News
Trudeau’s Canada a House of Cards Waiting to Collapse
Canada is under a state of toxicity. It’s unfashionable to say so in centrist circles, but it’s true. The country faces escalating radicalism, toxic polarisation, and low trust. Wealth disparity is increasing. Its federal system could be better, notably in the relationship between Alberta and the national government. Monopolies and oligopolies go amok, exploiting customers.
There are numerous other issues. However, the convergence of a few big obstacles screams House of Cards collapsing! The country’s housing crisis, consumer debt, and high – and potentially rising – interest rates are among them.
They present a picture of hardworking individuals living lives they can’t afford daily. This dreadful scenario occurs no matter how hard people work or how strictly they adhere to the game’s rules – laws they were assured were fair and just.
The Exorbitant Cost of Housing
In Canada, housing is completely expensive. The average home costs around CAD$700,000, while a one-bedroom rental costs close to $1,900 per month.
According to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, the hourly wage required to rent a one-bedroom flat exceeds the provincial minimum wage. The analysis discovered only three urban regions in Quebec where the minimum wage was more than the rent for a one-bedroom flat.
Housing starts — breaking ground on new buildings — are falling behind as the country booms. They were down 10% in July after a significant increase in June.
No Affordable Homes in Canada
According to the CMHC, the country needs 5.8 million homes by 2030 to achieve affordability, but construction is on track to reach only 2.8 million, less than half of what is required. Building costs, government policies, and labor shortages impede construction attempts.
Even when units are produced, there are far too few purpose-built rentals and non-market options to assist people needing affordable housing.
Those who are lucky enough to own a home face their own set of challenges. Mortgage payments are growing due to high-interest rates, which may climb again in the autumn. Now, 40% of mortgage holders borrow to cover day-to-day expenditures, and nearly 20% need to catch up on their payments.
According to Robert McLister of the Globe and Mail, that is based on data from December, and things have most likely worsened since then. Despite new measures from the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada aimed at keeping people in their houses and pricey financial gimmicks such as extra-long mortgage amortization periods, the prospect of default looms.
However, something has to give at this rate — especially since debtors will face renewal periods and high-interest rates in the coming months and years.
Canadians Floundering in Debt
Households are also heavily in debt. The CMHC cautioned in May that Canada’s household debt, which leads the G7 and will reach 107 percent of GDP in 2021, “makes the economy vulnerable to any global economic crisis.” It also puts it vulnerable to an internal crisis of its own making.
Mortgages account for most household debt, although auto loans and credit cards also contribute. Consumer debt in Canada reached a new high of $2.32 trillion in the spring. People need to catch up on their payments. Simultaneously, inflation and rising prices remain.
The Bank of Canada raised interest rates by 25 basis points to 5% in July, largely due to mortgage expenses, which were the key inflation drivers in June and July. As it struggles to achieve its 2% inflation objective, the bank may raise rates again in September.
In the near term, the bank and Canadians are locked in a vicious mortgage-inflation circle in which mortgage rates fuel inflation, and the bank boosts interest rates to combat inflation, which raises mortgage costs. Even if the long-term goal is to reduce inflation by limiting money supply and expenditure, the short-term spiral is hell.
It will take a long time to reach the 2% inflation target. Meanwhile, Canadians are in a precarious position with high mortgage rates, a lack of home supply, high prices, and a massive consumer debt burden.
As interest rates climb, so does the likelihood and possible number of mortgage, auto loan, and credit card defaults. The chance of job loss is similar.
The Austerity Dance of Justin Trudeau
The Bank of Canada is not mandated nor disposed to care about persons in financial difficulty in the short term. Its long-term goal is to keep inflation at a sustainable level. On the other hand, national, provincial, and local governments are supposed to care about those in need at all times. And yet, if there is a plan in place to protect Canada’s house of cards from collapsing or to make people whole, if it does, it is still being determined what that plan is.
