On July 1, Canada Day, Canadians awoke to a startling, if pleasant, piece of news: For the first time in recent history, the average Canadian is richer than the average American.

According to data from Environics Analytics WealthScapes published in the Globe and Mail, the net worth of the average Canadian household in 2011 was $363,202, while the average American household’s net worth was $319,970.

A few days later, Canada and the U.S. both released the latest job figures. Canada’s unemployment rate fell, again, to 7.2 percent, and America’s was a stagnant 8.2 percent. Canada continues to thrive while the U.S. struggles to find its way out of an intractable economic crisis and a political sine curve of hope and despair.

Click here for the full article in Bloomberg:

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Bank of Canada Governor, headed up by Mark Carney, kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged on Tuesday. (Frank Gunn/Canadian Press)

For the 15th consecutive policy meeting, the Bank of Canada has decided to neither raise nor lower its benchmark interest rate.

Canada's central bank kept its target for the overnight rate steady at one per cent Tuesday. The last time the bank took action was in September 2010 when it moved the rate from 0.75 to one per cent.

The central bank's rate is the one upon which retail banks base their interest rates for loans and investments.

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