Legault, Brown – Four Design Flaws in Ottawa’s Underutilized Housing Tax
From: Guy Legault and Keith Brown To: Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland Date: December 8, 2021 Re: Four Design Flaws in Ottawa’s Underutilized Housing Tax Last April’s federal budget contained a number of announcements relating to future tax changes. One tax proposal that did not attract much media attention or scrutiny was the government’s plan (originally announced in the 2020 […] David O’Neill Losier – Let’s Give Credit Unions a Fighting Chance in the Digital Age
To: Banking System Observers From: David O’Neill Losier Date: December 7, 2021 Re: Let’s Give Credit Unions a Fighting Chance in the Digital Age Payments Canada recently declared that the “radical shift in purchasing behaviours since the onset of COVID-19 continues” as online payments surge. That is no surprise to any of us. The long-predicted digital revolution in financial […] The Bank of Canada’s inflation target: Stick with what works – Financial Post Op-Ed
Inflation has risen to almost five per cent and the year-end deadline for the federal government and the Bank of Canada to announce a new monetary policy framework is barely three weeks away. Should we be nervous?
Since 1991, the framework has been an inflation-control target, and since the end of 1995 that target has been two per cent. That system has been a striking success. The CPI’s average increase over the 25 years from 1995 until the onset of the pandemic was 1.9 per cent annually. Previous five-year renewals of the inflation-control agreement were quiet affairs with only minor tweaks.
Not so this time. COVID’s hit to productive capacity has combined with massive monetary and fiscal stimulus to push inflation well…
Time for the Bank of Canada to make a hard choice – Financial Post Op-Ed
I first heard the gibe that “central bankers think inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon – except this time, of course” more than 50 years ago, but it is still as good as new.
Consider the Bank of Canada, now caught in a trap of its own making. Its mandate, pending an imminent renewal, requires it to maintain inflation in a range around two per cent, but its “forward guidance,” issued incessantly for the past year, has promised to keep the overnight rate of interest at 0.25 per cent until the real economy has returned to “normal” — at a date that lately seems to have been creeping closer from its original value somewhere around the end of 2022. The Bank is stuck with two quantitative targets, one, an inflation…
William B.P. Robson – The Lasting Harm of ‘Transitory’ Inflation
From: William B.P. Robson To: Canadian Inflation Watchers Date: December 6, 2021 Re: The Lasting Harm of ‘Transitory’ Inflation October’s consumer price index was up 4.7 percent from a year earlier. Numbers like these are bringing an end to talk of “transitory” inflation from many forecasters and central bankers. Not before time. Canadians dismayed by recent higher prices for […] Don Drummond – Upcoming Fall Fiscal Update Must Answer Questions About Growth Strategy
From: Don Drummond To: Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland Date: December 2, 2021 Re: Upcoming Fall Fiscal Update Must Answer Questions About Growth Strategy Fiscal Updates were created to support a national dialogue on the solutions to challenges without the pressure of immediate policy action as attends a budget. There has never been a greater need for such a […] C.D. Howe Institute Monetary Policy Council Calls for Bank of Canada to Hold Overnight Rate at 0.25 Percent Next Week, Hike to 1.00 Percent Next Year, Shrink Bond Holdings
December 2, 2021 – The C.D. Howe Institute’s Monetary Policy Council (MPC) recommends that the Bank of Canada keep its target for the overnight rate, its benchmark policy interest rate, at 0.25 percent through next January, before raising it to 0.75 percent by June of 2022, and to 1.00 percent by December of 2022. It also recommends that the Bank reduce its holdings of Government of Canada bonds between now and its next overnight-rate target announcement in January.
The MPC provides an independent assessment of the monetary stance consistent with the Bank of Canada’s 2 percent inflation target. William Robson, the Institute’s CEO, chairs the Council. Council members make recommendations for the Bank…
Kronick, Laurin – Taxing Big Banks and Insurers – Unlikely to Go the Way Planned
From: Jeremy M. Kronick and Alexandre Laurin To: Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland Date: November 30, 2021 Re: Taxing Big Banks and Insurers – Unlikely to Go the Way Planned Most people understand and agree with the notion that taxation should be progressive – people who earn more should bear a greater burden of funding the services provided by government […] S3 E23: Canada’s Sky High Costs for End of Life Care
If most Canadians want to die at home, why don’t we? Two out of three will die in a hospital and the cost is enormous. Doctors James Downar and Kieran Quinn offer solutions to cut costs and give us the end of life we want. Paul Johnson – A Competition Conundrum: Winner-Take-All Markets
From: Paul Johnson To: Competition Policy Watchers Date: November 29, 2021 Re: A Competition Conundrum: Winner-Take-All Markets The populist backlash against “bigness” generally and “big tech” in particular has prompted two strands of debate about competition law enforcement. The first is broad and concerns foundational questions about what competition policy should strive to do; the second is narrower and […] Parisa Mahboubi on The Agenda – Time for a Four Day Work Week?
Most companies pivoted to remote work at the beginning of the pandemic. And many people either changed or quit jobs. In the wake of all that, the idea of the four-day work-week is coming to the fore. Can a long weekend, every week, be the answer to everything from workplace productivity to fighting climate change? To discuss this, The Agenda welcomed the C.D. Howe Institute’s Senior Policy Analyst Parisa Mahboubi; Andrew Barnes, author of The 4 Day Week: How the flexible work revolution can increase productivity, profitability and wellbeing, and help create a sustainable future; and the Rotman School of Management’s David Zweig.