Donna Karan will step down from daily duties as chief designer at her namesake company, Donna Karan International, to devote more time to her philanthropic foundation.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1JvLyZn
mardi 30 juin 2015
Donna Karan to step down as chief designer at her company
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1JvLyZn
Greek-Canadians struggle with uncertainty of the financial crisis
Tens of thousands of Canadians travel to Greece each year, but many are struggling to make sense of the uncertainty fuelling the financial crisis in their ancestral homeland.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1g9IPZh
Nike prepares for succession plan after Phil Knight
Nike Chairman Phil Knight, who turned a business selling shoes out of the back of his car into the world's most valuable sports brand, has announced plans to step down as company chairman.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1ehRWWu
Cirque du Soleil sale to American, Chinese private equity firms gets approval
The federal government has approved the sale of Cirque du Soleil to a group headed by a U.S. private equity firm and its Chinese partners.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1FP24Mg
Grilled cheese sandwiches by mail? Feeding a need in the digital age
More and more food vendors are trying to divert customers from traditional businesses such as grocery stores and take-away restaurants. Grilled cheese sandwich subscription, anyone?
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1JuZ5Ar
Greece financial crisis 'unprecedented', say analysts
The financial crisis in Greece is "unprecedented," said Phil Triadafilopoulos, an associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto. He far from being the only one with that view.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1JuZ8fM
U.S. attempts to seize $34M in bribery case involving Calgary company
The U.S. Department of Justice is attempting to seize the proceeds of a bribe paid by a Canadian energy company to two Chadian officials.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1Nt0qGL
Eldorado Gold says Greek mines not affected by bank crisis
Canadian miner Eldorado Gold Corporation says the financial crisis unfolding in Greece isn't having an impact on its operations in the country.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1GKMsdC
Only God and Merkel
AS CAPITAL controls take hold in Greece and a referendum is set, the mood grows increasingly anxious in Athens
Cenovus sells royalty portfolio for $3.3B to Ontario Teachers Pension Plan
The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan has an agreement to buy Cenovus Energy Inc.’s royalty-producing lands in Western Canada for $3.3 billion.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1GMJ6rm
The full cost
HOW much does it cost to fund a traditional final salary pension? A lot. OECD tables show that 65 year-old men can expect to live for 19 to 21 years after retirement, while women may manage 22 to 28 years. The traditional UK schemes paid a sixtieth of salary for every year of employment, up to a maximum of 40 years, or two-thirds of final salary. US schemes were the same, with the important exception that full inflation-linking was rarely guaranteed.
There are really three ways of costing this. The first, practiced by US public sector pension funds, is to discount the liabilities by the assumed rate of return on the fund. This is subject to all manner of criticisms; first, it encourages overoptimism, second, expected returns are unlikely to match assumptions, third, no other liability (tax, debts to...Continue reading
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EU to end all wireless roaming charges in 2 years
The European Union has agreed to end mobile roaming charges within two years and allow travellers with European phone plans to pay the same price for calls, text messages and data anywhere in the 28 EU nations.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1NvdNp6
Can Mr Obama really help?
WHAT’S the easiest way to boost America's sluggish wage growth? President Barack Obama thinks that expanding overtime pay may be the answer. On June 30th details emerged of a new scheme in which 5m more Americans will be entitled to “overtime pay”—1.5 times their normal pay when they work more than 40 hours. Mr Obama hopes that the plan will boost the paypackets of some workers. The economic evidence behind it says this may not be the only benefit.
American workers have seen better days. Since the recession, inflation-adjusted private-sector hourly earnings have stumbled. People wistfully remember decades long gone, where they were used to annual rises of 2.5% or more in real terms every year. Small wonder, then, that economists are trying policy ideas from the glory days. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), implemented in 1938, is one place to look. The FLSA stipulated that any worker who worked more than 44 hours and was paid less than $30 a week was entitled to overtime pay. The FLSA is still in force (and the working-hours threshold is now 40 hours) but the earnings threshold was last updated in 1975 and currently stands at $23,660.
The earnings threshold is meant to strip out managers and supervisors who, the argument goes, have more control over their time. But an exemption designed for highly paid, white-collar employees ended up leaving...Continue reading
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Instant karma
ON JUNE 30th, the Bombay High Court ruled that Nestlé, a multinational food-maker, could export its Maggi brand of two-minute noodles from India. But a ban on local sales remains in place—at least for now. The Swiss company was in court to try and overturn a ban imposed by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), a regulator, on June 5th. The agency found a sample of the market-leading noodles had excessive levels of lead and monosodium glutamate. Nestlé India, the multinational's local subsidiary, insisted the noodles were safe to eat. But the firm's executives recalled the product from stores, saying that the public’s trust had been compromised. It has so far incinerated more than 17,000 tonnes of noodles (see picture).
