“I bought it when it was really cheap, around $300, and after it went up a ton, I decided to buy some more.. But after the crash, I think I’ll just sell it to break even.”
“I told you to get out of it sooner.”
“I bought it when it was really cheap, around $300, and after it went up a ton, I decided to buy some more.. But after the crash, I think I’ll just sell it to break even.”
“I told you to get out of it sooner.”
A few weeks ago, I was faced with the daunting task of writing about communication forms in my introduction to academic writing. As someone who is equally comfortable in communicating in symbols and words, but someone who is uncomfortable in both, this sounded like a terrible task and the end of my happy mark in one of my requisite courses. In the process of trying to merge economics and theories from the study of communications in class, I happened to stumble upon a paper detailing the effects of using certain vocabulary in the success of papers detailing primarily with mathematical concepts, like imaginary numbers or chaos theory. [1]
It’s one of two major assumptions in economics, and taught within the first week in most 101 classes: rationality. How do we define rationality? Of course, we can assume that human behavior is “rational”, but that doesn’t help us construct any models unless we actually ascribe the word some meaning.
Originally, I was going to write this article on the Liberal government’s choice to increase the minimum wage to $14 by Jan. 1st, 2017, and to $15 by Jan 1st, 2018. [1] But, as an employee at a closely-held business , I foresee hurting both my chance of being employed in the future, as well as the security of the few hours I have as a part-time worker. Regardless,as I surveyed the work of various research groups, I began to realize that the question, as automation replaces many of the ‘blue-collar’ and well-paying ‘white-collar’ jobs, is not necessarily whether basic income should be implemented, but rather how it should be implemented. (It was impossible to make an definitive judgements given many of the projects had completely different variations of minimum wage hikes.)
Why a rate hike now?
Source: Bank of Canada
For the most part, economists have expected a rate hike, citing strong growth after the 2008-2009 recession, the fastest within the G7, and growth targets almost double than those set by the Bank of Canada[1]. However, the improved economic outlook also played a strong role in increasing household debts caused by cheap credit, that for many economists, put the Canadian housing market at risk.
In fact, given the problems and strengths economists have seen within the last two to three fiscal years, government bond markets have been moving up, with almost 75% of economists predicting a rate hike.[2] The anticipation of a rate hike has caused a strong selling trend within the Canadian government bond market, with 10-year treasury notes reaching yields as high as 2.39%, and two-year yields surging 26 basis points.[3]
Source: Bank of Canada
As well as the domestic growth, the Bank of Canada looked to foreign economies, citing stronger and broader growth with the eurozone, and moderate expansion within the American economy. Globally, the Bank of Canada anticipates global growth to total 3.4% this year, despite uncertainty caused by potential trade policy changes within the United States, especially given that projections signal a declining American share of global GDP, with anticipated growth rates dropping to 1.8% by 2019 [4]. Emerging markets are projected to continue rapid growth.
Oil & Natural Gas
The crumbling oil prices, now sitting around $50 a barrel,[5] are projected to continue to sit at such historic levels, despite OPEC attempts to to curb production, given an increase of US shale production. The BoC foresees declining prices in the short term, citing technological improvements. However, they advise increases in the price, citing decreased investments that may lead to a shortage in supply. Overall, it appears that the Bank of Canada believes that oil prices have stabilized within the projection horizon, and does not believe the sector poses severe threats to the economy, thus giving the Bank a great opportunity to wean the Canadian economy off of cheap credit.
Summary
In general, the Canadian economy has made a well-maintained exit out of the 2008-2009 recession, marked by some of the strongest growth in Canadian history. Considering rising CPI inflation and stable growth with some of Canada’s largest trading partners, namely with the United States and the Eurozone, albeit political uncertainty, the Bank of Canada sees reason to increase the overnight rate target from 0.5% to 0.75%.
[1] http://www.bankofcanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/mpr-2017-07-12.pdf
[2] Ibid.
[4] http://www.bankofcanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/mpr-2017-07-12.pdf
[5] Ibid.