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Monday’s CPI Could Decide Your Next Mortgage Payment

  Canada lost 68,000 jobs in September. Inflation is sitting at 3%. The Bank of Canada has to decide on October 28 which of those facts matters more, and on Monday morning one more number lands to help it choose. If you carry a variable-rate mortgage, a HELOC or a renewal this winter, that number has a price tag. Two reports pulling in opposite directions The jobs data came first. Statistics Canada reported on October 9 that employment fell by 68,000 in September, pushing the unemployment rate to 6.5% from 6.4%. It followed a drop of about 42,000 in August, which means more than half of the 181,000 jobs gained between April and July have now been wiped out. Ontario shed 20,000 positions on its own. Markets reacted within hours: the odds of a quarter-point Bank of Canada hike on October 28 dropped to roughly 25% from about 40%, according to LSEG data reported by Reuters. Inflation is telling the opposite story. The consumer price index rose 3.0% year over year in August, matching Ju...

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Global IT Meltdown: Faulty CrowdStrike Update Causes Widespread Chaos

 

In an unprecedented turn of events, a faulty update from cybersecurity giant CrowdStrike has triggered a global IT meltdown, causing millions of Windows computers to crash with the infamous “Blue Screen of Death” (BSOD). The update, intended to enhance the security of CrowdStrike’s flagship product, Falcon Sensor, instead resulted in a critical failure that left businesses, airports, banks, and healthcare systems in disarray.

The issue began late Thursday and quickly spread as regions around the world started their day. The BSOD, a bright blue error screen indicating a critical system failure, appeared on millions of devices, rendering them unusable. CrowdStrike confirmed that the problem was due to a “logic error” in the update, which caused the operating system to crash.

The impact was immediate and widespread. Airports experienced significant delays, supermarket checkouts malfunctioned, and businesses struggled to maintain operations. CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz issued an apology and assured that a fix had been deployed, but recovery is expected to take time due to the complexity of the issue.

Microsoft, whose Azure cloud services were also affected, is working closely with CrowdStrike to provide technical guidance and support to affected customers. As systems slowly come back online, the incident serves as a stark reminder of the vulnerabilities inherent in our increasingly digital world.


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