Price Fixing, Civil Servants and Random Thoughts

An interesting week after one of the more busy weeks I have had on my web site, with one or two posts, I seem to have kicked a hornets nest, which is kind of what bloggers really hope they do. I must admit when I wrote the I am a Civil Servant post, I expected a reaction, but not to the level I received (and I appreciated the discussions).

We also learned about the Competition Bureau fining some smaller gasoline firms for Price Fixing in the Brockville and Kingston area. Does this mean there will be more fines in the future? Stay tuned, but I will be surprised to see if Petro Canada gets charged with anything much (but I hope I am wrong). If there are sudden cuts in the competition bureau I might be less surprised (however).

In Ottawa it is so warm, that all the snow is gone, and I hear folks talking about turning on their A/C, really?!??! It ain’t that hot, and everyone knows it is “gauche” to have your Air Conditioning on BEFORE Victoria Day (it’s kind of like wearing white, not before Victoria Day or after Labour Day).

Weekly Recap

Some interesting newer ideas this week, and some rehash of some older chestnuts as well.:

• On Sunday my Twitter recap Stupidity, Saint Patrick’s, Sunshine in March and Sunday’s Best outlined some of the tweets I did of my older posts. If you are on my feed, you get to see some of these fine pieces of literary bilge.
• An e-mail from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation evoked a wrathful rant in Civil Servants: Another Point of View, to quote a comment-er “.. that is just the kind of response I’d expect from a Civil Servant…”, oh well, I am anything if not predictable.
• Every time I visit my bank I get at least 1 or 2 new posts out of it, maybe I should add them as a contributing factor for this site, Banks: What is with all the Paper?
• I wondered aloud, How Much Influence Does a Shareholder have these days? My guess is for a small investor, not much.
• The competition board handed down a ruling, thus causing another sarcastic reply from me with Gas Price Fixing in Ontario? Really?

And thanks to those who added me on Twitter I am now over 1000 folks who follow me, holy cow!  If you join my “Twitter Posse”, you might notice I am also re-Tweeting some posts from the French Media as well (hell, if I am learning the language, shouldn’t we all?). I don’t think I am at the level of being officially bilingual in the eyes of the Federal Government, but I am getting close.

Check out my facebook page as well (but no I won’t be buying Facebook stock because of this either).

Links for the Week

Some quite interesting stuff happened this week, and as usual I can give you the 4-1-1 on where to find this great info:

• The Blunt Bean Counter gives us a headache, no, I forgot them, but here is the actual link, more Confessions of a Tax Accountant, and other interesting quips, mustn’t rush through editing these Friday things.
• Larry MacDonald continues his writing in the mainstream media, in the Globe and Mail with Widow had let her husband deal with the money, but it is always important for both parties to know what is going on with the money.
• Mr. Money Mustache makes the interesting point that Boxed Wine: Not just for your Alcoholic Aunt anymore. I drink  from a box, bottle, carton, whatever it comes in, I’ll drink it (maybe I shouldn’t be admitting that one).
• Michael James points out how a lot of people are Messing up Good Financial Advice, and as the saying goes, “A fool and his money, gathers no moss” (I think).
• Canadian Capitalist gives us the tip that TD Waterhouse Launches Mobile Trading App, which is interesting, but I don’t do enough trading to really need that kind of App (now Smurf Village on the other hand, THAT I need).
• Our Financial Kin at My Own Advisor gives us a Story about Hiring a Professional (and getting amateur results), whoops, that don’t sound really good.
• Boomer of Boomer and Echo asks us How do You Choose Your Bank ? I simply go by name and whether it’s near my house, but that might not be the best methodology.
• Miranda at Planting Money Seeds, points out Before You Invest in Gold, know what you are buying, certainly don’t buy any fool’s gold!
• Gail Vaz-Oxlade helps us help figuring out how Saving for a Downpayment can work.  It is never easy, is all I can add.

Other Bookkeeping

Remember my RSS feed is available too, for those who enjoy reading without looking at my crappy page lay out, and I have added an RSS Comment Feed as well.

Have a look at my micro-blog on Twitter, where you can see a whole plethora of good articles and pithy comments by me as well. Twitter feed where I re-tweet many great articles by some of my featured writers (and make the occasional odd or off colour commentary on life (in 140 characters or less)). I am also on reddit, Tumblr and other Social Media sites (look for the BigCajunMan userid) as well.

If you have social media accounts, don’t forget to vote for my posts (see the nifty dashboard on the bottom of each article, where you can cast your votes). As they say in Quebec, vote early and vote often!

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Is Spring Springing?

“Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time.”

Steven Wright (true Steven)