blueblood

No, and here's why. The banks borrowing from each other have billions in assets and cash. That lowers their risk as a borrower. Also, tax dollars aren't funnelled into the bank of canada, that would be political suicide. If there's a lesson to be learned from the financial crisis this is it. You cannot force people to loan to high risk people. Credit cards are the highest risk forms of financing the banks can offer. Due to the obligations the bank has, it has to charge high rates in order to cover for people not paying their bills. Its also why retailers will beat a path to the door to have an arrangement with credit card companies because their risk of bad accounts plummets because the credit card company also takes on that risk. Another interesting thing is that for long term mortgage loans, there is a penalty for paying the mortgage off early. Why? Its the obligation to share and bond holders and some depositors. Those people receive dividends and interest payments themselves for taking the risk of investing. Obama is trying something like this with debit card transaction fees. The banks basically told him to pound sand by implementing a maximum debit card transaction of 50 bucks. If I'm a wage earning american consumer I'd be pissed off. Bushcheney2004 will know more about this and could explain it to us canucks

You conveniently sidestep the bond and shareholders and the depositors. The banks have an obligation to them. No obligations met and the cashflow and liquidity by the interest rates and stability of the bank dry up and everyone loses. The same goes for the bank of canada.

My meanness is not directed at you, its for everyone. In fairness, I am ignorant about psychology. I never learned about it in high school, I don't read psych books, etc. A lot of us here own busineses, read up on economics/management/commerce and/or were educated in it whether by ourselves or at a learning institution. Personally I think its a problem in the high school education system when after graduation all students are exposed to the economy yet a lot weren't taught how it works. With all the garbage classes in highschool you'd think they'd be able to squeeze that in.

Those banks have an obligation to bondholders and shareholders. Bondholders especially as they have to pay bondholders interest. If there is a scenario involving a seismic shift in how the banks collect revenue, the bondholders and shareholders will have a fire sale and the liquidity they provide which results in the average joe needs in order to get a loan dries up. Not only that those bond and share holders are largely made up with ordinary people. This is why commerce, management, and economics should be mandatory for high school graduation. Too many people come up with ignorance like this.

He was a farmboy when he made his prototype as a teenager.

You can on your cards, just pay them off on time.

Why didn't the libs/bloc/ndp float the coalition idea to the electorate in the 2008 election if they were going to drop the govt right away? Why won't the libs now? The reason why this is such an issue is because the libs made accountability, trust, ethics the theme of their campaign. If they are going to do this, which the voters don't find trustworthy, accountable, ethical; their campaign theme has been shot full of holes.

Well then they can take that plan to the people in an election? Why won't they? I thought ethics, transparency, and accountability were the theme of the liberal campaign. It would be a little rich to hide that little fact from voters now would it?

Or zero if a person pays it all off every month.

Ask the liberals

Neither does a party with less than 30% of the vote.

And unfortunately amnesty international would have a hissy fit of biblical proportions. Which would put the kibosh on a good idea.

The problem with that is what is the line for who should be let out. There is a significant amount of canadians who feel that line is in the wrong place on the lenient side. I think that there is a significant reoffender problem in canada that has proven costly. Mayerthorpe incident is an example of that. The only way that jails shouldn't be built is if people smarten up, and unfortunately the current prison population, crime rates (even though they are falling but are countered by rising population) dictate more prisons have to be built, it sucks but that's reality. Curling is too slow for me, that's why us farm boys invented snowmobiles

At the end of the day the one with the natural smarts gets ahead. You can have all the uni education at the world, but you could very well be a dumb person with an education. There are lots of people with grade 12 who run small businesses and do well, the only thing that fires them is the economy. What I feel sorry for and I see it in town at the coffee shop around christmasd time is uni educated kids with degrees blubbering about how they can't get a good job with a 4 year degree while the kid who bought a trackhoe and bulldozer after grade 12 is sitting there with a grin on his face.

Layton's promise and comments like this are why commerce, management, and economics should be mandatory to graduate high school. If people are stupid enough to rack up tens of thousands of credit card debt with double digit rates, they deserve what they get. Out west in the ag and small business community the trend is people getting the RBC avion card and putting their cash/debit cards away. I only spend on the credit card when I have cash in the bank. If I and other guys are getting a trip to the carribbean on the credit card company every year, I'd be stupid not to use it. Not only that my credit score gets padded which makes for a more favorable bank loan experience. Why should I get squeezed because some people are idiots with their credit card with layton's plan?

And that's why therE isn't much for manufacturing in calgary Or the cost of living goes down as well. I.E. The cost of a cell phone plan in india vs. A cell phone plan in canada.

Oh joy, let's plug up the universities and have worthless degrees at the end of it. That's a recipe for education inflation. So if a kid wants to have a good job working for someone, how long does that kid have to stay in school, 8 yrs? Its about 15000 per year for school+living according to uni students in town. By plugging the schools with students, a kid is going to be swamped with debt or take a bath financially in order to get a degree(s) that get competitive jobs. Hydraboss says it best "what's the difference between a pizza and a liberal arts degree? A pizza can feed a family of four" How much can be learned on the job? University is not the be all end all as ignatieff likes to believe. At the end of the day its the person with the most natural intelligence that gets further ahead.

Well if factory workers worked for a realistic wage then offshoring wouldn't be an issue. The oil patch and mines are hiring however.

Maybe she sees the writing on the wall about not wanting to continue past 2012

Stop the madness!! 1) Jails are currently overcrowded. Do you propose sending criminals back on the street to reoffend? Yes its expensive, cleaning up after bozos typically is. 2) I know easterners and city folk love rehabilitation programs. Those are fine and dandy if someone truly wants to be rehabilitated and it works that way. However you can't force someone into an expensive rehabilitation program and expect them to be magically cured. 3) The crime rate has fallen, also the average age of people keeps rising. Could it be that some people get too old to commit crimes? The population of canada howevere keeps rising so even if the rate is falling, there is still a large amount of criminals to deal with. Like it or not the jails are necessary. If there was a way to monetize prison labor, then it wouldn't be an issue, however amnesty international would have a coniption fit, so here we are with the gong show we have. The best we can do is implement sound economic policies to whittle away at the unemployment numbers. Idle hands are the devil's playground. However criminals have to be seperated from society.

The thing with the f35 is that it will be a superior fighter when it comes out and will be for quite sometime. There is no crystal ball to decide what's going on, and its better to have the best rather than cheap out. There may be a time in the future where a fighter of that type may be needed. I do believe however that the f35 will be the last manned fighter purchased or maybe produced. Its got to the point where the capabilites of the plane exceed the capabilities of the pilot. As for the poster for suggesting there is no gun on planes, there is. That was a lesson learned from the vietnam war. 20mm vulcan gatling gun.

Why is the gst a bad tax cut? Do you plan on not spending your money?

???

Because when people who make ridiculous personal financial decisions because they have a pompous entitled attitude as a result of a job and then have a pity party for themselves and blame bankers for their mess. If you can't afford it don't buy it. The western world suffeRs because of bozos who can't make mortgage payments they had no place having. Its frustrating having to put up with wage earners with an entitled attitude.

CPC 163 LPC. 62 NDP. 34 BLOC 49 It will be a squeaker. I don't think the electorate will want a minority and the gong show that goes with it