Ireland’s economy going ‘gangbusters,’ grows 7.7 per cent in past year as debt crisis fades + MORE Sep 18th

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DUBLIN – Ireland’s economy is growing at a rapid pace last experienced at the tail-end of the Celtic Tiger boom, government statisticians reported Thursday as economists declared an end to the country’s financial doldrums.
The report from the Central Statistics Office said gross domestic product grew 7.7 per cent from July 2013 to June 2014, the biggest annual rate of growth since early 2007. It said quarterly GDP rose 1.5 per cent versus the January-March quarter.
Finance Minister Michael Noonan said the figures suggested that Ireland would record around 4.5 per cent GDP growth this year, accelerating the country’s escape from debt woes that forced it to take a 2010-2013 international bailout. Earlier this year, Noonan forecast growth of just 2.1 per cent.
Ireland has already resumed borrowing normally and its credit ratings are rising, as evidenced by Thursday’s treasury sale of three-month debt securities at an effective interest rate of zero per cent. The faster Ireland’s economy grows, the more easily and cheaply it can refinance its debts on bond markets…

Photograph by Robert Taylor
Q: During our working years my wife and I took advantage of Revenue Canada’s rule that allows everyone to be over their RRSP contribution limit by $2,000. Even though we knew we couldn’t deduct the over-contributions, we liked that it was growing tax-free. But now that we’re retired the CRA says we could face a tax penalty. What are the dangers here and how can we avoid this? —Melvin Madden, Brooklin, Ont.
A: Yours is a cautionary tale about using the RRSP over-contribution as a tax strategy, instead of as the wiggle room it was designed for. As retirees you don’t have any employment income to build additional RRSP contribution room, so you risk having to pay tax on that money twice—when you first earned it and again when you withdraw it from your RRSP or RRIF. But you can avoid this, says chartered accountant Ron Graham, by using form T746. “They’ll have to enter the amount withdrawn in the current year and designate how much of the withdrawal is to be assigned as a Refund of undeducted RRSP contributions…

Indications are fund will neither buy nor sell

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My last post was devoted to dividend stocks with pep, which highlighted dividend payers that have outperformed over the last year. Such stocks are said to have positive momentum.
But momentum works both ways. On the plus side, studies have shown that top performers usually go on to do well. On the other hand, stocks that have trailed the market often continue to slide.
Today I’ll focus on the laggards and the dark side of momentum investing.
Alas, some firms stumble even during good economic times. Those that run into real trouble usually see their shares tumble into Davy Jones’ Locker.
In such cases, it’s only natural to wonder whether a stock will be sleeping with the fishes permanently.  Thankfully, most stocks rebound from a bout of negative momentum over the very long haul.
But the bad times tend to persist for much longer than expected. Market studies show that stocks that have trailed the market significantly over the last 12 months tend to do poorly over the next 12 months…