Prices keep getting steeper, and people’s tempers are rising almost at the same rate. That is the best manner in which the current situation of the Vancouver housing market, which has stirred debate in the last few years, can be described. Yet, there is an underlying issue which most are not willing to discuss. Every time […]
The undeniable truth about Vancouver’s housing market
HSBC affiliate in Swiss Leaks misappropriated €180 billion
PARIS — French newspaper “Le Monde” revealed last night after a large investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists that between 2005 and 2007 more than €180 billion would have transited through a private bank in Switzerland, where world leaders, including kings and celebrities, hid their savings. According to the news organization, an HSBC subsidiary would have […]
Wealth of 1% greater than all the rest of the world next year
According to a report by anti-poverty charity organization Oxfam America, the wealthiest 1 percent of people will possess global assets in excess of assets possessed by the rest of earth’s 7.12 billion people by next year. The percentage of global wealth owned by the richest 1 percent rose from 46 percent in 2009 to 48 percent […]
Canadian industry jobs on the rise–in green energy sector–as oil and gas prices slump
As gas prices plummet and many O&G workers face unemployment in the upcoming year, a new report has charted the transition from oil and gas to green energy in Canada. Better prospects for jobs–sun, wind and water are more widely distributed across the nation than oil fields–and clean energy business opportunities exist in many areas that have so […]
Shinzō Abe and Abenomics to return for a third term In Japan
For Japan’s Premier Shinzō Abe, Abenomics, a three point economic strategy to revive Japan, will be the first task he has to attend to after his landslide victory in the Lower House election was announced on Monday this week. Abe’s conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and New Kōmeitō Party, its junior ruling coalition member, swept […]
Understanding cheap oil
On November 28, following the OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) meeting, oil proceeded to plunge over 10 percent. At the meeting, OPEC decided not to cut production, in order to match demand, but continue to overproduce and drive the price lower. OPEC by its very nature is a cartel, a group of companies […]
Fracking and the future – shale gas in the UK
The debate about hydraulic fracturing for shale gas exploitation (fracking) has been raging constantly in the UK since 2007 when the prospect of drilling for shale gas was first proposed. Since then, the British government, having looked at the US experience and decided that it wants a piece of the action, has embraced the idea. […]
Spain at the vanguard of digital currencies
Somewhere in an Anarchist occupied fortress in Barcelona , resides Amir Taaki, a world renowned Cypto-Anachist named one of Forbes top 30 tech entrepreneurs under the age of 30. Amir Taaki hides out with a merry band of progressive software developers that work under the name Unsystem, developing a project that is both politically incendiary […]
Is central bank stimulus actually good for you?
It was announced in November that the Japanese Central Bank would ramp up its Quantitative Easing Program (QE), bringing its yearly expansion of the money supply up to $682 billion. The end of the United States’ QE program was very well documented, as was the substantial rise in asset prices which were a result of […]
Russia scraps Europe pipeline, talks Turkey
Russia’s proposed South Stream pipeline–which would connect Russia to southern Europe without crossing Ukraine–was scrapped Monday in the wake of EU objections to the project. Instead, Russia is naming Turkey as its preferred piped gas partner. Russia has been for several years in the planning stage for an undersea pipeline to that would feed 63 billion cubic meters […]
Lowering interest rates in China lift global markets
World markets rose following China’s interest rate cuts and comments made by the European Central Bank. China’s Central Bank has cut the interest rate on annual deposits to 2.75 percent from 3.00 percent in an attempt to revive the economy. During the first half hour of opening trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose to 1.00 percent […]
China $12bn deal for Nigerian coast railway–China’s biggest overseas contract
A railway stretching over 850 miles (1,400 km) along the Nigerian coast is being taken on by China. Chinese officials announced this week that the $12bn contract was China’s biggest ever overseas contract. The project is being undertaken by China Civil Engineering Group Co., Ltd. (CCECC), a subsidiary of China Railway Construction Corporation Limited. The railway will cross […]