This week we tackle the winners and losers of our long dance with cheap credit  and what happens as it comes to an end.

Food Security as conflict in Ukraine disrupts flow of commodities – Olivier De Shutter, chair of IPES Food, and advisor to the UN. Pipeline Politics – Tim McMillan, Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers; Paul Poscente, CEO of Nesika Services. Gender pay gap – Rona Ambrose, chair of Women’s Economic Council of Canada

If there’s a theme for markets and governments this week, it’s surely, do what you can, even if you’re not sure it will work. That is most certainly how we would characterize the global sanctions on Russia, as fighting worsened in Ukraine. More coordinated than we’ve seen in memory, the sanctions nevertheless may take more time to work than Ukrainians have to wait. Canada is fast-tracking the immigration process for Ukrainians, and as we’ll explore in the show, also has ambitious targets in the next few years. Corporations also lined up in solidarity against the Russian invasion, with some of the biggest announcing plans to dump huge stakes in Russian Oligarch-owned companies in the oil and gas sector. Others have simply stopped their operations in Russia while the situation continues. The sanctions are expected to make inflationary pressures worse, and they have already had an effect. Oil for one soared above $US114 a barrel, and with Russian oil now unwelcome on global markets, that price could rise still more. That, on top of existing supply constraints in oil and gas sent prices up across Canada. So too will commodity prices have an impact on food costs. Meanwhile our central bank followed through on its telegraphed promise to raise interest rates, but as we ask on the show this week, will that really do much to tame the inflation beast, or will it just hurt households even more? The ever-present question of how to make housing more affordable is also on our minds. This all comes against a backdrop of a not-bad view of our economy, as we seek to emerge from pandemic restrictions. And finally, they say three strikes and you’re out…major league baseball is now in the second longest work stoppage in history. And as the owners and players exchange barbs about which side is to blame, it is, as always, the fans who get left holding the luke warm beer.

Nature abhors a vacuum and markets abhor the unknown. So it comes down to the weird logic of knowing something has happened - even if its bad - that saw global markets whip saw this week. 

A new read on inflation shows it’s still going strong, in fact getting stronger, up more than 5% in January.

COVID protests continue, now slowing trade and threatening higher inflation, plus, a housing task force has as blunt message about more density in city neighborhoods’ and, taking on big tech -- how to hold companies like Google more accountable.

More than 200,000 jobs were lost in the month of January, as businesses adjusted to another round of Covid-19 restrictions. With better news on the health front emerging, will business owners be able to find the much-needed workers when it’s time to get back to business? 

All eyes were on central banks this week and many thought interest rates were headed higher in Canada. Instead the Bank of Canada signalled the end of its 'emergency measures' with a warning rates are likely to rise and soon.

In the premiere episode of Taking Stock with Amanda Lang we look at all the pocketbook pressure building across the nation. From inflation to housing costs to shipping -- plus a deep dive into the expected interest rate hike now just days away.

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