Financial watchdog says too early to tell impact of cap-and-trade in Ontario + MORE Nov 23rd

BUCHAREST, Romania – Prosecutors have indicted the head of Romania’s public radio company and 10 others for allegedly abusing their positions for personal gain.
A district court statement on Wednesday said Radio Romania general manager Ovidiu Miculescu and 10 current or former members of the company’s board were suspected of abuse of office and conflict of interest.
Prosecutors say the 11 allegedly approved contracts between July 2011 and Jan. 2014 for tourism services in which they had a financial interest and made a total of 400,000 lei ($95,000) through the contracts illegally.
Miculescu was recently hospitalized and has not commented on the allegations.
Radio Romania declined to comment immediately. After prosecutors searched some of its offices Tuesday, the company denied the board was “directly or indirectly” connected to a tourism agency.
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TORONTO – Ontario’s government spending watchdog says there are too many uncertainties for it to determine the financial impact of the Liberal government’s cap-and-trade program to fight climate change.
The financial accountability office says it’s too early to say if the provincial government can raise the $1.9 billion it expects each year from auctioning pollution emission credits to industries, even though cap-and-trade begins Jan 1, 2017.
It says the impact on the province’s deficit will depend on how many emission credits are sold, at what prices and what the U.S. exchange will be on the auction revenues.
However, the opposition parties say the report shows the government can use cap-and-trade revenues on previously announced programs to “artificially” balance the books next year as promised.
Progressive Conservative finance critic Vic Fedeli says cap-and-trade amounts to a “cash-grab” by the Liberals, and will let them book revenue now and pay expenses later so they can eliminate the $4…

TORONTO – The Toronto Stock Exchange has dipped slightly this morning as gold mining stocks declined along with the price of bullion.
In late morning trading, the S&P/TSX composite index was down 13.64 points at 15,086.74.
The December gold contract was down $25.80 at US$1,185.40 an ounce.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 20.72 points at 19,044.59.
But the S&P 500 was down 13.64 points at 2,197.28 and the Nasdaq composite was down 28.58 points to 5,357.77.
The Canadian dollar was at 74.12 cents US, down 0.21 of a U.S. cent.
The January crude contract rose one cent to US$48.04 per barrel and January natural gas was up one cent at US$3.11 per mmBTU.
December copper contracts were up six cents at $2.61 a pound.
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(Tim Hall/Getty Images)
Play fair. Don’t hit people. Put things back where you found them. Flush. Author Robert Fulghum famously claimed all he really needed to know, he learned in kindergarten.
Last week, a report from TD Economics sought to add a few additional items to the kindergarten syllabus, including monthly budgeting, compound interest and retirement planning. “The need for strong financial literacy has never been higher,” writes TD chief economist Beata Caranci, citing rising household debt levels as a prime motivator for her campaign. “In order to prepare young people for financial decisions throughout their lives, financial education should be incorporated in the kindergarten to Grade 12 curriculum in elementary grades.”
TD’s Caranci and other financial literacy advocacy groups, including the Canadian Foundation for Economic Education, argue that money knowledge is an important skill best learned early in life. And her point about household debt is unarguable; a quick rise in interest rates could prove disastrous for many Canadians…