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By Chris Fournier Bloomberg Thu., May 2, 2019 Recent rule changes by Canadian policy-makers, including tightened mortgage lending, appear to be bringing the country’s real estate market more into balance. The federal housing agency lowered its assessment of the overall vulnerabilities in the national market to “moderate,” from “high,” according to a report Thursday from Ottawa. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. cited evidence of easing price acceleration for the country as a whole, with prices in Toronto and Vancouver moving closer to levels supported by fundamentals. After being rated “high” for 10-straight quarters, the overall degree of vulnerability for Canada has changed to “moderate,” the agency said in the report. Home sales and prices have slowed in Canada after governments at various levels took steps to mitigate the risks of a crash. The federal banking regulator imposed stress tests on new mortgage … [Read more...] about Risks are receding in Canada’s housing market, agency says
Lowering risk
For Lower-Paid Workers, the Robot Overlords Have Arrived
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By Greg Ip WSJ Wed., May 1, 2019 It’s time to stop worrying that robots will take our jobs—and start worrying that they will decide who gets jobs. Millions of low-paid workers’ lives are increasingly governed by software and algorithms. This was starkly illustrated by a report last week that Amazon.com tracks the productivity of its employees and regularly fires those who underperform, with little human intervention. “Amazon’s system tracks the rates of each individual associate’s productivity and automatically generates any warnings or terminations regarding quality or productivity without input from supervisors,” a law firm representing Amazon said in a letter to the National Labor Relations Board, as first reported by technology news site The Verge. Amazon was responding to a complaint that it had fired an employee from a Baltimore fulfillment center for federally protected activity, which could include union organizing. … [Read more...] about For Lower-Paid Workers, the Robot Overlords Have Arrived
News General Electric tops profit estimates, calls 737 MAX ‘new risk’
NEW YORK -- General Electric reported better-than-expected quarterly profits on Tuesday, lifting hopes over its turnaround, even as it signaled a potential hit tied to the Boeing 737 MAX grounding for which it provides engines. Shares rose after the industrial conglomerate, which has struggled the last 2 years amid weakness in key divisions, reported first-quarter profits of $3.5 billion, compared with a loss of $1.2 billion in the year-ago period. Revenues dipped 1.8 percent to $27.3 billion. Earnings rose in aviation, oil and gas and healthcare, offsetting a loss in renewable energy and much lower earnings in power, an albatross for GE in recent years. But in an earnings presentation, GE flagged the 737 MAX as a "new risk" for the company in the wake of Boeing's travails following the two deadly crashes that led to the global grounding of the aircraft. Earlier this month, Boeing slashed production on the 737 MAX by about 20 percent, raising new challenges for suppliers, including GE, … [Read more...] about News General Electric tops profit estimates, calls 737 MAX ‘new risk’
Dental infections in kids tied to heart disease risk in adulthood
(Reuters Health) - Children who develop cavities and gum disease may be more likely to develop risk factors for heart attacks and strokes decades later than kids who have good oral health, a recent study suggests.Researchers did dental exams for 755 children in 1980, when they were eight years old on average, then followed them through 2007 to see how many of them developed risk factors for heart attacks and strokes like high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, high blood sugar, and hardening of the arteries.Overall, just 33 kids, or 4.5 percent, had no signs of bleeding, cavities, fillings, or pockets around teeth that can signal gum disease. Almost six percent of the kids had one of these four signs of oral infections, while 17 percent had two signs, 38 percent had three signs, and 34 percent had all four signs.Kids who had even one sign of oral infection were 87 percent more likely to develop what's known as subclinical atherosclerosis: structural changes and thickening in the … [Read more...] about Dental infections in kids tied to heart disease risk in adulthood
Atrial fibrillation patients often overestimate risk of stroke, bleeding
(Reuters Health) - Patients with the irregular heart rhythm atrial fibrillation may overestimate both their risk of having a stroke and their risk of bleeding as a side effect of medication prescribed to prevent strokes, a recent study suggests.Researchers surveyed 227 patients with atrial fibrillation about their perceived risk of stroke or bleeding. Many of these patients had an annual estimated stroke risk of less than five percent - and most had an estimated risk of less than 20 percent.But one-third of these patients thought they had an annual stroke risk of 21 to 50 percent, and one in five of them thought their annual stroke risk was even higher, researchers report in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.And nearly all of the patients had an estimated annual bleeding risk of less than 10 percent - often much less. But more than half of them thought they had more than a 54 percent annual risk of bleeding."Patients tend to overestimate both stroke risk and bleeding risk," said Dr. Craig … [Read more...] about Atrial fibrillation patients often overestimate risk of stroke, bleeding