Word: banke
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Bank of Canada's announcement last week that the domestic economy cannot continue to grow in the face of an ever deepening financial crisis comes amid predictions of staggering job losses for the fourth quarter of 2008 and a political crisis in Ottawa...
...Canada's central bank also slashed its overnight rate three quarters of a percentage point, to 1.5%, the lowest level since 1958 when John Diefenbaker was prime minister. The move is intended, in part, to prop up sinking consumer confidence and provide some much-need relief for key sectors such as forestry, mining and oil that have been particularly hard hit in recent months by a commodity bust. (See pictures of the global financial crisis...
...bank is prepared to cut rates (which remain half a percentage point above the U.S. level) further in January 2009. But will lowering interest rates put Canada on track for recovery...
Alternative (or "complementary") currencies range from quaint to robust, simple to high tech. There are Greens from the Lettuce Patch Bank at the Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in rural northeastern Missouri. In western Massachusetts one finds fine-artist-designed BerkShares, which are convertible to U.S. dollars. More than $2 million in BerkShares have been issued through the 12 branches of five local banks, according to Susan Witt, executive director of the E.F. Schumacher Society, the nonprofit behind the currency. And in South Africa, proprietary software keeps track of Community Exchange System (CES) Talents; one ambitious plan is to make Khayelitsha...
Advocates of alternative currencies say they are a means of empowerment for those languishing on the margins of fiscal life, granting economic agency to people like the elderly, the disabled or the underemployed, who have little opportunity to earn money. For example, in some systems one can "bank" Time Dollars for tasks like child care and changing motor oil. It's not whether you're employed or what financial assets you have that matter, says Les Squires, a consultant on social-networking software who has been working with groups developing alternative currencies. Each person has "value" that is "exchangeable...