These are stories Report on Business followed this week.
Follow Michael Babad and the Globe's top business stories on Twitter.
What bosses want ...
Think you've been asked some weird things by your boss?
CareerBuilder.com, which bills itself as the biggest jobs website in the United States, this week published a poll of more than 3,600 workers who shared the "strangest thing" their bosses had asked of them.
Here's the list from the survey conducted by Harris Interactive from Feb. 11 to March 6 and from a November, 2012, poll of 3,500 workers:
1. Be ready to delete e-mail and computer files "at a moment's notice."
2. Be a surrogate mother.
3 "Spy" on senior managers.
4. Buy a rifle for the boss.
5. Pass on the name of someone who could "hook him up" with illegal drugs.
6. Post "false good comments" about the boss online.
7. Dream up a science fair project for the boss' daughter.
8. Fire the boss' brother.
9. Lend the boss $400 for a car down payment.
10. Remove the boss' stitches.
11. Be a better friend.
12. Look through an empty office building for anything useful.
13. Bail out a co-worker from jail.
14. Clip the nails of the boss' dog.
15. Help plan the boss' wedding.
Glitters and jitters
Gold has slipped into bear market territory amid projections of further declines.
The fall was swift on Friday, a drop of more than 4 per cent as the price of bullion dipped below $1,500 (U.S.) an ounce at one point, marking a slide of more than 20 per cent from its 2011 peak near $1,900. It picked up only slightly before the end of the day.
Earlier in the week, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. projected gold would average $1,545 this year and $1,350 in 2014. Last week, Société Générale forecast a 15-per-cent drop to $1,375 by the end of this year, followed by years of a "gentle bear market."
Société Générale sees some ups and downs ahead.
"It will pop up occasionally but the downtrend should continue," said Michael Haigh, the bank's global chief of commodities research.
Not everyone feels that way. Capital Economics believes several factors will limit any decline.
Adding some fuel was a leaked draft document of the bailout requirements for Cyprus, which raised the possibility of the country selling €400-million in gold reserves.
- Inside the Market: Gold slides into bear market
- Gold sinks below $1,600, Société Générale warns of years of ‘gentle bear market’
- Scott Barlow in ROB Insight (for subscribers): Goldman Sachs waves a red flag at gold investors
Barrick suspends some work in Chile
Barrick Gold Corp. has suffered a setback in its plans for a massive gold and silver project in Chile.
As The Globe and Mail's Pav Jordan reports, Barrick suspended some work on the Pascua-Lama project after a Chilean court ruling related to allegations of pollution of groundwater and rivers.
No allegations have been proven, but the project will be set back, while Barrick said it is working "to address environmental and other regulatory requirements to the satisfaction of of Chilean authorities."
The project straddles Chile and Argentina, and work located in the latter, where the "critical infrastructure" is based, continues.
Analysts cut their price targets on Barrick stock after the decision, RBC Dominion Securities to $32 (U.S.) from $37, Credit Suisse to $38 from $40, and TD Securities to $31 from $39. RBC still rates Barrick at "sector perform," and Credit Suisse at "outperform," while TD moved to "hold" from "buy."
"In the near term, we believe Barrick's ability to increase its earnings payout ratio from the current 18 per cent (80 cents/share) is limited given its capital spending commitments, although free cash flow could rebound following completion of the Pascua-Lama project, currently estimated in early 2015," said RBC analyst Stephen Walker.
- Barrick's Pascua-Lama mine setback signals larger shift in Chile
- Barrick’s woes in Chile deepen as Pascua-Lama is suspended
- Tim Kiladze's Streetwise (for subscribers): Cost overruns plague Iamgold
Program under scrutiny
Canada's temporary foreign worker program is under scrutiny after controversy this week surrounding a move by Royal Bank of Canada to outsource 45 investor services back-office jobs.
Outsourcing is hardly new, and some 33,000 groups have used the program over the years.
But RBC's decision to outsource has led the government to scrutinize both the program and iGate, the supplier RBC is using and which used the temporary foreign plan to bring in employees to learn the jobs.
"We have been concerned by the growth of the program," Prime Minister Stephen Harper told reporters Thursday.
"We are obviously concerned by some particular stories that have surfaced. I'm not going to comment on those, but I can tell you we certainly have been looking into those and other cases like them and we will be - in very short order - bringing forward a series of reforms that we have been developing to make sure this program is serving its purpose."
While it broke no rules, RBC went so far this week as to publicly apologize to the workers affected, and promise them jobs elsewhere, while also pledging it will soon unveil an initiative to help get the country's young people their first work experience, stressing its commitment to employment in Canada.
- Harper vows to reform temporary foreign worker program
- The long list of Canadian firms who have sought temporary foreign workers
- Sean Silcoff in ROB Insight (for subscribers): Behind the foreign-worker brouhaha lies a far bigger question
- Royal Bank apologies to employees over outsourcing move
Of Bitcoins and bubbles
Some of us are still struggling to understand the frenzy behind Bitcoin, and just what it is, for that matter. But there's one thing we all know: It's volatile.
As The Globe and Mail's Brian Milner reports, the digital currency hit mania levels this week, surging to a value of $266 (U.S.) before plunging to the $90 level at the end of the week.
You can buy some stuff with the electronic money - one says he sold an old Porsche for 300 of them - and you can buy and sell them. What it isn't is a full-scale currency.
"It has elements of a security in it and is not clearly a currency," said Sébastien Galy of Société Générale.
On the day it crashed, Mr. Galy noted that "it could well be the time when the tulip which bought a castle becomes the tulip you eat the next day, or it may just be the first sizeable correction as some were trying to cash in."
- Bitcoin exchange halted after panic 'froze the trade engine!'
- Would Mark Zuckerberg buy Bitcoins? The Wiklevoss twins did
- Talk of market mania as Bitcoin digital currency surges past $200
- As value soars, digital currency Bitcoin attracts offline attention
In Streetwise (for subscribers)
- Accused KPMG inside trader obviously wasn't in it for the money
- Costs give Porter a lower bar to profit
- Bond bubble talk: fear mongering, or fully justified?
- Halogen shines light on tech IPO market
- Agrium's messy vote is an argument for universal ballots
In Morning Business Briefing
- RIM seeks probe into 'false' report of BlackBerry Z10 returns
- Oh, Canada: A nation of beer drinkers turns increasingly to wine
- English oppression of French at heart of Canada's strong banks: Study
- Uh oh, Slovenia says it doesn't need a bailout
In ROB Insight (for subscribers)
- As euro crisis reignites, Germany's 'Just Say Nein' voices grow louder
- Tories yet to prove they can do better in subsidizing aerospace
- Microsoft, the first technology utility stock
- A Fed keen to ease off stimulus may have to take a rain check
- How has Air Canada got its first thumbs-up from Moody's?
Required reading
All three of Canada's small wireless companies are now for sale, the latest signal that the federal government's years-long effort to create competition in the industry is at risk of failure, Rita Trichur and Boyd Erman report.
On the issue of banked sick days, Ontario's dispute with public school teachers is just a prelude to a fight that's looming at the federal level and in other provinces, Barrie McKenna writes.
The vast majority of Canadian wind power production is now controlled by a handful of big companies, many of them foreign owned, Richard Blackwell reports.
The computer market is crashing, and a simple reboot may not be enough to save the industry from the blue screen of death, Steve Ladurantaye writes.
It's a season of discontent among many North American retailers as they feel the chill of cool weather and a choppy economy, Marina Strauss writes.