Closing the Loop – Part II

Corporate tax loopholes and how we should close them. This is the second part in a series. Thanks to the Little Red Umbrella for continuing to host my articles. You can find part II here.

Closing the Loop

Corporate tax loopholes and how we should close them. This is the first part of a few pieces I’m going to write on what is a complex and under-reported issue. The Little Red Umbrella has been kind enough to host the articles here.

Dark Markets

Imagine that you’re buying property in Toronto. You know the exact neighborhood that you want to live in, but your real estate agent has told you there are no homes listed for sale in that area. Secretly though, every home in that neighborhood is owned by one real estate kingpin. The kingpin wants to take advantage of the high real estate prices as soon as he can, but he needs to do this discreetly. He understands that if he were to list all of his property at once publicly, then he wouldn’t get as much money for his property. He needs to make buyers like you believe there is a limited supply of homes, when in fact there is an abundant supply. To do this, he uses dark markets.

Where is My Father’s Money?

As some of you know, I’ve been working on a book for the last few years. Here is a sneak peak.

Praying for Euro

Panic over the potential break-up of the Euro is at its highest point. People are withdrawing wads of Euro cash from Spanish and Greek banks, hiding it under the mattress and bracing for the fallout. In the Strictly Monetary Series (Part V), I told the story of how an American bank averted crisis during the panic of the Great Depression. It’s a textbook example of how banks can survive the shock of everyone demanding their money at once (bank-run) if they can secure additional cash to appease the frantic public. You don’t beat panic with prayer; you beat it with action.

Can Currency Be Greater Than Country?

2011 was a landmark year. Villains were captured and killed, dictators were overthrown, and the initial step was taken in releasing an HIV vaccine. But the financial story of the year was, and continues to be, Europe’s financial crisis. It is viewed more as an inconvenience than a global cultural change. However, the world may be watching the failure of an extremely bold globalization experiment called the Euro.

“Big Government”

Watching Ontario’s political debate was painful. I’m annoyed that each candidate felt personally obliged to thank people for their questions. Oh, thank you so much, Sanjay, for that question that I will now proceed to ignore. The name-calling was excessive. With all due respect Mr. McGuinty, your energy plan shows that you’re a loser and your adam’s apple is WAY too big for your neck. They each blatantly plug “selling points” instead of answering questions. Hi Ontario, I’m going to fix everything using only five bullet points!

True Colours

Canadians know exactly what they are voting for based on the colour of the political party. Blue stands for tax cuts, less government programs, balanced budgets and big business. Red means higher taxes, better social programs and running up the debt to finance it. Orange is there to make red look like blue. Each colour comes with rhetoric. It is the brand of each political party that has been advertised to Canadians for generations.

Sympathies from the Spike

During the years when Eric Blair (George Orwell) was voluntarily living as a vagrant in London, he wrote an essay in 1931 titled, The Spike (full text). A Spike was a workhouse where the nomadic homeless went to find shelter and food in exchange for their labour. Upon entering, he was stripped of all liberty, respect and dignity. He and the other “tramps” (homeless) were treated like dogs; they slept wherever there was space, they were fed scraps and it was assumed that they were carrying disease.

Letters to Rob Ford: Campaign Promises

Chris Burt shares a letter to the mayor:

Thanks for being mayor, keep up the good work!

I know a lot of people are giving you a hard time these days about ‘not finding’ the gravy, or doing the other stuff, but I am quite proud of several of your achievements to date, and I would like to outline them for the purpose of ensuring that your side gets a fair and balanced shake against the liberal media.