wisdomous.com

So far the games have been interesting to watch.

Mother nature and global warming are not cooperating, but all the people in Vancouver and Whistler seem to be having fun. The streets are packed, yesterday after the fist Canada hockey game there were about 50 thousand people at Robson Square.

Here is a medal table:

the S&P 500 which is a borad index of 500 companies, is a great deal below 1000

I myself have started buying even at 1100

S&P 500 = Standard and Poor’s 500 index

see www.standardandpoors.com

According to my simple calculations the TSX index is a deal at 8000 points.

At that level it is a bargain and almost guaranteed money maker

TSX = Toronto Stock Exchange

As we can see GM holds 6 of the top 20 spots, For has 5, Toyota has 4, while Honda has 3. Chrysler and Nissan each have 1 spot in the top 20. All Truck sales, except the Toyota Tundra have declined as compared to 2007.

Small cars have all increased. With the Pontiac G6 leading, followed by Cobalt and Civic. Prius enjoyed a nice increase in sales as well.

March 2008 sales show that America is slowly moving away from trucks and towards compact cars. The top 20 has no SUV’s on it whatsoever.

As I wrote earlier Chandler’s group H+H Yaletown project , along with Garden City, Richmond went into receivership in November of 2007. The appointed receiver is The Bowra Group. They have submitted to the court a report about the 2 projects. Here is some interesting information from that report regarding H&H Yaletown (Homer and Helmcken in Vancouver):

1. “Construction on floors 14, 15, and 16 of the H&H project has been delayed due to development issues. While we believe that floors 1 through 13 will be completed along the budgeted timeframe, it is likely that floors 14 through 16 will not be completed until the middle of September at the earliest”
2. “The South side of the H&H property used to be a gas station. The gas station completed the appropriate environmental remediation work when it shut down and obtained a clearance certificate under commercial zoning requirements. It has been determined that the gas station was leaching hydrocarbons under Helmcken Street. There is a risk that groundwater may flow from Helmcken into the H&H property discharging hydrocarbon fumes. Preliminary approval has been obtained from the City to trap ground water that may contain hydrocarbons and drain it to the City sanitary system. To obtain final approval of this process drawings need to be prepared and submitted to the City and Ministry of Environment along with a report from an environmental engineer with water sampling test results. The city will also require quarterly water sampling until they are satisfied that the ground water standards meet environmental standardsWe estimate the cost to trap and drain the water, environmental consultants and application fees are $85K plus an additional $10K per year for water sampling until such time as the water testing samples comply with environmental standards”
3. “We estimate the additional funding requirement over and above the bcIMC construction funding total …$3.9M for H&H” The additional funding will be financed at 24% interest - WOW!
4. ” We have received several marketing proposals from various firms in connection with the sale of the condominium units. These proposals include proposals from MAC, KLM Marketing, Regent Park Real Estate and Rob Boies & Associates. In addition we contacted two other parties including Rennie & Associates and the Platinum Group. Both these parties advised that they were not prepared to submit proposals. In one case the firm was too busy, and in the other case, they were not prepared to be involved in a competitive bid process.”
5. “…4 penthouse sales: 2 to Mark Chandler, 1 to Wendy Young and 1 to Daniel Scott. All contracts are assumed to be canceled and resold at market value as these are non-arms length transactions and below market value”

There are still 9 unsold units in the H&H project, even though the sign on the street has SOLD OUT pasted over it.  The receiver states:
“There are 9 unsold units at the H&H Project. Anyone interested in purchasing a unit should contact Kimberlee Robertson at MAC Realty at 604-629-1515 ext 544. “

So apparently the Government of Canada wants its good citizens to save money. Any good citizen needs an incentive and the TFSA is it. however, one must wonder why the government would voluntarily forgo some revenue by not taxing the money earned within TFSAs. My dear amigos the answer is a preemptive strike on the credit crunch. Here in Canada the crunch is not evident just yet, but reading any financial paper in the USA it is plain obvious. Some journals are comparing the current scenario  with bank runs of the 30’s era. If the government foresees that, the TFSE is a genius solution.

If only 10 million people use it, that’s $50 billion injection into the banking system. Banks will have capital to lend and the economy should chug along nicely. I applaud. This is a clever way to fight any credit crunch. (Although i do realize that $50 billion on a grand scale is not a lot, but it is a start.) Furthermore, I applaud the  government for creating a way to earn income tax free. So go ahead deposit your hard earned dollars into the TFSA and collect the rewards.

As an aside in most cases and at least in the first few years of the TFSA it would only makes sense to save after maxing out the RRSP deduction limit. The money put into the TFSA is not tax deductible, while RRSP contributions are. So essentially each all deposits to TFSA are after tax dollars and therefore worth a bit less than RRSP dollars. However, this difference can be made up with the tax free benefit of the income created with the TFSA. Clever investing people - that’s what I’m talking about.

However, when a government gives incentives one should look if any one else or any other groups are benefiting.

Wisdomous: according to UrbanDictionary.com a person who is very wise is said to be  “wisdomous”