SummarySince coming into office, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government has repeatedly claimed to have reduced taxes for middle class Canadian families-a claim based solely on the federal government's reduction to the second lowest personal income tax rate from 22 to 20.5 percent. However, a recent study found that when all the Trudeau government's major changes to the personal income tax syst...Read More
Move over Bitcoin. In 2018, so far, it’s gold that’s catching investors’ attention.Gold hit a four-month high on Friday, trading at US$1,338.39 per ounce on the back of strong production outlooks from companies, higher price predictions from bank analysts and merger activity.“It’s going to get more competitive,” Clive T. Johnson, chief executive of B2Gold C...Read More
One of the biggest diamonds in history has been discovered in the mountainous kingdom of Lesotho in southern Africa.Gem Diamonds Ltd. found the 910-carat stone, about the size of two golf balls, at its Letseng mine in the country. It’s a D colour Type IIa diamond, which means it has very few or no nitrogen atoms and is one of the most expensive stones. The diamond is the fifth-biggest ever f...Read More
SummaryThe unemployment rate has long been the single measure most used by the media, policymakers, and politicians to gauge overall labour market performance.However, the unemployment rate can decrease for two reasons that imply very different performance: 1) people are finding work, which is positive; or 2) potential workers are dropping out of the labour force and not looking for work anymore,...Read More
Stung by some lousy investments that led to billions of dollars in losses a few years ago, the world’s major gold producers have cut way back on mining deals — even as metal prices posted their biggest rally since 2010.The value of the industry’s transactions, from acquisitions to venture-capital financing, tumbled by more than a third in 2017 to US$8.95 billion, the lowest...Read More
While the provision of health care involves the use of a considerable number of inputs, including medical equipment and pharmaceuticals, health-care services still draw largely on the expertise of health-care professionals. Physicians, in particular, play a prominent role. In this regard, while Canada has one of the most expensive universal health-care systems among developed countries, the number...Read More
TORONTO — The Chilean government has ordered Barrick Gold Corp. (TSX:ABX) to permanently close all surface facilities at its troubled Pascua-Lama project high in the Andes.The government had suspended the massive project that straddles the Chile-Argentina border in 2013 over concerns of environmental damage and water contamination during development.Barrick was fined the maximum US$16 millio...Read More
Mike Mozak's union was in the middle of labour negotiations with Teck Resources Ltd. last spring when the company announced a proposed $1.2-billion deal to sell its hydroelectric dam that powers the lead and zinc smelter where his members worked."It was a shock to all of us," said Mozak, president of United Steelworkers Local 9705, who questions how the sale could affect the smelter's future. Nest...Read More
Recently, Russian television network RT extensively quoted me in a series of articles about the US Government's gold reserves. The RT articles, published on the RT.com website, were based on a series of questions RT put to me about various aspects of the official US gold reserves. These gold reserves are held by the US Treasury, mostly in the custody of the US Mint. The US Mint is a branch of th...Read More
LONDON — The field of prospective bidders for ScotiaMocatta, the metals trading arm of Canada’s Bank of Nova Scotia, has narrowed to two, three banking and industry sources said on Wednesday.The two – Goldman Sachs Group and Citi – are undertaking due diligence checks, the sources said.The sources said Japanese trading house Sumitomo and Australian bank ANZ (Australia and N...Read More
The Human Freedom Index (HFI) presents a broad measure of human freedom, understood as the absence of coercive constraint. This third annual index uses 79 distinct indicators of personal and economic freedom in the following areas:Rule of LawSecurity and SafetyMovementReligionAssociation, Assembly, and Civil SocietyExpression and InformationIdentity and RelationshipsSize of GovernmentLegal System...Read More
Conventional wisdom suggests 'buy low, sell high' is the best strategy. But as gold prices surge to new peaks daily, and some companies hang back from acquisitions, Leagold Mining Corp.'s chief executive Neil Woodyer believes he's found a loophole to this age-old adage: In about a one-year timespan, he has built a Latin America-focused intermediate by snapping up assets that larger companies cast...Read More
Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. and parent Rio Tinto Group’s ambition to build one of the world’s largest copper and gold mines, called Oyu Tolgoi, in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert, has hit a number of stumbling blocks in recent weeks.Last week, Jean-Sebastien Jacques, the chief executive of Rio Tinto, flew to Mongolia’s capital city to meet with prime minister Ukhnaagiin Khurelsuk...Read More
There are serious financial risks associated with running deficits during times of positive economic growth. One of the principal risks is that the budget cannot be balanced regardless of economic conditions because a permanent imbalance between how much the government spends and the amount it raises from taxes and other revenues develops. The Trudeau government took office in late 2015 and immedi...Read More
The Fraser Institute is the top think-tank in Canada for the tenth straight year and ranks in the top 25 among all think-tanks worldwide, according to the 2017 Global Go To Think Tank Index published by the University of Pennsylvania and released recently in Washington, D.C.The annual index ranks the Fraser Institute first among 100 think-tanks in Canada and 21st out of more than 7,800 think-tanks...Read More
SummaryIn 2016/17, Ontario's net debt reached $302 billion, or approximately $21, 500 per Ontarian. The province's debt-to-GDP level stands at 38 percent, just below its all-time historic high.Ontario's net debt has increased dramatically since 2003/04, with the province running budget deficits in 11 of the past 14 years. These annual deficits have ranged from $991 million to $19.3 billion and hav...Read More
Nutrien Ltd., the newly formed company from the merger of The Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan and Agrium Inc., is well on course to achieve savings of half a billion dollar in synergies annually, according to its chief executive officer Chuck Magro.“When we look at it, the $500 million in annual synergies — we’re very confident about that number,” Magro told investors on...Read More
This blog post is a guest post on BullionStar's Blog by the renowned blogger JP Koning who will be writing about monetary economics, central banking and gold. BullionStar does not endorse or oppose the opinions presented but encourage a healthy debate. Would it make sense to rebuild an international gold standard like the one we had in the late 1800s? Larry White says the idea has merit, Davi...Read More
The presence of counterfeit medicines in international commerce was initially identified as a problem in 1985 at the World Health Organization Conference of Experts on Rational Drug Use. Prior to this event, the dangers and challenges of pharmaceutical counterfeiting were primarily limited to developing countries. The global picture, however, has starkly changed. Pharmaceutical counterfeiting now...Read More
OTTAWA — The federal government is designating a single agency to oversee what is expected to be a more stringent and far-reaching review process, amid concerns Canada is burdening the industry with new and untested layers of regulations.Environment Minister Catherine McKenna told reporters Thursday that the new law would create a “predictable, timely and evidence-based” review p...Read More