Banking in Canada

• He will be responsible for the Company’s finance, accounting, treasury, corporate development, and investor relations activities.
• Mr. Xu holds an M.B.A. from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, an M.S.
• The company also announced that Renette Youssef, Chief Marketing Officer, will be leaving the company to pursue other opportunities.
• Finally, we are continuing to execute on our cost realignment programs to improve margins and cash flow.”

• OTTAWA, ON, Feb. 5, 2024 /CNW/ - Today, the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, announced recent appointments to the Standards Council of Canada's (SCC) Governing Council.
• He has been involved in standards development since 1984 in information technologies engineering and, more recently, biodigital convergence.
• "These appointments will enhance the SCC's ability to continue to be a leader in the global standards industry.
• – The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry
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• MONTREAL, Oct. 30, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Premier Health of America Inc. (TSXV: PHA) (“Premier Health” or the “Corporation”), a leading Canadian Healthtech company, is announcing a $50 million secured credit package (the “Secured Financing”) aimed at closing the acquisition of Solution Staffing Inc. (the “Transaction”), which was announced on July 4th, 2023, including a refinancing of its current revolving facility and new term loans to finance the Transaction.
• The other three loans have fixed rates averaging 14.3%.
• The Secured Financing is led by the Royal Bank of Canada and BDC Capital Inc., sole affiliate of the Business Development Bank of Canada and is subject to certain conditions precedents, mainly the conclusion of the Transaction and other customary conditions.
• Collateral security for the Secured Financing will be provided by PHA and its subsidiaries.

• Robinson and Keynes were writing during the Great Depression, when spending and investment were moribund and interest rates seemed like a stranglehold on the economy.
• Indeed, Robinson’s argument was in response to a Marxist, proposing it would lead to “even better results than the revolutionist theory”.
• With interest rates rising steeply in the past couple of years and capitalism deeply unpopular among younger generations, it is worth returning to this idea.

The rationale

• This aims to restore equilibrium between supply and demand, and reduces inflationary pressure.
• A major problem – setting aside the question of how well it works – is that this distributes the cost of curbing inflation very unevenly.
• A recent report by the Royal Bank of Canada said higher interest rates disproportionately hurt poorer and younger people, such as renters and first-time homebuyers.
• In general, to quote a recent op-ed, central banks raising interest rates make it harder to fight the climate crisis.

The fiscal alternative

• If the interest rate were permanently zero, the government’s fiscal levers of taxation and spending would be the alternative means of controlling inflation.
• Likewise, socially desirable forms of spending such as essential infrastructure would be the first to increase during recessions.
• This was the main reason independent central banks were given control over interest rates in the first place.
• Instead, central banks could openly use these frameworks to guide banks into making low-risk loans for socially and environmentally responsible ventures.

The future of central banks

• This could enable central banks to encourage or discourage certain spending in more targeted ways, for example by restricting what can be spent by people in certain areas or income brackets.
• If inflation was controlled using only fiscal levers, CBDCs could be used to reinforce this policy.