The hearing was adjourned until July 14th to allow Nestlé time to respond to affidavits from the FSSAI and from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of Maharashtra, another standards body. The FSSAI told the court it was not opposed to Nestlé exporting its noodles though it stood by its earlier decision to ban them in India. This looked like a odd case of double standards. But in large part...Continue reading
Source :Business and finance http://ift.tt/1HsvLIM
TSX, Dow bounce upwards despite Greek crisis
Markets in North America bounced higher Tuesday, as Greece approached the deadline to make its 1.6-billion euro ($2.2 billion Cdn) debt payment to the International Monetary Fund with every indication that it will not pay.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1duMBul
Chevron Canada mum on N.L. layoffs
One of the companies with significant stakes in Newfoundland and Labrador's offshore oil industry is restructuring in order to remain competitive.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1IKc7V5
Sun Life Financial buys U.S. money manager Prime Advisors
Canadian insurer Sun Life Financial is buying U.S. investment manager Prime Advisors Inc. for an undisclosed amount.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1IKc6AD
Ta-ta T1
IT IS a big week for Heathrow Airport. Tomorrow, the Davies Commission, which was set up to recommend the best way to add extra air capacity to London and its environs, reports. London is desperately short of runways, and the choice has come down to adding a third runway at Heathrow, a second one at Gatwick, or perhaps some sort of fudge.
Many businesses and, I daresay, business travellers, would like to see the extra runway at Heathrow. Squeezing all those planes at the world’s third-busiest airport on to just two runways—half the number of Tokyo Heneda, the fourth-busiest—stretches passengers’ patience and drives up airlines’ fees horribly. The trouble is that Heathrow is, relatively speaking, close to the city it serves. And the prevailing wind direction means that the normal flight path takes planes right over the city. So expansion at Heathrow would be politically...Continue reading
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Canada's economy shrank 0.1% in April, Statistics Canada says
Canada's economy contracted by 0.1 per cent in April as a large drop-off in the value of domestically made goods wasn't offset by a slight increase in output from the service sector.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1LSBRSl
Iranians look for nuclear deal to lift 'paralyzed' economy
Stung by sanctions and recession, Iranian investors have one eye on the country's stock exchange, and the other on the international talks about the country's nuclear program.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1egdz9C
The man may be for turning
BY ANY reckoning today is a crucial moment in the extraordinary Greek debt-crisis drama, as two deadlines pass, with fateful consequences. The first is a payment that is due to be made to the International Monetary Fund by June 30th. The second is the expiry of the bail-out agreement between Greece and its international creditors, leaving it for the first time in five years without official support. Is there any chance that Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister whose ill-judged decision to call a referendum on the terms of a renewed bail-out agreement has caused Greek banks to be closed for at least the next week, might pull back from the brink?
As things stand the first deadline will be missed. The Greek government—which is as strapped for cash as its citizens (who can only withdraw €60 a day from ATMs)—does not have the money to pay the IMF the €1.5 billion ($1.7 billion) that is due this evening. Yanis Varoufakis, Greece's finance minister, confirmed on June 30th that Greece will not make the payment. Greece will therefore suffer the ignominy of becoming the first advanced country to default to the IMF, joining the likes of Sudan and Zimbabwe in that hall of shame. Technically it will go into arrears but Christine Lagarde, the head of the IMF, has said there will be no grace period. In short, it will amount to a default.
Although this will be...Continue reading
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Panic!
ON OCTOBER 4th 1582 the Julian calendar was replaced by the Gregorian in many European countries. The following day was October 15th 1582. The change provoked chaos, as landlords demanded a full month’s rent and greedy bankers attached a full month’s interest to loans, while workers went unpaid for the eleven missing days. Unsurprisingly, riots ensued.
To listen to some pundits, June 30th 2015 will see similar chaos. At midnight that day there will be a “leap second”. The day will be lengthened by one second, in order to realign Coordinated universal Time (UCT), the main standard regulating the world’s clocks, with solar time. This chronological quirk, many worry, will befuddle computer systems.
