Farmer Diaries

At least that's what I heard at a recent (thursday) investor conference -- I was shocked to hear that Europe was in year 6 of a 10 year de-leveraging cycle, there is no evidence of any deleveraging in Europe.  Of course house prices have crashed in certain countries, but this is not deleveraging insofar as the debt has not be repaid, it is a net loss for the economies (Spain, Greece), as these home stand empty today. I was surprised how sanguine there were about the US (but not Canada), how things in the US were looking up, house price finally "rising" (they have in fact risen by nearly 9% since September).  However, interest rates are still very very low (lower than inflation), median income (not average) is not rising, speaking volume about the lack of purchasing power by the middle class.   The view of Europe was that things are getting better -- they are particularly turned on by the UK -- which is strange considering the difficulties of the the Cam...

After 9 months of quiet I've decided to post again.  My focus remains Canadian, but of course now I can be less cautious about my identity, since I no longer work in a big-ish bank... the reason for posting was to provide my non-canadian clients some insight into "all things Canadian"  leaving banking, thank god that's over, means that my natural audience had disappeared -- I still have some thoughts that I want to share. Right now I've got a few bees in my bonnet: (1) Why are CEO & senior management of large companies receiving compensation out of proportion with their value added [short answer is that they can!]. (2)  Why are companies borrowing so that they can pay large dividends [this is illegal in the UK where I received most of my training] (3)  Why are union so inefficient in protecting "real rights"  [I'm thinking of you Air Canada] I will address these issues in upcoming blogs, I need to make sure that I have...