Five reasons to own bonds now + MORE Oct 9th

There are 71,000 divorces in Canada each year, and more than 40% of marriages end in divorce. That’s less than the U.S. divorce rate of 46%. (The Swedes, meanwhile, have the highest rate, 55%.) There are multiple reasons for divorce: communications breakdowns, infidelity, midlife crisis, abuse and financial issues.
Those financial problems can be exacerbated when there’s trouble with the tax man. Unfortunately, people who separate don’t always understand the rules for reporting income, assets and expenses. It’s worse if a couple isn’t communicating.
They need not be legally or formally separated for their tax status to change. A couple is considered separated if they cease cohabitation for at least 90 days. When they separate, each will be taxed as an individual and income and assets will be separated. Many expensive failures can follow relationship breakdown.
Support for spouses. Support payments made to spouses or common-law partners are taxable to recipients and deductible by payors…

The encryption technology that helped build Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry into a global player…

Neil Young once lyricized “in the field of opportunity it’s plowing time again.” That opportunity might be in bond markets again.
Bonds’ three-decade run came to a jarring halt this spring. Everyone knew the Fed’s Ben Bernanke couldn’t keep stimulating the U.S. economy forever via ‘quantitative easing.’ But as soon as he mentioned ‘tapering’ it was like someone yelled “Fire!” in a theatre. There was a rush to the exits. The world’s biggest bond fund, Pimco Total Return, plunged from $292 billion in assets in May to $251 billion four months later: a whopping $41 billion drop. Some was market loss, but clearly many investors were cashing out and taking their winnings elsewhere.
Ed Devlin, portfolio manager of Pimco’s Canadian bond fund, says a mass liquidation hasn’t yet started in earnest. The $150 billion that left global bonds pales against the trillion-plus that found its way into bonds in the past few years.
At a recent conference, there was consensus. The U…

I want to shift my focus toward financial reporting, but I can't get a foot in the door

MUMBAI, India – Wal-Mart Stores said Wednesday it is splitting from its Indian business partner and suspending plans for its own retail stores in India because strict government regulations on sourcing from local small businesses make it impossible.
The move by the world’s largest retailer represents a blow to India’s attempts to attract foreign investment in the huge but underdeveloped retail sector. Wal-Mart already runs a wholesaling joint venture in India and will continue that business, buying out partner Bharti Enterprises.
Despite a potential market of 1.2 billion people, no large foreign chains have formally applied to open supermarkets and other multibrand stores since the government changed the law last year to allow them to invest more in the $400 billion sector previously reserved mostly for Indian companies. The new law allows international companies to open multibrand retail stores with 51 per cent ownership and an Indian minority partner.
Opening the door to foreign retailers like Carrefour, Tesco and IKEA was hugely controversial in India, with opponents saying it could ruin millions of small traders and family-run shops where most Indians now buy their goods…