We have a PM who thinks he’s a Portfolio Manager and not a Prime Minister, and a bad one at that.
During each of the last two elections (2006 and 2008), Stephen Harper felt compelled for reasons of pure political pandering, to offer Canadians with some highly misleading investment advice.
The first piece of Harper’s misleading advice was in election 2006:
"When Ralph Goodale tried to tax Income Trusts ... don't forget, don't forget this ...they showed us where they stood. They showed us about their attitudes towards raiding seniors hard earned assets and a Conservative government will never allow either of these parties to get away with that" .
The cost? $35 billion to those who took Harper at his word.
The second piece of Harper’s misleading advice was in election 2008:
October 8, 2008: (CBC) Harper said he identified with the fears Canadians feel as the stock markets continue their plummet amid worldwide turmoil, saying his mother, who is retired, has been watching her portfolio hour by hour. The Conservative leader also suggested that "good buying opportunities are opening up" in the midst of stock market downturns, saying some stocks have hit bottom.
TSX October 8, 2008: 10,056.3
TSX March 9, 2009: 7,608.5
Down 24.3%
The cost? $290 billion in lost market value
Bottom line: Don’t listen to Stephen Harper and his self serving and politically motivated investment advice. He has a pension. A pension that is completely remote from any market swings, as it is funded from the government’s annual accounts. Meanwhile you probably don’t have a pension, and if you have, it has tanked in value. Those who have taken Harper’s investment advice have paid dearly. The $35 billion loss sustained by income trust investors is permanent, unless the tax is repealed. Hopefully the $290 billion loss in market value since October 8, 2008 is not permanent, but unlike Harper, I have no reason to pump you full of happy gas on whether it is permanent or not.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Canadians who listened to Harper’s investment advice, have paid dearly
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I continue to wonder how many Con MPs owned income trusts outright on Oct 31 2006 as Flaherty made his devastating announcement.
Any investor that was worth his weight in salt owned some.
The MPs are big buck folks that I am sure must invest & common sense & the laws of probability tell me that a certain percentage of these people must have owned some.
So why did not one of them squeak or squawk even one peep as they must surely have lost big-time??
Did they know something the rest of us did not & sold a short time prior??
Did Harper`s mother own any??
I am not saying that anything fishy happened in this case but something smells & it just might be a rat.
Dr Mike.
TSX is down $290 billion, since Harper issued his "buy" recommendation.
This $290 billion loss was precipitated from a recession that he said would only occur if the Liberals got into power
GL
Post a Comment