http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2009/03/26/competition-credit.html
The federal Competition Bureau is investigating the credit card industry. The agency is looking at whether the credit card industry has breached the Competition Act by increasing their credit card fees. Many consumers have complained about the increase of credit card fees over the past few months. Mastercard Canada defended itself by stating that "the many benefits Canadian merchants receive from card acceptance continue to be downplayed." According to StopStickingItToUs Coalition's website, Canadian consumers paid more than $4.5 billion dollars in hidden credit card fees alone and that figure is increasing even more due to hidden fees attacked to credit card users. Mastercard has refuted these statements by stating that they do not receive revenue from interchange or merchant fees. The website also attacked the Australian cap on credit card fees banks can charge businesses and consumers.
Transactions involving money happen every single day for Canadians. To make transactions easier on people, credit cards were invented so that consumers would not have to carry so much money on them. Credit cards have changed the demand for money in recent years due to the increasing popularity in them. If Mastercard and other credit card companies continue to increase fees for using their credit cards, then the demand for carrying actual money for transaction will increase. Especially in times of economic uncertainty, people will try to save money in every way possible so if that means to use their credit card less frequently and carry cash out more then they will do that.
In the long run, using straight cash is the cheapest transaction you can make because there are no hidden fees attacked to using plain cash. Although i can see the convenience of having a credit card because of convenience and safety reasons. I personally prefer to use cash instead of credit cards because there is no additional fees and because i can visibly see how much money i am using as opposed to paying it off 30 days later. I do not think it is a secret that their are hidden fees in using credit cards but that is the price to pay for having convenience in my opinion.
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http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2009/01/30/canada-gdp-december.html
Canada's economy is continuing its slide and the country's economic output shrank by 0.7 per cent. Statistics Canada reported that a slumping construction activity and an struggling manufacturing sector has led to an "industrial race". This is the third one in four in which Canadian GDP contracted. Canada's national output shrank by 0.1 percent in October. In August the Canadian economy slipped by 0.5 percent which indicated a financial slowdown in Canada already. According to Statistics Canada, activity in the manufacturing sector declined by 2.1% in November and employment has fallen by 32,000 or 1.6 per cent compared to December 2008. Building trades were also down 1.2 per cent from November. Economists are estimating that the GDP will slip 0.4 per cent and this is the worst decline in a decade. RBC is forecasting that Canada's GDP will shrink in the final three months of the year by 2.5 per cent.
GDP is a major concept in Chapter 6. It is used to refer to the value of goods and services produced in Canada in a given year. When our GDP contracts, obviously that means that our economy is not producing goods and not providing efficient services to keep our economy afloat. This means a loss in jobs in sectors where they are not producing. Such sectors such as the manufacturing sector stated in the above article. In this time of economic uncertainty, people will generally save rather than spend because their jobs are no longer secure. This results in reduce in flow on income going to the business sector. In turn the business sector will have to cut back in order to gain profit which usually means layoffs for workers. This cycle keeps going and eventually our GDP gets effected. This is why our GDP is falling right now.
This is just another piece of evidence to illustrate the fact that Canada's economy is in very poor shape. The fact that our decline in GDP in November is the worst we have had in a decade is disheartening. For the past few weeks i have seen numerous articles regarding layoffs throughout Canada, particularly the big business such as GM. This is a clear example of business trying to cut back their losses and the common employee is getting the short end of the stick. There is some good news though, our economy is not doing as bad as our neighbors to the south and Japan. Their economy is in a far worse shape than ours currently. Our Canadian banks are very conservative in nature and that is helping our economy, while the American banks are less conservative.
Canada's economy is continuing its slide and the country's economic output shrank by 0.7 per cent. Statistics Canada reported that a slumping construction activity and an struggling manufacturing sector has led to an "industrial race". This is the third one in four in which Canadian GDP contracted. Canada's national output shrank by 0.1 percent in October. In August the Canadian economy slipped by 0.5 percent which indicated a financial slowdown in Canada already. According to Statistics Canada, activity in the manufacturing sector declined by 2.1% in November and employment has fallen by 32,000 or 1.6 per cent compared to December 2008. Building trades were also down 1.2 per cent from November. Economists are estimating that the GDP will slip 0.4 per cent and this is the worst decline in a decade. RBC is forecasting that Canada's GDP will shrink in the final three months of the year by 2.5 per cent.
GDP is a major concept in Chapter 6. It is used to refer to the value of goods and services produced in Canada in a given year. When our GDP contracts, obviously that means that our economy is not producing goods and not providing efficient services to keep our economy afloat. This means a loss in jobs in sectors where they are not producing. Such sectors such as the manufacturing sector stated in the above article. In this time of economic uncertainty, people will generally save rather than spend because their jobs are no longer secure. This results in reduce in flow on income going to the business sector. In turn the business sector will have to cut back in order to gain profit which usually means layoffs for workers. This cycle keeps going and eventually our GDP gets effected. This is why our GDP is falling right now.
This is just another piece of evidence to illustrate the fact that Canada's economy is in very poor shape. The fact that our decline in GDP in November is the worst we have had in a decade is disheartening. For the past few weeks i have seen numerous articles regarding layoffs throughout Canada, particularly the big business such as GM. This is a clear example of business trying to cut back their losses and the common employee is getting the short end of the stick. There is some good news though, our economy is not doing as bad as our neighbors to the south and Japan. Their economy is in a far worse shape than ours currently. Our Canadian banks are very conservative in nature and that is helping our economy, while the American banks are less conservative.
