Kate,
For my latest update on state of politics in Canada see:
http://www.bloggingtories.ca/forums/topic6621.html

You are going to love it: "Dr. Harper is in, and he will see you soon."

What are these European banks doing investing in hedge funds (BNP Paribas, the Swiss Bank, etc)? Hedge funds are the riskiest investments out there, even when they are not being run by criminals.

Does this mean the Canadian taxpayer is going to have to bail out demarais/powercorp?

As the markets lower the weevils are beginning to show up in the economic cotton. These cons where part & parcel of the crash. I wonder how many more Ponzi scams are out there just waiting to eat up peoples savings? This in the long run will cause even less reliance in the system. If big players like this can play a crooked hand, what else slips threw the regulations? Such as they are.
Less trust means folks will be eying their investments to pull them out. As well the dollar starts to lose confidence. Causing more nest eggs to disappear. The avalanche could start at any time with another revelation like this.
JMO

That's what happen when you don't take persona; responsibility for your own money. I don't know anyone who outsource their sexual life, yet people in hoards are doing it to their financial relations.
Oh, well it is just only money, let your mutual/hedge fund have them.

Does that mean he Madoff with the money?

BTW, Madoff was a Democratic Party donor. So there's a variation on "name that party" involved in this, too.

can't wait to see tape of some of these now ex-wealthy folks learning their new lines

"would you like fries with that order sir ?"

It's unknown how many of the most popular Canadian mutual funds may have invested with Madoff. It's certainly not beyond the realm of possibility; many of them were taken in by Bre-X.

This spring, I got tired of losses for TWO quarters, in my RRSP at Scotia. So I had the money $17,000.00, transferred to the Credit union, into their term deposit (still RRSP).
Good friggin' thing, what with recent events!!

I wonder what sort of losses I would have seen, had I stuck with these deadheads, so-called professional money managers? Stocks have taken a s&tkicking.
Any one out there with a story about this?

Also, somehow there's $5.00 still in the Scotia account, WTF? It was ALL supposed to hve been moved. I guess I should ask around..

Should be "Made off" not Madoff. I have no sympathy for the foundation that put ALL of its funds in this thing - what part of due diligence/ diversification do they understand?

power corp tankin????

there is a silver lining after all

all that imaginary money just got FLUSHED by reality

As a Liberarian, I am opposed to governments getting involved in "bailing out" companies.

There is an argument to be made that the government has a responsibility to help the populace in times of disaster; such is this time of financial melt-down.

However, there is the possibility these crisis were manufactured, deliberately or accidentally, by the recipients of the hand-outs. How can one distinguish between greed and need?

First, demand sacrifice fromt he beneficiaries fo the bailouts - that includes the CAW and UAW; their labor costs are too high in comparison to their competitors'.

Second, look fior the usual suspects in the line-up for bailouts. Power-corp? Conme on, they've been running the country through their liberal party shills for decades. Also look for Lavelin and Quebecor. In Ontario, beware the Toronto Dominion bank, a Liberal entity. Have you seen oil companies or Nortel asking for a bailout?

Th small company I work for didn't request a bailout. Wer layed off 10% of our staff; noty willingly but by necessity. Perhaps we should also apply for a bailout, or the others get the gun too.

There's a reason people used to keep their money in the mattress instead of at the bank, and this guy is it.

Some former Liberano PMs and their Puffin bird brain supporters are likely sweating in in their covered offal heaps- in the middle of winter, in Canada, - I'm not making this up! Most of these 'banks' and companies sounded familiar (to me) because they (according to all available information that I have read) were used to provide 'cash flow' (flushing toilets!) during the cheap oil- for- $$ (supposed to be for food and medicine for the defeated people in Iraq - UN) scandal with Saddam Hussein; before President Bush and the coalition of the willing took out the dictator of Iraq.

It is all falling apart - it's 'Closing Time' (Lenard Cohan) - "the Boss don't like these dizzy heights'! heh.

I got taken for $1500 in one of these Ponzi's several years ago.

I had this gut feeling that it was "too good to be true", but I never invest more than I can stand to lose. Makes one wonder how "sophisticated" these investment bankers are when they are leveraging all they have.

People were waving flags for years saying "this does not compute" and were ridiculed for their stupidity and lack of business smarts.

The rate of return which made people rush in to "get in on a good thing" doesn't seem to be newsworthy?

Eastern Paul "I wonder what sort of losses I would have seen, had I stuck with these deadheads, so-called professional money managers?"

Well I can give you an idea as I was thinking of doing what you smartly did. I was considering cashing out of mutual funds in May/08 but procrastinated. My funds with London Life fell 24% and those with TD bank fell 34%. WAAAAHHHHHH!

