Finance and Investment News
News: Amazon's Drive Toward Sustainable Transportation
Prableen Bajpai, Nasdaq, August 31, 2021
"Transportation is a key element in Amazon’s (AMZN) delivery network. With Amazon’s commitment towards achieving zero carbon by 2040 as part of The Climate Pledge, it is crucial for Amazon to rework on how its packages move around.”
News: How personalizing sustainable investments can shape the future of finance
Simon Smiles & Rodrigo Tavares, The European Sting, August 30, 2021
"Sustainable finance could become the most material innovation in capitalism since the revival of the US economy after the Great Depression of 1929.”
News: ESG is a Small Consideration for Equity Income Funds. That's Starting to Change.
Lawrence C. Strauss, Barron's, August 27, 2021
"Combining stock dividend investing with an ESG focus has plenty of potential appeal. But so far the potential is mostly unmet.”
News: Insurers Can Afford to Drop Oil and Gas - But Many Won't
Tim Quinson, BNN Bloomberg, August 25, 2021
"For the insurance industry to fulfill its stated commitment to combat climate change, it may want to accelerate its efforts to exit the oil and gas industry.”
News: ESG: Why now 'is probably one of the most interesting times to be looking at this area
Grace O'Donnell, Yahoo Finance, August 24, 2021
"Investment into funds with low environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risk has taken off amid the COVID-19 pandemic."
News: Making Small Farms More Sustainable - and Profitable
Lino Dias, Robert S. Kaplan & Harmanpreet Singh, Harvard Business Review, August 23, 2021
"More than 2 billion people currently live on about 550 million small farms, with 40% of them on incomes of less than U.S. $2 per day."
News: Norway's $1.4 trillion wealth funds takes aim at oil companies
Lars Erik Taraldsen, Aljazeera, August 20, 2021
"A government-commissioned paper on Friday proposed having climate risk underpin investment decisions across the fund."
News: Beginner's Guide: 5 Rules of Equity Investment
Milan Ganatra and Aashika Jain, Forbes, August 19, 2021
"For novice investors, foraying into the equity market can be a thrilling yet challenging experience."
News: Attitudes towards sustainable investing are changing in Asia, family office leaders say
Chad Bray, Yahoo Finance, August 18, 2021
"Asia is lagging behind when it comes to sustainable investing, but attitudes are changing, particularly as a new generation of leaders seeks to make an impact through its investing choices, according to family office investors."
News: Canada falling $60-billion short annually on investments needed to hit climate change targets: report
Colin McClelland, Financial Post, August 17, 2021
"Canada must make it more profitable for investors to back transition to low emissions in large polluting industries such as oil and gas if the country is ever going to hit its greenhouse gas targets, according to a new report."
News: Over a Third of All Global Assets Are in Sustainable Investments
ETF Trends, Nasdaq, August 16, 2021
"Sustainable investments have gained momentum, accounting for more than a third of all assets globally."
News: Toronto is designed for a climate that doesn't exist anymore and it needs to 'face the reality,' experts say
Ali Raza, CBC News, August 13, 2021
"Toronto is designed for a climate that doesn't exist anymore, experts say, and they warn the city has to come up with a better plan to cope with the smoggier, hotter, soggier and stormier weather that's plaguing it right now."
News: We Need To Talk About ESG…Is It Fit For Purpose?
Felicia Jackson, Forbes, August 12, 2021
"Environmental, social and governance (ESG) are the ‘cri de coeur’ in the markets at the moment, with everyone seemingly claiming ESG alignment, readiness, or focus."
News: Fannie Mae promised investors green buildings. What does it have to show for $95 billion in loans?
Naveena Sadasivam & Clayton Aldern, Grist, August 11, 2021
"At the corner of a busy intersection in East Oakland sits a three-story apartment building that looks like many others in Northern California. As with many buildings in the notoriously housing-starved Bay Area, its tenants aren’t always happy."
News: U.N. report ignites fight for funds to build climate defences
Kate Abnett, Valerie Volcovici & Kanupriya Kapoor, Reuters August 10, 2021
"The United Nations climate panel's report on Monday alerted wealthy nations to a lesson many of the world's most vulnerable countries have already learnt through bitter experience: they must adapt quickly to a world with more extreme weather."
News: U.N. Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change Issues “A Reality Check” From Scientists
Allan Marks, Forbes, August 9, 2021
"The scientific verdict is in: “The scale of recent changes across the climate system as a whole and the present state of many aspects of the climate system are unprecedented over many centuries to many thousands of years."
News: Is Nairobi ready to become a global financial center?
Carlos Mureithi, Quartz Africa, August 6, 2021
"Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, has already made a name for itself as a regional hub of trade, commerce, innovation, and technology. Now, plans are underway to take the city to the next level—that of becoming a global financial hub."
