The opinions expressed on this page are those of your editor, John Budden, and not those of our Friends or Legends (living or dead); unless specifically stated. We are working on our ability to communicate with our immortal Legends and will keep you informed on any ‘break through’.

Over the past 40 years in the investment business your editor has worked with a number of highly qualified Canadian professionals. On this page, we will provide you with the names of professionals from various disciplines who we consider to be trustworthy and competent...

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January 18, 2010: Compliments of The Ottawa Citizen... Federal PS pensions a $58B debt time bomb, think tank says by KATHRYN MAY

December 22, 2009: Compliments of ZeroHedge... Mercer’s Little Alaska Problem? by Leo Kolivakis


August 20, 2009: Compliments of Bloomberg... Pension Plans’ Private-Equity Cash Depleted as Profits Shrink by Jason Kelly and Jonathan Keehner

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June 30, 2009: Compliments of Vanity Fair... Rich Harvard Poor Harvard by Nina Munk

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May 2003: New Evidence on the Interest Rate Effects of Budget Deficits and Debt by Thomas Laubach ... Dated but relevant

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June 25, 2009: Compliments of The Economist... The end of retirement

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February 25, 2009: Compliments of The Globe and Mail.. Caisse returns fall 25 per cent by BERTRAND MAROTTE

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February 13, 2009: Compliments of The Globe and Mail... Stock hunters face fewer value traps by DAVID BERMAN

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December 6, 2008: Compliments of Barron's... The Math Doesn't Add Up by DIMITRA DEFOTIS

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November 29, 2008: Compliments of Barron's... The Truth About Auto Pensions by JIM MCTAGUE

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November 20, 2008: Compliments of The New York Times... After Losses, Pensions Ask For a Change by MARY WILLIAMS WALSH

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NOVEMBER 19, 2008: Compliments of The Globe and Mail... GM Canada beset by pension crisis - Massive pension deficit presents a quandary for governments that would be on the hook in the event of bankruptcy by GREG KEENAN AND MURRAY CAMPBELL

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November 14, 2008: Compliments of the Globe and Mail... OSC enters into pension debate
Letter targets detailed disclosure to investors by JANET MCFARLAND

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June 2008: Compliments of Absolute Return... Eric Sprott Survivalist by Barry Cohen

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September 2007: Compliments of Merrill Lynch...The Brave New World:
Winning Product Strategies for a Changing Global Market by John Casey

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December 15, 2007: Compliments of the Globe and Mail...Pension funds, the new riverboat gamblers by BRIAN MILNER

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November 24, 2007: Compliments of The Globe and Mail... Knowing the known unknowns of a possible market disaster
by Brian Milner

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November 23,  2007: Prem Watsa: He has never been more bearish

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October 18, 2007: Hedging Interest Rate Risks in Dutch Pension Funds and Life Insurance Companies
Xu Beilin - Faculty of Sciences, Vrije Universiteit; De Boelelaan 1081a, NL-1081 HV Amsterdam

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November 16, 2007
Fund Managers Who Take Big Bets: Skilled or Overconfident by
Klaas P. Baks, Jeffrey A. Busse, and T. Clifton Green
 

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October 21, 2007: So You Want To Be The Next Warren Buffett? Hows Your Writing? By Mark Sellers. MUST READ
 

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August 8, 2006

Public Pension Plans Face Billions in Shortages

By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH

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August 4, 2006

OPEN LETTER

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March 18, 2006

The growing threat to defined benefit pensions by Kristin Goff

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March 17, 2006

Compliments of The Financial Post

Dossier: Lori McLeod looks at the business story of
the week....
The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan is in a tough
position

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March 17, 2006

Compliments of the Globe and Mail

Crunch time for Ontario Teachers
Growing shortfall brings call for reduced benefits, higher contributions
By Leonard Zehr
 

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June 10, 2005

Compliments of Reuters
Trustees Do Not Understand Investments

An academic study supported by the National Association of Pension Funds has found that trustees have no common understanding of the principles of investment theory and practice. It found they are prone to the same cognitive anomalies as the rest of the population.

"Put simply, trustees do not share a common understanding of the most important (albeit abstract) principles underpinning modern investment theory and practice," the Oxford University researchers wrote.

The comments come in the 32-page Pension Fund Trustee Competence: Decision-Making in Problems Relevant to Investment Practice, by Gordon Clark, Emiko Caerlewy-Smith and John Marshall. They added their findings about trustees' decision-making were troubling as the range of their solutions to problems was far greater than anticipated.

"It is clear, based on our experimental strategy, that pension fund trustees are prone to the cognitive anomalies and biases that researchers in psychology have attributed to the population at large," the researchers stated. They tested 40 trustees of defined benefit pension funds, sourced via the NAPF, alongside 80 Oxford undergraduates as a reference point.

"As expected, pension fund decision-making was shown to be less than ideal...trustees are nothing like the super-human calculating machines" of economic theory, the academics wrote. They added that trustees do not use the available data in an efficient manner to test solutions to problems. "If indicative of the nature and range of trustee decision-making, these results have important implications for the coherence of collective decision-making and the role of fund advisors and service providers," the authors concluded.