Have no fear, Vancouver! The BC government is going to make BC great again!:
Starting Wednesday, foreigners will pay the province a 20 percent tax on top of the listing value, up from 15 percent now, and a levy on property speculators will be introduced later this year, according to budget documents released Tuesday. The government will also crack down on the condo pre-sale market and beneficial ownership to ensure that property flippers, offshore trusts and hidden investors are paying taxes on gains.
…
[British Columbia Finance Minister Carole] James said a raft of new measures are intended to “moderate” the surge in housing prices, which she said had emerged as one of the top concerns of both residents and businesses struggling to recruit workers due to the high cost of living.The new speculator tax takes effect this fall and will apply to foreign and domestic investors who don’t pay income tax in the province. It will start at 0.5 percent of the property’s assessed value in 2018 and rise to 2 percent thereafter. Primary residences and homes leased as long-term rentals will be exempt.
Swedish authorities are worried about the demise of cash:
“No cash accepted” signs are becoming an increasingly common sight in shops and eateries across Sweden as payments go digital and mobile.
But the pace at which cash is vanishing has authorities worried. A broad review of central bank legislation that’s under way is now taking a special look at the situation, with an interim report due as early as the summer.
“If this development with cash disappearing happens too fast, it can be difficult to maintain the infrastructure” for handling cash, said Mats Dillen, the head of the parliamentary review. He declined to give more details on the types of proposals that could be included in the report.
…
An annual survey by Insight Intelligence released last month found that only 25 percent of Swedes paid in cash at least once a week in 2017, down from 63 percent just four years ago. A full 36 percent never use cash, or just pay with it once or twice a year.In response, the central bank is considering whether there’s a need for an official form of digital currency, an e-krona. A final proposal isn’t expected until late next year, but the idea is that the e-krona would work as a complement to cash, not replace it completely.
I was pleased to see the following in a piece on Australia’s $20 minimum wage:
There is an often overlooked efficiency to high minimum wages. They can reduce the burden on the state and the taxpayer. Why, after all, should a person working full time depend on a patchwork of confusing and often arbitrary government entitlements and social programs funded through general tax revenue when they could more directly be paid a living wage by their employer? Government bureaucracies can be slow moving and uneven in their decision making. A low-wage system shifts the burden of providing the necessities of life from the employer to the taxpayer. It subsidizes marginal businesses with cheap labour. It disadvantages those employers who either voluntarily pay higher wages or are forced to do so through collective bargaining. Some credit the Australian “wages welfare state” as having contributed to a comparatively low level of sovereign debt (OECD data for 2015 puts Australia at 67-per-cent debt/GDP ratio and Canada at 114 per cent.)
It was a run-of-the-mill, slightly negative day for the Canadian preferred share market today … until about 3pm:
Click for Big
| HIMIPref™ Preferred Indices These values reflect the December 2008 revision of the HIMIPref™ Indices Values are provisional and are finalized monthly |
|||||||
| Index | Mean Current Yield (at bid) |
Median YTW |
Median Average Trading Value |
Median Mod Dur (YTW) |
Issues | Day’s Perf. | Index Value |
| Ratchet | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.8846 % | 3,002.3 |
| FixedFloater | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.8846 % | 5,509.1 |
| Floater | 3.31 % | 3.52 % | 89,118 | 18.43 | 4 | 0.8846 % | 3,174.9 |
| OpRet | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.2111 % | 3,142.3 |
| SplitShare | 4.67 % | 4.08 % | 65,286 | 3.31 | 5 | 0.2111 % | 3,752.6 |
| Interest-Bearing | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.2111 % | 2,927.9 |
