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This and That: Who killed Nortel and more …

November 5th, 2009 · 9 Comments

  1. Ten years back Nortel looked invincible. Today, it is in bankruptcy protection and its business units are being sold off piece by piece. The Ottawa Citizen’s James Bagnall is writing an eight-part series on the fall of an once-proud telecommunications giant.
  2. There is a widespread belief among investors that 1970s style inflation is inevitable. Money manager Leith Wheeler reckons that inflation is unlikely to be as high or as prolonged as it was back in the 70s.
  3. Charles Schwab announced a slew of low-cost, broad-market ETFs this week that could be bought and sold commission-free through a Schwab account. Larry MacDonald speculates if other ETF vendors would be forced to cut MERs or even reimburse trading commissions.
  4. It may sound harsh but it must be asked: Do Canadians deserve the MERs they get? Jon Chevreau writes that Canadians are apathetic about investing costs and mutual funds rarely pass on the savings from economies of scale to unit holders.
  5. A recent TD economics report put the cost of a future university education in five figures. Million Dollar Journey debates how he plans to fund his child’s post secondary education.
  6. Michael James reviews Super Trader: Make Consistent Profits in Good and Bad Markets and find little evidence the book will help anyone trade profitably.
  7. Canadian Financial Stuff reports that TD Waterhouse is finally offering a RDSP account.
  8. The Dividend Guy kicked off a series of posts on the top 100 investment lessons he has learned.
  9. Mike has a stocking stuffer idea for Christmas — Investing Made Simple book.
  10. The Intelligent Speculator debates if currency-hedged ETFs are good or bad.

Check out the A Loonie Saved blog written by Patrick. He doesn’t update it often these days but there are some excellent articles in the archives. Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

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9 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Four Pillars // Nov 5, 2009 at 11:07 pm

    Thanks for the link – I’ll be getting a copy of Investing made simple for my Mom this year.

  • 2 Michael James // Nov 5, 2009 at 11:33 pm

    Thanks for the mention. I’ll probably end up reading Bagnall’s Nortel series, but I haven’t yet — it was tough enough to live through without reading the details all over again.

  • 3 Big Cajun Man // Nov 6, 2009 at 7:52 am

    Thanks for the mention, the Bagnall articles are interesting, but he seems to be having problem laying direct blame, which is true of this story. Have a great weekend.

  • 4 Million Dollar Journey // Nov 6, 2009 at 8:07 am

    Thanks for the mention CC, enjoy the weekend!

  • 5 DividendMan // Nov 6, 2009 at 10:44 am

    Does anyone know if the Schwab accounts are available to Canadians and if they track any Canadian indices?

  • 6 Patrick // Nov 6, 2009 at 11:26 am

    Wow, thanks for the link. That came out of nowhere!

    I’ve been spending my writing energy working pretty hard on a paper for a conference (computer science) lately, but the submission deadline for that is Nov 20, so I should be back in full force after that.

  • 7 La_Maudite // Nov 9, 2009 at 3:35 pm

    Anybody buying Vanguard ETFs (VTI,VEA,VWO) on a regular basis considering buying Schwab ETFs from now on? Looks like it could be a way not to put all our eggs in one basket (fund company) at a comparable cost. Thoughts?

  • 8 Canadian Capitalist // Nov 9, 2009 at 5:42 pm

    I’m going to do a post on Schwab’s ETFs but I’m not switching. ETFs are very transparent — the shares held by a ETF are held in trust at a custodian and regularly audited. I’m not convinced investors have to diversify their ETF vendors.

  • 9 The Dividend Guy // Nov 16, 2009 at 3:18 am

    Thanks for the link CC!

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