Staring wistfully at the falls
Fast food investigations, people keep getting employed, class war at 40,000ft, maritime racoon whispering, deep Pope fakes, e-commerce hydration, grocers fail to read the room...again
Hi there!
Last week we were at the Canadian Franchise Association (CFA) Annual Conference in Niagara, talking about the future of business automation. We were overwhelmed by the positive vibes - thank you to everyone who stopped by for a chat, grabbed some free (and exclusive!) huumans.com merch, and took the time to get nerdy about the realities of Small Business ownership - and the need for better bookkeeping and insights. We loved speaking with every single one of you.
For those new to The huuman layer (hi there!) we do a weekly report that summarizes the most important Small Business news and market effects. Sadly this is not it, given our recent Ontario adventure car-crashing into Easter - but do have a look at our archive and try to imagine what this could have been.
Anyway, as it turned out, we did chose a pretty good week for a hiatus - there wasn’t much news after a boring federal budget - which to be honest, after the doom-cycle of the past few weeks/months/years/eternity…is something of a relief? It seems everyone felt this way - and for a brief, beautiful, fragile moment the news reverted to that bucolic period pre-pandemic where nothing much happened, and what did happen was largely OK and involved furry animals.
So - what did happen while we were staring wistfully at the falls? Well, CBC found the time to do some really solid journalism around the quickest way to order fast food. This felt like an article that needed to be written, and I think we’re all glad it finally has been. VW added another footnote in its long history of unnecessary car drama. Meta, whose business model has now entirely pivoted to copying other people, copied someone (unfortunately that someone is Twitter). Recession fears kept being re-stoked by economists who appear constantly frustrated by the stubborn reality that working people keep getting employed. Even more annoying is the associated effect that people are getting paid more nowadays - which is either a good thing (if you’re an employee) or a bad thing (if you’re an economist who is being reminded daily that capitalist markets work entirely on supply and demand). Grocery chains continued to be unable to read the room. Ditto communications companies. People tried to generate more bank instability by shorting TD, but this felt like the last gasp of volatile speculation rather than something more toxic. An airline (not owned by Westjet) shuttered a key route, while the other airlines (owned by Westjet) toyed with the idea of shutting down all routes by declaring some weird form of internal class-war. A mattress company bought another mattress company (because everyone has to sleep sometimes I guess, even at a conference). A 1%’er pleaded for a reduction in the gap between the wealthiest and poorest by reducing the government deficit…a deficit which was largely the result of helping the poorest during the pandemic - then asked who would pay the deficit back…despite lockdowns / mandates ending only 12 months ago. 24hrs in politics might be a lifetime, but apparently one year is more than enough to pivot an entire G7 economy that has spent the past month hyper-focused on stopping a global financial meltdown.
In other news, it was Easter - so of course someone KFC’d some Peeps. Social media is apparently dying, but at least it’s well hydrated (which is funny, but shows how e-com is booming in weird, weird ways). Deepfakes are now the new normal for brands and that’s a bit scary - especially if you’re the Pope (or Balenciaga). Working out what your USP is for customers? Don't Make Me Wish I Was Dead.
Normal programming will resume next week - we hope to see you then!
BTW - did you know you can reply to this email? We always read the responses and welcome feedback. Let us know what you like, what you don’t and what you’d like to see more of in the future!
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Market at-a-glance 📈
BOC Indicators (Link):
BOC Prime Rate: 6.70%
BOC Unemployment Rate: 5.0%
BOC CPI Inflation Rate: 5.9%
BOC $USD Exchange Rate (Link):
Low: 1.3447 CAD [0.7437 USD]
Average: 1.3477 CAD [0.7420 USD]
High: 1.3527 CAD [0.7393 USD]
Best GIC Rates (Link):
1-year GIC: 5.25%
3-year GIC: 4.90%
5-year GIC: 4.80%
Best 5Y Mortgage Rates (Link):
Variable: 5.45%
Fixed: 4.39%
Prime Rates (Link):
TD Bank: 6.70%
BMO: 6.70%
RBC: 6.70%
Scotiabank: 6.70%
CIBC: 6.70%
National Bank: 6.70%
CRA Canadian Pension Plan Rate: 5.95%
CRA Employment Insurance Rate: 1.63%
CRA Minimum Wage per Province: Link