New GIC Interest Rates | Page 2 | Motive Financial | Discussion forum

Personally I think telling every kid in Canada that in a few years they'll get a guaranteed income for life is one of the most crackpot ideas ever. I don't dispute the numbers, what's being ignored is the impact on incentive - I've seen enough wealthy as well as welfare-receiving families to know the effect on not all but a large % of people when they discover they really never need to work. And legal pot too........get a few buddies together to share the rent and the party need never end!

Doug, I don't think what you suggest is UBI as the distinctive feature of UBI is no clawback. Implying billionaire and homeless people will get the same amount, although billionaire is going to pay way more in tax back to the government.

Personally, my limited judgement also inform me that the system you suggest is exceedingly bad as it is equal to 100% clawback on earned income, which strongly discourage people to work.

Peter: I think we may need a new thread here as we go way off topic.

Doug said

another, long-term Canadian recession (perhaps even a depression). It's funny that Stephen Poloz came from the Export Development Canada Crown corporation so he obviously has an international trade background and even earlier on in his BoC tenure, he consistently "talked down" the Canadian dollar, a move which I lauded. Now, he seems to be "cow towing" (spelling?) to the Canadian financial markets community (i.e., Canadian banks) and to government in trying to get the rates up. 🙁

Be careful what you wish for, Mr. Poloz. We are not in normal economic times where "runaway inflation" is in any danger. 🙁

Cheers,
Doug

Wasn't aware of his background.
That could be another reason the CDN dollar took a downturn almost immediately after Carney left and Poloz took over? Help out his exporting buddies? Country hasn't been the same since he took over.
kowtow
intransitive verb
1 : to show obsequious deference : fawn
kowtows to the boss

Jon said
Doug, I think you are mixing Universal Basic Income, which function like a refundable tax credit for every citizen, with Guarantee Mininum Income, which top up people's income until their income reach a minimum amount.  

Ah, okay. Thanks for clarifying the different, Jon! I thought mine was sometimes referred to as a "partial universal basic income". I didn't realize UBI couldn't have a means test.

Still, you have to admit, it's pretty sad that in this day and age, we don't even have a guaranteed minimum income! 🙁

Cheers,
Doug

Doug said

Yep, I think that's exactly why the Canadian dollar dipped immediately after his appointment and then it continued its downward trajectory due, in part, to that but also his policy actions. Up until this year, he made exporting & economic growth policy priorities, despite an overheated housing market in certain urban areas. I still feel what he was doing was correct, until this summer, given the aging demographics and rapid technological change, innovation and a tendency for companies just to increase dividends & buy back shares instead of investing in their businesses for growth. As for our housing markets, I felt that the moves made by the provincial and municipal governments, as well as OSFI and CMHC, were the correct ways to deal with the situation rather than a broad interest rate hike (or series of them), which is an overly blunt instrument that affects, among other things, many parts of the country not experiencing the same housing price appreciation.

Thanks for giving me the correct spelling of "kowtow"! Didn't realize it was an actual verb, I wonder what an "intransitive" verb would be, could you give me another example? Sounds like I used it correctly but just had the spelling and spacing wrong. It's a good word. 😉

Cheers,
Doug

Thank Merriam Webster. I always thought it was cow-towing..LOL. Dropping the dollar that far was like throwing gasoline on the real estate bonfire by giving the foreign investors a bonus discount on our dollar. Moves by Provincials just lowered the heat in Van, and eventually TO, and moved it outside the major metro areas into places like Kamloops, Victoria, the condo market, even Seattle saw a spike after the foreign buyers tax kicked in - and they brought it in far too late... after the majority of the damage had already been done.What I worry about is how fast/far rates will have to go up for the market to absorb the the shock when mortgages start to come due at the new rates and people can't afford their payments. New rules that start in Jan will help, but once again, too late for everyone that's renewing in the next few years.
Not sure about how you focus on export and the economy when you sign deals with Mexico, and other countries, that allow free trade. How can you compete with economies with low wages and little or no regulation? Decimated the manufacturing sector in Canada (read Ontario). Not even a cheap dollar can compete with the Peso. How's the auto industry doing in Canada since NAFTA? Thriving in Mexico. Geez...they even make Dairybox chocolates in Mexico. No matter what you think of Trump, I agree with him on that point. Maybe not his solution, but can see his point. Don't think Trudeau does.
Intransitive verb
In grammar, an intransitive verb does not allow a direct object. This is distinct from a transitive verb, which takes one or more objects. (stole that from Wikipedia ) ie you can kowtow to the boss without actually putting your lips on his butt.
What was the title of this thread again?? Oh yeah...did I mention Motive hit 3% again? Love the tangents that grow around here.

Rick, once you dig beyond the mainstream media sensationalist negativity it may make you feel better to know that despite rising house prices (awesome for owners - capital gains tax-free!) and trade deals involving Mexico, etc, there's a fair bit of data out there indicating, using pretty well every measure used, that life continues to get better and better for most of us. Here's just one example from CPA magazine a couple of years ago:
https://www.cpacanada.ca/en/connecting-and-news/cpa-magazine/articles/2015/october/are-you-richer-or-poorer

And anecdotally I can tell you what I see with my own eyes every day re how "average" people live today compared to when I was young certainly confirms for me that data. So most of us have a lot more to be thankful for at this time of year than our pop culture would have us believe. And I like to think, despite the complaining and envy, we all secretly know it.

Loonie, Bill is right in the sense that the living standard of every past generation have been improving. However, it appears to stop in my generation, which I think is what you are talking about.

For the past four days, almost all postings here have had absolutely nothing to do with Motive Financial GIC interest rates!!

Interesting discussion, as nothing is happening with banking anyway during the holiday.

voodoo is raising really important questions that everyone with a bank account and a stake in the future of their country should care about. If you're just concerned about where you can move your money to squeeze out another few bps, you run the risk of a rude awakening when it all falls down later. However, they are such big questions that they are beyond the scope of this forum to deal with adequately.

I will just make a couple of specific and relatively brief points which relate to what was said. Those who are not interested in this should skip to next post or thread.

People who are allowed to accumulate mountains of money cannot be relied upon to plough it back into economically productive activities which will benefit their country. There are a lot of lazy people who are rich, and they always want lower taxes, no matter how low they already are; they always oppose public expenditures for the good of all (except maybe roads and sewers if they are connected to a public system); they always oppose improvements in the minimum wage; and they like to store their money offshore once they get enough of it. They evidently plan to live increasingly isolated from everyone else in gated fiefdoms and/or private islands. Lots of evidence of this but no space here for it obviously.

Loaning money for interest has always been prohibited in Islam, and still is. They have developed some workarounds but I can't remember what they are at the moment.

"Growth" often seems to mean producing more and more crap that nobody really needs, and using up valuable resources to produce, ship and dispose of it. There are certainly limits to that way of life, sooner or later, take your pick. Later will be much more painful - for those of you who are left.

Case in point emerged this week. Stores in Rhode Island and elsewhere selling make-up kits for girls about age six which contain asbestos, which is lethal, but may not cause cancer for up to several decades. An alert mother who works for a law firm had the stuff analyzed when she became suspicious. Repeat tests have been positive, and product belatedly removed from shelves. No child on earth needs a make-up kit. Somebody is (or was until now) getting rich making this garbage and selling it. Not only a threat to the children but to the adults around them, and a huge problem for disposal. It only takes a sliver of asbestos to cause mesothelioma. I don't have a link for this handy, but it came from a lawyer I know who has worked diligently on the asbestos file for many years.

The banks will be open again in the morning and we can all return to our regularly scheduled programming... so to speak.