Kevin Comeau – Combatting Money Laundering to Help Ukraine
From: Kevin Comeau To: Canadians Concerned About Oligarchs Date: March 16, 2022 Re: Combatting Money Laundering to Help Ukraine For more than 20 years, our weak anti-money laws have enabled corrupt politicians, criminals, and tax cheats from around the world to launder billions of dollars in Canadian real estate without disclosing the true owner. Canada has the opportunity to […] Zelmer, Kronick – Let’s Not Roll Out QT on the QT
To: Bank of Canada Governing Council From: Mark Zelmer and Jeremy M. Kronick Date: February 18, 2022 Re: Let’s Not Roll Out QT on the QT As the Bank of Canada prepares to begin raising interest rates to get inflation back to target, there is also the issue of how quickly it should reduce the […] Ambler, Kronick – Decisions Deferred Mean Trouble to Come
To: Canadians Worried About Inflation From: Steve Ambler and Jeremy M. Kronick Date: February 7, 2022 Re: Decisions Deferred Mean Trouble to Come The Bank of Canada surprised financial markets late last month by holding its overnight rate target constant at 25 basis points. Holding constant might seem to imply that the Bank’s monetary policy is […] Ambler, Kronick – The Bank That Didn’t Bark
To: Canadians Worried About Inflation From: Steve Ambler and Jeremy M. Kronick Date: February 1, 2022 Re: The Bank That Didn’t Bark The Bank of Canada kept its overnight rate target steady at 25 basis points last week, which was a surprise to markets that had already priced in a rate increase. Despite that ample cover for a first […] Where’s the hike? Why didn’t the Bank of Canada act? – Financial Post Op-Ed
In a surprise move, the Bank of Canada kept its overnight rate target steady at 25 basis points Wednesday. Markets had already priced in a rate increase by the time the announcement was made, so there was ample cover to make this the first post-pandemic increase. That didn’t happen. With inflation rising at home and abroad, we believe this was a missed opportunity.
Steady increases in inflation and inflation expectations had led markets to believe the bank was set to increase its target for the overnight rate for the first time since the pandemic began. Headline inflation was up to 4.8 per cent in December, all of the bank’s core inflation measures had increased — with two of the three at or above three per cent — and its…
Ed Devlin on BNN – When you’re at a lower bound of interest rates, deflation is a greater problem than inflation
Ed Devlin, Founder of Devlin Capital, Senior Fellow at C.D. Howe Institute, and former Head of Canadian Portfolio Management at PIMCO, joins BNN Bloomberg to provide his reaction to the Bank of Canada’s decision to hold interest rates steady. He says that keeping the rates will give the bank more options to deal with the uncertainties of the pandemic.
Zelmer, Kronick – Is This Going to Be the Year for Crypto?
From: Mark Zelmer and Jeremy M. Kronick To: Canadian Crypto Watchers Date: January 19, 2022 Re: Is This Going to Be the Year for Crypto? The world got its first digital currency, DigiCash, in 1989. Nine years later it filed for bankruptcy. We’re still waiting for digital money to take over from cash – as seems inevitable. Is 2022 […] Glen Hodgson – Time to Review ATB Financial: Is It Still Needed as a Crown Corporation?
From: Glen Hodgson To: Travis Toews, Alberta Minister of Finance and President of the Treasury Board Re: Time to Review ATB Financial: Is It Still Needed as a Crown Corporation? Date: January 13, 2022 Alberta is the only province to have a retail bank owned by taxpayers. Is this still the right purpose for ATB […] Angelo Melino – A New Year’s Resolution for the Bank – Slim Down!
From: Angelo Melino To: Governing Council of the Bank of Canada Date: January 10, 2022 Re: A New Year’s Resolution for the Bank – Slim Down! Slimming down is usually a New Year’s resolution for individuals. This year, it would also make sense for the Bank of Canada. In addition to lowering its policy rate […] Is 2022 the year crypto becomes money? – Financial Post Op-Ed
The world got its first digital currency, DigiCash, in 1989. Nine years later it filed for bankruptcy. Since then the world has been waiting for digital currency to take over from cash – as it seems bound at some stage to do. Is 2022 the year it finally happens?
Bitcoin (est’d. 2009) is the best-known crypto currency. Bitcoin does not have any value in its own right yet it has a market value near US$ 1 trillion, almost 40 per cent of the total crypto currency market valuation. Bitcoin aspires to be used widely as a currency and has been accepted as legal tender in some developing countries, most notably El Salvador. But its price in U.S. dollars — its exchange rate, if you like — is very volatile, making it too unstable for…
Ambler, Kronick – Will Ending Supply Bottlenecks Solve Inflation?
To: Canadians Worried About Inflation From: Steve Ambler and Jeremy M. Kronick Date: December 20, 2021 Re: Will Ending Supply Bottlenecks Solve Inflation? Last week’s Bank of Canada policy rate announcement once again stressed supply chain bottlenecks as the source of the high and increasingly persistent inflation facing Canadians. So then, inflation should come down […] Harvey Naglie – Hit Pause on Ontario’s Proposed Capital Markets Act
From: Harvey Naglie To: Central Bank Observers Date: December 20, 2021 Re: Hit Pause on Ontario’s Proposed Capital Markets Act In October, the Ontario Government issued a consultation draft for a revised Capital Markets Act, intended to become Ontario’s new securities legislation. This is a rewarmed version of a decade-old proposal, a wasted once-in-a-generation opportunity for intelligent reform, and […]