Poverty among seniors rising in Canada, OECD points to public pensions gap

OTTAWA - An international think-tank warns that poverty among Canadian seniors is on the rise and that current pension safety nets may be inadequate to address the problem.

Ten Mortgage Tips for 2014

Your home may be the biggest investment you’ll ever make. That means you want to be smart with your mortgage. Although we can’t say for sure what mortgage rates will do – or how the housing market will shift – we have compiled our top tips for the year ahead; sensible strategies for today’s homebuyers and owners.

Ending Canada Post’s monopoly would benefit taxpayers and consumers

The key to understanding Canada Post’s latest strategic masterstroke — henceforth, the post office will charge you nearly twice as much to deliver a letter half the way — is to understand the logic of monopoly. Only in a world entirely insulated from competitive reality would the appropriate response to declining demand be … higher prices and worse service.

Consumer confidence nears year high as Canadians put faith in rising house prices

Canada’s economic mood rebounded last week as consumers head into the holiday season buoyed by rising house prices, according to the Bloomberg Nanos Canadian Confidence Index.

Flaherty regrets massive growth of CMHC

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Friday he regrets that Canada’s housing agency has grown as large as it has and promised to take additional measures if a reduction in the amount of government insurance on mortgages is needed.

Beware banks offering skip payments

Many of Canada’s big banks offer clients the opportunity to skip payments on their mortgages. While this can work to their advantage, mortgage brokers are not big fans of strategy.

EU Banks Fined $2.3 Billion For Market Rigging

AMSTERDAM - The European Commission has fined a group of major global banks a total of 1.7 billion euros ($2.3 billion) for colluding to profit from the manipulation of key interest rates.