News: Carlyle’s Pooja Goyal Mixes Finance With Sustainability
Brian Eckhouse, Yahoo Finance (Originally on Bloomberg), August 5, 2021
"Pooja Goyal, 41, brings a unique personal insight to Carlyle Group Inc., where she leads the renewable and sustainable energy team and co-heads the infrastructure group. Over the past 12 months, Carlyle’s infrastructure platform has committed approximately $1.275 billion of capital to investments, or 230% of the amounts in the prior years combined, Goyal says."
News: Why Global Investors Need Sustainable Investing Standards
Max Carnecchia, Forbes, August 4, 2021
"CEO of Mitek, leader in mobile capture & digital identity verification solutions built on the latest advancements in AI & machine learning."
News: Why Global Investors Need Sustainable Investing Standards
Phillip Braun, Forbes, August 3, 2021
"The motto of sustainable investing is that you can do well while doing good. It has been shown that the doing well part is questionable since sustainable investing does not generate superior returns"
Cryptocurrency News
News: Visa Buys an NFT, Bitcoin's $50,000 Spike
William Suberg, Cointelegraph, August 31, 2021
"Bitcoin (BTC) saw fresh local lows on Tuesday as limp price action diverged further from bullish sentiment.”
News: Visa Buys an NFT, Bitcoin's $50,000 Spike
Crypto Confidential & Nina Bambysheva, Forbes, August 30, 2021
"A nascent online world that promises to transform the internet into a virtual reality, the metaverse has attracted massive investments from gamers, founders and crypto enthusiasts of all kinds but now major financial institutions awake to the frenzy.”
News: Cuba Set to Recognize and Regulate Cryptocurrency
Arijit Sarkar, Cointelegraph, August 27, 2021
"The Cuban government is reportedly planning to recognize and regulate cryptocurrencies for payments.”
News: UK's FCA says it is 'not capable' of supervising crypto exchange Binance
Adam Samson, Philip Stafford & Eva Szalay, Financial Times, August 25, 2021
"The UK financial regulator has conceded it is “not capable” of properly supervising Binance despite the “significant risk” posed by the cryptocurrency exchange’s products, which allow consumers to take supercharged bets.”
News: Monero price rises 20% after Atomic Swap Implementation
Helen Partz, Cointelegraph, August 24, 2021
"Monero (XMR), the largest privacy-focused cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has posted a 20% price surge following the launch of the Atomic Swap implementation program last week."
News: Bitcoin price rises above $50,00: How much is Bitcoin, Ethereum, ADA worth today as PayPal launches new UK cryptocurrency service?
Liv McMahon, The Scotsman, August 23, 2021
"The world’s largest and most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, soared to $50,000 in value as investors and traders buoy the cryptocurrency to levels seen earlier this year."
News: Cardano Price Hits All-Time High, Overtakes Binance Coin as Third-Most Valuable Crypto
Sebestian Sinclair, Yahoo Finance, August 20, 2021
"For an industry that’s been focused for more than a decade on creating set-it-and-forget-it solutions for apathetic 401(k) investors, the idea of offering an asset as volatile and complicated as cryptocurrency in a workplace retirement plan is an anathema."
News: Best Practcies When Adding Cryptocurrency to Your 401(k) Portofolio
David Ramirez, Forbes, August 19, 2021
"For an industry that’s been focused for more than a decade on creating set-it-and-forget-it solutions for apathetic 401(k) investors, the idea of offering an asset as volatile and complicated as cryptocurrency in a workplace retirement plan is an anathema."
News: Binance Hires U.S. Cybercrime Expert for Money Laundering Role
Johanna Ossinger & Jesse Hamilton, Bloomberg Crypto, August 18, 2021
"Binance has named Greg Monahan, a former U.S. government criminal investigator, to lead global money laundering reporting at the cryptocurrency firm."
News: Crypto Is A National Security Asset, Not A Liability
Sean Stein Smith, Forbes, August 17, 2021
"Shunning new technologies and ways of doing business has never yielded positive results; crypto is no different."
News: CryptoCodex: Ethereum Rival Solana And Dogecoin Are Suddenly Soaring, Walmart Is Shopping For A Bitcoin And Crypto Lead, And Biden’s CFTC Chair Pick
Billy Bambrough, Forbes, August 16, 2021
"As the weather's heated up, so has the cryptocurrency market. The combined value of the 11,000 cryptocurrencies listed on CoinMarketCap has climbed further over $2 trillion during the weekend with some major coins making huge moves."
News: Crypto’s run without government oversight is coming to an end
Michael B. Cohen, Fast Company, August 13, 2021
"In the last few years, cryptocurrency has exploded into the world’s economy. As of 2020, its global market size was estimated at nearly $1.5 billion and is expected to more than triple over the following decade."
