[Canada] Canadian Politics Redux

[Admiral Yi]

Come on man - you have an economics background don't you?

Telecoms and banking have high barriers to entry, and benefit from economies of scale.  If have a $100 million dollars that I want to invest - it would be suicidal to try and start up a new telecoms company.  You need to invest in infrastructure across the country - be it wireless or wired.  If I want to start a bank I need to invest in retail outlets.  All while trying to compete with established (and profitable) existing competition.  And that's considering that I'm a domestic investor.

"broad consensus"?  Look the Conservative Party isn't perfect from my view.  There are more rumblings from them about opening up Canada to more competition than there ever were from the Liberals - but to date they've resisted such calls.  Because if you announce "we want to open up Canadian banking to foreign competition" - the existing banks are going to fight like hell (and they have lots of money), foreign banks are restricted in trying to influence Canadian politics, and consumers don't necessarily see how that would benefit them.

It's why we have such a "consensus" over cheese and dairy production - producers are wildly in favour, while opposition is diffuse.


And again - when I say "corruption" I'm not necessarily talking about envelopes stuffed with cash (although, at times...).  It's more a matter of politicians/regulators seeing their interests closely aligned with powerful corporate interests, and vice versa.

Wiki says the cost to start up a new bank in the US is US$ 20 to 25 million. Not a particularly high barrier to entry.

I looked around for info on the Canadian telecom market.  I got this.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mobile_network_operators_in_Canada

Four major national networks, a few small regionals, a gaggle of companies piggybacking  on the existing networks.  With the possible exception of the regionals, that looks a lot like the US market.  It doesn't look much like corruption, or a swamp in need of draining, or regulatory capture.

[Josephus]

So no tariffs after all, we just live in a world of chaos where the President of the United states says stuff on social media, usually in the middle of the night, and the world waits to see if anything he rants about comes to be.

?? He has said, and said today, he is going to.

"Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens," he said. "The American dream will soon be back and thriving like never before."

So he didn't mention Canada but I haven't heard that he's not going to implement tariffs.

EDIT: I know he said it would be a DAY ONE thing, but I'm not sure it's that simple...he also said he would end the Russian war.

SECOND EDIT: OK, seems like, for now, it's not gonna happen. "For now" as JT said.

[Oexmelin]

Danielle Smith didn't get to go to the inauguration after all.  Instead, she watched it in, of all places, the Canadian Embassy. 

Weird that she went to the embassy of a foreign country.

[Barrister]

Danielle Smith didn't get to go to the inauguration after all.  Instead, she watched it in, of all places, the Canadian Embassy. 

Weird that she went to the embassy of a foreign country.

Say what you will of Smith (and remember - she caused me to hold my nose and vote NDP for the first time ever) but she's not a separatist.

[Oexmelin]

No, I am referring to the fact that she often seems to think (or wish) that Canada is a part of the USA.

[Josephus]

So he's now saying Feb 1 for tariffs

[viper37]

Come on man - you have an economics background don't you?

Telecoms and banking have high barriers to entry, and benefit from economies of scale.  If have a $100 million dollars that I want to invest - it would be suicidal to try and start up a new telecoms company.  You need to invest in infrastructure across the country - be it wireless or wired.  If I want to start a bank I need to invest in retail outlets.  All while trying to compete with established (and profitable) existing competition.  And that's considering that I'm a domestic investor.

"broad consensus"?  Look the Conservative Party isn't perfect from my view.  There are more rumblings from them about opening up Canada to more competition than there ever were from the Liberals - but to date they've resisted such calls.  Because if you announce "we want to open up Canadian banking to foreign competition" - the existing banks are going to fight like hell (and they have lots of money), foreign banks are restricted in trying to influence Canadian politics, and consumers don't necessarily see how that would benefit them.

It's why we have such a "consensus" over cheese and dairy production - producers are wildly in favour, while opposition is diffuse.


And again - when I say "corruption" I'm not necessarily talking about envelopes stuffed with cash (although, at times...).  It's more a matter of politicians/regulators seeing their interests closely aligned with powerful corporate interests, and vice versa.

Wiki says the cost to start up a new bank in the US is US$ 20 to 25 million. Not a particularly high barrier to entry.

I looked around for info on the Canadian telecom market.  I got this.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mobile_network_operators_in_Canada

Four major national networks, a few small regionals, a gaggle of companies piggybacking  on the existing networks.  With the possible exception of the regionals, that looks a lot like the US market.  It doesn't look much like corruption, or a swamp in need of draining, or regulatory capture.

It will cost you much, much more than 20-25 million$ to open a new bank in Canada.

The last "small" bank is the Laurentian Bank and they seeking to be acquired, not in a good financial position and limited to Quebec, IIRC.  They would be worth much more than that 20-25M$.

Outside of that, the virtual banks are mostly owned by the big Canadian banks, like Tangerine, belonging to Scotia Bank.  WealthSimple is independant, but belongs to PowerCorp/Desmarais family and they dont' offer all the services traditional banks and financial institutions offer.

Opening a new telecom would be extremely costly.  They can't build their own infrastructure, they have to use the ones from existing network, and as I said before, these existing companies are under no obligations to resell their lines below consumer prices.

[viper37]

but she's not a separatist.

For now.

[HVC]

So he's now saying Feb 1 for tariffs

He'll change his mind 15 times before then.

In retaliation Ford is going after US booze.

[Admiral Yi]

I looked it up.  Laurentian Bank has 60 branches.

[crazy canuck]

The capitalization requirements of financial institutions in Canada are a little more involved than the analysis Yi has engaged in.

If you are interested you can give this light reading a look

https://www.osfi-bsif.gc.ca/en/guidance/guidance-library/capital-adequacy-requirements-car-2024-chapter-1-overview-risk-based-capital-requirements