No Rate Hike, Better Performance, Montreal Grand Prix and #Bestof-Financial

The Bank of Canada on Wednesday announced that they are holding Interest rates steady for another month or so. Why you might ask? Here is their exact reasoning:

Weighing recent higher inflation readings against slightly increased risks to economic growth leaves the downside risks to the inflation outlook as important as before. At the same time, the risks associated with household imbalances remain elevated. The Bank judges that the balance of risks remains within the zone for which the current stance of monetary policy is appropriate and therefore has decided to maintain the target for the overnight rate at 1 per cent. The timing and direction of the next change to the policy rate will depend on how new information influences the balance of risks.

Household imbalances is an interesting turn of phrase, I wonder what it means? My guess is Debt levels are so darn high that we might overturn the apple cart if interest rates jumped right now, but that is only my opinion.

The Grand Prix de Montreal is this weekend, I won’t be there, but as a younger lad I remember hearing the race from my parents house (on the other side of the mountain from the track). Given the new rumbling sound of the new F1 engines, things might be a little more quiet? There is a great clip of Nigel Mansell’s most unfavorite moment in Montreal too.

Twenty five years ago (yesterday) Tank Man entered our collective consciousness. Not sure what ever happened to this man, I’d like to think he is still alive, but I have my doubts. Why did he do what he did? If you click on the link you will go to a PBS Frontline page with a special on the Tank Man.

Who was this man?

Election time is around the corner in Ontario, and I continue to think #NoneOfTheAbove is the best choice of the bunch. Do I vote for a Mike Harris wannabe? A Dalton McGinty sycophant ? Someone who acts too much like Bob Rae? This is going to be a very odd choice to make.

My Writings for Week Ending June 6th

What is a sycophant? Toady seems to be a good one word answer.

• I am not fond of the concept of the Bucket List, however the Financial Anti-Bucket List is something that intrigues me and as usual the comments were quite entertaining as well.
• Selective Financial Perception points out that you can get used to almost any annoying thing, but maybe your debts is not one of those things?
• Schroedinger’s Financial Cat yes my mind works in very mysterious ways, but I keep hearing about this darn cat and figured I could write about it as well.
• After the Leaders Debate I socialized an old post, Damn Rich Civil Servants, and it exploded with hundreds of readers, guess you need to be timely with that kind of writing.

This Week’s Finest

The mud slinging continues on the campaign trail in Ontario, now I know how the folks in Toronto must feel with their Mayoral Elections:

• As a fan of the movie Major League, I was delighted to read that The day has finally come: Jobu gets his own Topps Baseball Card. Who is Jobu? You’ll need to watch the movie to understand it. Maybe he can wake up my readers to comment more ? Need some Rum for Jobu.
• Comment of the week is from Denis complaining about vet fees, but talking specifically about his (formerly) Constipated Cockatiel, WINNER! GAGNANT! I need to figure out how to write a post with that title, Money and the Constipated Cockatiel
• I am confident that one of my kids will want to inherit this web site business and luckily I have now read something from the Blunt Bean Counter to help with that Estate Freeze – A Tax Solution for the Succession of a Small Business
• CNBC chatted with our friends at Freakonomics and came up with ‘Freakonomics’ authors blast stock pickers, evidently Blind Luck would work as well on stock picking, they must have read my new book, “Blind Luck, or Where Did All My Investments Go“, by the BCM.
• Speaking of individual stock picking Michael James has a Financial Quiz for you that confirms what our Freaky Friends were saying as well.
• The Globe and Mail has a scarey investing fraud story with A victim speaks out about financial fraud, remember it’s your money, watch it closely!
• The Canadian Couch Potato has some more advice about how to protect your investments with Ask the Spud: How Are Investors Protected?
• Larry MacDonald returns with a very topical statement The housing-crash bears have been wrong for 6 years. Why stop now? I must admit that I am bart of the bursting bubble one day crowd as well.
• The folks at Blomberg bring us the next explosive growth industry: No Pain, No Gain, as Tattoo Regret Fueling Laser Removals , if I could invest in that, I would, how many frigging ugly tattoos have I seen ? TOO MANY!
• Mark from My Own Advisor continues on with his attempt to get you to convert to the Cult of Dividends, with Why dividend investing works for me. Period. , what “Period” he speaks of, you’ll have to find out yourself.
• Mark from 2nd Career Search espouses the Top Ten Good Things about Retirement, the whole having to walk your admin and feed her biscuits sounds a little odd, but the rest sounds like fun.
• Google is going to spend lots of money to spread the Internet in fact Google will Deploy $1 Billion worth of Sattelites to Spread Internet Access, good use of their huge wealth.
• Kerry from Squawkfox points out that Mental Health is an important subject and she has a poignant story with Daddy Plays. Mommy Cries.
• Preet writes in the Globe that If you are not a Russian billionaire, divorce can be financially crippling, hey the poor guy is going to lose more money than Ontario’s Provincial Budget, show some mercy!

