Peer-to-Peer lending: A beginner’s guide

Today, when you have money left over after paying your bills, you invest in big and distant corporations. You don’t even think about it. The government incentivizes you to save for your future through RSPs and TSFAs. You invest in stocks, bonds or mutual funds. Basically, all of our money goes to the financial markets. The financial system has been designed to funnel our our collective savings in that direction. As different as you might try to be, we all own a slice of the financial markets at large. Alternatively, you could start your own business or purchase an investment property, but this is a lot of risk, costs more in legal fees and taxes, and most importantly, it may entail work that you don’t have time for. So you invest in passive financial instruments. And until now, passive financial instruments basically meant big corporations. 2016 marks the year where we, individual Canadians, can re-channel some of those investments from large and distant corporations to local small businesses.

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.

The Mystery of “The Man”

The Little Red Umbrella posted an essay of mine recently. It’s one of my favourites. Enjoy.

ETFs: Explained and Exposed

During the “flash crash” of 2010, the Dow dropped 1,000 points in a matter of hours because of a computer glitch. During this crunch, ETFs were impossible to sell unless you were willing to take a devastatingly low price. Why?

American Infrastructure

America’s in a rut. Despite the mixed economic numbers, long term growth is absent. More importantly, many unskilled workers don’t seem to have a place in the modern economy now that production has moved abroad. This piece published on Seeking Alpha highlights how to capitalize on the inevitable solution.

Strictly Monetary VI: Dollar Downward Spiral

In January of 2010 I pointed to the decline of the American dollar as being permanent. I spat at the idea that it was simply a slump. When the stock of companies like Apple and Google were at lows, I advised people that while they were good companies, there was no way I was going to hold anything in American dollars. This past week, Standard & Poors rating agency issued American bonds a negative warning, citing that it had serious concerns as to whether or not the American government will get it’s fiscal situation in order, confirming something we’ve known for years. So, what took so long?

Strictly Monetary Part IV: Why Being America is Awesome

This is a short piece to describe why being the world’s reserve currency is awesome. It is a one-of-a-kind system that has done things that had never been done before. This piece will lead us into the history of how America got here in the first place, as well as the extremely controversial workings of the Federal Reserve.

Strictly Monetary Part III: The Game of International Reserves

Parts one and two covered the essentials about monetary systems and how we control them. But with exponential increases in the speed and amount of international trade, suddenly there is very little separating monetary policy from political games.

Strictly Monetary Part II: The Mechanics of Money

The global system of money is going through some drastic changes. This piece explains the tools our governments have to control the money supply and the price of money. After this, we’ll be ready to talk intelligently about some of the heavier global issues.

Globalization: If he really loves her, he’ll be back

If Globalization is like dating, Canada has some gorgeous features that make some countries jealous, and other countries eager. This allows her to get away with a lot. If he shows his desire openly, she makes him prove it. When he gets fed up, she’ll wait until they’ve both had time to cool off and then send a coy text message: how r u feelin?