Economy

Filibuster Must End: Cabinet

By Iron Will / May 29, 2023 /

Cabinet seeks to break a month-long filibuster that has tied up Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s omnibus budget bill in the Commons finance committee. One Liberal MP called it “arbitrary filibustering” to upset cabinet’s calendar.

“What happens when you filibuster needlessly? Not for any real point,” said Liberal MP Terry Beech (Burnaby North-Seymour, B.C.), parliamentary secretary for finance. “The point is quite clear. The point is to obstruct the bill and to prevent it from passing or at least to delay it as long as possible.”

“All the Conservatives are doing by continuing this filibuster is proving the fact they intend to do nothing except obstruct for obstruction’s sake,” said MP Beech. He served notice of a motion that the finance committee limit Conservatives to a maximum 15 additional minutes of debate on Bill C-47 the Budget Implementation Act.

Conservative MP Rick Perkins (South Shore-St. Margarets, N.S.) denied gamesmanship and called C-47 a far-reaching and costly bill that must be thoroughly studied. Minister Freeland “built up a level of distrust in this committee and in the House,” said Perkins.

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Pot Dealers Behind In Taxes

By Iron Will / May 29, 2023 /

ollapse of the legal pot trade has seen two thirds of marijuana dealers fall behind in tax payments, says a federal report. Dealers owe the Canada Revenue Agency millions.

“The total amount of unpaid cannabis excise duties has continuously been rising since legalization,” said a report by the Competition Bureau. “Sixty-six percent of licensees required to remit excise duties had an outstanding debt with the Canada Revenue Agency.”

Unpaid taxes last year totaled $52.4 million. The value of delinquent payments was projected to nearly double to $97.5 million this year, said the report Planting The Seeds For Competition.

Parliament on legalizing marijuana in 2018 taxed it at $1 per gram plus GST. “With the average price per gram for dried cannabis falling since legalization, excise duties now take up a more significant portion of cannabis producers’ revenues,” up to 30 percent or more, wrote the Competition Bureau

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Higher interest rates are slowing spending

By Iron Will / May 29, 2023 /

Predictions of if and when Canada will slip into a recession are as precarious as predicting the weather (although forecasters of the latter seem to have improved of late).

A recession is “a significant, widespread, and prolonged downturn in economic activity. A common rule of thumb is that two consecutive quarters of negative gross domestic product (GDP) growth mean recession.”

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CTF praises UCP for paying down debt

By Iron Will / May 29, 2023 /

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) says Alberta’s debt is the elephant in the room.

The Alberta Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation Kris Sims recalled the Simpsons episode where the peanut factory manager is vindicated for his repeated safety drills when Stampy storms through the door? What’s Alberta’s debt situation?

“The United Conservative government posted a $10.3-billion surplus in this February’s budget,” said Sims

“Alberta is still about $79 billion in debt. That costs us about $2.8 billion in annual interest charges.”

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https://www.westernstandard.news/news/taxpayers-group-celebrates-cancellation-of-wasteful-mission-cultural-fund/article_c95acc8c-fe2b-11ed-9065-370d12a26aee.html

By Iron Will / May 29, 2023 /

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is happy that the Mission Cultural Fund has been cancelled. This fund, part of Global Affairs, used taxpayers’ money wastefully, such as on a sex toy show in Germany and a photography exhibit for a rock star.

“This is a big win for taxpayers and it’s long overdue,” said Franco Terrazzano, federal director of the CTF.

“Paying for a sex toy show in Germany and flying chefs around the world was a huge waste of taxpayers’ money and Global Affairs should have shut this down years ago.”

The federal government released a statement without much attention stating that the Mission Cultural Fund had “expired on March 31, 2023.”

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BUSINESS Target Stock Price Plummets, Losing $10B In Valuation Over Kids’ Pride Month Clothing Backlash

By Iron Will / May 29, 2023 /

KEY POINTS
Target lost $10 billion over the last 10 days after launching its Pride-themed clothing line
Target’s stock price sank to $138.93, the lowest in nearly three years
Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz didn’t believe the boycott vs. Target would be impactful
Target, one of the largest U.S. retailers, has been targeted by a boycott over its LGBTQ-friendly kids’ clothing, wiping out billions of dollars worth of stocks.

