Personal Finance and Investing

Is Don Draper on the file?

Im sure that youve noticed already, but our friends at the Business Development Bank of Canada have been spending big sums on TV and airport advertising of late. Whats fascinating about that is the timing of this new awareness campaign.

Between 2006 and 2009, BDC cut its advertising budget by 28%, from $1.98 million in 2006 to $1.43 million in fiscal 2009 . During that same period, BDC grew its loan book by $3 billion, or 36.7%. It is safe to argue that BDCs advertising had no impact on its business development activities: how many firms can cut ad spend by 28% and sell 37% more product?

Then, starting in the summer of 2009 , BDC more than doubled its advertising spend.

Read more…

• Tweet

• Tweet

Treasuries and mortgage bonds are lower this morning after rallying yesterday on a strong 10 year treasury auction.

 U.S. lawmakers are under pressure to come to an agreement on the 414.3 trillion debt limit after Moody’s placed the nation’s credit rating under review for a downgrade.

Tags: Credit Rating Downgrade Debt Limit Mortgage Bonds Nation’s Credit Rating Quicken Loans Treasuries Treasuries and Mortgage Bonds open Low Treasury Auction U.S. Lawm

Read more…

Climate change is biggest and most urgent challenge facing humanity.   Scientists say we need global emissions to peak within the decade and decline rapidly thereafter to have an earthly chance of avoiding catastrophic climate change.

The world we want will require much more enlightened green governance.

When you think about it, without some measure of governance in any field, we get the law of the jungle – the powerful dominate, the weak get squeezed, bad things happen, and there is no redress.

So what should good green governance mean?

• It means, above all, governments not just recognizing but taking responsibility for the state of the planet – including the cause and consequences of climate change.
• It means governments having a clear vision or ambition for where they want their country and the world to get to, and clear milestones to get there.
• It means being crystal clear about the things we need more of, and the things that must stop, to reach that vision
• And it means putting in place the rules, incentives and penalties to accelerate the good and put a brake on the bad.   So, for example, investing in and promoting the most helpful technologies and behaviours and weaning us off fossil fuel – taking the right decisions today to safeguard tomorrow.
• And it means monitoring progress carefully so we know whether or not we are on track.

So, let’s have a look at how the coalition government is doing on green governance.  How is it doing on setting a clear vision for change, promoting the good, stopping the bad?

When David Cameron said on his second day in his new job that he wanted to lead the Greenest Government Ever, we welcomed it – cautiously, knowing that its actions not words that will count.

To mark the first anniversary of the coalition we published a report – written by one of my predecessors, Jonathan Porritt – weighing up how the Government had acted so far.

And I’m afraid it made for pretty grim reading. “The bad and the ugl

Read more…