Category Archives: Economics

Economics

What Is A Hedge?

A hedge is a position taken in the financial markets for the purpose of protecting against an unfavorable move against ones’ portfolio. The term “hedge” can be used in other contexts but I bring this financial usage to your attention because of the unfortunate absence of its deployment generally speaking by individual investors.

When the typical Canadian makes his/ her annual trip to the bank for transferring funds into the RRSP fund, the banker who really doesn’t know much about investing simply cycles the money into mutual funds. There’s no reason for the banker to do any differently because typically the portfolio holder knows no different either. Banks are in the business of not losing you money because they wish to retain your business. Mutual funds are convenient for them because they can rely on diversification through a professional fund manager. The trouble one encounters is back end fees, mangagement fees and “over-diversification”. Yes, being over-diversified has the effect of dumming down returns.

In my accounting practice, I frequently remind my clients to spend a couple of hours per week delving into financial education while learning about stock market investment opportunities. I believe that nobody is more concerned about your net worth and your retirement than you. Hence; you need to be in charge and fully accountable to your own financial growth.

Now back to hedging. You may have heard the terms “inherent risk”, “systemic risk”, and “geopolitical risk”. They are all fancy terms akin to abstract art and I’m certainly not going to spend time expounding upon the ultimate essence of their meaning. However; I am going to refer to the ever present matter of monetary stability and its lack thereof as a good reason in itself to be “hedged.”

First world countries have become more and more indebted. You thought the U.S. was bad. Well, in the U.K. every man, woman, and child owes some other country $127,000 USD. It kind of puts all the fuss around Princess Kate in perspective.  While the English pander to the residents of Buckingham Palace and obsess over pregnancy rumours, each and every Englishman, Scot, Welshman, and Irishman wake up to a future of financial bondage.  Per capital, the U.S. is at a mere $58,200 per citizen.

Here’s what’s weird….there’s really no record of reconciliation of these debt obligations with creditors available in the public doman. You see….governments issue debt instruments like bonds and treasury notes in the context of their borrowings so one would expect to see these all accounted for by a reporting body such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Hence; the settlement of such instruments and the creation of new ones could be viewed with transparency.

What about gold? Does gold still play a role in the creation of debt instruments? Well, no. However; countries around the world still view gold as a financial instrument. It used to be the case in the U.S that the production of a dollar bill could only be undertaken by assigning a gold unit concurrently. This is no longer the case since the Nixon administration. Fractional reserve banking today does not utilize gold as a variable in the production of new money.

What has been the reaction by the IMF in a culture of debt proliferation? Well, they created their own monetary unit called the “SDR” (Special Depository Right). It’s reasonable to derive that the unit was created in the context of currency mismatches, unreconciled debtor/ creditor accounts, and imbalances in sovereign gold reserves. Could the SDR become a material talking point in place of rumours around Kate’s next “baby bump”? I’m not certain that that populous has the appetite for reality TV to go along with milk and morning corn flakes.

Hence; you might learn more about hedging and what it can do to protect your portfolio.

Economics, Lifes Lessons

Twenty-Five Per Cent of Canadians Say They Face Economic Hardship

This is what an Angus Reid poll has concluded from a sampling of 2,542 Canadian adults. I’m not surprised and below I make some attributions for the troubling statistic:

1.       Trade school not seriously introduced to 16 and 17 year olds in our           system of education

2.       Liberal culture unsupportive of propelling the individual toward                 entrepreneurship

3.       Propensity to defer responsibility

4.       Proliferation of employment agencies and head hunters buffering             effect of take home pay

5.       Opportunity cost associated with young adults pampered at home             by their parents

6.       Inconvenient and costly legal system incapable of expeditiously                 handling contract disputes

7.       Poor partnering of industry and education system

8.       Absent household budgeting / undisciplined allocation of after tax             dollars

9.       Psychological compulsion to showcase lifestyle undeserving of                   income

10.   Employer payroll costs effect on tempering wages

Economics

Widespread Derivative Use

The use of derivatives in industry can be used to mitigate risk faced by companies exposed to underlying commodity price fluctuations. However; under the authority of banks blessed with oligopolistic privilege, derivatives can be abused thereby directly jeopardizing the financial system. 

Short selling is the sale of a borrowed security in anticipation of a market price decline.  The trouble with the short sale phenomenon is one of title. Regulators permit the usage of such transactions in absence of security title.  In fact, the owner of the security may or may not be privy to the fact that his / her shares or certificates had been loaned since such are typically held in trust by brokerages. 

What about illiquid commodity markets such as silver? Should banks be permitted to operate on both sides of the same trade such as possessing long interests and short interests at the same time? It would appear counter intuitive to the profit motive but what if there is a macroeconomic strategy at work activated because of market dominance, oligopolistic privilege, and relationship with central bank authorities?

The Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (gata.org) for a period of 19 years has been asking questions with respect to the legitimacy of all market trades and whether surreptitious activity has been undertaken by elite players to protect their positions.  Some distrust of the monetary system as it exists today obviously has had something to do with the bitcoin and crypto-currency phenomenon. 

Economics, Free Enterprise

Retailers Losing To Amazon

Now Wholesale Sports is closing down. They needed to build nice pretty looking stores when blocks of strip mall space lay vacant. They needed to carry excessive inventory with an extravagant in store merchandising effort and little public promotion. I think retailers in Western Canada need to rethink the way they do business before Amazon sucks up the whole space and governments better get on board with business before urban centres become boarded up black holes.

As I write this, the Marlborough mall in North East Calgary has no less than six closed retailers in the one wing which used to host Sears. Part of the blame must go to the mall for failing to exercise flexibility in a newer retail environment. Given what merchants are paying for mall space, it seems obvious that the only companies that can make it work are the well financed large establishments which can cross fund from multiple geographic outlets.

Amazon is a success story. I use them and they’ve never let me down. In fact, cities across North America as we speak are clamouring for the opportunity to be chosen as Amazon’s “second headquarters”. What is to become of strip malls and shopping malls if a business friendly environment is not provided to bricks and mortar retail establishments across Canada? Perhaps, they should be shuttered? Perhaps, there’s a social kind of slant on “going to the mall” which we want to uphold? I don’t think I really know the answer for sure but it seems that the destruction of malls in favour of an alternate use may be net negative in terms of economic utility.

Economics, Philosophy, Politics

Eric Francis Response To Flames Quest For New Arena

I’m not sure that the Sikh, the Muslim, the single low income mother, or the senior on a fixed income get much civic pride out of the Calgary Flames Eric. You’re a hockey fan and I believe someone who has earned a livelihood in one form or another from the good ‘ol hockey game with an apparent bias toward a new rink when this city already has one. The demographics in this city are changing and the aforementioned groups don’t jump like city councillors at some bargaining tactic by Ken King. The utilization of tax money for special interest groups has been with us for far too long and the appetite for tolerating this form of “extortion” has evaporated! Nenshi’s notion of tax money for the public benefit of all is a credible principle of which this proposal breaches. No teary eyed victim like threat from spokespersons of multimillionaire owners are going to trump the spirit of fairness owed to taxpayers.