The continued reliance on cash is a symbol of good governance
When I audited an economics class in the Rice University School of Business, the lecturer compared inflation to slow-growing cancer and deflation to a heart attack. The implication was that deflation – declining prices – is fatal and worse than inflation. This Keynesian fearmongering, which empowers central banks to water down currencies, is common but…
Interest rates will rise dramatically to compensate financial institutions with effects lasting for years
It’s not entirely clear whether the Canadian and the global economies are heading for a new inflationary era. It may turn out that inflation is not only elevated from recent negligible levels, but escalates, steadily at first, and then dramatically, as it did in the 1960s until the early 1980s. If it does, the havoc…
Canada’s 2050 goal to achieve net-zero emissions might look good on paper, but it will harm investors, companies, employees and households
Canada’s policy to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 necessitates divesting from fossil fuels. There’s just one problem: massive outstanding loans from banks to the oil and gas industries. The oil and gas sector makes up more than 10 per cent of the Canadian economy, and abolishing it, gradually or otherwise, would take its toll. Canadian…
The decentralization genie is out of the bottle
Underneath all the media brouhaha and institutional focus on bitcoin, a struggle is brewing in the crypto world: which altcoin will pick up the baton? A fierce competition is underway for the podium, with Ethereum having a clear first-mover advantage. Bitcoin, as economists and investors such as Larry Summers and Ray Dalio have come around…
We must free internal trade, reform banking and telecommunications and increase incentives for retraining
By Sara MacIntyre and Marco Navarro-Genie Frontier Centre for Public Policy Canadians want change. It’s been more than a generation since we’ve felt the kind of overreaching power of government we’ve experienced in the past year. Daily freedoms have been curtailed, millions of livelihoods impaired, savings drained and countless fines and arrests created for new…
A fraction of the global economy moving to a bitcoin standard will create a ripple effect
Former Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper recently suggested bitcoin could become a reserve currency alongside the U.S. dollar. Now a business adviser with Harper & Associates consulting, he had a caveat: bitcoin still lacks a key money feature, that being a store of value. In contrast to fiat currencies, bitcoin has done little but rise…
Crackdowns fail to recognize that alternative lenders are the last hope for Canadians shut out of the traditional lending market
The media often portray alternative lenders as slippery, unethical loan sharks who exploit the poor. When targeting the sector and not just a few bad apples, such stories are easy, cheap hit jobs. New Brunswick Sen. Pierrette Ringuette, for example, recently described alternative loans to CBC Marketplace as “an abusive financial process that needs to…
One day, you’re an unshakable fan of a company; the next day, you’re warning complete strangers to stay away
The relationship between customer and company is a delicate thing. One day, you’re an unshakable fan of a company; the next day, you’re warning complete strangers to stay away. Here are three examples of customer service and how it can go so right – or so wrong. Many years ago, my Telus internet went out.…
Scotiabank launches nationwide scholarship supporting future lawyers tackling systemic discrimination and creating change
Students in the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Law who are invested in combatting racism and promoting inclusivity will have more opportunities to put their passion into practice thanks to a new Scotiabank scholarship program. The Scotiabank Program for Law Students launched nationwide recently with the goal of increasing the number of future lawyers who are tackling…
The cryptocurrency genie is out of the bottle and there is no going back
Among the many races the pandemic has accelerated, none is so pointless as the issuance of central-bank digital currencies. The Canadian government, which should know better, has jumped into the fray despite earlier opposition. Reversing comments made in February 2020, Bank of Canada deputy governor Timothy Lane now believes state involvement in cryptocurrencies is a…