b2 gurus | business news

These days, when I look South of the border, I feel really lucky for having such a strong Loonie.

Do you know why?

It is one of the main reasons our inflation is not exploding compared to other G8 nations. All of the others in the developed world, except Japan, have seen higher rates of inflation compared to Canada.

This week, inflation in commodities, a deflating housing market, rising costs of …. everything, and a diminishing purchasing power maintains the eye on the spotlight. The largest steel maker in China - Baosteel just announced the largest increase, some 96.5%, in iron-ore contracts with their Australian supplier, Rio Tinto.

However, while petroleum related products increase in price, other non-petroleum products will become cheaper. Consumers will have less money and therefore less demand for those products. Many things in the G8 countries are shooting through the roof, from milk and cereal to cosmetics. The credit crisis has still yet to run its last sprint to home base and many traders are really unsure of what to do.

Many stocks that were once safe havens, such as beta-favourable stocks, and large-cap tech stocks are taking big hits. RIM took a big dive on Thursday, and many are predicting Google will do the same. Some traders I know are keeping their funds strictly cash, cold, hard, c-a-s-h. Well, for the moment, to wait out the storms, where risk and reward are not in-line. The head of the Federal Reserve is taking a similar approach to the interest rate, sticking to the sidelines. Buffett, on the other hand, believes this inflation will cause a drastic, long-painful, recession. But he has been wrong before, and the Fed. is hoping he is wrong now. I think the cash reserve plot utilized by many traders right now is human nature, because they think opportunities will be cheaper tomorrow, but this recessionistic ideology will only add fuel to the fire.

I read a funny comment to a financial video I saw this week, it was a random unrelated comment about how diversifying money would be great right now to look for investing opportunities, half the funds in the cookie jar, and the other half under the mattress. LOL

Anyways, I really hope our governments can turn our economies around, increase consumer spending, and patch up post-credit wounds. With Bernake on board the ship, we will have to wait and see. Maybe we will see the bottom of the ocean, or a new America, but Canada is definitely dependent on the latter.

Signing out

Zan Zhang

Hey Guys,

I wanted to let everyone know that the b2logs team was competing in the International Career Development Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. I was specifically competing in the Business Services Marketing category representing the province of Ontario.

Overall, I didn’t do so well, but I will definitely succeed next year.

For our weekly financial newsletter, we will be releasing a post this weekend. In the mean time, enjoy this video interview from the Oracle himself on his thoughts about various business issues.

Cheers,

Ram Sharma