Cost of Living
Money talks. We translate. Every Friday, Paul Haavardsrud looks at the way money shapes our lives in ways big, small, obvious, and unseen. From Big Macs to Big Banks, the Cost of Living connects the dots between the economy and everyday life.
Website : https://www.cbc.ca/radio/costofliving
RSS Feed : https://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/includes/costofliving.xml
Last Episode : July 11, 2025 11:10pm
Last Scanned : 3.5 hours ago
Episodes
Episodes currently hosted on IPFS.
Confirmed 3
Here comes the sun (Encore)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?
Expires in 20 hours
Published Friday
1Massive 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?
Published 07/04
1Trump'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.
Published 06/27
1Social 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?
Published 06/21
1John 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.
Published 06/13
1Growing 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.
Published 05/30
1Germany 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.
Published 05/23
1Prefab 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?
Published 05/10
1Leaders 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?
Published 05/03
2Sure, 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?
Published 04/25
2With 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?
Published 04/18
2It'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?
Published 04/12