Political gamesmanship results in U.S. credit rating downgrade

Earlier this week (August 1, 2023), Fitch Ratings downgraded the United States of America’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to AA+ from AAA. (The Rating Watch Negative was removed and a Stable Outlook assigned. The Country Ceiling was affirmed at AAA.)

Unwinding pandemic restrictions on financial institutions

Peter Routledge, Canada’s Superintendent of Financial Institutions at the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI), delivered remarks yesterday (November 4, 2021) afternoon at a virtual conference.

China’s central bank deals with cryptocurrencies

Western “freedoms” often come at a price for society, whether it be a supposed right to bear arms or vaccine refusal. In a move that deals with the realities of cryptocurrencies that we have been talking extensively about of late, China’s central bank yesterday (September 24, 2021) has effectively made them illegal in that country.

Yet another blow to cryptocurrencies #3

On September 21, 2021, the U.S. government imposed sanctions against virtual currency exchange SUEX for its role in facilitating financial transactions for ransomware criminals. This is the first time sanctions have been brought against a virtual exchange in what is an obvious message to others cryptocurrency players that their inadequate compliance programs and acceptance of illicit transactions will no longer be tolerated.

Ethical investing – cryptocurrency “mining” #2

Cryptocurrency “mining” uses quite astounding and shamefully wasteful quantities of electricity, estimated by Cambridge University, for Bitcoin alone, to be 121.36 TWh annually. To put it in perspective, that is more electricity than Argentina, a country of nearly 46 million residents, uses in a year! And that is not accounting for the impact of carbon emissions and global warming. But it doesn’t stop there.

Recession is Nowhere in Sight

Themoneynarrative is pleased to present, for educational purposes, an article written by RBC Dominion Securities Vice-President and Portfolio Manager Nick Scholte. Not only do we find the article extremely informative, but we are pleased to highlight the work of an individual who represents excellence within the investment advisor community. We wrote about investors maximizing the value they obtain from their investment advisor relationship in themoneynarrative investor strategy commentary #3.