Canada missing out on $8 billion in home construction

Industry group Mortgage Professionals Canada has been campaigning aggressively against the mortgage stress test, arguing it is locking out homebuyers from the market. Its latest report estimates that developers have cut back on $8 billion of low-rise housing development because of decreased demand for housing after the mortgage test. “This is occurring at a time of considerable economic strength and the fastest rate of population growth in a generation,” economist Will Dunning noted.

But many experts are standing by the test, which requires buyers to qualify at a rate two percentage points higher than the one they’re being offered. They say it’s doing what it was intended to do: Cool an overheating housing market. Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz and the IMF are among the latest voices rejecting calls to scrap the test.

Sweatshop.google.com

Developing the A.I. for Google Assistant requires massive amounts of linguistic data, which is processed by sub-contracted workers earning low wages. Those workers, under the management of better-paid Google employees, say they have been pressured for years to work unpaid overtime. “It’s like a white-collar sweatshop,” one told The Guardian. “If it’s not illegal, it’s definitely exploitative.”

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