China a moving towards becoming the biggest adopter of technological change:
China is pushing hard towards becoming a trailblazer when it comes to automation and intelligent engineering. Already the biggest market for industrial robots, the Chinese government has clearly identified its goals of becoming one of the pioneers in robotics and automated machinery. It will lead a major overhaul in how the Chinese industry functions and, amidst its robotic ambitions, the domain of driverless trucks is not far behind.
Last year, the Chinese internet giant Baidu unveiled its self-driving truck, made in collaboration with Foton Motor Group, a step forward in revolutionizing not only the $300 billion Chinese transportation industry but also in boosting competitiveness in a slowing economy that aims to become the world’s largest within the next decade.
If machines are really getting smarter and threatening to replace human workers en masse, Canadians don’t seem overly alarmed just yet.
That’s the upshot of a poll released Saturday by Abacus Data. The Ottawa polling firm found 89 per cent of Canadians agreed “technological change has been good for the world,” while 76 per cent agreed “technological change has been good for my own economic well-being.” While wealthier respondents were more likely to see technology change as good for their prosperity, two-thirds of respondents labelled “working/lower” class agreed.
One of their charts was also of interest:
Click for Big
Those clamouring for investment fee transparency will be pleased by this WSJ reporter’s ordeal:
Describing the fee disclosures of my adviser as opaque would be generous. The experience left me wondering whether someone even less savvy than me, a Wall Street Journal reporter, would be able to navigate this system, to ferret out the good information from the bad.
…
The man I spoke with this time proceeded to tell me the opposite of what the previous adviser had told me. No, there was no annual $125 fee. That was only for people investing in individual stocks. My portfolio had an annual fee of 0.85% of assets, deducted quarterly.So what about these internal fees? He said those ranged from 0.4% to 0.8% of assets annually.
Well, then, what was my actual number? He said that I was invested in the “moderate” risk basket, so the expense averaged to 0.55%. Fees would have been higher with more-aggressive investments, lower with conservative ones.
…
The 0.55% was correct. My combined fee was 1.4%.
I’m scandalized by the house fee of 0.85% of assets; how common is that, I wonder? Do those who stridently quote the low cost of US mutual funds take that into account?
Due to technical difficulties, I am unable to publish the daily index and highlights. I will update this post when I can.
Update, 2017-5-13:
| HIMIPref™ Preferred Indices These values reflect the December 2008 revision of the HIMIPref™ Indices Values are provisional and are finalized monthly |
|||||||
| Index | Mean Current Yield (at bid) |
Median YTW |
Median Average Trading Value |
Median Mod Dur (YTW) |
Issues | Day’s Perf. | Index Value |
| Ratchet | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | -0.7631 % | 2,151.3 |
| FixedFloater | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | -0.7631 % | 3,947.5 |
| Floater | 3.54 % | 3.71 % | 49,919 | 18.03 | 4 | -0.7631 % | 2,275.0 |
| OpRet | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | -0.0704 % | 3,030.5 |
| SplitShare | 4.69 % | 4.35 % | 66,892 | 1.60 | 5 | -0.0704 % | 3,619.0 |
| Interest-Bearing | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | -0.0704 % | 2,823.7 |
| Perpetual-Premium | 5.31 % | -4.62 % | 73,151 | 0.09 | 22 | 0.0533 % | 2,784.4 |
| Perpetual-Discount | 5.09 % | 5.10 % | 110,883 | 15.33 | 14 | -0.0628 % | 3,009.0 |
| FixedReset | 4.46 % | 4.04 % | 218,552 | 6.54 | 94 | 0.0888 % | 2,323.4 |
| Deemed-Retractible | 4.98 % | 4.36 % | 135,926 | 0.13 | 30 | 0.0488 % | 2,892.3 |
| FloatingReset | 2.47 % | 2.95 % | 49,724 | 4.48 | 10 | -0.0186 % | 2,531.4 |
| Performance Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Change | Notes |
| TRP.PR.B | FixedReset | -1.67 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2047-05-08 Maturity Price : 14.16 Evaluated at bid price : 14.16 Bid-YTW : 4.05 % |
| TRP.PR.H | FloatingReset | -1.62 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2047-05-08 Maturity Price : 13.34 Evaluated at bid price : 13.34 Bid-YTW : 3.36 % |
| BAM.PR.C | Floater | -1.15 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2047-05-08 Maturity Price : 12.85 Evaluated at bid price : 12.85 Bid-YTW : 3.71 % |
| Volume Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Shares Traded |
Notes |
| RY.PR.M | FixedReset | 69,680 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2047-05-08 Maturity Price : 21.85 Evaluated at bid price : 22.19 Bid-YTW : 4.07 % |
| TD.PF.C | FixedReset | 56,300 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2047-05-08 Maturity Price : 21.08 Evaluated at bid price : 21.08 Bid-YTW : 3.98 % |
| RY.PR.E | Deemed-Retractible | 33,300 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2017-06-07 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.24 Bid-YTW : -9.31 % |
| SLF.PR.E | Deemed-Retractible | 23,695 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2025-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 22.64 Bid-YTW : 6.16 % |
| BMO.PR.L | Deemed-Retractible | 18,945 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2017-06-24 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 24.98 Bid-YTW : 4.36 % |
| MFC.PR.R | FixedReset | 15,850 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2022-03-19 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.97 Bid-YTW : 4.13 % |
| There were 11 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares. | |||
| Wide Spread Highlights | ||
| Issue | Index | Quote Data and Yield Notes |
| POW.PR.A | Perpetual-Premium | Quote: 25.71 – 26.03 Spot Rate : 0.3200 Average : 0.2368 YTW SCENARIO |
| TRP.PR.H | FloatingReset | Quote: 13.34 – 13.66 Spot Rate : 0.3200 Average : 0.2457 YTW SCENARIO |
| MFC.PR.H | FixedReset | Quote: 24.65 – 24.88 Spot Rate : 0.2300 Average : 0.1620 YTW SCENARIO |
| HSE.PR.A | FixedReset | Quote: 16.18 – 16.40 Spot Rate : 0.2200 Average : 0.1579 YTW SCENARIO |
| RY.PR.O | Perpetual-Premium | Quote: 25.29 – 25.48 Spot Rate : 0.1900 Average : 0.1299 YTW SCENARIO |
| BNS.PR.D | FloatingReset | Quote: 21.80 – 21.99 Spot Rate : 0.1900 Average : 0.1344 YTW SCENARIO |
globalization has helped the poor around the world
Abacus might want to pole the poor around the world not just comfy Canadians.
You are quite right. Although there is not much doubt that poverty world-wide is decreasing, there is controversy regarding the role that globalization has played.
There’s an essay in the Economist regarding the role of globalization in increasing inequality and some musing by academics.