Canadian Economic News

[joeiannuzzi]

ETFs grabbing attention

Campaign claims too much weight on mutual funds

Last week, Canada`s dominant maker of exchange traded funds (ETFs) laid down the gauntlet, challenging the rival mutual fund industry to lower fees and improve transparency. By now, most Canadians will have seen advertisements in various media highlighting the theme "Ask the Right Questions."

The questions posed by Barclays Global Investments Canada are as much aimed at financial advisors as their clients. Examples of what could charitably be described as "leading questions" are: - Canada has the highest MERs [Management Expense Ratios] in the developed world. Should your clients care? - Your client wants only well-known funds. Do you challenge their thinking? - Your clients` funds aren`t doing as well as their benchmarks. How worried are you?

http://www.financialpost.com/analysis/colu...31a&k=68821

 

[joeiannuzzi]

40-year mortgage comes with hidden hazards

By next week, my husband and I will finish making payments on the Toronto house we bought in August 1986. Yes, we`re breaking free from a 25-year mortgage with a little more than three years to spare.

If we were buying that house today, we`d probably spread the payments over 30 to 40 years, as do most buyers.

And we`d be paying off that mortgage long after we retired – or working into our late sixties to retire the mortgage.

http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/412683

 

[joeiannuzzi]

Aluminum headed for $4,000 a ton, Rio Tinto says

Dick Evans, chief executive officer of Rio Tinto Group`s aluminum unit, says prices for the metal may rise to more than $4,000 a ton because of increasing power costs and higher production expenses in China.

The metal may gain next year because of "a continued weak U.S. dollar, a strengthening of the (Chinese yuan) and continued high energy prices, all of which are not unreasonable," Mr. Evans said yesterday in an interview in Montreal. Prices are likely to remain "strong," he said.

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/b...22-d8f9a38175e4

 

[joeiannuzzi]

China becomes Canada`s third-largest export market

OTTAWA — Canada further diversified its trade portfolio last year, as overseas advanced largely on the strength of growing trade with Britain, Norway and China.

http://www.albertalocalnews.com/reddeeradv...ort_market.html

 

[MONEY]

QUOTE (joeiannuzzi @ Apr 9 2008, 08:01 AM) 40-year mortgage comes with hidden hazards

By next week, my husband and I will finish making payments on the Toronto house we bought in August 1986. Yes, we`re breaking free from a 25-year mortgage with a little more than three years to spare.

If we were buying that house today, we`d probably spread the payments over 30 to 40 years, as do most buyers.

And we`d be paying off that mortgage long after we retired – or working into our late sixties to retire the mortgage.

http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/412683

And to think that Reliant mortgage was offering 50 year mortgages back in 2006. I wonder how many people managed to get one of those?

 

[joeiannuzzi]

Common mistakes on your tax returns

EDMONTON -- It`s tax time again and the deadline to file your 2007 return is just around the corner. At one time, I did my own tax returns. To be honest, it was one of the best ways for me to learn about tax planning.

Unfortunately, things have become a lot more complicated and busy, so now I use an accountant to prepare not only my corporate returns, but also my personal returns. Since I don`t do my own returns, I asked a chartered accountant, Michael Oseen, manager in tax services at Grant Thornton LLP, to provide some insights into some common mistakes that people make on their returns.

http://www.financialpost.com/money/taxes/s....html?id=430783

 

[joeiannuzzi]

A false sense of security

OTTAWA -- Canadian banks mislead their customers about the safety of online banking in their marketing materials and give users a false sense of security with a refund guarantee if hackers raid their accounts, a leading software-security expert concludes in a new study.

Paul Van Oorschot, Canada Research Chair in Network and Software Security at Carleton University, and PhD student Mohammad Mannan, a specialist in Internet security, tested the standard banking claim of a "100 per cent online security guarantee" against the fine print that makes it conditional on fulfilling complicated security requirements.

http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix...40-f98ce50cf956

 

[joeiannuzzi]

More and more Canadians living past 100

Emilie Lavoie celebrated her 110th birthday on Thursday, marking another year as an extraordinarily long-lived member of one of the fastest-growing sectors of the Canadian population: the century club.

"I told her she could be one of the oldest people in Canada and she said, `That`s nothing to be proud of!` " says her granddaughter, Linda Bostick, 60.

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/s...35-4d93b178639a

 

[joeiannuzzi]

Couples with no kids make the best neighbours

When it comes to making good neighbours, fences have nothing on childless couples and retirees.

A new real estate survey finds more than half of homeowners -- fully 58 per cent -- see twosomes without tots as ideal next-door denizens, followed closely by retirees at 54 per cent (survey respondents weren`t limited to one answer). Also popular among the suburban set are singles, with 38 per cent support, and pet owners at 28 per cent.

http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/new...47-6b136aa0b1d7

 

[joeiannuzzi]

Tax returns not always for do-it-yourselfers

Who should prepare your tax return?

Ultimately, you are responsible for having your return filed with the Canada Revenue Agency no later than April 30. If you have a business that isn`t incorporated, you have until June 15 to file (tax liability is still due by April 30).

