Cost of Living

The world of money has changed a lot since the 90s, and Rob Carrick has seen it all. From the 2008 financial crisis to the recent rise in housing prices, Rob looks back at a career as the personal finance columnist for the Globe and Mail.

Money talks. We translate. Paul Haavardsrud looks at the way money shapes our lives in ways big, small, obvious, and unseen. New episodes drop every Friday.

Social insurance numbers are like snowflakes. No two are alike. That's what makes them so valuable to the wrong kind of people. So if SINs are so important to hold close, why are we asked to share them so often?

Some of us might forget $20 in a coat pocket, but what about thousands of dollars in pension payments? It happens more often than you might think. We'll explain why Canadians lose track of their own retirement savings and how to reclaim them. 

A world powered by solar energy has been on the horizon for years. But with costs dropping at a rapid pace, the renewable may be about to have its moment in the sun. So what could we achieve with all that cheap, unlimited energy?

Massive population growth in the last few years put pressure on housing and healthcare. But all those people have also been pouring money into the economy and, by some accounts, keeping us out of a recession. So does a plan for negative population growth risk steering us into the economic ditch?

Trump's tariffs have caused a lot of aggro between Canada and the U.S. But on a personal level, many of us still have friends down south. NPR host Darian Woods with the economics podcast, The Indicator, joins us to talk about covering Trump, how average Americans feel about the tariffs and the state of our cross-border relationship. 

Social insurance numbers are like snowflakes. No two are alike. That's what makes them so valuable to the wrong kind of people. With a stolen SIN, thieves can open bank accounts, take out loans — all in someone else's name. So if SINs are so important to hold close, why are we asked to share them so often?

John Pasalis says building more housing isn't the only solution to high home prices. It ignores an even bigger problem: investors. He explains how decades of low interest rates and tax policy have turned us into a nation of real estate speculators — and until we fix that, prices aren't going anywhere.

Back in the mid-2000s, a group of entrepreneurs rolled out a made-in-Canada electric car called Zenn. Based on the European micro-car, it became a darling on the venture exchange. But Canadian regulators were less enamoured of its low speeds and the company hit a roadblock. So what happened? And did we miss out on our piece of the EV revolution?

Growing unemployment, tariffs and flatlining GDP all point in the same concerning direction. Canada may be headed for a recession. Paul Haavarsrud talks to economist Armine Yalnizyan about the economic road ahead.

Germany has Volkswagen. Japan has Toyota. So why doesn't Canada have a car? We explore what it would take to build an all-Canadian automobile.

Trump tariffs are supposed to "Make Manufacturing Great Again." Only, robots are a thing now. So why is he scrambling up the global economy when the factory jobs he talks about are stuck in the 1970s? 

Prefab housing is getting a lot of attention as a way to solve the housing crisis. But so far, it hasn't caught on in a big way. So what would it take to transform housing construction into something closer to the auto industry?

Leaders in Canada are talking about building a lot of stuff right now: pipelines, ports, railways and highways. As one expert puts it, "We can build anything. But we can't build everything." So what should go ahead? And how much will it cost?

Sure, the internet belongs to everyone. But a handful of big companies exert a tremendous amount of control over it. Now two of them, Meta and Google, face antitrust charges in the United States. So what does this mean for the future of our online experience?

With Canada under pressure to meet its NATO commitments, the Liberals, Conservatives and NDP are making promises to increase military spending. So, could we leverage that money to spur innovation and boost the Canadian economy? 

It's not a trivial question. In fact, how people are feeling about their finances can be a key economic indicator. And right now, that indicator is flashing red. So we thought we'd fan out across the country and ask people — how's it going?