7 Responses to “November 13, 2020”

1. newbiepref says:

   November 13, 2020 at 10:53 pm

   Hi James, I was wondering if you have a point of view on this

   Thanks

   https://www.bce.ca/investors/preferred-shares/2020-notice-of-dividend-rate-november-13.pdf

2. stusclues says:

   November 14, 2020 at 11:01 am

   “Deutsche argues that remote workers contribute less to the economy’s infrastructure while still receiving its benefits”

   This is not so simple. Increases in work-from-home decreases pressure on infrastructure and results in lower long-term capital investment requirements for infrastructure. Operating costs, on a per unit basis, might increase if existing infrastructure cannot be scaled – i.e. reduction in capacity/frequency of buses, trains, etc.

   There are way better ways to raise revenue than this dumb idea.

3. jiHymas says:

   November 16, 2020 at 1:44 am

   I was wondering if you have a point of view on this

   See BCE.PR.R To Reset To 3.018%

4. newbiepref says:

   November 16, 2020 at 5:55 pm

   Thanks James for your analysis of the BCE reset.

5. paradon says:

   November 17, 2020 at 11:14 am

   Although a 5% tax in remote workers may seem like a dumb idea, the point is that every level of Government is going to be turning over ever rock they can find to try and find new sources of revenue to help them pay their debts. Anticipating what might be coming and preparing your investment portfolio accordingly will be an imperative.

6. jiHymas says:

   November 18, 2020 at 9:34 pm

   Linda Nazareth writes in the Globe:

   Putting a tax on workers outside of the office will inevitably mean fewer will be able to do so, at a cost to them, their employers and potentially the larger economy. As well, the premise behind a work-from-home tax is that workers doing so are somehow doing something bad for the economy, although it is not at all clear this is the case.
   …
   In the end, we may have to levy taxes on businesses or individuals to cover some difficult transitions, and we may indeed have to look at the idea of a universal basic income, as well as government-sponsored training and a larger role for non-profits and educational institutions in training and retraining. We may also have to think about the cost of supporting businesses that will inevitably fail as it becomes increasingly clear that emerging from the pandemic will not result in a total return to work as usual – with the requisite purchases of coffee and sandwiches near the office.

7. mbarbon says:

   November 18, 2020 at 10:09 pm

   Or we can learn to be more energy efficient, using less of the resources (ie oil/gas) to move a few pounds of “brain” to a set location.

   We can then sell these resources to foreigners, gaining much needed foreign income.

   Then resources spent on building roads/etc can be used to build stuff that can be sold so that it can be sold.

   Both of these are required to payoff the huge debt we have built up.