The last leap-second was added during a weekend in 2012. That time, the computer system of Qantas, an Australian airline, crashed and 400 flights were delayed. But it is the first time since 1997 that a leap-second was added on a working day, with financial markets in full swing. And over the last two decades trading has become much more dependent on computers....Continue reading
Source :Business and finance http://ift.tt/1JnMdth
Another fine debt crisis
IN 2013, Alejandro García Padilla, the governor of Puerto Rico, did his best to tell the territory's jittery creditors what they wanted to hear. He called servicing the American-controlled Caribbean island’s $72 billion debt load a “moral obligation”. He reassured holders of its general-obligation (GO) bonds that the government could not default on them even if it wanted to, because the commonwealth’s constitution gave those securities priority over all other payments. He highlighted the swingeing package of tax increases, spending cuts and pension reform that he was implementing, and said that he would do whatever it took to honour the island's debts.
But after more than two years of stonewalling, Puerto Rico’s governor could keep up appearances no longer. “The public debt…is unpayable,” he admitted in an address on June 29th. He announced he would seek to restructure the territory’s liabilities. “It is time for lenders to join the table of sacrifices.”
Of course, in most of the world, Mr García Padilla’s solemn about-face did not make the day’s biggest debt-crisis headline. Greece, whose fiscal...Continue reading
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Sex abuse case highlights vulnerability of workers on visas
A Mexican woman's experience of sex abuse is a poster case for the damage that can occur when Canada’s temporary foreign workers program puts all the power in the hands of the employer.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1HrJxeI
Hundreds of low-income families shortchanged EI payments
A staff member at Employment and Social Development Canada stumbled on a computer glitch that has been withholding employment insurance money from hundreds of families struggling to pay the rent. Officials are scrambling to pay back the missing money, dating back to 2007, to hundreds of EI claimants past and present.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1HrJuj3
Greece financial crisis: European Commission makes last-ditch efforts
The head of the European Commission made a last-minute offer to try to persuade Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to accept a bailout deal he has rejected before a referendum on Sunday which EU partners say will be a choice of whether to stay in the euro.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1CGjY42
lundi 29 juin 2015
Quebec's $9B maritime strategy aims to create 10,000 jobs
Premier Philippe Couillard says he hopes the plan will create 10,000 jobs within the next five years and up to 30,000 by 2030.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1RMUo48
Alberta minimum wage to increase by $1 this October
Minimum wage in Alberta is going up by $1 starting this October, with the goal to increase it to $15 by 2018.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1eVOv8S
Greek financial crisis: what you need to know
The financial chaos in Greece reached a new peak Monday, with long lineups at cash machines and protests involving burning euros, triggering a drop in global stock markets.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1KlgLgu
On the frontline with tourists
AS THEY boarded the 5:45am flight from London's Gatwick Airport to Athens in Greece this morning, holidaymakers were weighed down by more than just the usual excess luggage. With Greece's euro membership hanging in the balance as the result of its prime minister's decision to call a referendum (due to take place on Sunday) on whether to accept the latest bailout offer from its creditors, holidaying Britons were preparing for the worst. Handbags, money belts, briefcases and wallets were all bulging with euro bills, in the fear that capital controls—or an exit from the single currency—could leave them stranded without any access to cash.
Most appear to be taking this threat seriously. Tom Persons from London, when asked by your correspondent, said that he wasn’t taking any chances, and brought along enough cash to sustain him for the entire holiday. “I’ve done the same,” replied the lady in the queue behind him. Another guy nodded behind her. A couple from Devon whisper with raised eyebrows (while tapping the several parts of their bodies where the cash is supposedly stored) that they have brought enough for the entire...Continue reading
Source :Business and finance http://ift.tt/1HtEZpV
Iamgold cuts gold production forecast after 'seismic event' at Quebec mine
Canadian miner Iamgold Corp. has cut its gold production forecast for the year, after a probe of what it calls a "localized seismic event" in a Quebec mine.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1GIx4P2
Donald Trump's 'derogatory' comments on Mexicans prompts NBC to cut ties
NBC said Monday that it is ending its business relationship with mogul and U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump over comments he made about immigrants.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1BRpdTi
U.S. Supreme Court rules against EPA's limits on power plants' mercury emissions
A divided U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled against federal regulators' attempts to limit power plant emissions of mercury and other hazardous air pollutants. It's a blow to U.S. efforts to inspire other countries to control their emissions as they approach Paris talks on a new global climate treaty later this year.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1SYAeXA
Ed Clark becomes Kathleen Wynne's business advisor
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne is appointing former TD Bank CEO Ed Clark, who recommended the partial sale of Hydro One and changes to beer distribution, as her business adviser.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1RMa9bB