So pat yourself of the back for dodging the bullet. Now tell yourself to leap back in at these bargin prices. You got the guts? Hmmmm? I mean, just how much more can it go down? Those of little faith will demure buying in now. The timid ones aka the chickenshits, like me.

holy crap, I cashed out in March '08 for personal reasons. what should the demure buy in now?

Kelly:
--Some pundits, talking heads, so-called experts suggest ETF's that are heavily weighted with dividend paying companies.
--However in your case, if you say you cashed out for personal reasons, it suggests you don't have any money at the moment to invest anyway.
--Am I right or am I right?

--BTW, if you're a female, worrying about money is too taxing for a demure lady. You need a man to tell you what to do. Oh, I just told you what to do. There, all is right in this world.

canucguy, you are oh so right. I have little or nothing left. whoa is me. however worrying about money is very taxing and in my current state of affairs I prefer to wish you a very Merry Christmas

PowerCorp is taking a real shit-kicking now:

1. When Bush invaded Iraq and deposed Saddam, all those lush oil contracts personally signed by Saddam with Total/PowerCorp went down the crapper losing potential Billion$$$

2. When Canadians elected Harper who said "No Kyoto Carbon Credits" .. and that messed up the financing of PowerCorp-CITIC Chinese high sulphur coal-fired power plants depending on the Canadian taxpayer being dinged for Billion$$$$ of Chinese Kyoto Carbon Credits via the %50B Carbon Tax.

3. Now to add insult to injury, PowerCorp of Montreal has lost 350 Million Euros to this ponzi scheme in their BNP-Paribas subsidiary. Madoff will plead "coupable avec le raison" ... "age dementia" ... "I didn't know what I was doing with all that money and got confused .... sorry."

RW - I agree with you that the TD Bank is definately a Liberal front . Don Drummond is a visible Liberal shill who is paraded ad nauseuym in the Liberal media to spew Liberal economics which is alway anti-Conservative.

Except, Don Drummond blew it when he commented about the November economic update when he said "I could not have written a better economic update myself".

I'll bet you never read that in the headlines.

Not to worry. The new billionaire 20% tax on net worth starts January 1 and will re$stimulate all the world economies.

Ooooops. Guess the Cons were for risky mortgages before they were against it.

50-50?

They are already on it.

http://www.reuters.com/article/governmentFilingsNews/idUSLF6597520081215

anon,
Imagine what kind of shape the world economy would be in if the US had put a stop to such practices when they were warned, as they were, of the risks by McCain and Bush. Instead, Barney Frank says "I think we should roll the dice on this a little longer..." Guess who is now head of the investigation? Why, Barney Frank and Chris "I had no idea that my mortgage was a sweetheart deal even though I am in charge of regulating mortgages" Dodd.

Kind of like fellow Democratic Charlie "I had no idea that what I was doing was against the tax laws that I am in charge of writing..." Rangle who STILL heads the tax writing committee.

Compared to the US, the Canadian PM has almost dictatorial powers. The POTUS can only suggest to the Congress that maybe, if they find the time, they ought to thing about doing something. Harper comes out of that story smelling like a rose, if you ask me.

This tale focuses on a common investment pitfall. I call it stealing. It was a normal scam since it appealed to the victim’s common sense and trust. Read "A Thief's Tale" at http://www.financialtales.com

Kelly, hate to nit pick but it's not 'whoa is me'.
It's 'woe is me'

Of course 'whoa' could be used in this context
"Whoa right there Mr. Financial Advisor, I don't like the look of these CD credit defaults"

And a happy new year to you.

why not bail him out? or at least give money to the people he screwed. the people have been screwed by government, unions, politicos etc. i want my money.

We have just seen a Ponzi scheme uncovered in Canada with a company called IFFL and Hav-Loc where everyone's money has disappeared to Panama and East Timor and Peru and Nevis and Belize and everywhere else in the world. It has been under investigation for the last 4 years and all the main players of the game are taking off in their yachts to parts unknown. These people liked to ding old people so they would die and not ask for their money back.
They have registered thousands of companies to hide the money. They have recently been sued in a class action by Law firm Bennett Jones of Calgary, but the wheels of justice grind very slowly.
Good luck to the people trying to get their money back from Madoff...it'll take years to sue and be brought to court and then to find the money and get it back.
Put your money in the mattress!!!!

Anyone out there know anything about SunLife? Do you think they would have put money into Madoff?

Anyone out there know anything about SunLife? Do you think they would have put money into Madoff?

"Made off", you can't make this stuff up...