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Weighing the cost of pennies and nickels
Inflation has hit the humblest of financial instruments. In the American government’s recent budget, the Obama administration revealed that pennies cost 1.8¢ to make, while nickels run 9¢ per coin. The U.S. treasury has spent $100 million more in some years than the currency is actually worth.
The rising costs of zinc and copper are to blame, so fashioning the coins out of a cheaper material...
Outlook 2010: Can this bull market continue?
Two months before the last federal election, Stephen Harper sat down with CBC’s Peter Mansbridge and uttered a line that he’d quickly regret: “I think there’s probably some great buying opportunities emerging in the stock market.” Many Canadians didn’t want to hear it; jumping into the TSX in October 2008, in the midst of the worst recession in decades, seemed ridiculous, to say the...
How to spot weasel words that can sink your portfolio
Let’s face it — the last thing most investors want to do is read a bulky 200-page annual report. Sure, you might flip through a few pages, but most shareholders have never read a report from front to back. However, a new study shows that certain phrases in corporate filings can provide important warnings about trouble ahead. Looking for these phrases — something that is much easier to do...
Winners & Losers 2009: Comebacks & flameouts
Nominated for a 2010 National Magazine Award in the Best Editorial Package category
We were too quick to write off some of these embattled icons, but others crashed hard.
The comebacks
1. Michael McCain
Last year’s listeria outbreak could have ended Maple Leaf Foods CEO Michael McCain’s decade-long career at the company. But instead of hiding behind his lawyers, McCain faced the press and expressed...
Keeping your portfolio from tumbling as the loonie climbs
When the Canadian dollar reached parity with the greenback in September 2007, U.S. border crossings were jammed. Deal-seeking Canadians braved four-hour waits just to get 20 bucks off a pair of Banana Republic khakis — and who could blame them? The last time the currencies were equal was in 1976. But, while giddy consumers ransacked U.S. malls, many Canadian investors watched in horror as their portfolio...
The Ode: Geocities
GeoCities was born in November 1994 to entrepreneurs David Bohnett and John Rezner. It was one of the Internet’s first website-hosting services, originally named Beverly Hills Internet, after the company that founded it, though the name was quickly changed.
When GeoCities first came online, it was revolutionary. Back then, the Internet was still an abstract concept to most people, but Bohnett, the...
Art: The sudden demise of Ritchies Auctioneers
When Antoine Moonen, a Toronto graphic designer, needed some extra cash earlier this year to pay some bills, he turned to a painting on his wall. Hanging there was an Andy Warhol original, which he bought six years ago — if sold, it would definitely fetch him some much-needed dough. He took the painting to Ritchies Auctioneers, a reputable auction house that had been matching art buyers with sellers...
Eco-burial: The future of death
Twelve years ago, Susanne Wiigh-Mäsak was working in her greenhouse in the serene Swedish countryside when a morbid thought popped into her head. As she looked at her plants, her mind turned to death, specifically what happens after living things die. Plants become soil, but people? We either rot or get turned into ashes. “Soil production is beautiful,” she explains. “The other options aren’t...
Tags: environment, Funerals
Bryan Borzykowski is a Toronto-based writer and editor working mainly for business and entertainment publications. He regularly contributes to Canadian Business magazine, Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, PROFIT, MoneySense and the Advisor Group. Bryan's the editor of Review magazine and is a senior editor with Connected for Business magazine. He's also a contributing writer with Hello! Canada and was once a weekly music columnist for Metro News. He's been nominated for several National Magazine Awards and recently co-authored