You may be torn between doing your own return or hiring a professional.

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news...bb-18ce927086b4

 

[joeiannuzzi]

The coming hunger

The warning bells are ringing, furiously.

This week, food riots paralyzed Haiti, with angry marchers outside the president`s palace shouting "We are hungry!" Five people were killed in the chaos.

In Egypt, a 15-year-old boy was shot and killed this week in two days of violence over food shortages. Last month, a two-week protest at government-subsidized bakeries ended with the deaths of 10 Egyptians in clashes with police.

Rice is the staple food of 4 billion people. But the prices for it, along with corn, wheat and other basics, has surged by 40 per cent to 80 per cent in the last three years and caused panicked uprisings in some of the poorest countries on Earth, from Cameroon to Bolivia.

http://www.thestar.com/News/Ideas/article/413769

 

[joeiannuzzi]

Do research before buying in foreign sunspots

If you want to strike cold fear into the heart of anyone looking at real estate on Mexico`s Pacific coast, whisper the words "Punta Banda."

In the fall of 2000, the mostly American residents of the Baja Beach and Tennis Club in Punta Banda near Ensenada, were ordered from their homes after losing a long, ugly court battle over disputed land titles.

http://www.yourhome.ca/homes/article/412531

 

[joeiannuzzi]

Income trusts require some special attention at tax time

Last year, I sold an income trust that I`ve held in my portfolio for years. The selling price was about half of what I originally paid. Can I use this loss to offset other taxable gains?

http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/mon...80-cd86e7701aa3

 

[joeiannuzzi]

Canada will `sit out` U.S. recession, CIBC forecasts

The Canadian economy will avoid being dragged into a recession by the U.S. downturn thanks to healthy domestic activity and strong commodity prices, a major Canadian financial institution forecast Monday.

However, CIBC World Markets warned that Canada may bleed factory jobs for years, and long after what it sees as a relatively short U.S. recession ends.

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news...49-313c84cfe91e

 

[joeiannuzzi]

Investors look to oilpatch to fuel returns

Expectations are high on the Street these days that stocks from the oilpatch can fuel solid returns for investors and help drive the S&P/TSX Composite to new heights in 2008.

Jeff Rubin, chief strategist and chief economist at CIBC World Markets, recently estimated that energy stock valuations appear to price crude oil at about US$75 a barrel, 25% lower than the approximately US$100 commodities market value.

http://www.financialpost.com/money/story.html?id=445331

 

[joeiannuzzi]

Millionth dot-ca website registered

VICTORIA -- A Calgary lawyer is the owner of the one-millionth registered dot-ca domain name.

Brent Krause registered his law practice`s site, krauslaw.ca, this week to hit the milestone, according to the Canadian Internet Registration Authority, which is responsible for operating the dot-ca Internet country code.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/bu...79-06a641adb678

 

[joeiannuzzi]

A little mortgage savvy gets some big savings

Unwary mortgage borrowers are always a mark, but never more so than this spring.

While interest rate discounts are readily available from lenders, there are things you need to know to avoid being hustled. And look out for those cash-back offers. They`re being flogged aggressively, but they`re a trap if ever there was one.

When last this column looked at the mortgage market, it was late in 2007 and most lenders had inflated their rates well beyond what they should have been according to traditional measures. Today, things are worse.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...ck0417/BNStory/

 

[joeiannuzzi]

Put dollars in your pocket

The truth is, failing to be careful can cost you thousands of dollars. The good folks at the Pentagon learned this recently when investigators discovered that the U.S. military had paid too much money to a small company from South Carolina that fraudulently overstated shipping costs when sending two washers (valued at 19 cents each) to a military base in Texas. The total invoice came to $999,785 (U.S.) for the two washers. The military also paid $293,451 for an 89-cent washer to be shipped from South Carolina to Florida. You see, the Defence Department apparently had a policy of automatically paying all shipping bills if they were labelled "priority."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...ck0417/BNStory/

 

[vasilj]

`Cooling` the watchword in Canadian real estate
April 17, 2008, CBC News - Toronto,Ontario,Canada

As usual, the most expensive real estate could be found in Greater Vancouver, where the average resale last month cost $616,496, up 11.1 per cent in a year. The next most expensive markets were:

• Victoria ($504,194, up 13.3 per cent)
• Calgary ($419,396, up 1.0 per cent)Toronto ($380,338, up 4.1 per cent)Edmonton (343,760, up 5.6 per cent)

 

[joeiannuzzi]

Turin`s transformation a model for other cities

TURIN, ITALY - Like so many cities around the world, Toronto included, this northern Italian powerhouse has spent the last few years reinventing itself.

As the home of Fiat, Turin was once the manufacturing capital of Italy. At its height and into the 1960s, Fiat employed 125,000 people. Today, it`s about 20,000. And that`s just one company.

Faced with the prospect of its own demise, Turin set out to remake its economy. Rather than try to replace these older industries in decline, the city adopted a number of strategies ranging from culture and the arts to research, academia and public transit.

http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/415783