Canadian audits of Chinese based businesses are under fire.

The Canada Audit Regulator has review the work by Canadian accounting firms who audit the statements of Chinese companies listing on the TSX, and have labeled the reviews as disappointing.

After three months of reviews done on Chinese clients, the Audit regulator has released statements saying that they found major gaps in the audit work preformed. For example, one audit firm has been restricted from taking on any more Chinese clients. Several other firms have been required to do additional work on 12 of the files they reviewed.

“The disappointment we had was a lot of things that we felt were fundamental auditing processes and procedures were just not applied,” CPAB chief executive officer Brian Hunt said in an interview, “It’s just a disappointment on our part that things we would consider fundamental here in Canada just were not done, and I’m at somewhat of a loss to explain it.” Hunt would not comment if Sino Forest was among the files reviewed.

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Stephen Harper talked earlier this week about making changes to the age at which Canadians can be eligible for old age security, basing his statement on changing demographics that have resulted in a threat for social programs in Canada.

The efforts come at a time when Harper is working on returning to a balanced budget which also includes making efforts to sustain social programs and fiscal positions over the next generation. He added that the center piece of the Canadian retirement system is the Canada Pension Plan which is currently fully funded.

Before jumping on the band wagon of people yelling and screaming at the proposed changes, lets talk about how the OAS works.

OAS is sent out to all seniors, but it is a income test benefit and depending on your income, your OAS payment may be clawed. Currently any senior who earns less than $69,000 a month gets full monthly OAS payment to a max of $540. Once your income is above $112, 000 your OAS is completely eliminated.

The Guaranteed Income supplement is paid to seniors who make less than $16, 368 and pays a maximum of $732 per month. Since Harper just raised this amount it is unlikely that he will change this.

Although the Harper government hasn’t announced the changes they will be making they did say that the focus of the program would be on medium and long term OAS collectors and ensuring the stability of the program. Current OAS collectors will continue to collect with out any changes.

This morning on the CBC eye opener, discussed the changes and their discussion with Jim Yih, a personal finance blogger went to the major changes 2012 (previously announced and passed).

Changes that will be happening in 2012:

Everyone will be receiving a CPP raise, since they have been building a surplus, making it easier to qualify for the maximum.

Currently you can take CPP at 60, without stopping work. To prevent it from draining, CPP will be increasing the penalty for collect it early (before your 65 birthday). Previously it was a 30% reduction, and it will be phased in over five years to a 36% discount.

They are also encouraging people to leave their CPP longer, so if you take it after 65, you could get a 42% bonus if you waited until 70.

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CEO Howard Schultz spent more than year planning the chains merchandise and drinks and it seems to have paid off. Starbucks profit went up 10% on holiday’s sales as consumers soaked up the holiday specialty drinks.

The resulting sales drove up net income per share from 45 cents a share to 50 cents, beating the average estimate of 49 cents. Helping to drive the stores sales were their instant coffee, keurig brand single serve coffees and the low-calorie peppermint mocha. They ended their first quarter on a high note, stating that it was their most successful holiday season to date.

Ending this quarter on a high note, the store is planning on rolling out their product line which will bring happy hour to Starbucks. The store plans on introduction beer and wine to their stores after a successful experiment in six locations tried to increase traffic during the afternoon and evenings. The stores also paired the new drinks with a new menu that included fruit and cheese plates as well as focaccia with olive oil.

Starbucks was also making news today for being more expensive in Canada then the United States due to the higher-raw ingredient costs especially milk.

Starbucks ended the day up 1.19% at $47.48.

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Banks across the EU took part in securing 489 billion Euros in loans from the European Central Banks first ever offering of a three year funding. The money will be used to avoid a credit crunch in the EU and to buy Italian and Spanish debt.  523 banks participated in the offering, which well allow the EU banks to keep lending so to avoid hampering economic growth and spreading the debt crisis further.

This was the biggest ECB infusion of credit in the 13 years of the  Euro. There was great excitement over the  additional 189 billion euros lent over the estimated 300 billion euros the market was expecting, mainly because it highlighted the needs of the European banks.

The Bank of England policy makers have left the option open for more cash to be available to the economy in February due to the risk of another recession from slower consumer spending and the euro crisis.

The news leave the possibility for a third round of quantitative easing which could happen in February. The European crisis, is also expected to create a third round in the United States as well as in Japan and the other banks in the European Union

It is wildly regarded that the second round of quantitative easing failed to solve the economic problems.

In other news, Rim turned down offers from Amazon and Microsoft to buy their struggling company.  Rim staff have reported that they prefer to fix their problems on their own.  Rim is up 10.54% on the news.

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