Canadian Banks: Don’t Invest for Yield Alone

Canadian bank stocks have become extremely tempting with dividend yields at levels that I cant remember. Bank of Montreal had a yield of over 11% yesterday while other banks are yielding in the 7% – 8.5% range.
On the surface, those looking for yield will choose Bank of Montreal. The next question one should ask after [...]

Tax-Free Savings Accounts (TFSA) Misconceptions

The tax-free savings account started January 2nd, 2009 in Canada and  I have seen some consistent misconceptions among a broad representation of Canadians that I wanted to talk about.
The first misconception is that you can only open a TFSA at a bank, trust company or credit union. An account can be opened at these three [...]

Some Positives on US Housing

US Housing starts dropped to their lowest level ever at an annualized rate of 466,000 which would indicate higher levels of unemployment in the construction trade. The doom and gloom of this number has been broadcast over and over in the media although I don’t believe anyone was surprised by the figure.
So what are the [...]

Company Pension Risk – The Perfect Storm

Last year, I touched on the shortfall that corporate and government pensions had in terms of funding future liabilities. National Bank came out with a report on February 10th updating the current situation on corporate plans that I wanted to share with you.
Between market declines in 2008 and lower interest rates creating a higher present [...]

Trust Distributions Under Immense Pressure

Don’t be surprised to see your income trust distribution cut to zero. Forget 2011. Without a distribution, the preferrential tax treatment that a trust provides over a regular corporation doesn’t mean that much.
In an effort to keep balance sheets in order, REIT’s, Oil and Gas Trusts, and to a lesser extent business trusts are cutting [...]

Bond Bubble Revisited

On December 11, 2008, I wrote a post on How to Profit if The Bond Bubble Bursts which you can revisit by clicking here. Since then, long term US Treasury Bonds have increased by more than 1% and indications are that rates will go higher as the government needs to raise several trillions of dollars [...]

We Have Been Here Before Revisited

I came across an article that I wanted to share about the current state of the markets. The interesting thing about this article is that it was written in 1974 when the Oil Crisis was taking place and markets dropped significantly and stayed down for about 2 1/2 years.
The article discussed the markets of 1942 [...]

Will The Euro Survive?

The stock markets decline coupled with an economic slowdown not seen in two generations has left some countries reeling as tax revenues shrink while expenditures keep climbing at an astronomical pace to try and weather the storm.
While not mentioned much in Canadian and US media outlets, countries that are on the brink include Ireland, Greece, [...]