Trumpets the Star, which is a daily raggatty rag. "Bank earnings a nice surprise for Bay Street." and "Profits impress". The decaying daily states that this remarkable profitability shows the strength in the Canadian retail sector.
One must be slightly troubled by this. Stand around and look. Pulp mills, paper mills, lumber mills have shut down on a long term basis right across this country. Farmers are coping with high energy costs without seeing a compensatory increase in the price of their products to the food markets.
Consumers struggle with keeping their jobs, or looking for work. Canadian banks appear immune from pain. Indeed it may be that they inflict pain to maintain profitability. Much of this profit stems less from the margin on loans, than those revenues generated by the complex user fees and service charges that banks now charge its clients.
The code words are "retail sector". I found over the years that those words relate to the transactional charges on debit and credit cards. Most money transactions in today's world are plastic and not hard cash. The banks make tonnes of cash on the transaction fees.
1 comment:
I'm always pleased to read, while all the rest of us are suffering, banks and oil companies are basking in record profits. How does that happen, I wonder? It just baffles the hell out of me.
It must be nice when you and your buddies own all the governments of a first world country lock, stock and barrel.
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