Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Special Report: Federal Speech from the Throne

My Kind of Throne

I’m sorry I just could not resist the picture, since every time I think of the Throne Speech my mind naturally moves to the water closet.

The Speech From the Throne

You can find the complete speech on this link, have a read it’s a lot of fun to read something that implies so much and says so very little.

• A Fiscal statement is coming next week from Jim Flaherty (mini-budget? budget? whatever).
• We are going to try not to run a deficit, but we make no promises.
• Support of workers in transition. Does that mean they are going to give me an athletic supporter, money or training? Support is a generic term, training is implied, but not sure.
• Quoted Warren Buffett, who quoted Wayne Gretzky who said we should “to skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it has been.”, commenting about how we need a Dynamic economy. I always liked Yogi Berra’s “Hit ‘em where they ain’t..” as a colloquialism.
• More effective government, that’s kind of like promising to eat right, words are interesting, actions are the telling part of it.
• One very interesting statement about Electric Power generation:
  “Our Government will set an objective that 90 percent of Canada’s electricity needs be provided by non-emitting sources such as hydro, nuclear, clean coal or wind power by 2020. ” 
  Interesting target to have, given a lot is already Hydro and Nuclear how close are we to that number already?
• Improving the UCCB, no real statement what that improvement might be, but I like that idea.
• Lots of motherhood statements about funding the military and the police to keep us all safe (not bad things, just fairly standard stuff).
• “May divine providence guide us in our deliberations.” Really not sure what that is supposed to mean, but it reads well, that is for sure.

Scotiabank takes a Boot to the Head

Thanks to their dealings with Lehman Brothers Scotiabank is going to take a $595 million hit to their bottom line:

“Both the equity and fixed-income markets have experienced significant declines in value and extreme levels of volatility over the last several weeks, exacerbated by the Lehman bankruptcy,” stated Rick Waugh, Scotiabank president and chief executive.\

I wouldn’t call that a “hit”, that is more like a boot to the head (to quote the Frantics).

In case you didn’t know what I meant about the boot to the head reference, and figured I was only putting stock charts up these days. For you I leave you this boot to the head.

“Rogue” Trader at BMO

Bank of Montreal took a boot to the head with the charging of former Lead Natural Gas Trader David Lee, who has plead guilty to “…inflating the value of his portfolio and conspiring with others to deceive the bank…”, ouch. Makes you wonder how prices of commodities are set after reading:

Separately, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the CFTC filed civil charges against Lee and several other traders he is accused of conspiring with between 2003 and 2007 to fraudulently overvalue a commodity derivatives trading portfolio at Bank of Montreal.

Due to this BMO had to take a 1st quarter 2007 write down of almost C$237 million against it’s income. BMO seems to have taken a boot to the head as well?

Pay Day Loans Boot to the Head!

A while back I reprised my posting Pay Day Loans No No No! but I continue to get inquiries about advertising on this site directly by Payday Loan firms. Now, I must put the disclaimer that one of my “group” advertisers has sold space on my site to a Pay Day Loan site, which I am displeased about and will attempt to remove them as soon as I can. 

Do not mistake my humor, or frivolity at times about this subject as me being flippant, or not caring, as I think this “financial service” is evil. The victims of these “services” are those who can afford to deal with them the least, and I am sure during this ‘credit crunch’ Payday Loan Companies will jack up their “fees” even more than they currently do. I would urge my readers to contact their MP’s and MPP’s to have this industry more closely regulated. 

Oh and a boot to the head for all of those Pay Day Loan companies too!

Carnivals

• The Money Hawk hosted Carnival of Money Hawks #1: Links for Saving, Investing, and Spending Wisely where my article Debt is like Fat was added.

More Canadians Buying on Internet

In Canada we enjoy our Internet shopping to the tune of $12.8 Billion and 61% more purchases for products and services than in 2005 according to Stats Canada. An interesting statistic is that the average price for each transaction was $183.00 which seems astronomical to me, but since delivery is usually a major cost in Internet purchases (unless you are buying a product or service that can be downloaded), I suppose this isn’t as strange as I think it is?

I spend a fair amount on the Internet for services and software, and I do buy the occasional “do-dad” on E-bay but I don’t think I have spent $183 on any purchase in the last little while, maybe I need to buy a fur coat to help compensate for this lack of spending?

Oil Companies Care About Environment?

Another article from Stats Canada had me a bit confused as well, evidently the industry that spends the most on Environmental Protection is the Oil/Natural Gas business? The stat that had me floored was:

In 2006, $4 of every $100 invested by oil and gas extraction went to environmental protection

So 4 cents out of every dollar spent goes to environment protection? Wow, that must mean they must be making one heck of a mess? I really don’t know what to make of that number but it is very interesting that is for sure.

Interesting to see the continued decline of Petro Canada, given the roller coaster ride of income they have had this year, I wonder if the amount spent of Environmental Protection might change?

Live Now, Pay More Later

With the credit crunch it seems consumer credit companies are squeezing their clients even more, and will increase their late fee penalties, in response to the alleged credit crunch. Does this mean that some of the store credit cards that were already charging close to 50% usury fees on their credit vehicles are heading even higher? Goodness, maybe Loan Sharks will get back into business, and create competition? (someone please tell me what the correct font is for sarcasm). I really wonder what the rates will be for the Usury Pay Day Loan Businesses?

Is it Safe?

One of the most terrifying movies I have ever sat through is the Marathon Man which stars Sir Lawrence Oliver as a crazed Nazi dentist hiding jewels and Dustin Hoffman as a pawn in the entire scheme, and in this movie there is a set of scenes where the crazed Nazi dentist torments the Dustin Hoffman character with a hobby drill, drilling his teeth and the only question he keeps asking is “Is it safe?”. Just recollecting this scene puts chills up my spine, but it is actually a good metaphor for the current financial crisis.

Is it Safe?

At the macro level governments have no idea whether “It is safe” and they really don’t know what the answer to the question is, but in fact this movie is an even stronger metaphor at the Personal Finance level.

Is it safe? What does that mean? Is our money safe? Is our job safe? Is our lifestyle safe? Is what safe? Is our economy safe? Is my credit safe? Is my RRSP safe? Is it safe to retire? Is my house safe? (to paraphrase a frantic Dustin Hoffman), the question without context is very hard to answer, and there is the harder part, what is the answer? Is it safe? I have no idea, but I think we are all fighting to find out “Is it safe?”. I hope we are safe, but I guess we really won’t know what the question means and what the answer is, for a while.

Are you safe?

Pension Info Arrives

My final pension settlement has arrived from my former employer, which makes me feel a little more safe. I must now answer the question, “Is it safe(r) to stay in the pension or go to the LIRA?”, I think I know the answer but I will keep my readers posted.

Montreal Grand Prix Dead

One of the major economic events in Montreal every your for a while has been the Grand Prix of Canada held in Montreal, however, this year the F-1 board decided to not return to Montreal for 2009. The Quebec Government has been attempting to change Max Mosely (no comments about Nazis and prostitutes) and crew’s mind, but Jean Charest has said he has no more economic cards to play. I enjoyed the Grand Prix and am an F-1 fan and am saddened to hear of this turn of events. This will have a serious impact on the bars in downtown Montreal that relied on the Grand Prix to draw customers.