Why Canada Is The Place To Be Right Now

Best Place Canada

As things stand today, there are few parts of the globe that have not been touched by the problems in financial markets – problems which began in earnest over a year ago now and have been worsening ever since. The situation right now seems to point to a global recession which will only begin to lift during the latter part of next year. While playing the blame game is certainly not going to help anyone, there is a lot of blame flying around anyway, most of which is being aimed at the most acquisitive economies, and a large amount of that is directed squarely at the United States. Conversely, experts seem to have mostly good things to say about Canada.

There is little doubt that part of the reason for this is the proximity with the United States, which allows a side-by-side comparison between neighbours. While the crisis itself has been attributed to the sub-prime mortgage lending crisis in the US – although this is only part of the story, and the sub-prime market’s collapse was more catalyst than cause – the global nature of the markets ensures that when one economy takes a blow, the businesses which have investments in that economy suffer also. Hence, it was not just US banks that suffered in the light of the credit crisis, and when the problems precipitated a comparatively small gust of wind, those businesses which were not built on the strongest of foundations began to collapse.

The credit crisis, therefore, may have been catalyzed by what was happening in the US, but it immediately affected banks in the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan (which was already having problems) and beyond. To date it has even caused governments to be recalled, including that of Iceland, which had been surfing a wave of financial well-being. Canada itself has been far from untouched, but the current suffering here has been more of an inevitable outcome of global problems than a headlong plunge precipitated by failure to plan. While other countries pretty much dived head first into the cracks, Canada was slowly sucked towards them before sliding over the edge. Therefore, when the markets begin their definitive improvement, Canada will be one of the first countries to climb out of the mess.

There are so many stereotypes about supposed national tendencies, and some of the more unkind ones seem to imply that Canada is a country where nothing much happens, and what does happen is not that exciting. Anyone living here can see how inaccurate that is. The upside, however, of that stereotype is that Canada tends to find itself in better shape than others having refused to gamble away everything it owns.

Things right now are shaky – not just in Canada, but in most of the world – but this does mean that if you have cash to invest, prices now are at their lowest in some time and may not have far to fall. And once the economic indicators dictate that we are on the way to recovery, watch those numbers climb. Much better to watch it from Canada than anywhere else.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Canadapersonalfinancewebsite.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to Ahmed Dawn Dot Com. This article originally published on the above website on Apr 10, 2009.

Want to Be Ultra-Rich Fast? Move to Bangladesh

How to Get Rich Fast

I was expecting a comparatively quiet cabin when I boarded my Business Class Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul to Dhaka in November 2017. But to my surprise it was all full. What I did not understand then, I understand now after global ultra-rich research firm Wealth-X published their World Ultra Wealth Report 2018 report.

Contrary to popular belief, China is not the country producing ultra-high net worth (UHNW) population (those with $30+ million net worth) most. Bangladesh is the global leader and the fastest growing country in the world making people ultra-rich.

Here are the top 10 countries (growth rate) producing an ultra-rich population in the last 6 years (2012-2017):

Bangladesh (17.3%)

Chine (13.4%)

Vietnam (12.7%)

Kenya (11.7%)

India (10.7%)

Hong Kong (9.3%)

Ireland (9.1%)

Israel (8.6%)

Pakistan (8.4%)

United States (8.1%)

Courtesy: Wealth-X report

The ultra-high net worth (UHNW) population in Bangladesh posted a staggering 17.3% growth. The global UHNW number increased 12.9%. So China is not the global leader creating ultra-rich, that title goes to Bangladesh.

The top-ten list is different in terms of where the richest 595 UHNW population live:

US (79,595)

Japan (17,915)

China (16,875)

Germany (15,080)

Canada (10,840)

France (10,120)

Hong Kong (10,010)

United Kingdom (9,370)

Switzerland (6,400)

Italy (5,960)

Courtesy: Wealth-X report

So if you want to get rich fast, pack your bag and head to Bangladesh, which has been ranked as the fastest growing country in the world to become rich.

Why China Will Dominate the 21st Century

China and The 21st Century

Published Date : April 17, 2010 ADawnJournal.com

The 19th century was the British Century, when the British Empire dominated the planet. The 20th century was the American Century, when the United States and its culture dominated the planet. At the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century, what country will dominate? What country will feel its reach extended and what country will have its culture reach every region of the planet?

Well, while many want to think that it will be the United States; most experts feel that while the United States will remain very important, the true dominator of the 21st century will be China.

In a poll done by The Washington Post and ABC News in February of 2010, 53 percent of respondents felt that the United States’ role in the 21st century will be smaller than it was in the 20th century. In addition, 43 percent feel that the country to dominate the 21st century will be China.

One reason for this is the incredibly rapid growth of the nation. In 1980, 53 percent of the Chinese population lived in poverty. In 2010, just 30 years later, only eight percent of the population is in poverty thanks to the rapidly increasing size of the Chinese middle class. The economy of China has also been growing, quite quickly, at a world-dominating 8.7 percent per year. This is well above what the United States economy is growing at. As well, the United States owes China more money than China owes the United States. The massive amount of consumerism in the United States has greatly helped China, where a vast amount of American products are actually made.

Factories are being built at a blistering pace in China, and the country is also investing heavily in green energy. All of this is making it appear that China is going to be the country to watch during the 21st century.

