football frank

U.S. vs. Canada: Banking Edition

Save the boarder bashing for another day. Two great countries,
who have two different systems. The Canadian banks were
growing at a snalls pace for many years, and ventured into
the US market to find growth, with mixed results. Yes, they are stronger at the moment, but that has not always been the case.
So American banks need better guidelines, and Canadian banks
need more growth. Which will be stronger in ten years, is up for discussion.
I own BAC, TD, RY, BMO, and C, so my fortunes will depend
on banks in both countries.
Demographics will be huge going forward, when all these
baby boomers, who are out of the house, kids, cars, stage
and into the invest for retirement part of their lives.
They need to put their money somewhere, and the pension
plans in BOTH countries are certainly not looking good going forward. No money in the system equals higher taxes to
service the committments of the people in the plan. Benefits
will shrink over time, and the age may rise also. You can't
borrow forever, the bill comes due somtime. At least
this article generated discussion.

Oh Canada: Top 15 Oil Exporting Countries to the U.S.

Interesting that most Americans are not aware of this fact. Also
Canada is the number one exporter to the US overall.
As for oil, the demand will rise when the economy recovers. I
like Suncor as a strong oil company going forward, but the others
would be good bets also.

Tim Hortons: Easter Bunny's Next Victim?

Not sure where you are from, but easter is in April almost
every year. As for Tims, expansion should benefit the complany down the road when the economy recovers. It's a mid cap growth stock
for the future

Shoppers Drug Mart a Near Term Risk - Desjardins

In this economy for them to make profits is a huge plus, and when things recover they are well positioned to gain market share. In my
area, ( Ontario ) they are building new stores all over the place.
I like SDM as a growth stock going forward, especially since they
really are a small cap. Their reward program keeps customers
very loyal.

A Look Ahead at Earnings This Week

JNJ is just a real solid company, that should give investors a
nice long term play. Gotta like the dividend growth, and the whole
health care sector going forward. When people are sick, they have
to pay whatever the price of the drugs are. And of course there
is a huge number of baby boomers, that will access the health
care sector. Obama may have the right idea to control costs,
but this process will take decades.

5 Reasons Not to Buy the Canada ETF

Mr. Jin is welcome to his own opinion, however Americans would
be wise to buy Canadian just for the pop on the dollar. The
Canadian dollar will rise long term vs the American dollar. It
tracks the price of oil pretty closely, and the long term trend is
higher oil. The banking system is a world leader.
As per the overpriced theory, the US is falling deeper in debt
by the day, and that only means higher future taxes to fund
health care, and pensions.
If you beleave that resourses, oil, wheat, hydro power, and
potash will not be in demand going forward to fuel the world
population growth, then Mr. Jin may be right.
However, go to msn money and read anything written
by Mr. Jubak about future trends, and the facts will
speak for themselves

Dividends vs. Stock Buybacks

I have my own buy back formula, I re-invest the dividends, which
makes compounding work for me.
As a long term investor, I'm not really worried about the share
price at the moment. Looking twenty years down the road. Of
course when you buy good companies, that pay a good dividend the
share price will follow sooner or later.
Buybacks tend to waste cash.

The 20 Best-Performing Stocks of the Last Decade

Not much of a article

Year to Date Country Returns: U.S. Lags

Canada leads the G7, If you factor in Russia and go with the G8, then
Canada is 2nd, which is pretty good considering how interconnected
they are with the US. Canada would be alot higher if not for the trade
with the US which has slowed. If you beleave that oil is going to
be higher going forward, especially in ten years, then Canada has the
2nd most oil reserves behind the saudi's. With the Canadian dollar going to rise against the US dollar, Americans could get a nice pop
by investing in some of those great Canadian bank shares, which
have avoided the melt down south of the border.

Time to Reenter GE

Management gorged themselves on huge profits in the financial sector and piled up the risk. Then things turned after the housing meltdown. If mangement was alittle more prudent, and maybe did'nt focus on this area so much, they could have whethered this downturn
in the economy and not cut the dividend, which so many people wanted. Long term still a great company, but I have to wonder why if
this company has been in business for over one hundred years, why they did'nt have more cash
reserves to offset a slown down, and maybe buy some assets that were depressed. Going forward they are in a good position to take advantage of areas that will be strong in the future. Maybe it's time to spin off some non-core assets, when their value recovers

Canadian Banks: Canada's Moment to Shine

Dividends paid by Companies on both sides of the border are
taxed thru an agreement between these two great countries, which
is called the with-holding tax. When my US company dividends are paid to me as a non resident of the US, they with hold 15% of the
gross amount. The same is true for Canadian companies that pay dividends to US residents.
It is my understanding that once that with holding tax is paid,
A ) your total gross income is 15% lower
B ) that you have already been taxed once, and that amount is then taxed at a much smaller rate or not at all.
I'm not a tax lawyer

Speaking of the Canadian banks the Canadian gov insures
deposits up to 60000 to Can residents, which means they are very secure and the chance of failure is very low. Their are 5 major banks in Can, so the economy is dominated by them and competition is somewhat low. Canadian law has a rule that
no one can own more than 20% of any of the major banks.
TD, and RY are the best of the bunch, and have been beaten down abit due to their holding in the US market. Some of them have paid dividends for 150 years

Exxon Mobil: Dividend Stock Analysis

Dividend yield in the energy sector has always been low, due to
the amount of capital it takes to find, drill, transport, and refine oil.
I would say that you always want the shares to be worth more in the future, however a nice dividend returns some of the cash to
shareowners. The world is still dependent on oil for a large part
of the industrial sector, which will bounce back. Wait til the world
population hits 7 billion, and where are all those people going to live, and work. Long term oil will still be in demand, and the price will follow,
as the cheap oil has already been found.

Wells Fargo, GE and Manulife Up 156% from Lows - Is This Not Bottom?

The market was over sold and now we are getting alittle ahead of
ourselves. TD bank went form low 30's ( Canadian ) to low 50's
in a couple months. What really has changed in that time ....
you got it emotion !!
Good article

IBM: Reflating the Corporate Bubble, GE-Style

Yes, we were all fooled by GE. If it's one thing that this downturn
has shown us is that high levels of debt can cost the company in
many ways, from interest charges, lost profits paying the debt over
many years, the share price, and what companies are doing with
their cash.
MSFT has very little debt, so buy backs are ok. I wish they had bought
more when the price was low.
Thanks for the heads up on IBM, I had no clue the debt levels were
so high. I'm in the same boat as Warren, I like companies
that have lots of cash and little debt. PFE, just spend a ton
of their cash, and went deeper into debt. How that plays out going forward will be interesting.

High-Yield Canadian Royalty Trusts vs. Dividend Growth Stocks

American investors will benefit from the US dollar falling long term,
especially with all the debt congress, and the government is
adding. The Canadian dollar will rise, following the price of oil
long term also.
I think a mix of trusts, stocks, and ETF's would be a
great balance of holdings, especially with dividends, pay outs,
and distrabutions re-invested back into more shares / units.
Depending on your income level, tax rates will rise for trusts.
As for oil trusts, ETF's, and stocks It's a great time to buy
for long term investors