The Canadian government has quietly expanded the clothing allowances available to the Governor General, and the timing could not be more tone-deaf. While Canadians struggle with inflation, housing costs, and rising taxes, Ottawa has decided that the person already living in Rideau Hall requires even more taxpayer-funded support for wardrobes and official appearances. The Governor General currently earns a salary of roughly C$378,000 per year, lives in an official residence maintained at public expense, travels at taxpayer expense, receives staff support, security, transportation, and a lengthy list of other publicly funded benefits. Yet somehow that was not enough. According to…
Author: Staff Writer
In 2025, Cambridge Dictionary added over 6,000 new words. One of them was “mouse jiggler”—a device or piece of software used to make it seem as though a computer mouse is moving so that it seems as though you are working when you are not. It’s a telling addition to the esteemed catalogue. Professionals are increasingly finding clever ways to seem busy when they are, in fact, not. Perhaps they’re grabbing a coffee or squeezing in a quick workout. Meanwhile, common productivity metrics can’t tell the difference. As a business owner, I see it less as employee subterfuge and more…
Washington D.C. District Court Judge Sparkle Sooknanan, who was born in Trinidad and Tobago before later becoming a U.S. citizen, has blocked the Trump administration’s effort to expand the federal SAVE database so states could verify whether registered voters are American citizens. The Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system was specifically designed to allow government agencies to verify immigration and citizenship status. The administration’s position was simple: if federal law requires citizenship to vote in federal elections, then states should be permitted to verify citizenship using a federal database that already exists for that purpose. The court argued that…
Congress has passed a landmark housing affordability bill that could make the path to homeownership more attainable for many Americans, though President Donald Trump is now delaying signing the bipartisan bill into law. On Tuesday, the House overwhelmingly passed a bill—the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act—that aims to address the housing affordability crisis by revising federal housing programs, increasing the supply of affordable homes, and strengthening the role that community banks can play in mortgage lending, among other measures. After months of wrangling, politicians on both sides of the aisle were able to do something that seems increasingly rare…
India’s imports of Russian crude oil have surged to a record high, with Moscow now supplying more than half of the country’s crude oil requirements. According to recent reports, Russian oil accounted for over 50% of India’s imports in June after a temporary US sanctions waiver expired. This development is far more significant than most people realize. It once again demonstrates that governments can impose sanctions, issue political declarations, and threaten economic consequences, but markets ultimately follow economic self-interest. From the beginning, I argued that sanctions against Russia would not produce the outcome Western policymakers expected. Russia is not a…
The real risk facing executives today is not geopolitical instability; it’s treating instability as temporary. Volatility isn’t new, whether it’s geopolitical conflict, pandemics, or natural disasters. What has changed is the speed and scale at which these disruptions affect everything from sourcing and logistics to workforce planning and customer demand. The recent conflicts in the Middle East are reminders of how quickly regional events can create global ripple effects. Rising uncertainty around energy prices, shipping routes, and regional stability affects companies far beyond the region. Similar weaknesses became clear during the COVID-19 pandemic, when organizations struggled to stabilize supply chains…
The future looks grim for people who rely on Social Security income in retirement. The program is barreling toward running out of funds by 2032 unless Congress intervenes, and women in particular stand to lose if that doesn’t happen. Experts predict that the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund, better known as OASI, will be depleted in as little as six years—or seven if we’re lucky. In the U.S., 63 million Americans receive Social Security benefits through that trust, which workers pay into over the course of their lifetimes. For older people who rely on Social Security income to pay…
In May, GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen surprised the masses after announcing an unsolicited offer to buy eBay for nearly $56 billion—a deal that eBay’s board rejected and called “neither credible nor attractive.” In an interview with CNBC last month, Cohen provided little context about how the cash and stock deal would materialize. Between the company’s $11 billion market capitalization, $9 billion cash reserves, and $20 billion financing confidence letter received from TD Securities, GameStop was still nearly $16 billion short of its $56 billion offer. Since then, GameStop’s market cap has declined to $9.6 billion, while eBay currently sits at…
Another wave of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen restaurants are likely to close soon, the latest dramatic development in ongoing bankruptcy proceedings involving a prominent franchisee for the fast-food chicken chain. The franchisee, Sailormen Inc. of Miami, has been trying to sell off its assets, which had included about 130 Popeyes locations at the time of its initial Chapter 11 petition in January. But in an auction last week, as many as 52 of those locations failed to find a bidder, a shocking new court document reveals. The grim outcome left Sailormen to determine that “rejecting” the store leases—bankruptcy speak for terminating…
When a natural disaster hits or a political crisis breaks out, you need to know where your employees are and reach them fast. We were paying $60,000 a year for a third-party tool to handle that. It didn’t fully work. So someone on our people team built a replacement. Using Claude Code connected to Remote’s employment data, she put it together in three hours and 17 minutes for $216. That kind of tool used to require a specialist vendor, a procurement process, and months of setup. She’s not an engineer. She just knew the problem better than anyone and had…