How SFU Business fared in the news for the week ending Sept. 10, 2010.

National and World News

• Gary Mauser, professor emeritus with SFU’s Faculty of Business Administration, had his letter to the editor regarding the long-gun registry published in The Kamloops Daily News. He cited two interesting points from a recent RCMP report about the Canadian Firearms Program. “First, the report clearly states that its primary focus is on ordinary citizens who own firearms because they might commit suicide, not violent criminals. Perhaps Canadians would be safer if we put more violent offenders in prison?” he wrote. “Second, the report admits that the registry costs over $20 million per year, not the paltry $4 million the Chiefs of Police claimed earlier this year.” Further, he said less than half the firearms in Canada are registered and certainly doesn’t include ones owned by criminals. “There is no convincing evidence supporting the claim that the long-gun registry has had any effect on homicide, suicide, or domestic violence rates,” said Mauser. “Homicide rates have been essentially flat since the long-gun registry was introduced in 2001. The long-gun registry has not saved any lives.”
• The Bank of Canada raised its benchmark lending rate and SFU associate business professor Andrey Pavlov said it’s necessary to slow down consumer consumption. “Now they’re not out there to hurt anyone in particular, but they do need to slow down the economy because if we grow too fast we’re going to get inflation,” Pavlov said in The Vancouver Sun. Those with variable-rate mortgages are affected but fixed mortgages might be OK for the time being. In fact, many banks have been lowering their fixed-mortgage rates. But Pavlov suggested variable-rate mortgages are the way to go because he wouldn’t be surprised if another year goes by without another increase by the Bank of Canada. Those with variable-rate mortgages are still ahead of the game despite the recent rate hike, he said. “If (rates) do hold for another year you’ll surely be ahead regardless of what happens afterwards because you’re paying down your mortgage. You should be keeping your payments high; then even if interest rates go up they are going to be on a lower balance,” Pavlov said.