New York Post reported that Target lost $10 billion in market valuation over the last 10 days due to the backlash it received from its LGBTQ-themed kids’ clothing line.

Last Wednesday, Target’s stock value was at $160.96 a share, but its value sank and closed Friday at $138.93 a share — the retailer’s lowest stock price in nearly three years.

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Asian Markets Mixed As Traders Await US Debt Ceiling Vote

By Iron Will / May 29, 2023 /

Asian investors traded nervously Tuesday as they kept an eye on Washington, where lawmakers are expected to vote this week on a deal to hike the US debt ceiling and avoid a painful default.

President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy hammered out an agreement at the weekend that saw both sides give ground, a week before a June 5 deadline when the government is expected to run out of cash to pay its bills.

The news provided some much-needed relief to markets, but now the two leaders must convince waverers on both sides to back the deal, with the House expected to vote Wednesday followed by the Senate.

Ultra-conservative Republicans feel McCarthy should have secured far deeper spending cuts in exchange for raising the debt ceiling and allowing the government to keep borrowing.

The left wing of the Democratic Party is equally unhappy that Biden agreed to any spending limits at all.

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Bitcoin’s Brief Pump Above $28K Leads To Steep Losses Among Short Traders, Triggers $130M Liquidations

By Iron Will / May 29, 2023 /

CRYPTO CRYPTO BUSINESS
Bitcoin’s Brief Pump Above $28K Leads To Steep Losses Among Short Traders, Triggers $130M Liquidations
By Nica Osorio
@nicaIBTimes

05/30/23 AT 12:18 AM EDT
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KEY POINTS
Bitcoin peaked at $28,432 but retraced to $27,960 by 9 a.m. ET Monday
The brief spike was after President Biden confirmed a deal was reached on debt ceiling
Bitcoin left the $28,000 price level and saw a 0.91% loss Monday evening
Bitcoin briefly spiked above the $28,000 price level in the early trading hours Monday, which led to nearly $130 million in liquidations and saw short traders experience steep losses.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency asset by market capitalization broke through the $28,000 price region and peaked at $28, 432 over the past 24 hours, but retraced to $27,960 at around 9 a.m. ET on Monday.

This brief surge in the price of Bitcoin triggered $55 million in liquidations for traders who held positions in the asset, with the market seeing $129.1 million leaving exchanges and 35,000 traders liquidating over the past 24 hours, data from crypto futures trading and information platform Coinglass showed.

Moreover, short traders lost $1404.45 million at around the same time, with Bitcoin, along with Ethereum – the second largest crypto asset by market capitalization, taking more than $68 million of those losses.

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Norway’s sovereign wealth fund to support climate resolutions even as it expands oil exploration

By Iron Will / May 26, 2023 /

Talk about biting the hand that feeds.

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund — the world’s largest — is set to support climate resolutions at the shareholders meetings of Exxon and Chevron even as its state oil company expands oil and gas exploration in what climate activists describe as giving “the middle finger” to the Paris Accord.

Government Pension Fund Global — the Norwegian equivalent of the CPP — told London’s Financial Times, it will support resolutions to introduce Scope 3 emissions targets at AGMs in Irving, TX and San Ramon, CA next week.

It comes even as the Norwegian energy ministry announced this month it would step up oil exploration in the Barents Sea to improve Europe’s energy security in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Last year the country overtook Russia to become the EUs largest supplier of oil and gas.

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Report Burning Bridge: Debunking LNG as a Climate Solution

By Iron Will / May 26, 2023 /

Fossil gas, marketed as “natural gas” and its liquefied form used for long-distance maritime transport, “liquefied natural gas” (LNG), have been proposed as a middle ground between more carbon-intensive fossil fuels and renewable energy.

This report covers the science on the climate impacts of gas, the necessary reductions in gas supply and demand under the Paris Agreement and how this disqualifies Canadian LNG as a climate solution. Possible incremental reductions in global GHG emissions resulting from Canadian LNG are not enough to be part of a Paris-aligned energy transition. Canadian energy would be better directed at promoting a direct transition to renewable energy at home and abroad.

Exporting B.C. LNG makes the climate crisis worse, not better. It’s time for the province to pull the plug on any further LNG expansion and to cease providing public financing, infrastructure support or preferential treatment for the sector.

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