Electronic signatures to be accepted in Ontario real estate deals
Ontario home buyers and sellers will soon be allowed to provide electronic signatures on real estate documents.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1GIniwd
China-backed infrastructure bank pitched as IMF alternative
China has launched its Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank with the support of 50 nations, in a bid to increase its international financial clout.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1Ht7ioq
Airbnb asks Quebec to carefully consider new rental rules
The co-founder of online home-rental website Airbnb says he welcomes regulations being mulled by Quebec, adding that government oversight would boost the site's credibility.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1RMeLyk
Porter Airlines agrees to pay $150K for emails violating anti-spam rules
Regional carrier Porter Airlines has agreed to pay $150,000 for violating Canada's anti-spam legislation, the CRTC said today.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1Ht1Kuh
Justin Trudeau pledges to end fossil fuel subsidies, invest in clean tech
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau is expected to unveil a myriad of environmental promises this afternoon in Vancouver, including clean technology investment and continued focus on climate change, CBC News has learned. CBCNews.ca will livestream his announcement at 11 a.m. PT/2 p.m. ET.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1SY0IIC
Element Financial buys GE Capital fleet business for $8.6B
Element Financial Corp., a fleet management and equipment finance company based in Toronto, has bought GE Capital’s vehicle fleet management operations in the U.S., Mexico, Australia and New Zealand for $8.6 billion.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1Ly9Ql9
Puerto Rico could default on debts, governor says
The governor of Puerto Rico has warned that it can't pay its $72 billion US public debt, and says it is hoping to defer debt payments and negotiate with creditors, spokesman Jesus Manuel Ortiz said Sunday night.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1C1GJEH
Mining exploration causing permanent damage in Ring of Fire, Wildlands League says
Photos released Monday by the Wildlands League are proof that mining activity is causing permanent damage in a fragile ecosystem in northern Ontario, according to the environmental group.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1QZ62ho
SpaceX rocket destroyed on way to space station, cargo lost
An unmanned SpaceX rocket carrying supplies to the International Space Station broke apart Sunday shortly after liftoff. It was a severe blow to NASA, the third cargo mission to fail in eight months.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1TYc0hx
Less than 1 in 5 max out TFSAs so expanded room of limited use, report suggests
The Harper government's recent move to raise the contribution ceiling on tax-free savings accounts offers little to benefit low- and middle-income Canadians, a new analysis of federal tax data has found.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1CEefvy
Greek banks close, pensioners lineup for cash
Banks and ATM machines were shut throughout Greece on Monday, the first day of capital controls announced by the government in a dramatic twist in the country's five-year financial saga.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1HrMSw7
The not-so golden years: more seniors sinking into debt
The golden years have become a tarnished chapter for some. Seniors are carrying more debt into retirement and, as a result, a growing number are going bankrupt.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1ds4utI
Sell Europe
EUROPEAN stocks started the day with losses of 4% or more as investors reflected on the weekend news from Greece, of the planned referendum, bank closures and capital controls. The sell-off reflected a sharp change in mood compared with Friday, when investors were expecting a deal between Greece and its creditors to be reached. The Portuguese stockmarket was one of the worst affected, falling almost 6% at the open on fears that the economy would be dragged into the crisis (the Athens stock exchange is closed).
Contagion was seen in the bond markets too with Spanish and Italian 10-year bond yields rising around 18 basis points, while the German equivalent fell 15 points; a spread widening of around a third of a percentage point. The euro was slighly lower on the news, falling less than 1% against the dollar. While uncertainty over Greece's future is bad news for the European economy, traders had been using the euro as the basis for a "carry trade"; borrowing euros and investing the proceeds in higher-yielding risky assets. As those traders pulled back from their risky bets, they would have paid back the euros they borrowed, limiting the currency's fall.
Traders had three other factors to consider, which might limit losses as the day proceeds. The European Central Bank could step into the market to buy bonds, particularly in places like Portugal, Spain and...Continue reading
Source :Business and finance http://ift.tt/1TZC1gu
dimanche 28 juin 2015
Nowhere to get money
DAY BY DAY the folly of the unexpected decision by Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister and leader of the radical-left Syriza party, to call a referendum on the proposals made by Greece’s creditors is being exposed as the consequences are laid bare. Yesterday visibly shocked and infuriated finance ministers from the other 18 euro-zone states withdrew the deal that they (together with the IMF) were offering Greece, which would have released urgently needed bail-out funds. Today the European Central Bank (ECB) has put a cap on the amount of money that Greek banks can borrow from the Bank of Greece, the central bank in Athens. On Monday Greek citizens will wake up to find their banks closed.