Imperfect and insufficient social welfare programs, such as dental care and prescription drug coverage, are being implemented, but they are insufficient to address Canada’s serious financial crisis.
The Liberal government of Justin Trudeau may also be considering budget cuts. Ministers have been directed to cut $15 billion in spending by October. This could indicate a government less willing to spend significantly in the coming months and years, even as the Liberals sag in the polls and face an election in the autumn of 2025 or sooner.
Governments must be prepared to support individuals experiencing economic difficulty and will be crushed if the country’s house of cards collapses.
These folks work and strive for the things they’ve been instructed to strive for: a house, a car, an education, and a few respectable consumer goods. They are now abandoned due to a confluence of economic systems, pandemic repercussions, inefficient government policies, and unpredictable global geopolitical processes.
These employees, who ensure the buses run on time and the grocery shelves are filled, make up 40% of the country’s wages yet own only 2.7 percent of its net worth. In contrast, the wealthiest 20% of income controls about 70% of the total.
This wealth disparity is terrible at any time, but it’s especially disgusting in the aftermath of the last few years when the powers that be paid so much lip service to workers — as “frontline” and “essential.” They must not be abandoned in the wilderness while the country fights to resolve its economic problems.
This article by By David Moscrop was first published in Jacobin.com
News
The Federal Reserve Was Sued By Big Banks Over Annual Stress Tests.
(VOR News) – A number of financial firms and industry associations have taken legal action against the Federal Reserve of the United States in reaction to the annual stress tests that are administered to banks.
In addition to the American Bankers Association, the Ohio Bankers League, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, and the United States Chamber of Commerce, the Bank Policy Institute, which is a group that represents large financial institutions such as JPMorgan, Citigroup, and Goldman Sachs, is joining the other organizations in filing the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs have said that the purpose of the action is to “resolve longstanding legal violations by subjecting the stress test process to public input as required by federal law.”
The Federal Reserve litigation aims to achieve this goal.
Despite the fact that the organizations have said that they do not have a negative stance on stress testing, they are of the opinion that the method that is now being utilized is insufficient and “produces vacillating and unexplained requirements and restrictions on bank capital.”
It is standard procedure for the Federal Reserve to carry out a stress test on an annual basis. This test ensures that financial institutions have adequate reserves to cover the risk of bad loans and establishes the maximum amount of share repurchases and dividends that can be distributed.
After the market closed on Monday, the Federal Reserve issued a statement indicating that it is considering adjustments to the stress tests applied to banks.
Additionally, the Federal Reserve will seek public feedback on “significant changes to improve the transparency of its bank stress tests and to reduce the volatility of resulting capital buffer requirements.”
This information was included in the announcement. As a result of “the evolving legal landscape,” the Federal Reserve claimed that it had made the choice to modify the tests. This statement was made in reference to the changes that have taken place in administrative laws over the course of the past several years.
There were no particular modifications that were described in this paper that were provided to the framework of the yearly stress testing before it was implemented. There is a likelihood that the revisions will be regarded as a win by the major banks; yet, it is possible that those modifications will be too little, too late.
Furthermore, it is possible that the revisions will not go far enough to satisfy the concerns of the banks regarding onerous capital requirements. This is a possibility.
The Federal Reserve says the changes will not materially affect capital requirements.
It was stated in a statement that was issued by Greg Baer, the Chief Executive Officer of the Bank of the Philippines, that “The Board’s announcement today is a first step towards transparency and accountability.”
Baer expressed his support for the Federal Reserve’s action. The statement issued by Baer, on the other hand, was a veiled allusion to additional actions. He stated, “We are reviewing it closely and considering additional options to ensure timely reforms that are both good law and good policy.”
The British Bankers Association (BPI) and the American Bankers Association (ABA) are two examples of organizations that have voiced their concerns in the past about the stress test procedure.
