortgage) debt, so think Truck Nutz.
#173 Noel on 03.10.16 at 10:37 am
Totally agree. Immigration is our bandaid solution to a major hemorrhage in the carotid. It’s easier than trying to be creative and develop effective policy, which it seems we are incapable of.
#195 TurnerNation on 03.10.16 at 1:06 pm
I heard Saddam was kept in power because the official mandate of gulf war 1 was to kick him out of Kuwait and not to overthrow him. In hindsight we can see that that may have been a better strategy than gulf war 2. Look at Iraq and Syria now.
Smoking man:
I am sick to my stomach with this coverage. Both idiot leaders obozo and T2. Everyone hailing him as a “success”. Liberal media on full attack mode. I look forward to Trump telling the drama teacher his policies are pathetic.
MF
#184 paul on 03.10.16 at 12:12 pm
DELETED
————————————————————-
Wondering why
Used proper name for Obama slight variation for T2
Must have been the link to a Canadian well known magazine about Pierre Trudeau.
Calling a former PM a commie doesn’t cut it here. — Garth
What will the impact of March 22nd be on CAD exchange rate? Any thoughts?
#189 Hope & Ruin
Any type of “Guaranteed National Income” is a welfare check to the non-working, or working with low wages.
Why bother to have a ‘minimum wage’ if you are going to put forth a “Guaranteed National Income”??
However, IF a country is to have a ‘minimum wage’ then, it seems to me any type of transfer payments, that is ‘welfare’ for sustenance needs to be based on that minimum wage, minus taxes or there is NO incentive for the able bodied to work.
Just my opinion, and I am sort of a hard hearted SOB when it comes to living off the sweat of others -sorry-
” Norway’s giant sovereign wealth fund said on Tuesday that it would manage its $884 billion portfolio more aggressively over the next three years, taking larger stakes in companies and increasing its real estate portfolio.”
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/06/24/norways-sovereign-wealth-fund-ramps-up-investment-plans/?_r=0
So if all that Norwegian kronor is bringing back returns in Euros, dollars, pounds etc to Norway, what do they do with it?
Does everyone in Norway get a pension paid for from income generated abroad?
That can’t be good for the local work ethic.
Why would anyone rule against holding Canadian bank equities in a portfolio? I hold about 20% of my equities in them with the balance in ETFs all over. And my portfolio is nowhere near 7 figures. Bank equities are like little global ETFs.
#207 paul on 03.10.16 at 3:30 pm
#184 paul on 03.10.16 at 12:12 pm
DELETED
————————————————————-
Wondering why
Used proper name for Obama slight variation for T2
Must have been the link to a Canadian well known magazine about Pierre Trudeau.
Calling a former PM a commie doesn’t cut it here. — Garth
——————————————————————–
I guess you are right, maybe a socialist if folks give this a read they can decide.
http://jeanchretien.libertyca.net/html/0072.htm
http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/nothing-to-write-home-about/
#207 paul on 03.10.16 at 3:30 pm
#184 paul on 03.10.16 at 12:12 pm
DELETED
————————————————
Calling a former PM a commie doesn’t cut it here. — Garth
——————————————————————-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_0wFh-ceRU
#198 IHCTD9
______________________________
I stand corrected.
– hats off to you – I didn’t think those words ever appeared anywhere on the internets.
—
What you point out is interesting, I decided to take a second look at Norway’s NR industries. Looks like it is essentially Nationalized – except done via Government purchasing shares (controlling interest in many cases) in private NR companies. More or less State Capitalism.
While I admit this is fairly smart, I imagine GDP won’t be dipping too much as I doubt the government is taxing and royaltying the crap out of companies it has controlling interest in such that they have trouble keeping in the black :).
– fair enough
—
It’s probably just the Citizens of Norway being hammered, and if they think it’s worth it they can fill their boots. A Big Mac costs $8.00 in Norway.
– and university is essentially free. I’d take that trade any day.