| Perpetual-Premium | 5.44 % | 4.95 % | 65,343 | 14.28 | 20 | 0.0598 % | 2,833.9 |
| Perpetual-Discount | 5.42 % | 5.40 % | 85,108 | 14.78 | 14 | -0.0475 % | 2,937.2 |
| FixedReset | 4.26 % | 4.64 % | 158,094 | 5.89 | 102 | -0.3615 % | 2,511.1 |
| Deemed-Retractible | 5.14 % | 5.71 % | 90,326 | 5.73 | 28 | -0.0928 % | 2,908.8 |
| FloatingReset | 3.00 % | 2.95 % | 38,033 | 3.72 | 10 | 0.1261 % | 2,767.7 |
| Performance Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Change | Notes |
| NA.PR.W | FixedReset | -1.99 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2048-02-20 Maturity Price : 22.30 Evaluated at bid price : 22.61 Bid-YTW : 4.75 % |
| BAM.PF.E | FixedReset | -1.97 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2048-02-20 Maturity Price : 23.01 Evaluated at bid price : 23.33 Bid-YTW : 4.99 % |
| HSE.PR.A | FixedReset | -1.38 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2048-02-20 Maturity Price : 17.85 Evaluated at bid price : 17.85 Bid-YTW : 5.06 % |
| TD.PF.A | FixedReset | -1.18 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2048-02-20 Maturity Price : 22.97 Evaluated at bid price : 23.36 Bid-YTW : 4.60 % |
| TRP.PR.G | FixedReset | -1.16 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2048-02-20 Maturity Price : 22.99 Evaluated at bid price : 23.96 Bid-YTW : 5.01 % |
| TD.PF.E | FixedReset | -1.13 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2020-10-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 24.39 Bid-YTW : 4.78 % |
| BMO.PR.T | FixedReset | -1.11 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2048-02-20 Maturity Price : 22.78 Evaluated at bid price : 23.20 Bid-YTW : 4.62 % |
| TD.PF.C | FixedReset | -1.08 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2048-02-20 Maturity Price : 22.66 Evaluated at bid price : 23.00 Bid-YTW : 4.66 % |
| BMO.PR.S | FixedReset | -1.05 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2048-02-20 Maturity Price : 23.09 Evaluated at bid price : 23.58 Bid-YTW : 4.64 % |
| RY.PR.M | FixedReset | -1.03 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2048-02-20 Maturity Price : 22.99 Evaluated at bid price : 23.96 Bid-YTW : 4.70 % |
| BAM.PF.J | FixedReset | -1.02 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2022-12-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.14 Bid-YTW : 4.80 % |
| BAM.PR.K | Floater | 1.88 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2048-02-20 Maturity Price : 17.32 Evaluated at bid price : 17.32 Bid-YTW : 3.52 % |
| Volume Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Shares Traded |
Notes |
| MFC.PR.Q | FixedReset | 798,808 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2025-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 24.90 Bid-YTW : 4.78 % |
| GWO.PR.S | Deemed-Retractible | 204,471 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2025-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 24.80 Bid-YTW : 5.55 % |
| GWO.PR.G | Deemed-Retractible | 101,646 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2025-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 24.39 Bid-YTW : 5.80 % |
| TRP.PR.D | FixedReset | 89,559 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2048-02-20 Maturity Price : 22.57 Evaluated at bid price : 23.05 Bid-YTW : 4.82 % |
| PWF.PR.A | Floater | 65,074 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2048-02-20 Maturity Price : 21.10 Evaluated at bid price : 21.10 Bid-YTW : 2.87 % |
| MFC.PR.O | FixedReset | 55,835 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2021-06-19 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 26.21 Bid-YTW : 3.93 % |
| There were 22 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares. | |||
| Wide Spread Highlights | ||
| Issue | Index | Quote Data and Yield Notes |
| NA.PR.W | FixedReset | Quote: 22.61 – 23.05 Spot Rate : 0.4400 Average : 0.2893 YTW SCENARIO |
| BAM.PF.E | FixedReset | Quote: 23.33 – 23.72 Spot Rate : 0.3900 Average : 0.2613 YTW SCENARIO |
| BAM.PF.D | Perpetual-Discount | Quote: 21.68 – 21.95 Spot Rate : 0.2700 Average : 0.2029 YTW SCENARIO |
| TD.PF.A | FixedReset | Quote: 23.36 – 23.55 Spot Rate : 0.1900 Average : 0.1256 YTW SCENARIO |
| BAM.PR.C | Floater | Quote: 17.25 – 17.47 Spot Rate : 0.2200 Average : 0.1590 YTW SCENARIO |
| CM.PR.O | FixedReset | Quote: 23.35 – 23.67 Spot Rate : 0.3200 Average : 0.2631 YTW SCENARIO |