AFRICA
From the safari industry to the agricultural and mining sectors, much of Africa’s economy is taking a hammering from the Ebola crisis, and the damage is continuing to rise. The heaviest toll is being suffered in the three main Ebola-afflicted countries in West Africa, but the spill over effect is crossing borders and hitting other regions. And as Ebola cases reach the United States and Europe, foreign anxieties are hurting investments in Africa and wreaking havoc in vulnerable sectors such as tourism and trade. While most of Africa’s economy is not directly affected by the Ebola epidemic, the impact on some sectors and countries is serious enough to hurt the continent’s overall economy, dampening prospects in a region that had been among the world’s fastest-growing.
POWER
America’s electricity grid is a mess. For one thing, it is two large and three small grids, rolled into one. Two types of organizations, independent system operators and regional transmission bodies control their own parts which may cover several states, each having its own utility laws. Nobody knows the true state of the national grid until something goes badly wrong as it did in October 2012 when Hurricane Sandy left some 8-million people powerless, some for weeks. The number of big outages, defined as those affecting more than 50,000 people, has more than doubled in the past ten years.
MONEY
Millions in suspicious transactions flowed through four of Vancouver’s casinos in a recent three month period, mostly in C$20-bills, a currency frequently used in street level drug transactions. In other cases patrons showed up at the doors with plastic or brown paper bags filled with cash in wads held together by rubber bands. In some cases, patrons bought in and cashed out without even playing. Casinos are required to identify and report any suspicious activity to the provincial government as well as all cash transactions of $10,000 or more. Police were rarely contacted.
INSURANCE
With a typical American wedding costing in the region of US$25,000, wedding insurance is now catching on, with many venues requiring couples to take out liability insurance. It was introduced in Britain in 1988 but there were few takers until it caught on in the States. Now, a fifth of couples buy it. Common causes of payouts include the venue or caterers going broke after having taken a big deposit. Extreme weather, a spouse being deployed by the armed forces and an absent priest can all trigger payouts.
TRADE
For the third time, the World Trade Organization (WTO) has ruled against the US’s meat labelling laws requiring grocery stores to list the origin of meat products, which discriminates against both Canada and Mexico. Canada has warned that unless the US ends the blatantly protectionist regulations, it will strike back with punitive duties on 38 iconic US products ranging from California wine to ketchup and cornflakes. It is estimated that the US regulations cost the North American cattle and hog industry more than US$1-billion a year.
EUROPE
In the 1990’s Europe produced more than 15 per cent of the world’s microchips. Firms headquartered in Europe now account for only 8-9 per cent of global semiconductor revenues which was worth US$315-billion in 2013. Microprocessors and memory chips are mass-produced mainly in Asia and America these days, as the cost of building a “fab” as chip-fabrication factories are called, is too high for all but the largest scale endeavours. However, overall, Europe does provide 20 per cent of the world’s electronics industry’s equipment and materials, 12 per cent of subsystems such as boards and modules and 16 per cent of stand-alone and embedded systems.
DOLLS
Sales of Mattel’s iconic Barbie fashion doll fell a staggering 21 per cent in the third quarter of this year contributing to a 22 per cent drop in profits and an eight per cent decline in sales for the toy maker. Barbie sales have fallen double-digits in each of the past four quarters. The 55-year-old doll has fallen out of favour with young girls who have gravitated to other dolls manufactured by Mattel such as Monster High and more recently, dolls based on the hit Disney movie Frozen.
LOANS
Around the world, student debt is a financial burden for millions, and in the US, a growing number of senior citizens are still repaying the cost of their education into retirement age. In 2005, older adults owed US$2.8-billion in federal student debt. By 2013, that figure had ballooned to $18.2-billion. According to a General Accounting Office study, the number of individuals whose Social Security benefits were offset to pay student loan debt increased from about 31,000 to 155,000 between 2002 and 2013. In total, outstanding student loan debt in the US amounts to $1-trillion.
SHOPPING
Cross-border shopping by Canadians in the US rose between 2006 and 2012, but even with these increases, purchases from the US were between 1 per cent and 2 per cent of total Canadian retail sales. Cross-border shopping by Canadians was an estimated C$4.7-billion in 2006. Since then, annual increases, with the exception of a decline in 2009 have taken the total to $8-billion in 2012, 73 per cent higher than in 2006. The annual amount brought back grew from $370-million in 2006 to $844-million in 2012 while the total from overnight visits doubled from $1.8-billion to $3.6-billion.
