G20: Why we all want to be Canadian now

加拿大的銀行，房貸貸款額度如果超過七成五，貸款人要自己出錢買保險。萬一還不出錢來，保險公司要賠銀行。

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G20: Why we all want to be Canadian now
Page last updated at 07:40 GMT, Friday, 25 June 2010 08:40 UK
By Caroline Hepker BBC World Business Report, Ottawa

Even on a rainy weekday at Ottawa's By Ward market, Canadian shoppers are cheery.

As Americans and Europeans face deficits and drastic government cuts, Canada's economy is recovering from only a mild recession.

Sheltering near the maple syrup stall, local restaurant promoter Melissa Grecco says Canada escaped the fate of the US.

"We felt the effects on corporate bookings, companies not spending money on staff or booking on a limited budget. But we didn't feel it as much as the US. And within the last couple of months our business has exploded."

Painful reforms

So Canada is now one of the top performing industrialised economies. How did they manage it?

For a start, painful reforms in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Canada's government, based in the stone neo-gothic Parliament building in Ottawa, along with individual provinces, were able to afford an economic stimulus package.

Whilst other nations borrowed, Canada had a budget surplus for over a decade.

According to James Flaherty, Canada's jaunty finance minister, it was also down to a more cautious approach.

"The Canadian character is relatively fiscally conservative. Canadians themselves are relatively prudent, I think, in terms of how much they are prepared to borrow and the risks they are prepared to take."

Safe as houses

Certainly, fewer risks are allowed in the housing market.

Canadian home values have held fairly steady according to Pierre de Varennes, a real estate broker in Ottawa, with 350 employees.

He says stricter standards for homebuyers meant no housing boom and bust in Canada:

"In Canada, you cannot over-mortgage your property. In fact if you are financing more than 75% of the value, you have to get insurance. Not for you but for the bank."

With that protection, Canadian banks have done well from mortgages. And with less exposure to toxic sub-prime mortgages in the US, Canada's six biggest financial institutions, headquartered on Bay Street in Toronto, survived the financial crisis disaster free.

'Big stick'

The Toronto skyline that Gordon Nixon, the President of Royal Bank of Canada, can see from his office on Bay Street not only looks very different to Manhattan. It is run differently, too.

"The structure of our marketplace in Canada is very different," he says.

"Most mortgages are held on the balance sheet of banks. The terms are more conservative and there is not as aggressive a marketplace.

"Sub-prime lending is very limited in the Canadian marketplace. What was the weakest asset class in the US and spread to the balance sheets of many banks was one of the strongest in Canada."

But Canada has also been happy to wield a bigger stick when it comes to financial regulation.

Banking superintendent Julie Dickson credits Canadian firms with better risk management.

But banks must also adhere to more stringent standards. What's more, her office is within walking distance.

"We spent a lot of time looking at what they are doing on a day-to-day basis. We also had good rules when it comes to capital and leverage. And the industry is of a size that it is easier for the regulator to get their arms around it."

Canada's financial sector is smaller and perhaps more insulated than in the US.

Critics add that Canadian banks are less innovative, with higher costs for consumers. Talking to Canadians, they seem to shrug off those arguments, happy with the results of a more prudent and, some argue, less greedy economic philosophy.

Puzzle solved

The G8 and G20 is a crucial opportunity for Canadian policy makers, eager to vaunt their successes to leaders gathered in Toronto.

And Canada need only point to growing businesses like Magmic. The Canadian IT firm makes games for the Blackberry, Apple's iPhone and iPad.

John Criswick, who founded in the firm in 2002, says the recession was painful but the odds have been tipped in his favour because he is in Canada.

"The recession definitely had an impact on us. We are half the size we used to be. But we are growing out of that and being in Canada has aided us in that recovery. It is pushing us beyond what our competition are doing in the US."

John's most profitable game? The iconic US brand the New York Times Crossword - currently the top selling gaming app on the iPhone.

The Canadians, it seems, have answers for even the toughest puzzles and they are keen to share their strategies with the rest of the world. Why in this economy, we all want to be Canadian.

