Description: One of the biggest news items this past week had to be the indictment of former US president Donald Trump in a New York City courtroom. Though there was lots of debate about the event, from an accounting perspective, the interesting notion is that the charges revolve around the falsification of business records. One… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Financial Reporting and Analysis
Good Times at Dollarama
Description: Inflationary times have been good times for Dollarama. The rising cost of living has driven customers Dollarama’s way in a search of savings, pushing sales figures about 17 percent higher than in the previous fiscal year. Profits are also up, prompting the discount retailer to pump up the quarterly dividend to its shareholders. Date:… Read more »
Canadians Interest Payments up 45%
Description: Canadians are paying 45% more in interest costs than they were last year at this time. With the Bank of Canada raising interest rates to help control inflation, Canadians are facing financial risks unknown to them since the 1990s. The Bank of Canada is keeping an eye on households falling behind on their debt,… Read more »
Corporate Welfare Billions
Description: Several media reported this week on a recent Fraser Institute study on the extent of corporate welfare in Canada. The various business subsidies “come with huge costs to government budgets and taxpayers while doing little if anything to stimulate economic growth,” according to Tegan Hill, a co-author of the report. From 2007 through 2019,… Read more »
Tip Amounts Rising?
Description: Are tip amounts in Canada rising? Some customers are perhaps experiencing sticker shock when their servers hand them a payment unit with tip option buttons of 20%, 25%, or even 30% after tax, when the traditional standard has been 15% pre-taxes. In the face of this ‘tip fatigue,” some restaurants, such as Folke’s in… Read more »
Food Inflation
Description: We’ve heard some good news and some bad news on inflation in Canada in recent days. While the Bank of Canada’s strategy of raising interest rates to help check inflation appears to be working overall, food inflation continues to soar with an annual increase measured at 11 percent in December. The price on every… Read more »
Musk Unloads; Share Price Falls
Description: Elon Musk unloaded another large chunk of his Tesla stock this past week, driving the share price down 16% in a week. Of course, this does not leave investors in a very good mood, and one major investor is calling for Musk to step down as CEO of Tesla. Musk has sold close to… Read more »
Suncor Keeping Petro-Canada
Description: After shopping around for potential buyers, Suncor has decided to keep, rather than sell, fuel retailer Petro-Canada. Suncor had been seeking a cash purchase price in the range of $3.8 billion to $5.7 billion. Though Petro-Canada has the largest market share in its class in Canada, no buyer was interested in paying the price…. Read more »
No Gold Here
Description: Did you know that the Bank of Canada, unlike central banks in a number of other nations, does not hold any gold reserves? About twenty years ago the Bank sold off all of its gold holdings, claiming the cost of holding gold and the higher returns available from foreign bonds made gold a bad… Read more »
Big Cuts at Twitter Coming?
Description: Elon Musk says that if he completes his planned acquisition of Twitter, then up to 75% of the employees could get their pink slips. Analyst Dan Ives stated that a 75 per cent cut in Twitter’s staff would create “stronger free cash flow and profitability,” both of which could attract investors to Musk’s deal…. Read more »