MOVIES
Chinese box office revenues surged 32 per cent in the first nine months of this year. Takings have reached C$3.89-billion, nearly equalling the $3.92-billion total for all of 2013. The best performing movie of 2014 so far has been the Transformers which has taken in $356-million. China is the second biggest film market in the world and last year became the first international market to gross more than US$3-billion. China’s boom comes at a time when the US box office has slumped over the summer season to its lowest point in eight years.
ORGANISMS
Scientists in the UK are warning that an army of species from Turkey and Ukraine is poised to invade Britain’s waterways. One organism, the quagga mussel, was discovered in a river near London just weeks ago. At least 10 others are established in the Netherlands and there is a critical list of them entering the UK. Researchers are concerned that the invaders, including the killer shrimp, will spread rapidly and devastate native species. Researchers say that as well as ballast water from ships, the species often travel in ornamental plants. Damage from the quagga mussel could cost the UK economy in excess of US$2.5-billion annually.
MILKING
Genomic analysis, that is the examination of the DNA, could allow B.C. dairies to predict which calves will become elite milkers, with the promise of huge savings for farmers who will not have to raise inferior cows that will ultimately be made into hamburgers and bologna. Now, dairy farmers have to raise young cows for a little over two years at a cost of about C$2,500 each before they can determine which animals can produce milk with superior volume, fat content and protein. The result of a genomic test can identify poor producers as young as two months of age.
INFORMATION
An app which allows healthcare professionals to share photos is being rolled out across Europe. It is designed to enable doctors to share pictures of their patients, both with each other and with medical students. So far, more than 150,000 doctors have uploaded case photos with the patient’s identity obscured. Patients’ faces are automatically obscured by the app but users must manually block identifying marks like tattoos. Each photo is reviewed by moderators before being added to a database.
DRUGS
A new study has found that Canada is still paying far more than other industrialized countries for generic drugs despite recent efforts by the provinces and territories to cut costs by bulk-buying six particularly costly medications including those for high blood pressure and high cholesterol. The study shows that while Canadians are saving some money under the bulk-purchasing schemes, they are still paying much more than people in the UK, Germany, New Zealand, Sweden and the US. The six medications account for about 20 per cent of publicly funded spending on drugs.
YOGURT
New York recently signed Bill 6695 designating yogurt as the official state snack. As the United States’ top yogurt producer, New York State pumped out 336-million kilograms of it in 2013 trouncing the 268-million produced by runner-up California. Dairy manufacturers in New York accounted for about 9,500 jobs with total wages of US$513-million in 2013.
BORDER
Frustrated by costly delays at the Canada-US border, the business community is urging the governments to seek solutions from private-sector whiz kids. They are being pressed to adopt a model popularized by high-tech start-ups during the original dot.com boom in the 1990s: gather a bunch of software engineers in one room, give them a problem to solve and promise them a prize. They call it a “hackathon.” Business groups are requesting a hackathon for the border, unsatisfied by the pace of progress following years of government efforts to reduce wait times.
RENOS
In the 12-months to June of this year, more money was spent renovating homes in Canada than building new ones. Renovation spending was C$48.4-billion as against $46.3-billion for new builds. Also, prices for higher-priced homes are rising faster than prices of lower-priced homes in cities such as Toronto, Calgary, Ottawa and Edmonton, making it harder for homeowners to trade up to a bigger or better home. Over the past five years, spending on home renovations as a share of total residential investment averaged close to 46 per cent, by far the largest share on record.
TRENDS
Staff at the JTI Gallaher cigarette company in County Antrim, Ireland, has been told the plant is to close permanently by 2017. The firm has manufactured tobacco in Northern Ireland for 15 years. It is the last remaining tobacco factory in the UK.
KOREA
The Canada-South Korea free trade agreement is now in effect and should help Canadian companies boost sales to the East Asian country’s 50-million citizens, many of whom have plenty of disposable income. The agreement will eventually put Canada on an equal footing with the US and the European Union which already have trade pacts with the country. South Korea is Canada’s seventh-largest trading partner with two-way commerce of about C$10.8-billion in 2013.
FLYING
Buffalo Niagara International Airport, which garnered almost half its passenger traffic from Canada last year, is seeking to attract even more Canadian. The taxes and fees airlines add to Canadian tickets, congestion around Toronto Pearson Airport, and the additional time it takes to get through security and customs helped push Canadian traffic to about 46 per cent of the 5.5-million passengers using the Buffalo airport last year. That compares with 26 per cent in 2006. A family of four flying to Orlando can save as much as C$500 travelling through Buffalo.
COMMERCE
Pope Francis recently allowed the Sistine Chapel to be rented out for Porsche to entertain 40-high-paying tourists. It is the first time the Chapel has been rented out for a corporate function.
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