Of course, China is not exempt from problems. The country still has a lot of work to do in order to reach the same level as the United States in other regards. These include:

1.   China needs to create more political freedoms for its citizens.

2.   China needs to ensure that it has higher standards for the types of products it uses and the materials it uses in the products, like lead.

3.   China needs to cut back on its coal power use to keep the country from becoming heavily polluted.

4.   China needs to take a more diplomatic approach with other countries, especially concerning Taiwan and Tibet.

In the meantime, China is working hard to be a force to be reckoned with. While it may seem like China is just emerging as a giant in the 21st century, it is also important to remember that the country has actually been a force for 5,000 years. In fact, China has created many of the inventions the Western World uses, but they did so centuries before Europe. China is always a force to be reckoned with.

Why Does McDonald’s Give Free Coffee?

Free Coffee at McDonald’s

Published Date : January 27, 2013 ADawnJournal.com

No, McDonald’s or other coffee retailers do not give away free coffee because they are nice folks. The old adage “there is no such thing as free” still applies in modern days. Although it looks like retailers are giving away coffee absolutely for free, their Return on Investment (ROI) is fetching more money in the long term than they are losing money for offering free coffee in the short term. Today, I will simplify free coffee giveaway campaigns so you can see behind-the-scenes reasons for giving away free coffee.

Brand Awareness – Think of it as an advertising campaign to promote brand awareness. Most people know McDonald’s for Big Macs and McNuggets – hardly anyone knows them for their coffee. And brand awareness is even more important when McDonalds is comparatively a new player in the coffee war in a country like Canada where people are religiously loyal to another coffee chain like Tim Horton’s and don’t mind driving 4 miles in minus 40 degree Celsius extreme cold weather for a cup of Tim Horton’s.

Dramatic Publicity – People love free stuff and the word will spread faster (that there is free coffee) than any other form of advertisement. I noticed even my 80-year-old dad somehow found out about it when McDonald’s ran their free coffee campaigns and started going to McDonald’s twice daily to grab his free coffee. The publicity and attention you get by giving away free coffee is priceless.

Habit Forming – It is possible that if you do something for a few days, it becomes a habit and then it becomes even harder to break the cycle that you have been doing for the past few days. When McDonald’s is making you take a trip or two daily for one to two weeks to pickup your free coffee, a good percentage of customers will not be able to discontinue that trip once the free promotion is over and will become long-term or lifetime customers.

Return the Love – By nature, we humans are emotional and prone to return the love and kindness given to us. After enjoying free coffee for a week or two, some of us will be psychologically inclined to develop a brand loyalty because the coffee restaurant treated us nicely and generously by providing free coffee.

So you see, what seems to be a simple cup of free coffee on the surface is not that simple at all. Retailers know how our minds work (they have highly-paid psychologists and behavioral scientists working round the clock to get inside consumers’ minds) and they are right to assume one cup of free coffee today will turn into many cups of paid coffee in the future.

Will Brazil Win Best Global Financial Crisis Recovery Title?

Who’s Getting Out First?

First Published Date : August 6, 2009 ADawnJournal.com

The global financial crisis has been such a major story in the last eighteen months that there can now be few people who do not have op inions on it, and fewer still who do not know what it is. The crisis, it would be fair to say, has cut into just about every nation’s news broadcasts, including even those not heavily touched by the crisis itself. What this has led to in many cases is a widespread “who’s more doomed?” contest, where the damage done to different economies is compared in what has, at times, been a pretty unedifying show of blood-letting. It hardly needs saying that speculating on the level of doom does little to encourage recovery.

Among the top ten economies in the World, there are none which have not been touched by the crisis. It is, after all, a global crisis and affects international trade. Yet some have been more seriously affected than others, with recession becoming depression in more than a few – including top ten ever-presents the United States and United Kingdom. Bank bailouts have had some effect – witness the perkiness of Goldman Sachs after their bailout – but in the countries which were at the forefront of the bailout plan there is less sign of immediate recovery. Does this mean the bailout has failed?

It seems certain that without the money at that time, numerous banks would have gone bust and that the overall effect on trade and employment could have been extremely damaging in the long term. It is also arguable that the extent of the crisis was at its heaviest in countries such as the States and the UK, and that was why such a large bailout was needed at the time. Whether this will see the countries concerned hitting the recovery path with renewed vigour in 2010 depends very much on the continued composed distribution of bailout money, and the lessons of this crisis being learned by banks and governments.

There is also something of a race afoot to see who has dealt best with the crisis and which of the countries which entered a recession has done the best job of pulling out of it. Canada was put forward as a strong contender – and certainly seems to be storming ahead of its closest neighbour the US in terms of getting to the light at the end of the tunnel. Its recovery may not, yet, be as strong as that of Brazil, which has recently announced some very impressive figures. If backed up, these would make the BRIC alumnus a strong contender for the title of “Best Recovery (2009)”.

Finance Minister Guido Mantega announced on July 29 that the giant South American nation is already leaving the crisis behind, with the economy growing at a rate of 4% and set to maintain that level of growth for the year going forward. It is true to say that Brazil’s government took speedy but not reckless action to turn its economy around, and we now must wait for further details to emerge on how successful this has been.