Issuu is a digital publishing platform that makes it simple to publish magazines, catalogs, newspapers, books, and more online. Easily share your publications and get. One interesting approach that has nothing to do with Pumpkin Persons z factors People tend to associate most closely with people of similar IQs. Dead money Greater Fool Authored by Garth Turner The Troubled Future of Real Estate. Checked out your chequing account latelyTheyre now called banking accounts, which means no interest on balances. Actually, you have to pay to use them. At the biggest bank RBC, the basic account costs four bucks a month and you can use it for only 1. This sucks big, Alvin was telling me on the weekend. I have two hundred grand sitting in my account now for two years because I was afraid to invest, and I thought I was at least getting half a per cent or something. Nope. Nada. And its estimated about 4. Savings Forget it. The big banks pay 0. The fruit guys pay 0. Oaken Trust, which provide a greater return. Oaken, for example, offers 1. Home Trust, which is a big mortgage lending outfit hungry for funds to shovel into inflated residential real estate. By the way, you might recall Home Trust was in the news last summer when a bunch of its brokers committed mortgage fraud by, among other things, falsifying buyers incomes on loan apps. Eventually several dozen were punted after the regulator moved in, finding about 1 billion in bum loans. Presumably a bunch of that money came from Oaken depositors, so thankfully the company is a member of CDIC if you believe in deposit insurance. Now, lets remember that saving money is officially penalized in Canada ever since we got emergency interest rates in 2. MIT Climate Scientist Dr. Richard Lindzen Demonization of CO2 is irrational at best and even modest warming is mostly beneficial. When someone says this is the. DM5O0VM3VyFdPaH3lyk4pnuugl.jpg' alt='Watch The Green Bandits Online Ibtimes' title='Watch The Green Bandits Online Ibtimes' />Most savers are with banks, and so receive half a point. Meanwhile inflation in December was 1. Fail. Worse, the few pathetic shekels of interest paid on savings are fully taxed at the depositors marginal rate. Even worse, GIC holders are taxed annually on interest they dont actually receive. If you have a Big Bank high interest account, after inflation and taxes your return is negative about 1. You can stick savings in a TFSA and improve that for a negative return of just over 1. So, obviously, this is no way to build your wealth, prepare for retirement, get monthly income, bulk up money for a down payment or hustle capital for a kids education. Saving is dead. Official monetary policy has destroyed a financial strategy that supported seniors for generations shoveling life savings into low risk bonds or other guaranteed interest bearing investments to minimize the risk of losing capital while harvesting a steady and predictable income stream. Now that streams gone. Bonds pay nothing. The banks pay worse. And as more and more Boomers slide into retirement with mortgage debt and meager pensions, they face the greatest risk of all running out of money. For this you can thank central banks. When money pays nothing, it also costs nothing. So weve turned from a nation of savers to one of borrowers. A savings rate north of 2. A nation of conservative little squirrels has morphed into one of crazed, granite lusty leveraged beavers. Well, no wonder EQ Banks made a splash, along with some other digital players like Zag. EQ this month launched itself into the big leagues by offering to pay 3 on deposits, or more than triple that of its competitors. The outfit also has no minimum amount, lets you move money around, photo deposit cheques and will probably send you a free mug. Its looking to attract ten thousand customers this year and garner 2. But theres a catch. Watch Town Creek Online Hitfix. EQ Bank is a division of Equitable Bank, which is an alternative mortgage provider. As you know, alternative is not a great word these days, conjuring up images of diddling web sites and guys with trench coats and no pants. In the lending world, Alt A mortgages fit between traditional loans made to people with 5 down, no other savings and jobs and subprime ones for borrowers with damaged credit or a parole officer. The rate charged on Alt A loans is 1 2 higher than for traditional ones, which suggests how EQ might start affording to pay vastly more interest than anyone else can muster. As well, Equitable does commercial mortgages, which always come with high interest commensurate with higher risk. This bank is also virtual. No branches. No ATMs. No tellers, advisors, loan officers or retail employees. Its designed to exist on your i. Phone, and it has no actual vaults full of money. Nothing to rob, of course, but then good luck if the servers are hacked. EQ, Zag, Tangerine, Oaken or any other of these companies are not about to fold. As mentioned, we have modest deposit insurance in Canada although it has rarely been tested. But the public appeal of digital banks providing no services and completely reliant on an Internet connection is another small indication of how monetary policy has failed us. By grinding rates into the ditch, whacking savers and rewarding massive real estate leverage, central banks have created asset bubbles which every million dollar house sale in Toronto or Vancouver and every struggling senior proves. Were surrounded by risk. And stocks have little to do with it.