The Death of Lehman Brothers
… is dead. Bankrupt. Lehman Brothers, America’s fourth-largest brokerage, and one of the latest victims of the US sub-prime mortgage crisis, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The current disaster is one of the biggest meltdowns in modern-day history because it has affected stock markets across the globe. In Canada, the TSX slid by more than […]
How to Outperform a Mutual Fund
Many investors don’t realize that stock market indices, throughout the history of the stock market, have outperformed the average mutual fund. Very few mutual funds are able to consistently outperform indices throughout the course of time because: They charge high management fees which erode any profit potential, and What works in one decade doesn’t work […]
“It’s the Economy, Stupid”
With a federal election just around the corner, Canada is experiencing weakest GDP growth in almost 17 years. The deteriorating health of the Canadian economy is reflected in recent polls, in which Canadians now rank the economy ahead of health care and the environment as their chief concern. “For too long, we allowed high commodity prices […]
Manufacturing Success During Tough Economic Times
Rising oil prices, poor currency exchange, and a sagging US economy have contributed to a decline in the Canadian manufacturing industry. More and more products have been outsourced abroad, which has further contributed to the sagging fortunes of manufacturing companies in Canada. However, some companies have still been able to prosper in these tough economic […]
Canada Barely Avoids Recession
Canada narrowly avoided a recession in the first half of this year as the economy (GDP, or Gross Domestic Product) edged up by a weaker-than-expected rate of 0.3 per cent in the second quarter, following a revised 0.8 per cent drop in the previous three-month period. Most analysts had expected second-quarter growth of 0.6 per […]
R&D is booming in Alberta
Most Canadian provinces top-up the federally-funded Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) tax credit. In the past, Alberta has trailed the rest of Canada in its support of research and development. Up until now. It seems that Alberta has finally caught up with the rest of Canada with their announcement of a 10% SR&ED tax credit top-up. The Alberta […]
2008/2009 Canadian Economic Forecast
Source: http://www.economist.com/countries/Canada/profile.cfm?folder=Profile-Forecast Outlook for 2008-09 The current Conservative government is likely to survive its full term to October 2009. The Economist Intelligence Unit expects the next election to return another Conservative minority government. The opposition Liberal Party\’s new environmental policy initiative, based around a carbon tax, could, if successful, establish a platform for an election […]
Cutting costs without sacrificing the future
In times of recession, many companies cut down on costs. But unless you’re facing bankruptcy, cutting costs may come at the cost of sacrificing future sales. For instance, to make the bottom line look better, you could always downsize R&D efforts. This may make the current quarter look more profitable. However, the lack of R&D may […]