Family Guy Song of the Week

Family Guy while quite rude, does sometimes put out amazing advice in the form of humour. Here is a lovely summation of our current personal financial economic problems:

Montreal Grand Prix Moment

Yes there is a race in Montreal this weekend, and this is a classic moment from the early 90’s with Nigel Mansell counting his chickens a little too soon!

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Random Thoughts for 2014

Lots of these kinds of Best of articles in 2014. Here is a list of them.

• World Cup Side-Effects, Seinfeld Cars, and #BestofFinancial What happens around the World at half time of the World Cup Final? Is it like Flushed away? Is there a sudden tsunami? Who knows?
• Cuba, Rubles, Christmas and #BestThisWeek – getting close to Christmas but Ian McKellen can teach us about impulse control.
• Snow, Christmas, Enhanced and #BestThisWeek talk of more festive ideas, like how to save money at Christmas.
• A Gentleman, Day of Disability, Christmas, Rugby and #BestThisWeek noted the passing of Jean Beliveau and John Oliver’s views on Lotteries.
• Black Friday is Here, Advent, and #BestThisWeek speaks of the blessed Black Friday and associated sales but also includes a Fanfare for the Common Man.
• Lake Effect Snow, Web Cameras, Travel Insurance and #BestThisWeek November brings snow in Toronto, as we see, and other financial ideas.
• Asteroids, Tax Cuts, Lemurs and #BestThisWeek how many times has the Earth almost been hit by an asteroid? Too often to remember.
• Lame Ducks, Financial Literacy, Working for Free and #BestThisWeek lame duck leaders never really get that much done, no matter how they negotiate.
• Happy Halloween, Income Splitting and #BestThisWeek a wonderful financial time of the year is Halloween? Maybe income splitting is a better subject.
• Ottawa We Shall Remember, Bank of Canada and #BestThisWeek after a bad week in Ottawa, with senseless violence.
• Crashing Markets, Ebola, Low Loonie, Cheap Gas and #BestThisWeek even in 2014 the markets were a little volatile.
• Hockey, Turkey, Leaves, Carry On Bags and #theBestFin4TheWeek is it right that the hockey season starts before Thanksgiving?
• October, Hello Ebola, Give Blood and #theBestFin4TheWeek October arrived unexpectedly this week, almost unnoticed. As we have entered the final (calendar) quarter of the year 2014, it may be time to start considering a year-end review of your financial plans.
• Autumn , United Kingdom, Beer Money, and #theBestFin4TheWeek the colours in Ottawa during Autumn are truly spectacular.
• Pins, Alibaba , Apple Pay , Lecosse , and #theBestFin4TheWeek remember when Alibaba the IPO happened, those were heady days.
• Home Despot, iPhones, and #theBestFin4TheWeek
• Back to School, Tim Burger King, Knee Defenders and #theBestFin4TheWeek will the dutchie ever come back? I can only hope.
• Broken Humerus, Ebola, Anniversaries, Blood and #theBestFin4TheWeek remember when we thought Ebola was going to wipe us out?
• It is Done, Ice Bucket Challenge, Media Perceptions and #theBestFin4TheWeek
• WW1 Centenery, More Hacked Passwords and #theBestFin4TheWeek
• The Long Weekend with no Name, Defaults, and #BestFinancialForTheWeek
• Unmasking Super Heroes, Dogs of Summer and #BestOfFinancialForThisWeek
• All Stars, Al Stars and the #BestOfFinancialForWeek the world cup was a big thing in 2014 as was Bastille day too.
• Brazilian Defeats, Tour De Chunnel, and #BestOfFinancialForWeek you mean Brazil can lose at the world cup?
