Trudeau handouts not boosting economy: Poll

[Rwede]

Trudeau handouts not boosting economy: Poll

THEOPHILOS ARGITIS, BLOOMBERG

FIRST POSTED: WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 07, 2016 09:36 AM EDT | UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 07, 2016 10:05 AM EDT


Two of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's marquee budget policies -- enhanced child benefits and income tax cuts -- are doing little to boost consumer spending, according to a new Bloomberg-Nanos survey.

Families receiving additional child benefits plan to use only 15% of the windfall for new spending, with most of it going to pay bills or reduce debt, the poll by Nanos Research Group for Bloomberg News found. There is little evidence the tax cuts are having much of an effect either, with just 8% perceiving a drop in income taxes.

The results cast doubt on whether the two fiscal measures -- worth $12.3 billion over the next two years -- will provide much of a stimulative boost to the nation's sputtering economy, at least in the short term. The data are consistent with a household sector more keen to repair balance sheets than spend, complicating the government's efforts to get the economy moving with additional stimulus.

snip

In its budget this year, the Canadian government assumes national output will get a boost equivalent to about 80% of the child benefit payment enhancement.

Yet the Bloomberg-Nanos numbers suggests consumers are in no rush to spend the additional money.

Among Canadians who have noticed a child benefit increase, respondents said they would put an average 47% of the additional proceeds to pay existing bills; 19% would go to savings and 14% toward debt. New spending would account for 15%.

Trudeau's government started delivering enhanced family benefit payments at the end of July, and data on how effective the measures will be in boosting growth won't come until later this year.

The tax measures have gone largely unnoticed. In December, the government reduced the second income tax rate - between $45,300 and $90,600 -- by 1.5 percentage points. The poll found 36% of Canadians believe their income taxes have actually increased over the past year, while 41% say they're unchanged and 8% say they're down.

The survey of Canadians 18 years of age or older is accurate to within 3.1 percentage points.


The full story about why a substitute drama teacher shouldn't be PM: http://www.torontosun.com/2016/09/07/tr ... my%3A+Poll

[hobbyguy]

Therein lies the tale of the tape on the past decade or more of economic policy and direction.

If a person is unemployed, or underemployed, or hasn't seen a decent raise in years, a few extra bucks is definitely going to go not into new spending, but keeping their heads above water. Canadians as whole have record levels of debt. The real cost of living makes the CPI look like the joke it is.

http://business.financialpost.com/personal-finance/debt/almost-half-of-canadians-are-living-paycheque-to-paycheque-with-finances-stretched-the-most-in-ontario-and-b-c

"Less than one quarter of respondents said they could probably not come up with $2,000 if an emergency arose within the next month. Some 36 per cent of working Canadians said they felt overwhelmed by their level of debt and 12 per cent doubted they’ll ever be debt-free."

So I am not surprised that stimulus measures are not returning the levels of return they used to.

[d0nb]

Families receiving additional child benefits plan to use only 15% of the windfall for new spending, with most of it going to pay bills or reduce debt, the poll by Nanos Research Group for Bloomberg News found. There is little evidence the tax cuts are having much of an effect either, with just 8% perceiving a drop in income taxes.

Well, good for them. In the long run, reducing their debts will probably be more beneficial for Canada and Canadians than using the money to drive up our trade deficit by buying imported products.

[JLives]

I know you only care about the economy but the main purpose of the new Canada Child Tax Benefit was to lift families out of poverty. Families are really struggling out there and this extra money will help. Of course, not a lot is going to new spending. Have you seen rental rates in this city? Gas prices? Food prices? It's to help them keep up with the basics, not live high on the hog.

[JLives]

And why shouldn't a teacher be PM? You don't run a country like a business and he was voted into office. He is your PM too. Anybody can run for PM and serve their country. That's how democracy works. I'd like to see a scientist as head of state. Economists and lawyers have overstayed their welcome in head office.

[Gone_Fishin]

You don't run a country like a business and he was voted into office.

Well, actually, you DO run a country like a business if you want to be successful at managing the $300,000,000,000 budget you're entrusted with as PM. The fact that he runs it like the cover of People Magazine is why he's an abject failure, and why 110,000 Canadians just lost their jobs while he played on the beach.

[K_teela]

Well, actually, you DO run a country like a business if you want to be successful at managing the $300,000,000,000 budget you're entrusted with as PM. The fact that he runs it like the cover of People Magazine is why he's an abject failure, and why 110,000 Canadians just lost their jobs while he played on the beach.

I think Harpers dictatorship style of running his party has caused you to forget how our government works. It's not a one man show, the PM is not "the president"...the role of the PM is largely organizational, and has a whole team of Ministers that largely... are responsible for running the Country/policy making...one of those ministers is the Minister of Finance, who is entrusted with the budget.

So no, the PM doesn't need to focus purely on the economy...the PM worries about the health of his/her Country as a whole, and chooses a team to handle the specifics.

As for your job loss statistic, it's incorrect. In Nov 2015, unemployment was at 7.1%, as of the report last month unemployment is at 7.0%. If you only get your news from the Rebel media though...I'm sure they didn't make a video about it, so you missed the part when there was a massive job gain in the early months of him becoming PM. So largely, employment is still naturally going through it's ebb and flow, and is basically unchanged...but slightly better at the moment. I'm not saying this is good, but things haven't been good for a long time now.

