Category: Economy

The March 18 front page of The Province had a story regarding B.C. home owners losing their houses due to the subprime mortgage fiasco in the U.S. It appears that the couple, Tamara and Matt Pirillo, who's photo appeared in The Province cover story bought their five-bedroom home five years ago for $114,000 but now owe the U.S. based subprime lender, Accredited Home Lenders, a total of $140,000. Why? Because they have a questionable mortgage, borrowed against the equity in their home and now owe more than it's probably worth. They decided to sell and listed the house on the market for $215,000 but it, oh so surprisingly, didn't sell in the weak real estate market. Good timing folks. It's now listed at $169,000. Are we supposed to feel sorry…

My employer is going through some tough times due to our struggling economy and some past business decisions. This has resulted in a number of departments being lost and many people taking advantage of the buyout offer. Good for them but not so good for those left behind which means less people to service our clients. Times are tough for most businesses these days but the knee-jerk reaction by many businesses feeling the pinch is to reduce the number of employees and save money in as many ways as possible. That's understandable but what does in mean for our customers? Our service levels have decreased as phone calls are now routed to a different part of the country, there's less support and sales staff to offer basic levels of service…