Something borrowed: Canadian regulators are tightening restrictions on readvanceable mortgages over concerns that the ability to re-borrow against the paid-off value of their homes could keep customers in debt and keep cash flow issues in the dark. 

If I see that ad one more time: YouTube will now let brands control how often their ads are shown to individual users to ensure we’re not seeing the same Grammarly commercials (wait, just us?) over and over and over again.

Where credit’s due: TikTok is letting users tag videos to give proper credit to the originators of viral trends—in part a response to complaints that trends (particularly those created by the platform’s Black users) catch on without due credit. 

Eff you, ESG: The S&P 500 dropped Tesla from its ESG Index, citing poor working conditions and a lack of low-carbon strategy. In response, Elon Musk unleashed a Twitter rant decrying both the index itself and ESG as a concept. 

Canada is set to ban Chinese telecom-hardware maker Huawei from participating in the build-out of the country’s 5G infrastructure, joining several allies, including the US. 

Catch up: The US, UK, and Australia have already all blocked Huawei from supplying hardware for their 5G networks over concerns that the company—which has close ties to the Chinese government—could use its equipment to pass along sensitive data to China’s intelligence services (which Huawei denies).

• Canada put off making a call on Huawei for years while its relationship with China worsened, driven in part by China’s imprisonment of the Two Michaels—a move widely seen as retaliation for Canada’s arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou.

Big picture: The decision was not a surprise. Both President Trump and Biden have pressured Canada to keep Huawei out of 5G, and it was never likely that the government would endanger Canada’s place in the US-led Five Eyes intelligence-sharing partnership (not to be confused with Five Guys, which is just a decent spot for a burger).

• Canada’s telcos reportedly spent over $700 million buying equipment from Huawei between 2018 and 2020 while the government deliberated over the ban—what will happen to that equipment now is not yet clear, though more recently, Telus and Bell both stopped buying from Huawei in anticipation of restrictions.

Bottom line: Booting Huawei from our 5G network is just the latest chapter in the messy separation of Western economies from China, a decoupling that shows no sign of stopping amid growing political and security tensions.

As the EU works toward banning Russian energy imports (increasingly unclear what this means anymore) in response to the war in Ukraine, China is getting ready to hit the oil equivalent of a warehouse sale. 

What happened: The cost of oil has hit record highs this year, but Russia’s own crude has tumbled as buyers step away to avoid tarnishing their image or getting hit by sanctions, per Bloomberg, leaving China with an opportunity to replenish its strategic reserves. 

• Strategic reserves are typically tapped only in emergencies, like back in March when the Biden Administration announced it was releasing 1 million barrels per day from its reserves until October to combat skyrocketing gas prices. 

While there’s no guarantee an agreement will be reached, China has an estimated capacity to store over 1 billion barrels in commercial and strategic reserves (enough to last 70 days by some estimates) and could also be sitting on a surplus due to recent COVID lockdowns.

Why it matters: Impacts of sanctions are starting to show in Russia, with economic growth slowing and experts predicting a recession. Oil and gas account for about half of the country’s exports, so as long as there are willing buyers (including China and India), Russia may be able to keep the central piece of its economy relatively intact.

In the 61 weeks since Rogers first laid out its $26 billion proposed takeover of Shaw, we’ve learned the Canadian wireless market (led by Rogers, Telus and Bell) is so uncompetitive that the prospect of any top carrier swallowing up the fourth-largest is… complicated.

Refresher: The deal requires approval from the Competition Bureau, which is serving up a hard no as of late in the interest of protecting Canadians from “higher prices, poorer service quality and fewer choices, particularly in wireless services.” 

• More than 85% of Canada’s wireless market is controlled by three companies, while smaller firms like Shaw-owned Freedom try to compete by lowering prices, offering bigger data allowances and getting rid of data overage fees.

What happened: Rogers and Shaw are pressing ahead in their search for a Freedom buyer that would satisfy the Bureau, including Xplornet and Quebecor. Despite being left out of those conversations to-date, Globalive Capital has made its bid more competitive by striking a 20-year agreement to access the Telus’ wireless network.

• The agreement aims to assure that Freedom will be able to offer a quality, cross-country network that could compete with Rogers, Telus and Bell.
   
• Globalive founded Freedom, formerly called WIND Mobile, in 2008 before selling it to Shaw for $1.6 billion in 2016, and is now offering $3.75 billion to buy it back.  

Why it matters: It’s unclear if Rogers is interested in entertaining Globalive’s offer, let alone whether its purchase of Shaw would be approved as a result. But if the Bureau is concerned with the harm of separating Freedom from the Shaw network, a sale that would open up access to another nationwide network could sweeten the deal. 

😬 36. Percentage of millennials who cite the cost of living as their biggest concern according to a new report by Delloite, which beats out climate change and unemployment to top the list—it was also the number one concern for Gen Z.

🌎 59.1 million. Number of people globally who were forced to relocate and seek refuge within their own countries as of 2021, a record figure that will certainly increase this year due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

🏠 2.5. The standard commission percentage paid by home sellers to buyer's agents and their brokerages in Toronto—a practice that is the basis for a class-action lawsuit alleging brokerages conspired to fix prices for their services.

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