Since Syriza won the election of late January it has been unclear which would buckle first: the cash-strapped state or the deposit-drained banks. It now appears that they will both buckle within days. Unless a minor miracle occurs the Greek government will not repay the International Monetary Fund €1.5 billion ($1.7 billion), an amount that it is due to make by the end of the month, on Tuesday. Defaulting on the IMF is bad enough and an unwise step for any state let alone one that may lose the security blanket of the euro. But an even bigger crisis for Mr Tsipras will be shuttered banks.
Since late last year when worries mounted about an early election that might bring...Continue reading
Source :Business and finance http://ift.tt/1RJ6kE8
Greek banks granted cash flow reprieve amid emergency debt talks
The European Central Bank has decided it will continue to prop up the Greek banking system, amid earlier reports it could curb its emergency lending.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1LvSo0A
NHL expansion price of $500M called 'crazy' by Peter Pocklington
The NHL says the cost of any new franchise is at least $500 million. The former owner of the Edmonton Oilers says it's not worth it — but he also says owning a team is the most fun than he's ever had.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1NnvpE4
samedi 27 juin 2015
Greeks caught between Scylla and Charybdis
ODYSSEUS was forced to choose between two routes for his ship - one that passed close to a sea monster (Scylla) and another that skirted a whirlpool (Charybdis). For a while, Greeks have effectively faced a similar choice - between austerity (as conditions for assistance from its creditors) and leaving the euro. Asking them explicitly to make this choice in a referendum might seem fair enough.
The problem is that this choice has never been made explicit. Syriza came to power on a programme on ending austerity and keeping the euro. Months of negotiations with creditors have shown this option is not available. But the planned referendum, if it occurs, does not make this clear; instead the question will be
Greek people are hereby asked to decide whether they accept a draft agreement document submitted by the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, at the Eurogroup meeting held on June 25.
Clearly, the government will campaign for the answer No. As my colleague wrote earlier today, this is dangerous brinkmanship. Greek funding runs out on June 30 (Tuesday). Alexis Tsipras, the...Continue reading
Source :Business and finance http://ift.tt/1LuKRPH
Canada Soccer keeps World Cup finances behind the curtain
Canada's national team is playing winning soccer on the pitch and fans are turning up at the gate. That much isn't a secret. Who gets the money and how it will be spent, however, remains unknown.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1GCGzA6
Greece opens debate on referendum plan for bailout deal
The Greek parliament opened a debate Saturday on whether to approve the government's planned referendum next month on international creditors' latest proposal for an economic bailout.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1JpDj16
Raising the stakes
DESPITE twists and turns, there appeared to be the makings of a deal between Greece and its international creditors—euro-zone governments and the IMF—in further negotiations on Friday, which would allow urgently needed bail-out funds to be released shortly. That changed abruptly when Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister and leader of the radical-left Syriza party, announced late that night on television that he was calling a referendum on the creditors’ proposals, to be held on Sunday, July 5th. Euro-zone finance ministers who were due in any case to meet in Brussels today to decide upon their next move have yet to respond. But it is clear that Mr Tsipras’s move takes the dispute into perilous territory, bringing Greece closer to the edge of leaving the euro.
Already on Saturday pictures of anxious savers queuing outside banks to withdraw money were circulating. A slow-motion bank run that had already drained €35 billion ($39 billion) of household and corporate deposits out of the Greek banking system between November 2014 and May 2015 threatens to get out of control. Greek banks have been able to cope with the haemorrhage of deposits only thanks to massive borrowing from the Bank of Greece, permitted by the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt. The ECB is now likely to call time on this and to prevent further increases in this “emergency liquidity...Continue reading
Source :Business and finance http://ift.tt/1IByNH2
China cuts interest rates to boost sluggish economy
China's central bank has announced the fourth recent round of interest cuts and lower reserve requirement ratios for small businesses, as Beijing tries to shore up the country's sluggish economy.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1BV8OO3
Alberta energy royalties and carbon policy back under the microscope
First, a change to the energy regulator, then a carbon tax change, now a royalty review. It was a busy week for Alberta's new government and a week full of uncertainty for the energy sector.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1HmHR7S
vendredi 26 juin 2015
Taylor Swift bites Apple & the latest CRA tax scam: BUSINESS WEEK WRAP
From a new twist on an old scam, to some surprising news about how much your local library pays for its digital downloads, it was a busy week in business news. Good thing the CBC's Jacqueline Hansen is here to get you caught up in her weekly video recap.
Source :CBC | Business News http://ift.tt/1BTvIFp
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