From the category archives:

infrastructure

New BMO ETFs Fill Out Canadian ETF Niches

February 22, 2010 · 2 comments

in BRIC, Canadian, ETF(s), India, S&P/TSX, TSX, diversification, emerging markets, financial education, foreign investment, infrastructure, international economy, news and updates

ETF investors have noticed the enormous growth in ETFs offered over the past two years.  We’ve gone from simple “emerging markets” ETFs like Vanguard’s VWO and iShares’ EEM/XEM to not only BRIC ETF offerings (such as Claymore’s CBQ), but now iShares Canada is offering ETFs specific to India (TSX: XID), Brazil (TSX: XBZ) and Latin [...]

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Two New Platinum ETNs (Exchanged-Traded Notes)

November 18, 2009 · 2 comments

in ETF(s), commodities, infrastructure, investing, precious metals

Platinum may be a precious metal, but it has more industrial uses than gold (the chief use being the metal used for catalytic converters in cars).  For that reason, and because it is traded less than gold, platinum costs more per ounce.
So if you want to make a hybrid infrastructure/precious metals play, platinum might be [...]

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Infrastructure Investing: Your Choices For North American Rail Transport and Railroad Stocks

October 25, 2009 · 5 comments

in infrastructure, investing, railroads, stocks, transportation

Want to make a pure infrastructure play?  What could be better than investing in freight rail.  North American railroads carry the bulk of imports, exports, food, grain and other cargo back and forth through the U.S. and Canada – sometimes the same product, multiple times.  This even makes railroads a unique way to play the [...]

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What I Learned About the Economy From Watching Food, Inc. (dir. Robert Kenner, 2009)

June 30, 2009 · 17 comments

in agriculture, business, capitalism, commodities, economy, films, health, infrastructure, nutrition, survival

NB: As you can imagine from watching a film like Food, Inc., it can be hard to separate the emotion and just report “calmly” on the plain facts presented by the film.  Originally I wrote this the same day I saw it, but I’ve since gone back and edited it to try to tone down [...]

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Another Case For A Coming Turnaround – Toromont Earnings Up

February 9, 2009 · 0 comments

in earnings, infrastructure, market timing

Industrial equipment supplier Toromont’s earnings actually GREW this past quarter.  Earnings were up 25% for the months of October, November and December 2008 – right on through the huge meltdown.  How is that possible?  It seems like this helps build the case for an infrastructure-led turnaround, even though Boeing just laid off a bunch of [...]

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Betting on Infrastructure? Boeing Just Cut 10,000 Jobs

January 28, 2009 · 1 comment

in Obama Effect, infrastructure, layoffs

Those people betting on seeing the Obama Effect in infrastructure should tell me what they think of Boeing’s latest job cut announcement (read it here).  Or is this a sign that the infrastructure pre-bubble has popped?  Either way, it’s pretty sad and scary.  Canada also just announced that the recession is going to be deeper [...]

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