Infuriating customer service.Chequing accounts that demand exorbitant fees.Credit cards that charge outrageous rates of interest.Mutual fund expenses that torpedo your investments.Loans departments that refuse to support Canada's small businesses.These are just a few of the many ways chartered banks abuse their dominant position in the Canadian financial system. ...

Recommended Reading by Warren Buffet in his March 2013 Letter to ShareholdersHow speculation has come to dominate investment—a hard-hitting look from the creator of the first index fund.Over the course of his sixty-year career in the mutual fund industry, Vanguard Group founder John C. Bogle has witnessed a massive shift in the culture of the financial sector. The prudent, value-adding culture of long-term investment has been crowded out by...

In the years since the now-classic Pioneering Portfolio Management was first published, the global investment landscape has changed dramatically -- but the results of David Swensen's investment strategy for the Yale University endowment have remained as impressive as ever. Year after year, Yale's portfolio has trumped the marketplace by a wide margin, and, with over $20 billion added to the endowment under his twenty-three-year tenure, Swensen has contributed more...

A newly updated edition for the fast-changing real estate market in Canada!Over the last two decades Canadians have become convinced that real estate is the “safe haven” investment. This widely held belief and obsession with real estate led millions of Canadians to take on massive amounts of debt — tripling their collective financial burden — ensuring that Canada is one of the most indebted nations on the planet.Drawing on dozens of interviews and even more...

An in-depth look at the trouble with shareholder value thinking and at better options for models of corporate purpose.Executives, investors, and the business press routinely chant the mantra that corporations are required to "maximize shareholder value." In this pathbreaking book, renowned corporate expert Lynn Stout debunks the myth that corporate law mandates shareholder primacy. Stout shows how shareholder value thinking endangers not only investors but the rest ...

Everything you thought you knew about saving, managing risk, and securing your financial future has changed.The world is very different in the wake of the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression. Retirement accounts have been eviscerated, risk appetites diminished, and questions raised about age-old personal finance strategies such as "buy and hold" and the efficacy of relying heavily on stock mutual funds.In The Wall Street Journal Guide to the New Rules of Per...

SELECTED AS A 2008 BEST BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE ECONOMIST"ONE OF THE SMARTEST INVESTORS ON THE PLANET."--MONEY MAGAZINE“This book is an essential read for those whowish to understand the modern world of investing.”—Alan GreenspanWinner of the 2008 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year AwardWhen Markets Collide is a timely alert...

Praise for Free Cash Flow and Shareholder Yield"Free Cash Flow and Shareholder Yield provides a provocative solution to the profound paradigm shift now redefining valuation standards for markets around the globe. In commonsense terms, it defines how the investment community has begun the journey of shifting to the more dependable, robust metric of free cash flow."—Rob Brown, Chief Investment Officer, Genworth Financial Asset Management, Inc...

The financial crisis that began in 2007 in the United States swept the world, producing substantial bank failures and forcing unprecedented state aid for the crippled global financial system. Bringing together three leading financial economists to provide an international perspective, Balancing the Banks draws critical lessons from the causes of the crisis and proposes important regulatory reforms, including sound guidelines for the ways in which distressed banks might be dealt wi...

Monetary policy has increasingly become the focus of economists and investors. This report describes the factors driving interest rates across the economic cycle. Written by an experienced fixed income analyst, it explains in straightforward terms the theory that lies behind central bank thinking. Although monetary theory appears complex and highly mathematical, the text explains how decisions still end up being based upon qualitative views about the state of the economy.The text m...

A nonpartisan plan of action for fixing the global economy from fifteen of the world's leading economistsIn the fall of 2008, fifteen of the world's leading economists—representing the broadest spectrum of economic opinion—gathered at New Hampshire's Squam Lake. Their goal: the mapping of a long-term plan for financial regulation reform.The Squam Lake Report distills the wealth of insights from the ongoing collaboration that began at these meetings a...

The financial crisis of 2007-9 revealed serious failings in the regulation of financial institutions and markets, and prompted a fundamental reconsideration of the design of financial regulation. As the financial system has become ever-more complex and interconnected, the pace of evolution continues to accelerate. It is now clear that regulation must focus on the financial system as a whole, but this poses significant challenges for regulators. Principles of Financial Regulation d...