In a recent column in The Financial Post, Garry Marr pointed out that even in hottest bull market in real estate, stocks beat homes as an investment: By the end of last year real estate prices had climbed about 85% over the previous decade, according to the Teranet/National Composite Bank House Price Index. Stocks? The [...]
Economics may be a dismal science but a recent flap between two renowned Professors and a grad student simply trying to reproduce their results for a school assignment makes for a fascinating story. Paul Krugman lashed out at the pundits who “turn their backs on the unemployed” based on the flawed findings of Reinhart and [...]
If you thought Canada has a housing bubble, this 60 Minutes story on China’s real estate bubble, where entire city blocks, malls and even cities are virtually empty, will make us look like small potatoes. One particularly scary statistic: a typical apartment building in Shangai costs 45 times an average resident’s annual salary. CBC Television’s [...]
Many small businesses may make only a couple of banking transactions each month — a couple of deposits and maybe a withdrawal or two — but still end up paying a chunk of it in banking fees. As far as I know, there are no free business chequing accounts available anymore (HSBC Canada briefly offered [...]
The Sleepy Mini Portfolio has gained 6.7 percent my previous update. The Sleepy Mini Portfolio was launched in August 2007 with an initial investment of $1,000 with a target allocation of 20% bonds, 20% Canadian stocks, 30% US stocks and 30% International stocks to illustrate how a regular investment program can slowly build wealth over [...]
