Cutting Through the Noise
October 28, 2014
October 21, 2014
Governments and central bankers are trying to micro-manage the economy. Never a good thing.
Read MoreOctober 16, 2014
The housing market is being carried by the Hot 3 - Calgary, Toronto and Vancouver.
Read MoreOctober 9, 2014
An excellent rundown by CC&L of why interest rates are going to stay low.
Read MoreOctober 2, 2014
Some bankers are complaining that new regulations favour non-bank lenders. But is the grumbling warranted?
Read MoreSeptember 18, 2014
The calendar needs to trim the fat, which is why we’re going up against butterscotch pudding and proclaiming September 19th National Portfolio Simplification Day.
Read MoreSeptember 9, 2014
A look at the whacky world of central bank micro management.
Read MoreAugust 25, 2014
When I came out of business school too long ago, it was a given that if you wanted to pursue a sales career, you went for a job with Xerox or IBM. These organizations put their recruits through extensive training and were known to be the best sales organizations ...
Read MoreAugust 19, 2014
There was a story in the Report on Business on Monday about the results so far from China’s oil investments in Canada. To date, Chinese energy acquisitions (including CNOOC’s purchase of Nexen and Petrochina’s pending acquisition of 40% of ...
Read MoreJuly 30, 2014
“It’s like if the tree in the backyard has a crack in it, you worry it’s vulnerable to a storm. But if no storm happens, it goes on and on, and maybe eventually strengthens through growth. If the right storm comes along and knocks it onto your neighbour’s house ...
Read MoreJuly 10, 2014
It was announced yesterday that Saskatchewan and New Brunswick have joined Ontario and British Columbia in committing to a Federal securities regulator, currently (and hopefully temporarily) named the Cooperative Capital Markets Regulatory System. Why do ...
Read MoreJuly 7, 2014
In presentations over the last year, I’ve often referred to Ontario as the Italy of Canada. In other words, its finances are abysmal. At a time when the province’s key economic drivers, housing and autos, are booming, the fiscal deficits are large and show signs of ...
Read MoreJuly 3, 2014
I opened the Financial Times website this morning to see that the unemployment rate in the U.S. had dropped to 6.1%. Beside that headline was a story about the Dow Jones hitting 17,000. Just minutes before, I saw in the Globe and Mail that Canada and the U.S. are ...
Read MoreJune 26, 2014
I saw a note that 150,000 people worldwide wrote CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) exams on June 7th. It’s a reminder of how tough it is to get into the investment business. For some reason, lots of young people want a piece of the great gig that we have ...
Read MoreJune 17, 2014
There’s a terrific article in the Globe and Mail today. It’s based on an interview with the new CEO of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), Evan Siddall. It’s terrific because Mr. Siddall and his team are taking CMHC back to where it should be ...
Read MoreJune 12, 2014
In a Globe and Mail column on May 8th, I talked about how investors have been moving from defense to offense in their fixed income portfolios. Indeed, many of the new income funds and structured products are aggressive enough, and/or complex enough ...
Read MoreJune 9, 2014
The attached chart came courtesy of Tim Price of PFP Wealth Management in London ...
Read MoreJune 4, 2014
“Should Ed Clark, a 50-goal scorer, be paid the same as a good two-way winger on a deep team, a dependable defenseman, a second-line center and a penalty-killing specialist?” With the NHL finals about to start, it seems like a good time to update ...
Read MoreMay 5, 2014
Investment fees reduce returns. This much is obvious. What isn’t so clear, however, is what constitutes reasonable fees. A number of variables play a role, such as whether you work with a full-service advisor, follow an active or passive (indexing) investing ...
Read MoreApril 22, 2014
I’ve grumbled in this space numerous times that the mutual fund industry is stuck in the dark ages. Its automatic response is to resist change and improvement. Meanwhile, the world moves on and clients find other ways to invest (ETFs being one example). While ...
Read MoreApril 17, 2014
TD ran a large ad in the Report on Business yesterday. It shouted: Get up to 300 free “I’m feeling more confident” trades. Are you kidding me? 300 trades. I’m not sure I’ve done 300 trades in 31 years in the business. Is this a reflection of where we are in the cycle (I’m feeling more confident) or is TD encouraging its clients to do some high frequency trading of their own. 300 trades. Really?
Read MoreMarch 31, 2014
BRIC is an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India and China. It was created by Jim O’Neil, the Global Economist at Goldman Sachs (who became a celebrity in the business press as a result). BRIC was meant to symbolize the shift in economic clout from the developed ...
Read MoreMarch 27, 2014
“The potential growth rate has fallen to 7-8 per cent, partly because of a shrinking labour force; excess capacity has become massive even by Chinese standards; financial risks have risen, driven by excessive local authority borrowing, housing bubbles and growth ...
Read MoreMarch 24, 2014
I generally don’t go through prospectuses of new issues. Scott put one in front of me last week, however, and it made me wonder if I’ve been missing out. The document, which was related to the PIMCO Global Income Opportunities Fund, had all kinds of ...
Read MoreMarch 17, 2014
Remember the days of trotting down to the video store to rent a movie? You’d hope the flick you wanted to see was still available, then grab a copy of the box, wait in line at the counter, whip out your membership card, grab a bag of Twizzlers and fork over ...
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