Justin Trudeau’s false Davos dichotomy + MORE Jan 9th

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks after meeting with Indigenous leaders on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on December 15, 2016. (Adrian Wyld/CP)
Rather than rub elbows and clink cognac glasses with celebrities and the global elite next week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will spend days touring the coffee shops and winter fairs across his country.
Sounds a bit clichéd, doesn’t it? Let’s try that a different way.
Rather than an extraordinary once-a-year opportunity to help nurture major Canadian investment deals and link arms with fellow world leaders troubled with the rise of anti-trade and anti-immigrant populism, Justin Trudeau will extend by a few days his previously planned tour to plaster his smile and winter scarf collection across as many small-town newspaper front pages as he can.
Sorry, I’m wordy at times. It’s just that while that first version possesses a bit more familiar zing, it also fits too neatly and cutely into a Liberal branding narrative about a pivot back toward the coveted middle-class voter…

WASHINGTON _ President-elect Donald Trump pledged to step away from his family-owned international real estate development, property management and licensing business before taking office Jan. 20. With less than two weeks until his inauguration, he hasn’t stepped very far.
Trump has cancelled a handful of international deals and dissolved a few shell companies created for prospective investments. Still, he continues to own or control some 500 companies that make up the Trump Organization, creating a tangle of potential conflicts of interest without precedent in modern U.S. history.
The president-elect is expected to give an update on his effort to distance himself from his business at a Wednesday news conference. He told The Associated Press on Friday that he would be announcing a “very simple solution.”
Ethics experts have called for Trump to sell off his assets and place his investments in a blind trust, which means something his family would not control. That’s what previous presidents have done…

EDMONTON _ The Alberta government says it wants to hear from the public before it finishes putting together its upcoming budget.
Finance Minister Joe Ceci says there will be no new major spending in the financial plan that is expected to be tabled in March.
Ceci says that the government, still faced with soft oil prices, is looking for ideas on how it can cut spending without affecting key programs.
He says public meetings are to be held in nine communities this month and there will be a telephone call-in meeting that will include Premier Rachel Notley.
People are also being urged to send in ideas online until Feb. 3.
Ceci says the government is still forecasting a $10.8-billion deficit for the current fiscal year that ends March 31.
The post Alberta seeks public input into 2017 2018 budget; says no new major spending appeared first on Canadian Business – Your Source For Business News.

Jennica Rawstron, 31 (Photo by Darren Hull)
The Problem
Jennica Rawstron is a 31-year-old mid-wife from Penticton, B.C. She’s single, self-employed, and debt-free, with gross earnings of $100,000. Jennica, a diligent saver, has $21,500 in an RRSP and $32,000 in a TFSA—all in cash.
She has also set up monthly preauthorized contributions of $400 to each plan for a total of $9,600 a year. But she plans to spend six months a year for the next five years volunteering abroad, starting in Ethiopia next year, which will cut into her earnings and ability to save.
In these lean years, she’d like better returns because she’s on her own when it comes to saving for retirement. “I’ve thought of building a low-cost portfolio with ETFs, but I’m not sure that’s the best option for me right now.”
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A long patch of strong results inflates stock prices and exchange rates to the point when a bout of relative weakness becomes just about inevitable