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The article reports on the fees charged by lawyers and law firms. In 2007 some lawyers in New York City reached US$16.67 a minute fees, or US$1,000 an hour. Lorne Sossin, a law professor at the University of Toronto, says clients and corporations are starting to get fed up with these high rates. Valorem, a law firm in Chicago, Illinois, offers contingency fees and fixed fees rather than the usual hourly rates.

Focuses on the effect of cheaper long-distance phone rates on Canada's telephone industry. Declining revenues forcing some companies to leave the industry; Deregulation rules that allowed small companies to enter the industry and hurt Bell Canada; How the waiving of Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission regulations created a price war; The low residential market profit margins; Example of Call-Net Enterprises Inc. of Toronto; Success of AT&T Canada Inc.

Reports that the cost of borrowing to buy a home declined as the Toronto Dominion Bank decreased mortgage rates by a quarter point in Canada.

Reveals that the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce raised its five-year mortgage rate by one-quarter of a point in early March 1999. Second increase since December 1998; What analysts attribute this move to; Mortgage fluctuations since April 1998.

Presents financial forecasts from the Bank of Nova Scotia for 1999. Why the bank feels that global economic growth will slow to its lowest level in two decades; How the financial turmoil in Asia, Russia and Latin America will impact the global economy; Expectations for economic growth in Canada; How housing sales reflect Canada's slow growth; Plans by several major Canadian banks to raise mortgage rates in 1999.

Reports on the economic status of Canada as of January 1999. Drop seen in employment insurance premiums; Cost increase to send letters to the United States; Reduction in general surtaxes.

Discusses the expected tax cut by the Canadian government in 1999. How economic growth will be pushed down in 1999; Expected cut in key lending rate by the Bank of Canada; The risk of deflation compared to inflation; The annual inflation rate in Canada for November 1998.

Reports on news regarding business in Canada and the United States. Drop in mortgage rates by Canada's major banks; Report by Finance Minister Paul Martin that indicates Canadians will not have to pay a higher contribution rate into the Canada Pension Plan in future years; Decision by a US judge that upheld American customs decision that puts quotas on predrilled lumber.

Presents Canadian business news for September 28, 1998. Canada's major banks as having cut mortgage rates; Garth Drabinsky, the ousted co-founder of Livent Inc.'s legal action to stop a probe by accounting firm KPMG; Shaw Communications Inc. of Calgary to split into two independent companies; Bank of Montreal's posted trading losses; More.

Looks at the fight between Canada's banks and New Brunswick Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) Paul Zed. His organization of an all-party group to support his call into a public inquiry into the rates charged by banks and major retailers; Bank industry representatives as critical over Zed not addressing interest rates charged by major oil companies; Zed's connection to Irving Oil.

Presents Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. predictions regarding mortgage rates in Canada. The rates as being stable through most of 1997; The posted rate on a one-year closed mortgage prediction; The five-year rate.

Offers predictions of analysts about the impact of mortgage rate cuts in Canada on housing construction and home sales. What the interest rates are in August 1996.

Reports on falling mortgage rates in Canada. Sales from first-time buyers especially high in the Toronto area; Reduced short-term mortgage rates of major banks.

Describes the cut in mortgage rates by mortgage lenders being the lowest in two years in Canada. Percentage point drop.

Advises that negative-option marketing has been outlawed by the British Columbia government, which means that cable television customers will not have to pay for services they did not request. Statement by Consumer Services Minister Joan Smallwood.

Advises that the Canadian federal cabinet delayed a two-cent increase in the price of first-class stamps, which was set to take effect on October 1, 1994. How decision created some problems for the Crown corporation which had already printed several million new stamps.

States that Canadian banks and trust companies boosted their mortgage rates sharply in March 1994. The rates, which in the past few months had been at their lowest levels in almost 30 years, have been under pressure from increases in United States rates prompted by fears of rising inflation. Examples of rates.

States that a Canadian federal cabinet announced that unemployment insurance (UI) premiums will rise by as much as 7.1% effective January 1, 1994, a move that will cost employers and employees an estimated $800 million. Ottawa's promise to freeze premiums for 1995 and overhaul the UI program.

Reports briefly on the fact that banks in Canada raised mortgage rates in December 1997 for a third time in a month. Amount of total increase of finance costs; Reasons for continued rise in finance costs in Canada; Predictions of economists regarding consumer confidence; Drop in sales of houses in Canada since November 1997.

Examines the economic climate of Canada in the summer of 1997. The decision of Gordon Thiessen, governor of the Bank of Canada, to raise the key lending rate by a quarter of a percentage point; The decline of the dollar; The effect of the rate hike.