—-
What came first in Norway, the Oil, or the big social spending? Oil of course! 52% of Norway’s GDP is public spending by Government using State revenues and tax revenue. It’s easy to see just how nasty the downturn in Oil and commodity prices must be for them right now.
– yes it came from oil. But you are ignoring the fact that their sovereign wealth fund, for a country of ~ 5 million people is near 900 Billion dollars. So, taxation *and prudent saving* (yes a huge caveat), rather than putting them in the poorhouse is currently saving them from it. I think they’ll be just fine.
—
Many folks have accused Harper of “putting all our eggs in one basket” – well Norway has done this 10X over whatever Harper did. That’s how you make serious bank quickly and easily.
– no arguments there
I expect Norway has already sailed into rough financial waters in the new for now dirt cheap oil era. Whatever revenue trouble we have in Canada would be 10X worse over there. They are a good example of building a community on Oil, Trees, and rocks, and technology wrought from same – but not much else.
– same as Alberta. But who do you imagine is feeling more pain at present? The low-tax, no savings or high-tax, high-savings jurisdiction?
Again – the main point is that marginally higher taxes (or in norway’s case, very high taxes) don’t have to equate to misery. In their case, it’s actually served them well.
One example does not a trend make, but it is an interesting counterpoint to “government taxation will make us all poor”…
“motivational” stimulators
https://theintercept.com/2016/03/10/donald-trumps-get-rich-quick-advice-makes-a-mockery-of-his-campaign-rhetoric/
Trip Brennan is a writer living in Washington, D.C. He has done research and advocacy work for civil rights organizations including the ACLU of Michigan and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan.
=====================
By Ike Swetlitz @ikeswetlitz March 2, 2016
…”For about two years, a STAT investigation has found, The Trump Network sold customized vitamins and scientific testing kits, claiming they would yield health benefits. But according to many outside experts, the network was selling bad science.
https://www.statnews.com/2016/03/02/donald-trump-vitamin-company/
From the wayback machine
http://web.archive.org/web/20111104104518/http://www.trumpnetwork.com/About/HowIsDonaldInvolved.aspx
==========
seminars sellers
‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’ Robert Kiyosaki Exposed – Part 1 of 3 Investigative Report
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE6nT0oyPt8
Russ Whitney Wants You to Be Rich
By RANDALL PATTERSONMARCH 18, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/realestate/keymagazine/318RUSS.t.html
#181 Smoking Man on 03.10.16 at 11:26 am
T2 has just a few more months…
to beat the time in office that it took BO-POTUS to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
That will be the climax of the bromance!
renouncing your citizenship won’t help when it comes to tax evasion
DOJ’s Latest Offshore Tax Case Shows Expatriates Who Renounce U.S. Citizenship Not Immune From Prosecution
Posted on February 3, 2016 by Matthew D. Lee
http://taxcontroversywatch.com/2016/02/03/dojs-latest-offshore-tax-case-shows-expatriates-who-renounce-u-s-citizenship-not-immune-from-prosecution/
=======================
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
Former U.S. Citizen Pleads Guilty to Tax Fraud Related to Swiss Financial Account
Used Hong Kong Entity and Foreign Accounts in Switzerland, Monaco and Singapore to Conceal Funds
…”In 2012, Cambata, who has lived in Switzerland since 2007, went to the U.S. Embassy in Bratislava, Slovakia, to renounce his U.S. citizenship and informed the U.S. Department of State that he had acquired the nationality of St. Kitts and Nevis by virtue of naturalization.”
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-us-citizen-pleads-guilty-tax-fraud-related-swiss-financial-account
To be fair, while I agree with almost everything, the reason we don’t see any Norwegians is because they’re all on the beach in Spain from October-May. I speak from experience!
“Harper-style neocon austerity”
Like a 1-million$ fence in Montebello for security? Like $200 million to Ukraine to combat “Russian Invasion” as we contribute to overthrow the government in Kiev to get Ukrainian votes?