• Tennis, Racing, Inflation and #BestofFinancial Canada Day is the start of the summer for most Canadians, and financial stories too.
• The Stand, Football Biting, Naughty Banks and #BestofFinancial even in 2014 the banks were misbehaving with shenanigans.
• Elections, Dad’s Day, World Cup, Friday the 13th and #BestofFinancial somehow the Liberals won the 2014 Ontario Provincial Election
• No Rate Hike, Better Performance, Montreal Grand Prix and #Bestof-Financial back in 2014 we were worried about rates, but they were already pretty low.
• Elections, Farewell Knowlton, May Done, and #Bestof-Financial Knowlton Nash was the voice of news for Canada for a while.
• Internet Memory, Grand Prix of Monaco and #FreeFormFridays the Internet has memory?
• Time Off, Elections, Victoria Day and #FreeFormFridays Victoria Day is always a fun weekend.
• Frosts, Elections, Farley Mowat and #FreeFormFridays it does get cold in May!
• Rain, Budgets, Bloggers Meeting, May Day and #FreeFormFridays When financial bloggers meet what happens?
• Beware the Financial Jabberwock, Netflix Expansion, Model Trains, Backups and #FreeFormFridays a thematically odd article.
• Easter is Here and a Saturday #BestOf for the Weekend a time of renewal, new beginnings in life and financially as well.
• RIP Flaherty, Heartbleed, Tax Time, Quebec Elections and #FreeFormFridays the former finance minister did a lot of good for the economy.
• #Selfies, Quebec Election, Big Joe, Awareness, and #FreeFormFridays would Big Joe Mufferaw have been a good fit for the Redblacks? We’ll never know.
• Don Quixote, Tax Time, Cheap Mortgages and #FreeFormFridays gotta hate tax time.
• Spring Has Sprung, March Madness, Celebrity Blogger and #FreeFormFridays talking about Spring in March in Ottawa can be a bit early.
• Pi Day, March Break, Two Ferns, Snow and #FreeFormFridays given pi is infinite, how much pie can we expect?
• Quebec Elections, Eating Sugar, Suing Parents, Big Rocks and #FreeFormFridays those elections in Quebec are never dull.
• Saint David’s Day, Big Posts, RRSP Time, the Dating Game and #FreeFormFridays always a good time to put a Welsh Choir Clip in an article.
• Hockey Day, Tax & RRSP Time and #FreeFormFridays Hockey day in Canada? Well it does happen, right around RRSP time too.
• More Olympics, Budgets, Love Day and #FreeFormFridays Valentine’s Day: Celebrating Love and Dealing with Financial Whining.
• Olympics, Not Super Bowls, Creationism and #FreeFormFridays 2014 Olympics Opening Ceremonies and Soshi Stadium’s Doppleganger: The Super Bowl.
• Senators, Weak Loonie, Superb Owls and #FreeFormFridays Rugby is a Hooligan’s game played by a Gentleman.
• Polar Vorteces, Olympics, Mayors and #FreeFormFridays The Polar Vortex brings Winter in Canada. But don’t worry – -30C highs in Ottawa in January are normal.
• Giveaways, Oil tanks, Eagles and #FreeFormFriday Have you checked your oil tank if you heat with Oil? What will your insurance do if the tank ruptures?
• Truly Canadian Issues, Ultra HD TV, Car Loans and #FreeFormFriday Get your lock de-icer and unlock your Super Mailbox cubicle like I did – Canadian Tire to the rescue!
• Some #RandomThoughts from 2014 Some of the best of, best of posts on my random thoughts weekly post.
• CPP Reform, Snow, Christmas, Boxing day and #FreeFormFriday Did the CPP reform of 2013 fix much? Kind of, but Christmas was coming too.

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