How Canada’s economy went from boom to recession so fast + MORE Jul 16th

The central bank cut its key rate by a quarter percentage point and said investment in the energy sector this year would drop roughly 40 per cent

Students can earn more than just pocket money.
There are several companies that offer Employee Stock Purchasing Plans (ESPPs)—along with other benefits—to part-time workers. That’s right, employees don’t always have to be full-time or salaried to be offered stock options.
Starbucks, Best Buy and Lowe’s are just a few of the companies that let teens become shareholders, whether they make lattes or stock shelves.
“These are all companies where you’d love to have those kinds of stocks in your portfolio. And for a young student, they can’t go out and find a stock broker or [don’t] have enough volume to trade on their own discount brokerage account,” says Scott Anderson, an employee benefits consultant with HUB International STRATA Benefits Consulting.
“So for them to be able to buy in small increments is a real advantage to them. And owning any individual stocks in your savings…it’s not a bad plan.”
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Starbucks Canada has been known to offer their employees many benefits depending on how many hours they work…

TORONTO – In slashing its key interest rate to 0.5 per cent, the Bank of Canada is aiming to boost both consumer spending and business investment by providing cheaper access to capital. But the rate cut could also pose some risks to the country’s economy.
Here is a look at some of the positive and negative implications that could stem from the central bank’s announcement Wednesday:
TOURISM: Rate cuts tend to make a country’s economy seem less attractive to foreign investors, which typically drives the currency lower.
Canadians looking to vacation abroad may have to dig a little deeper into their pockets, as a slide in the value of the loonie reduces their purchasing power. On the plus side, a cheaper loonie could lure more Americans north of the border, a boon to the Canadian tourism sector.
Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz offers the following travel advice.
“Try to get yourself a room somewhere in P.E.I. this summer,” Poloz said after announcing the rate cut…

Two hours before the street racing movie Fast and Furious 7 was released in China in April, Tang Wentian, a 21-year-old man, wrecked his Lamborghini driving the streets of central Beijing at speeds of up to 179 km/h. Locals were enraged at what they thought were spoiled, second-generation rich kids at play, but the parents of the man came forward saying they weren’t wealthy at all. And their son didn’t even have a job. Rather, he bought the luxury vehicle with money he made speculating on stocks.
Today it’s the Chinese stock market itself that’s a mangled wreck. In a country that does everything big, close to US$3 trillion of wealth has been obliterated in a matter of weeks, as panicked investors ran for the exits. The stock market rout quickly spread to commodities, accelerating declines that had already been hammering resource-producing countries, like Canada. Copper, widely viewed as a gauge of global economic health because of its use in so many industries, plunged to a six-year low, while at one point the price of iron ore fell 11 per cent in a single day, leading one analyst to note that the price of steel in China—of which iron ore is a key ingredient—was “cheaper per tonne than cabbage…