The aforementioned organizations have argued that the process is not transparent and has resulted in increasing capital rules, which have a detrimental effect on the lending practices of banks and the expansion of the economy.
The groups claimed in July that the Federal Reserve had broken the Administrative Procedure Act by not asking for public comment on its stress scenarios and by maintaining strict confidentiality about supervising models. Both of these acts were claimed to have happened.
SOURCE: CNBC
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American Airlines Has Canceled All Domestic Flights Due to a Technical Issue.
Joe Biden Commutes Sentences For 37 Of The 40 Federal Death Row Prisoners.
News
American Airlines Has Canceled All Domestic Flights Due to a Technical Issue.
(VOR News) – Due to technical difficulties, American Airlines (AA) was forced to cancel all of its flights departing from the United States on Tuesday morning.
This decision was reached as a result of information that was provided by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
American Airlines’ findings were based on FAA data.
The airline is currently dealing with a lot of problems as a consequence of a considerable number of customers claiming that their planes have returned to gates after being stopped on runways at a number of different airports.
A decision has been reached by American Airlines to cancel each and every flight that was planned to fly in the United States prior to the implementation of cancellation.
The following is a comment that American Airlines provided in a post that was published on X, which was formerly known as Twitter. Take the following example:
“Our team is working to resolve a technical issue.” Despite the fact that they have not been able to provide an estimated time for the problem to be resolved, the organization has emphasized that they are making every effort to restart operations as quickly as possible.
There have been a number of aircraft throughout the United States that have been grounded as a result of the grounding. Travelers have taken to social media to vent their frustration with the delays and the lack of definite dates for their flights. A great number of flights have been canceled as a direct consequence of the grounding.
In spite of the fact that its technical staff is currently working to solve the system issues, American Airlines continues to handle customer complaints on social media channels.
During the time that they are striving to restart regular operations, the airline is advising passengers who have been affected to return to the airport. Regarding the nature of the technology challenges and the extent of those concerns, there is still a large amount of uncertainty.
There are thousands of customers on American Airlines’ domestic network who are experiencing major implications as a result of this circumstance that is becoming progressively dire.
During the time that they are working to fix the broad system breakdown, the airline is successfully leveraging social media to maintain communication with customer service representatives. As a consequence of this, the airline is able to maintain communication with its passengers.
American Airlines lists other similar examples:
There was a technical problem that happened on Monday at Alaska Airlines (AS), and it had an effect on the entire system. The disruption was directly responsible for the downtime of the company’s website, and as a consequence of the outage, the operations of the aircraft were adjusted.
In an effort to enhance their capacity to retain control over the flow of aircraft, the airline temporarily suspended flights at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport for a period of forty minutes. They adopted this course of action in order to enhance their ability to maintain control.
Due to a technical fault, consumers were unable to book tickets through the contact centers, mobile app, or website of the airline. As a consequence of this, the airline encountered considerable delays in providing satisfactory service to its passengers.
Southwest Airlines (WN) was forced to cancel every flight that was set to depart from various locations across the country earlier this year as a result of a different occurrence that occurred the previous year.
In response to Southwest’s request, the Federal Aviation Administration issued the order to terminate the flight’s operations on the ground. It was necessary to take this action in order to address the difficulties that were brought about by the existing technical impediments.
Southwest Airlines has had more than 1,500 American Airlines flight delays as of late morning Eastern Time, as indicated by the data that was given by Flight Aware. In the United States, this single factor was responsible for more than half of all the delays that were experienced by airplanes.
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SOURCE: AI
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Joe Biden Commutes Sentences For 37 Of The 40 Federal Death Row Prisoners.
The IRS Will Give a Million People Up To $1,400. Their Identity—And Why Now?
News
Joe Biden Commutes Sentences For 37 Of The 40 Federal Death Row Prisoners.
(VOR News) – Joe Biden commuted 37 of 40 federal death row inmates to life without parole. Trump reinstated federal executions after 17 years, according to supporters.
