Blog

Cutting Through the Noise


March 20, 2014

By Scott Ronalds

It's Good to be Here

The sun is shining. Flowers are blooming. And ideas are sprouting. It’s the first day of spring in Vancouver, and as our local brewery says (Granville Island), it’s good to be here. Leading thinkers, innovators and communicators have swarmed the city for the TED ...

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September 10, 2013

By Tom Bradley

China's Credit Boom - No Simple Answers

I wrote last week about Canada’s consumer debt challenge and noted that the scary numbers were a risk to the Canadian economy, but that other factors, including global economic trends, would be more important drivers of our stock market. One...

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March 19, 2013

By Scott Ronalds

America - Cheer Up

The latest edition of The Economist has a special report on America’s competitiveness, titled Cheer Up. It examines the areas which are the “source of the most hand-wringing” among observers: innovation, energy, education, immigration, infrastructure...

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January 25, 2012

By Scott Ronalds

Here's to the Geeks

I’ve read a few interesting books lately on some of the top technology visionaries of our time. They include Paul Allen (Microsoft), Larry Page & Sergey Brin (Google) and Steve Jobs (Apple). The books were all good reads (Idea Man, In the Plex, and Steve Jobs)...

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September 21, 2010

By Scott Ronalds

Beware of Greeks Bearing Bonds

I admit it. I occasionally read Vanity Fair. This month’s edition is worth picking up. Not because Lindsay Lohan is on the cover, but because there’s an interesting piece by Michael Lewis on Greece. For those who aren’t familiar with Lewis...

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August 31, 2010

By Scott Ronalds

Taking Stock

Roger Lowenstein’s latest article in The New York Times is a must-read. In Taking Stock, Lowenstein (a financial author and journalist) draws parallels between the investment environment and mindset of individual investors today to that of the 1970s...

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August 30, 2010

By Scott Ronalds

Book Review: False Economy

I recently finished reading False Economy – A Surprising Economic History of the World. Along with its New York Times Bestseller status and praise from all the usual suspects (The Washington Post, Financial Times, The Economist, etc.), I was intrigued...

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April 27, 2010

By Scott Ronalds

Book Review: The Big Short

Michael Lewis has a talent for writing about financial issues in a provocative and colorful manner. Having worked as a bond salesman for Salomon Brothers in the 1980s, he leans on his experiences and lessons learned on Wall Street to bring his readers...

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December 2, 2009

By Tom Bradley

Reading Month

If this month is like previous years, the content in the business publications and industry research will get less and less relevant as we move towards the New Year. Around Christmas the papers and on-line sources will be peppered with fluffy year-end pieces...

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June 16, 2009

By Scott Ronalds

Book Review: Panic

Panic is a compilation of articles that shed light on the most severe upheavals in recent financial history – the crash of ’87, the Russian default and subsequent collapse of Long Term Capital Management, the Asian currency...

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December 2, 2008

By Scott Ronalds

A Bigg Opportunity?

Aside from having one of the great names in the business, Barton Biggs is a renowned hedge fund manager and author of the popular book Hedgehogging .  Biggs is a great thinker and investor, and in the words of David ...

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November 29, 2008

By Tom Bradley

Recommended Reading

Over the last few months, I’d been avoiding the horrific tales of the U.S. sub-prime mortgage market.  I’d read and heard enough.  It was ‘so last year’.  But this week a friend alerted me to a treatise by Michael Lewis on ...

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