Nothing happened today, but I must say that I am astonished at the UofO hockey-team / facebook chat kerfuffle:
As the University of Ottawa wrestles with its response to a week of sexually charged scandals, its leaders promised a new task force to help the school “face up” to issues of violence within the campus culture.
The university’s president, Allan Rock, announced a task force on respect and equality in his first public comments since his school revealed on Monday that police are investigating an alleged sexual assault involving some players from its men’s hockey team. At a Thursday news conference with Michaëlle Jean, the U of O’s chancellor and a former Governor-General, he pledged to “take fearless inventory of our practices and our assumptions.”
The university is still staggering from another revelation, days earlier, of a sexually graphic online chat that several student leaders had about a colleague. In response, many at the school have decried a “rape culture” they say is quietly pervasive on and off campus. Now, public attention is focusing on whether universities are willing and able to drive changes to social attitudes that minimize the real impact of sexual violence.
I simply cannot understand why “changes to social attitudes” are any of the universities’ business; I have come up with a few explanations:
- Young people are being infantilized – 35 is the new 20, as far as maturity goes. Used to be that at age 20, most people would get a job, get married, buy a house … all that grown-up stuff. Now, there’s a longer period of adolescence before adulthood, and the universities are responding to that (while under pressure).
- University administrations are being feminized … when I was of university age, the fact that more than half of all undergrads were female was front page news. Now the proportion is pushing 60% in the US and I’ll guess it’s the same here. So administrations are responding to that and they’re also responding to (what I assume is, without any data at all) an increasing female component of influential administrative staff. A male will – stereotypically – respond to nastiness on his own, while females will – stereotypically – seek to organize a clique to punish the offender properly; this is what the universities are now doing
- Normal bureaucratic mission creep. “We’re in a position to do so much good! Therefore we must promote proper behaviour!”
- It’s all marketting. All the universities now have MBAs in their admissions department who don’t care about much other than getting lots of admission applications through a Positive Public Image. The potential for bequests and alumni donations is important too.
That’s the best I can do; feel free to respond in the comments, even if it’s only to tell me you’re here for the preferred shares and I should shut the hell up (if male) or that you have brought my views to the attention of the appropriate authorities (if female). But one implication of all these precious bureaucrats having earnest discussions with each other about Proper Standards Of Behaviour, and sitting in tribunals to Enforce Promote Community Expectations Of A Safe Learning Environment is increased costs. This type of non-academic activity at universities is one reason why the price keeps going up; and why student debt increases in lockstep.
It was a mixed day for the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualDiscounts gaining 6bp, FixedResets off 3bp and DeemedRetractibles up 22bp. Volatility was muted. Volume was above average.
| 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 | -0.3276 % | 2,411.6 |
| FixedFloater | 4.60 % | 3.86 % | 27,733 | 17.67 | 1 | -0.2894 % | 3,692.4 |
| Floater | 3.00 % | 3.16 % | 54,779 | 19.25 | 4 | -0.3276 % | 2,603.9 |
| OpRet | 4.63 % | -0.16 % | 72,287 | 0.24 | 3 | -0.3080 % | 2,683.9 |
| SplitShare | 4.84 % | 4.58 % | 54,100 | 4.34 | 5 | 0.1925 % | 3,057.7 |
| Interest-Bearing | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | -0.3080 % | 2,454.1 |
| Perpetual-Premium | 5.63 % | -0.75 % | 93,262 | 0.08 | 11 | 0.1175 % | 2,352.2 |
| Perpetual-Discount | 5.48 % | 5.56 % | 136,953 | 14.39 | 26 | 0.0570 % | 2,418.9 |
| FixedReset | 4.71 % | 3.54 % | 230,173 | 6.79 | 77 | -0.0274 % | 2,504.3 |
| Deemed-Retractible | 5.06 % | 2.19 % | 166,953 | 0.22 | 42 | 0.2234 % | 2,463.2 |
| FloatingReset | 2.58 % | 2.55 % | 189,224 | 7.12 | 5 | 0.0803 % | 2,444.3 |
| Performance Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Change | Notes |
| GWO.PR.N | FixedReset | -1.14 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2025-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 21.65 Bid-YTW : 4.62 % |
| CIU.PR.C | FixedReset | 1.65 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2044-03-06 Maturity Price : 21.31 Evaluated at bid price : 21.61 Bid-YTW : 3.54 % |
| Volume Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Shares Traded |
Notes |
| BAM.PR.X | FixedReset | 158,484 | RBC crossed 148,300 at 21.45. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2044-03-06 Maturity Price : 21.47 Evaluated at bid price : 21.47 Bid-YTW : 4.30 % |
| BMO.PR.R | FloatingReset | 138,360 | Scotia crossed 136,600 at 24.80. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2018-08-25 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 24.83 Bid-YTW : 2.54 % |
| TRP.PR.C | FixedReset | 127,195 | Desjardins bought 100,000 from RBC at 22.20, and crossed 12,700 at the same price. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2044-03-06 Maturity Price : 21.73 Evaluated at bid price : 22.20 Bid-YTW : 3.69 % |
| TD.PR.E | FixedReset | 102,385 | RBC crossed blocks of 68,100 and 24,700, both at 25.31. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2014-04-30 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.32 Bid-YTW : 1.48 % |
| MFC.PR.C | Deemed-Retractible | 90,695 | Nesbitt crossed blocks of 40,000 and 45,000, both at 21.70. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2025-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 21.71 Bid-YTW : 6.19 % |
| BMO.PR.P | FixedReset | 80,424 | Nesbitt crossed blocks of 25,000 and 50,000, both at 26.00. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2015-02-25 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.92 Bid-YTW : 1.74 % |
| There were 41 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares. | |||
| Wide Spread Highlights | ||
| Issue | Index | Quote Data and Yield Notes |
| GWO.PR.N | FixedReset | Quote: 21.65 – 21.88 Spot Rate : 0.2300 Average : 0.1590 YTW SCENARIO |
| RY.PR.X | FixedReset | Quote: 25.50 – 25.68 Spot Rate : 0.1800 Average : 0.1095 YTW SCENARIO |
| BAM.PR.P | FixedReset | Quote: 25.87 – 26.06 Spot Rate : 0.1900 Average : 0.1220 YTW SCENARIO |
| POW.PR.B | Perpetual-Discount | Quote: 24.05 – 24.25 Spot Rate : 0.2000 Average : 0.1341 YTW SCENARIO |
| CIU.PR.A | Perpetual-Discount | Quote: 21.52 – 21.90 Spot Rate : 0.3800 Average : 0.3202 YTW SCENARIO |
| BNA.PR.D | SplitShare | Quote: 25.22 – 25.39 Spot Rate : 0.1700 Average : 0.1104 YTW SCENARIO |