When I decided to join the family firm about three years ago, I made my decision on two factors. Independence and ethics. As a child growing up in the home of a family that was always in the financial business, I learned more about it at a young age than I necessarily wanted to […]
It’s May 29th, 2020. Canada and much of the world is opening up. The Coronavirus is still on the march. At least for the moment, things appear to be improving. Local infection rates are dropping. Substantial scientific progress is being made (see here, here and even here) With things looking better locally than a month […]
Markets have moved upwards over the last month despite deteriorating fundamentals. Optimism around reopening and pent up demand, combined with the alternative of record low-interest rates, appears to be driving short-term equity performance, despite the reality of the situation at street level. Irrespective of whether we get a second wave, a second peak or no […]
Famed investor Warren Buffett once said, “Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.” It seems like an appropriate quote for the last couple of weeks. For the better part of two years, we’ve been concerned about and preparing for volatility in the markets. Now it’s upon us in spades. The […]
It’s apparent that the volatility that we’ve been both expecting and have talked about for the last two years has arrived. After a brief rally, the last five days have once again knocked off all of this year’s profit (and a bit) from stocks. They’ve also sent markets into correction territory, as the potential of […]
Food + Heat + Water + Security = Safety & Peace of Mind
A few years back, in 2016 to be precise, we wrote an article on how technology was about to disrupt the future of transportation. It never got published. Perhaps it was a fear of looking too far out there that put us off, but the reality of a flying car, going to work on a […]
There is a dawning awareness that recent advances in state of the art healthcare may soon start to cause actual human species change. You can feel it slipping into discussions at the highest levels of the medical community. What’s happening? Profound breakthroughs are becoming routine and they’re compounding. At the highest levels of medicine, the […]
There’s a classic TV commercial from Fram the oil filter company. In it, two seasoned mechanics suggest investing in a more expensive oil filter than a cheaper version, saying that “you’ll pay me now or pay me later” (for an engine rebuild). The commercial couldn’t be more spot-on when it comes to […]
It’s only so often that a ‘shift in the force’ happens in the financial world. Think Nixon taking the U.S. off of the gold standard. Or Bitcoin ushering in the era of cryptocurrency. It allowed people to store and trade wealth cryptographically, beyond the reach of the banking system and largely the government. Last week […]
