Credit Crunch

Pressure on Obama to rescue banking sector

The U.K. government Monday unveiled sweeping measures to rescue its ailing banking industry, putting a spotlight on the need for U.S. President-elect Barack Obama to act fast with a similar bank bailout overhaul when he assumes office Tuesday.

  • NDP strengthens its business credentials

    On a bitterly cold night in Paris this week, NDP MP Tom Mulcair attended a dinner by French President Nicolas Sarkozy in a determined effort by the social-democratic party to deepen its knowledge of the...

  • Billions being pulled out of China

    Royal Bank of Scotland has warned it may become the fourth big investor in just a few days to pull billions of dollars out of the Chinese banking system, fuelling fears that China’s faltering economy ...

  • Stock markets will 'remain dangerous'

    None of the experts at the National Post and Canadian Club’s 32nd Annual Outlook expects 2009 to be easy, and while there is a high risk of more market shocks to come, there is an equally good chance ...

  • Politicians put bank brass under the gun

    Bay Street is bracing for a political backlash in 2009 as banking practices come under scrutiny following unprecedented state intervention to backstop the financial sector.

  • Ottawa's first priority is credit

    Without doubt, the No. 1 issue among business owners is the availability -- or lack thereof -- of credit, says Canada's minister responsible for small business.

  • TD predicts economy will shrink 1.4% in 2009

    In what is looking more and more like a gloomy new year, the Canadian economy will retract 1.4% through 2009, economists at TD Economics said in a report released Tuesday.

  • Failure is not an option

    The U.S. Federal Reserve chairman pulled out his howitzer this week in an all-out effort to blast the deflationary threat away.

  • What if stimulus works too well?

    Things look dim now, but let us suppose Herculean efforts to reflate the global economy work. Rock bottom interest rates entice borrowing, hundreds of billions of dollars in government stimulus goose ...

  • Bay Street changes rules of rates game

    Bay Street’s profit margins are starting to come under pressure as official interest rates creep closer to zero, prompting retail banks to change the rules of the game so customers pay more.

  • Brutal arrival of recession in Canada

    Jobs figures from Canada and the United States Friday show North America is in the midst of a mass layoff. The credit crisis that erupted on Wall Street 18 month ago, felling banks and stock markets, ...

Features

ABCP lesson

The made-in-Canada asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) mess has caused a lot of finger pointing. How could the Office of the Superintendent of Financial...

The architects of ABCP

Pundits tell us that the crisis that has reverberated in global markets since summerwas sparked by overextended borrowers.

Advertisement Osler

Why should I care about the credit crunch?

Forget tomorrow, Canadians are already getting hit in the pocketbook by the debt-market crisis, and it could get a lot worse.

Who's cashing in on the ABCP market?

Four months into the Canadian $35-billion ABCP fiasco and still investors have no idea about the status of their holdings. They may be sitting on the ...