You could easily find this out with a google search, but I'm sure you'll choose to ignore the facts anyways.

http://www.chch.com/canada-sees-biggest-job-gain-half-year-march/ - Why wasn't there a Rebel video about this? Seems this is one the Right Wing would be happy about no? More private sector jobs while some union jobs fell? Why no Rebel media report?

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/canada/unemployment-rate

[Jonrox]

Well, actually, you DO run a country like a business if you want to be successful at managing the $300,000,000,000 budget you're entrusted with as PM. The fact that he runs it like the cover of People Magazine is why he's an abject failure, and why 110,000 Canadians just lost their jobs while he played on the beach.

This is just a silly remark. There's not a country in the world that's run like a business. It would destroy anyone who tried. Either you've never worked for a business or you don't understand how a business works.

[Rwede]

As for your job loss statistic, it's incorrect. In Nov 2015, unemployment was at 7.1%, as of the report last month unemployment is at 7.0%. If you only get your news from the Rebel media though...I'm sure they didn't make a video about it, so you missed the part when there was a massive job gain in the early months of him becoming PM. So largely, employment is still naturally going through it's ebb and flow, and is basically unchanged...but slightly better at the moment. I'm not saying this is good, but things haven't been good for a long time now.

The job loss statistic is from Statistics Canada.

Are you telling us that you don't believe Stats Can, even though your group of Trudeau worshipers just blew a pile of bandwidth supporting Stats Can on the census thread?

And the reason for the percentage change that you're trying to defend Beach Boy with?

Employers eliminated 71,400 full-time positions, the second consecutive month of full-time declines, but 40,200 part-time jobs were created. Meanwhile, the participation rate fell to its lowest level since late 1999, as more people either stopped actively searching for work or stopped working altogether.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-o ... e31286881/

You see, some people understand the economy, and some don't. Those who don't understand it are Liberal supporters.

[K_teela]

The job loss statistic is from Statistics Canada.

Are you telling us that you don't believe Stats Can, even though your group of Trudeau worshipers just blew a pile of bandwidth supporting Stats Can on the census thread?

And the reason for the percentage change that you're trying to defend Beach Boy with?

Employers eliminated 71,400 full-time positions, the second consecutive month of full-time declines, but 40,200 part-time jobs were created. Meanwhile, the participation rate fell to its lowest level since late 1999, as more people either stopped actively searching for work or stopped working altogether.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-o ... e31286881/

You see, some people understand the economy, and some don't. Those who don't understand it are Liberal supporters.

The numbers I posted are from stats-can...whether your choose to believe that is up to you.
I'm not defending anyone, if you actually read my post you'd see that.

However I will point out misleading statistics.

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/canada/unemployment-rate

You keep wanting to point out one specific month at a time...and it'll be easy to cherry pick a particular instance in time that suits your agenda, but what you refuse to do is look at the bigger picture.

November unemployment rate = 7.1%, August unemployment rate = 7.0%

Just because you cherry pick a particular bad month doesn't mean that's the case for every month.

In May: Employment was little changed in May (+14,000 or +0.1 percent), as full-time employment rose by 61,000. This increase was largely offset by a decline of 47,000 in part-time work.

However this is also cherry picking, and does not convey the larger picture.

If you refuse to believe there is an ebb and flow to job rates, and that job rates are purely the governments doing and have nothing to do with globalization, and advances in technology replacing jobs...I don't think you understand the economy as well as you think you do.

If you want to completely blame the government for things, why don't you want to check out Harpers record as well?

Not everyone who points out attempts to be misleading is a "trudeau apologist/Liberal supporter" I didn't vote for them either. Doesn't mean I won't point out when you and your kind are attempting to mislead.

[Rwede]

I don't think some people understand what happens to percentages when thousands of people leave the workforce and have their EI run dry.

That's okay though, because our PM is a hunk.

[K_teela]

I don't think some people understand what happens to percentages when thousands of people leave the workforce and have their EI run dry.

That's okay though, because our PM is a hunk.

It's good to see you're finally sympathizing with people who've lost their jobs and can't find work.

It wasn't long ago you were calling everyone who was on EI/welfare just a lazy leftist bum with their hand out.

I think your heart grew 3 sizes this day.

Good for you for thinking he's a hunk, at least you've found something you can like about him.

[The Green Barbarian]

And why shouldn't a teacher be PM? You don't run a country like a business

no but it wouldn't hurt if you knew a little bit about economics and taxation policy, instead of completely nothing. When your PM knows more about how to use SnapChat filters and Instagram then he knows about how taxation policy affects the basic consumer, then you have a problem.

[The Green Barbarian]

I think your heart grew 3 sizes this day.

but to actually accept every tenet espoused by the completely out of touch with reality leftists here, his brain would have to shrink 3 sizes.

[d0nb]

I know you only care about the economy but the main purpose of the new Canada Child Tax Benefit was to lift families out of poverty. Families are really struggling out there and this extra money will help. Of course, not a lot is going to new spending. Have you seen rental rates in this city? Gas prices? Food prices? It's to help them keep up with the basics, not live high on the hog.

It's rather doubtful that anyone who cared only about the economy could remain unaware of the cost of living, while common sense should inform us that not caring about the economy would be the best way to condemn families to poverty.