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Flaherty acts on debt Jim Flaherty is giving Mark Carney what he needs today, using government measures to curb the rise in consumer debt rather than the "blunt instrument" of interest rates.
Mr. Carney and others have been warning for months that burgeoning household debt is a mounting problem, not just for those who may not be able to juggle their payments when interest rates rise but for the economy as a whole in the event of a shock.
Debt to disposable income now stands at a whopping 148 per cent, partly fuelled by home buyers taking advantage of historically low interest rates. At the same time, home-equity lines of credit and loans have surged, rising over the past decade at almost twice the rate of mortgages and now representing 12 per cent of overall household debt.
Mr. Flaherty announced this morning that Ottawa will stop backing mortgages with amortization periods longer than 30 years, cutting off support for the 35-year mortgage. In addition, he is also reducing government backing for home equity lines of credit, Globe and Mail writers Grant Robertson, Bill Curry, Boyd Erman and Tara Perkins report.
Some have asked why Mr. Carney and his colleagues at the Bank of Canada don't just raise interest rates again and cool things down. But to act on the housing sector alone would have other consequences, at a time when the economy can least afford it.
There are too many unknowns in the global recovery now, as well as a strong Canadian dollar and a high rate of unemployment, for the Bank of Canada to raise rates again when it meets tomorrow. That's why most economists expect Mr. Carney to stand pat, and rightly so.
"As per speeches by BoC Governor Carney over time, addressing such factors is the focus of the Federal Finance Department versus using the blunt instrument of monetary policy to influence a specific sector like housing," Scotia Capital economists Derek Holt and Gorica Djeric said today.
"Higher rates at this juncture in order to address household sector imbalances would be imprudent."
Mr. Carney and his panel set interest rates, not Mr. Flaherty. The finance minister has acted via another avenue.
"It's another way of getting the job done," said senior economist Jennifer Lee of BMO Nesbitt Burns.
- Flaherty details tougher mortgage rules
- Ottawa to tighten mortgage rules
- Will mortgage rules add chill to a cooling market?
- Markets await Carney's monetary policy report
- C.D. Howe wants a rate hike. Seriously?
- Home sales down, prices up in December
Jobs to take further leave Steve Jobs is taking another medical leave from Apple Inc. , but will remain chief executive officer.
Chief operating officer Tim Cook will take over day-to-day operations, as he did during the last leave by Mr. Jobs, who has suffered from pancreatic cancer in the past.
"I have great confidence that Tim and the rest of the executive management team will do a terrific job executing the exciting plans we have in place for 2011," Mr. Jobs said in a letter to employees.
"I love Apple so much and hope to be back as soon as I can. In the meantime, my family and I would deeply appreciate respect for our privacy."
Mr. Jobs said the board granted the medical leave so "I can focus on my health." He added he would still be involved in major strategic decisions.
Euro ministers meet Finance ministers from the embattled euro zone are meeting in Brussels today and tomorrow, and are certain to discuss boosting the size of their bailout fund.
There are still divisions among the various governments in the 17-member monetary union, notably Germany's opposition to a hefty increase to the European Financial Stability Facility, or EFSF.
"Euro zone finance ministers meet in Brussels today and while the future of the EFSF will no doubt be discussed, major policy announcements are unlikely at this stage," said strategists Mark Chandler and Kam Bath of RBC Dominion Securities in Toronto. "Late last week, German Finance Minister [Wolfgang] Schaeuble maintained that a 'fundamental decision' would be taken in March."
The euro was down as the ministers prepared to meet.
"Event risk for the euro this week will come from two directions with the German coalition government increasingly split on increasing the size of the EU bailout fund ahead of today's key EU finance ministers meeting, as well as tomorrow's confidence vote in the Irish PM Brian Cowen on Tuesday," said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson.
"Indecision on the matter of the size of the fund will continue to dominate sentiment over the coming days, suggesting more volatility and uncertainty in the days and weeks ahead."
Trillions of e-mails, and a lot of junk As you clear out your e-mail inbox today after the weekend, consider this: E-mail users will receive tens of trillions of e-mails this year, a sizable number of them junk.
Projections by The Radicati Group – my daughters did the math based on the California research company's forecasts for average numbers received and the number of accounts – suggest corporate e-mail users will receive almost 22 trillion e-mails this year, more than 4-trillion of them spam.
The Radicati Group, which prepared its report last year, says there will be 788 million corporate e-mail accounts this year, rising to 991 million in 2014. Its projections also call for almost 2.4 billion consumer e-mail accounts in 2011, climbing to 2.9 billion in 2014.
Last year, the group says, the typical corporate e-mail user sent and received about 110 messages a day. Of those received, about 18 per cent was spam.
"While users mostly see spam as an annoyance, for corporations it is a considerable expense," Radicati said. "According to our projections, a typical 1,000-user organization can spend upwards of $3-million a year to fight and manage spam."
Boyd Erman's Morning meeting Sun Gro Horticulture, a peat moss producer that appeared on the trust scene in 2002, has agreed to be taken over for $6.60 a share by IKO Enterprises Inc., a privately held Canadian company, Streetwise columnist Boyd Erman reports today.
In Personal Finance today
Buying a U.S. winter getaway has never been more affordable – but there are caveats.
Home Cents blogger Noreen Rasbach weighs in on whether it's OK to sell or regift unwanted presents in tough times.
On Thursday, Jan. 20 at 1 p.m. ET, cross-border financial planner Robert Keats will take your questions on the implications of wintering in warmer climes. Follow this link to set an e-mail reminder for yourself.
From today's Report on Business