Wednesday morning news drop
B.C. real estate industry braces for postpandemic immigration boom Metro Vancouver housing builders and the real estate industry are bracing for a big surge of immigrants to wash into the region once travel is allowed again, with some possible extra pushes coming from Hong Kong, India, the Philippines and even Indonesia. (Globe and Mail)
Housing, We Have a Problem There are three main stories in the housing market. People are moving out of apartments and into houses. People who are already in houses are staying put. People who haven’t already bought a house are getting priced out. Interwoven into all three of these are demographics. The largest segment of the U.S. population is people in their late 20s and early 30s. These are the people most likely to be first-time home buyers. Here’s what I would say to people in this situation. If it’s the right house, buy it. If it’s a house you can see yourself raising kids in, then buy it. If you end up overpaying, well, there are greater tragedies in life. (Irrelevant Investor)
Wall Street stocks slip as ‘bubble’ fears mount US and Asian bourses retreat after China regulator warns of inflated valuations (Financial Times)
Forget GameStop. If You Want Real Risk, Invest in Supercars If you were prescient enough to buy a seminal 1954 300SL new for its $7,000 sticker price, lock it in a garage, and take good care of it, the machine would fetch roughly $1.4 million today, an annualized return of about 8%, not accounting for inflation, storage, and maintenance. You’d have been much better off in the Dow Jones index, which requires zero oil filters. (Bloomberg)
European companies set to dominate psychedelics market European companies like Compass Pathways, Beckley Psytech and Atai Life Sciences are leading the race to dominate the new psychedelic market. (Sifted)
How Green Are Electric Vehicles? In short: Very green. But plug-in cars still have environmental effects. Here’s a guide to the main issues and how they might be addressed. (New York Times)
Volvo says it will be ‘fully electric’ by 2030 and move car sales online Henrik Green, Volvo Cars’ chief technology officer, says there’s “no long-term future for cars with an internal combustion engine.” Speaking to CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Tuesday morning, CEO Håkan Samuelsson offers more detail about “online only” sales model. (CNBC)
New GST/HST rules for digital sales: What you should know Foreign companies selling goods and services online in Canada will soon need to contend with new GST/HST rules for e-commerce transactions. Find out about the federal government’s proposals and CPA Canada’s suggestions for improving them. (CPA Canada)
Does Your Company Lurch From Crisis to Crisis? Many organizations find themselves in a perpetual state of crisis and rely on company “heroes” to put out the fires. While many people love the feeling of saving the day, it shouldn’t be a way of life. If you’ve wondered why your organization performs well in a crisis but struggles otherwise, it may be time to pause and ask why. Your heroes may actually be revealing that you have a deeper problem. The author offers four ways to move away from a culture of perpetual crisis. First, understand that heroism is not a sign of commitment, but rather that it’s time to make changes in your organization. Second, make sure the way you’re allocating resources is realistic. Third, get better at cross-functional coordination. And finally, reward teams, not just individuals. (Harvard Business Review)
The Companies Where Employees Most Often Get Payday Loans Payday loans are used by people who need money fast, who often have no other way of borrowing money to cover an unexpected expense. The benefit of these kinds of loans is they enable you to meet your immediate financial obligations. The risk, however, is you are taking on debt and incurring future obligations that require future income to fulfill. Currently Walmart, the largest employer in the United States, is the number employer of payday loan recipients (Pricenomics)
As BC’s Overdose Crisis Deepens, Province Defends Efforts Drugs becoming ‘even deadlier, underscoring urgent need for supervised consumption, safe supply and treatment,’ says coroner. (Tyee)
