Required reading: Five essential stories of the week

Share

Each week, Report on Business editors choose five stories that shouldn't be missed. Here are the 'must reads' for the week of May 24, 2010.

How RBC is making waves in New York

Royal Bank of Canada's sprawling trading floor in New York drives home just how big the bank has become south of the border, and that is exactly the point.

With seats for more 700 traders buying and selling stocks, bonds, currencies and derivatives, RBC reckons it's one of the largest floors in the city. It's much bigger than the trading floor at the firm's Toronto headquarters - from which the bank ranks tops in most aspects of Canadian capital markets - or its London outpost. Read the story

Executive compensation set to rise

Growing shareholder pressure coupled with two years of weak economic growth have helped put a lid on executive pay in Canada, curbing compensation growth for CEOs after a long decade of rapid gains. A Globe and Mail review of pay for CEOs at Canada's 100 largest public companies in 2009 shows top executives across Canada received, on average, almost no pay increase last year. Read the story

Rising household debt threatens recovery

Bloated levels of household debt threaten to dampen Canada's economic rebound as consumers focus on paying their bills rather than spending freely. Household debt has more than doubled from 1989 levels and now stands at a record $1-trillion - or $1.47 for every dollar of disposable income. With the Bank of Canada expected to raise interest rates, perhaps as early as next week, vulnerable Canadians could soon find themselves emptying their pockets to cover higher interest payments. Read the story

Overvalued homes, higher mortgage rates hurt hot resale market

The remarkable recovery in Canada's resale housing market is cooling, as increasingly expensive properties and the promise of higher mortgage rates force out buyers. Prices are at all-time highs, but the number of homeowners looking to sell has created a glut of inventory. At the same time, anticipated higher mortgage rates and stricter qualification rules threaten to price more people out of the market, ultimately driving prices lower as fewer buyers compete for what's available. Any slowdown would hurt the economy. Read the story

Computer tablet wars are coming

The tablet wars are coming, and they will be fierce. Apple's massively popular iPad tablet - available only in the United States until now - goes on sale Friday in nine countries, including Canada. The international launch comes two days after Apple overtook Microsoft as the world's biggest technology firm by market capitalization, and marks the Cupertino, Calif., company's attempt to dominate a product category still in its infancy. But behind the scenes, a slew of big-name technology companies - many of which learned important lessons from their attempts to catch up with Apple's iPhone in the smart phone race - are working on their own touch-screen mobile computers. They are investing millions, although it's still unclear how people will use tablets, or where. Read the story