In late March I talked about the Canadian Federal budget, which had been recently released, and how it included a measure to prevent companies from deducting interest on debt incurred to fund foreign operations. I couldn’t understand the logic of the move. It seemed strange for a conservative government normally known to be friendly to [...]

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So much for mobile, accessible capital for growing Canadian businesses… Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach poured cold water yesterday on federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s push for a nationwide securities regulator, saying he has no interest in moving beyond an alternative system provinces have set up. He said he’s content to stick with the “passport system” [...]

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We like to complain (and for good reason) about the litany of taxes imposed on us by various levels of government, but this post on Neatorama details some bizarre taxes through history that make current ones seem tame. Peter the Great, czar of Russia, imposed a tax on souls in 1718…meaning everybody had to pay [...]

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New York magazine has a feature on the offices of prominent New Yorkers, from Martha Stewart to Michael Bloomberg. Martha’s was devoid of anything remotely resembling work, which perhaps indicates how much of it she gets done. (No word on where the insider trading occurred.) But it was Bloomberg’s that really impressed me, because he [...]

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Toronto released their budget this week and other than the usual tax hikes for property owners, this interesting post on Eye Daily about the gibberish and jargon of a city budget. It lists the specialized terms the budget contains to describe its expenditures and revenues, and the list is incomprehensible, even to me, a soon-to-be [...]

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