倫敦的房子有多貴: Commutefrom.com告訴你

台灣某些建商喜歡拿台北的房價與國際大都市，特別是倫敦比較。他們認為與國際大都市相較，台北的房價偏低，所以台北房價還有上漲空間。

現在我們來看看倫敦市郊一般的房子大概要多少錢。

英國有很多網站協助初次搬到倫敦工作需要找房子的人。只要你在網站上輸入你上班地點最近的地鐵站，還有你希望每天通勤的時間，就可以幫你找出符合你通勤條件的地鐵站或電車站。

網站上還會列入由英國地政機關 (Registry of Land) 所統計當地房屋平均交易價格，和各類房地產價格。有的網站還有有房地產仲介的廣告，可以直接點進去看目前出售中的房屋。

在此介紹兩個功能類似的網站：

Commutefrom.com

Where can I live

首先先介紹 Commutfrom.com：

1. 首先輸入你預計上班地點：先假設以倫敦金融區 (City)最主要的地鐵站 Bank 為上班地點，在這裡上班的多半是荷包滿滿年薪台幣千萬起跳的投資銀行家，相信他們不會住不起豪宅。

預設通勤時間為搭通勤電車或捷運 40 到 50 分鐘，如果加上從家裡走路到車站 10 分鐘，再從 Bank 地鐵站走到公司 10 分鐘，通勤時間總共一小時。

2. 然後 「go」，網站上就會列出符合你的條件的地鐵站或火車站。在剛剛設定的條件下，總共有 155 個地鐵站或火車站符合條件！

3. 隨便點一個車站，看看當地的相關資料：

4. 自己隨便點一點其他車站，看看通勤時間 40 到 50 分鐘內的房屋價格到底是多少？記得英國人的收入是台灣人的三倍。

5. 如果不相信這個網站上的價格，就往該車站的價格資訊點下去，會引導到 BBC 的房屋價格統計網站，這裏的資料是英國的地政機關 (Registry of Land) 提供的成交價格資料。

What Mr Jobs doesn't know, or intentionally ignores...

What Steve Jobs doesn't understand (or probably ignores intentionally, I assume) is that it is the culture, the pressure and the unspoken disciplines which require workers to work day and night and which have been deeply built in the military management style of Foxconn that make the workers leapt, rather than the lack... of theatres or swimming pools. A former consultant to Foxconn commented (which was on a Taiwanese newspaper last week): "If you have no time to use those facilities, what's the good to have them?"

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Apple boss defends conditions at iPhone factory

Page last updated at 9:11 GMT, Wednesday, 2 June 2010 10:11 UK

Apple boss Steve Jobs has defended conditions at a Taiwanese electronics firm that produces the firm's popular iPhone, following a spate of suicides.

"Foxconn is not a sweatshop," he told a conference in the US.

Mr Jobs said that Apple representatives were working with Foxconn to find out why 10 workers had killed themselves at a factory in Shenzhen, China.

An eleventh worker recently died at another factory in northern China.

In total, there have been 13 suicides and suicide attempts at Foxconn factories this year.

"We're all over this," said Mr Jobs at the All Things Digital conference in California.

Continue reading the main story You go in this place and it's a factory but, my gosh, they've got restaurants and movie theatres and hospitals and swimming pools

Foxconn has said that it will give its assembly line workers a 30% pay rise.

The firm had previously said that it would offer a 20% pay increase to its Chinese workers, who earn 900 yuan (£90) per month at entry-level.

"We hope the hike in wages will help improve the living standards of the workers and allow them to have more leisure time, which is good for their health," an official of Foxconn's parent company Hon Hai precision told AFP.

Hon Hai Precision is the world's largest maker of consumer electronics, and employs 800,000 workers worldwide, mostly in China.

Foxconn makes a range of products for manufacturers including Apple, Dell and Nokia.

The deaths have shone a spotlight on working conditions at the factory, where workers - often from rural China - work up to 12 hours a day, six days a week.

But Mr Jobs defended the conditions.



"You go in this place and it's a factory but, my gosh, they've got restaurants and movie theatres and hospitals and swimming pools. For a factory, it's pretty nice," he said.

Surreal moment

Mr Jobs addressed a number of other issues at the All Things Digital conference.

Last week, Apple overtook Microsoft to become the world's largest technology company by market value.

"For those of us that have been in the industry a long time, it's surreal. But it doesn't matter very much, it's not what's important," Mr Jobs said.

"It's not what makes you come to work every morning."

He also claimed that Apple's controversial move to block Adobe Flash animation and video technology from its popular iPhones and iPads was "a technical decision".

"We didn't start off to have a war with Flash or anything else," he said.

The comments are the latest step in a long-running dispute between Apple and Adobe over the Flash platform.