Biden: “Let there be no doubt: I denounce these murderers, mourn their victims, and empathize with all the families who have endured profound and irreparable loss.”
My morals and experiences as a public defender, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, vice president, and president led me to abolish the federal death penalty. I will not allow another administration to violate my ethics.
The president commuted record-high death sentences. Former New Orleans police officer Len Davis was pardoned for running a cocaine protection racket and murdering Kim Groves after she filed a brutality complaint.
In 2022, three killers freed Davis after 28 years in prison.
Groves’ son, Corey, hailed Joe Biden’s commutation of Davis’ death sentence in a brief interview on Monday, saying he wanted the former police officer to serve decades.
“I desire Len to awaken on his 95th birthday still confronted with concrete and barbed wire,” said Groves, who received $1.5 million from the New Orleans city government and family in 2018 for his mother’s death. The president’s actions are worse than death, so I don’t care.
Holder altered his death sentence by murdering a security guard during a dual-participant bank heist. Prosecutors assert that Holder may not have discharged the lethal shot.
Daryl Lawrence was hanged for murdering Bryan Hurst, a Columbus cop. Former officer Donnie Oliverio remarked, “The President acted in accordance with our beliefs and values.” “Executing the individual who murdered my police partner and closest friend would not have afforded me any solace.”
All federal death row inmates save Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who bombed the Boston Marathon in 2013, Dylann Roof, who killed nine Black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015, and Robert Bowers, who slaughtered 11 Jews in a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018, are eligible for clem
Death Penalty Information Center executive director Robin Maher told The Guardian that 38% of the 40 federal execution detainees are Black. About 25% of the offenders were under 21.
Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of the non-profit Equal Justice Initiative, said: “Today signifies a crucial juncture in abolishing America’s tragic and flawed application of the death penalty.
Joe Biden claims the death penalty doesn’t improve public safety.
Son of Martin Luther King Jr.: “This is a historic day.” Reflecting the death penalty’s racially biased origins and unfairness, Joe Biden commuted these sentences, unlike any other president.
Biden has trouble with this. He supported a 1994 criminal measure introducing 60 death penalty charges as a senator. He said, “I am the individual who incorporated these capital punishments into this legislation.” The death penalty led to enormous incarceration, especially of Black men.
Presidential candidate Joe Biden promised to end federal capital punishment in 2020. He criticized unfair convictions and court racism.
The Biden administration stopped federal executions properly. The president has been requesting to commute federal death sentences in recent weeks. Corrections officials, CEOs, Black clergy, Catholics, civil and human rights advocates, prosecutors, former judges, and victim families wrote to him. Pope Francis publicly pushed President Joe Biden to pardon US death suspects.
Joe Biden’s decision will prevent future administrations from executing people.
Trump executed more federal convicts than the previous ten. The Republican administration executed Daniel Lewis Lee after 17 years and six others from July 16–September 24, 2020.
Two Democrats who supported bicameral federal death penalty ban legislation praised Monday’s announcement.
Senate Judiciary Committee head and majority whip Dick Durbin said, “I have consistently supported the elimination of the federal death penalty and commend President Joe Biden for this act of justice and mercy, as well as for his leadership.”
Massachusetts Representative Ayanna Pressley termed Joe Biden decision a “historic and groundbreaking act of compassion that will save lives, rectify profound racial disparities in our criminal justice system, and convey a potent message regarding redemption, decency, and humanity
The White House claims Biden has granted more commutations than his first-term predecessors. He set a record by pardoning 1,500 inmates and promising community safety for one day this month.
The first president to pardon marijuana users and LGBTQ+ service troops for sexual orientation-related offenses was Joe Biden.
The president pardoned his son Hunter for federal weapons and tax charges that might have led him to prison earlier this month, triggering a political storm. Biden denied pardon twice before leaving office on January 20.
SOURCE: TG
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