We all pay the price for ballooning student debt + MORE Apr 17th

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(Photoillustration by Stephen Gregory & Gerrit de Jonge)
Not many events can compel people to shell out more than $150 to spend an entire Saturday perched on metal folding chairs inside a chilly, cavernous auditorium. But in Toronto, the prospect of getting rich in real estate will do the trick. Last month, a spectacle billed as the Real Estate Wealth Expo stormed into town, drawing upwards of 15,000 people to see an eclectic mix of speakers, from motivational speaker Tony Robbins to musician and gyration enthusiast Pitbull.
At 8:30 in the morning, a quartet of real estate industry professionals takes the stage to whoops from the crowd for a panel on Toronto’s housing market. Local realtor Daryl King (the “king of real estate!” according to the moderator) tells the crowd the key for first-time buyers is just to get a foot in the door. “We haven’t seen the end of it,” he says of the region’s double-digit surge in home prices…

I was recently nominated for jury duty and narrowly avoided serving on a six week murder trial. It was pleasing to be let off because a lengthy trial would have put a dent in my income and kept me away from this year’s Fairfax Lollapalooza for value investors. I’m not sure which would have been worse.

SKIP AHEAD

Climbing CATS

The Fairfax festivities start this week on Tuesday, April 18 with the finals of the Ben Graham Centre’s Student Stock Picking Competition. I’ve covered the event for years and have always been impressed by the effort the students put into it.
Four teams from MBA schools from around the world will compete for $17,500 in cash prizes this year. They’ll analyze the same stock and then present, and defend, their work in front of a panel of distinguished value investors.
The following day, the Ben Graham Centre runs a value investing conference geared to professional and other well-heeled investors. Speakers include well-known value investors Thomas A…

United Airlines planes on the runway. (David J. Phillip/AP)
The other day, I wrote about how it would be nice if there were some sort of anger meter attached to online articles and social media posts. With new outrages happening virtually on a daily basis, it’s hard to keep track and know which to legitimately care about and which are the proverbial mountains out of molehills.
.cbR{box-sizing:border-box;display:block;width:100%;margin:1em 0;border:1px solid #bbb;padding:.5em}@media (min-width:480px){.cbR{width:250px;margin:0 0 1em 1em;float:right}}If you want to give great customer service, close enough isn’t good enough
Companies might also benefit, since such a meter could warn them of impending disaster for their business, as was the case last week with United Airlines and its forced removal of a passenger. The violent incident, captured on video, inspired a boycott that knocked 4 per cent off the airline’s stock last week.
The funny thing is, most businesses do in fact have access to outrage meters of a sort in the form of social media monitors…

Over the past decades, higher education was seen as a rising tide that lifts everyone, but today, the return on a bachelor’s degree may be falling well below the cost of investment

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