News: What a $600m heist tells us about the future of crypto
Adam Samson, Financial Times, August 12, 2021
"Crypto land has been transfixed this week on a brazen and deeply strange heist of about $600m. It has been a cinematic experience, the new-age version of a bank robbery flick, replete with a colourful thief, a squad of digital vigilantes and any number of armchair detectives watching it all play out in real time."
News: Hackers begin returning funds from sensational $600m crypto heist
Lucy Harley-McKeown, Yahoo Finance, August 11, 2021
"A cryptocurrency platform has lost an estimated $600 million in digital tokens after one of the sector's biggest ever hacking attacks, according to details of the heist which emerged on Wednesday."
News: Bitcoin retakes $46,000 as rebound continues
Tanaya Macheel, CNBC, August 9, 2021
"The price of bitcoin broke past $46,000 Monday morning after a high stakes weekend for the crypto industry as the Senate continued debating the details of its part in the still yet-to-be-passed infrastructure bill."
News: Crypto trading just got safer, and that's too bad
Virginia Haffernan, Los Angeles Times, August 6, 2021
"The Ethereum blockchain is one of the most established of the digital ledgers that keep track of cryptocurrency all over the world. So the London hard fork is an upgrade to accounting software."
News: SEC Chief Gary Gensler Braces for Clash With Crypto Traders
Dave Michaels and Alexander Osipovich, The Wall Street Journal, August 5, 2021
"Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler this week declared war on what he called the Wild West of crypto trading, promising a vigorous attack on fraud and misconduct. But progress is likely to be more piecemeal and incremental than wholesale and sudden."
News: Bitcoin Fork Suffers ‘Massive’ 51% Attack In Attempt To ‘Destroy’ The Cryptocurrency, Sending Its Price Sharply Lower
Billy Bambrough, Forbes, August 4, 2021
"Bitcoin SV, a controversial fork of bitcoin created in the aftermath of the 2017 blocksize wars, has suffered a "massive" attack that may have been an attempt to destroy the cryptocurrency."
News: GOP senators feud over cryptocurrency plan as lawmakers seek funding for infrastructure deal
Jeff Stein, The Washington Post, August 3, 2021
"Two leading Republican senators are at odds over a proposal to step up tax-reporting requirements on cryptocurrency transactions, a measure designed to help pay for the $1 trillion infrastructure proposal moving through Congress."
Housing News
News: The unpredictable new world of buying and selling real estate
Collin McDowell & Forbes Real Estate Council, Forbes, August 31, 2021
"Since 2020 and the era of Covid-19, the world of real estate has seen another massive shift that has arguments going back and forth online and offline as to where the real estate market is headed."
News: Housing affordability to worsen near-term, even as prices cool off
Shrutee Sarkar, Reuters, August 30, 2021
"The sizzling pace of house price rises in most major world housing markets since the pandemic began has likely peaked, but affordability is set to remain stretched or worsen in the next few years, according to Reuters polls of experts."
News: New Housing Data Show a Sluggish Turnover Rate
Kerry Gold, The Globe and Mail, August 27, 2021
"As Ottawa continues the drip of new data, a clearer picture of Metro Vancouver’s housing crisis emerges, which will hopefully lead to smart policy-making decisions."
News: Nova Scotia affordable housing shortage no longer just hitting low-income earners
Richard Woodbury, CBC News, August 25, 2021
"Matt Richards didn't used to worry too much about housing costs — he has a government job, his wife works and they live in a Halifax suburb that was long known for its affordability."
News: I'm a Councilman in the least Affordable Region in the U.S. Here's How We Can Fix the Housing Market
Sergio Lopez, Time, August 24, 2021
"Not long ago, I texted one of my constituents—someone who was deeply engaged in his community—to let him know about an upcoming debate for an issue on which he’d been a vocal leader."
News: City leaders ask federal parties to protect, expand rental housing in Canada
Jordan Press, Global News, August 23, 2021
"Canada’s municipal leaders are asking federal parties to not only build new affordable rental units, but pledge to protect ones on the verge of disappearing."
News: Canada housing coming off the boil, but still on the burner: Reuters poll
Erik Hertzberg, Bloomberg, August 20, 2021
"Canadians are piling into mortgages at more than double the historical pace as the housing market appears to moderate after a pandemic boom."
News: Mortgage Debt is Rising at Its Fastest Pace in Canada Since 2007
Erik Hertzberg, Bloomberg, August 19, 2021
"Canadians are piling into mortgages at more than double the historical pace as the housing market appears to moderate after a pandemic boom."
News: How frothy housing prices are affecting financial plans
Alison Macalpine, The Globe and Mail, August 18, 2021
"With housing prices across Canada at an all-time high, financial advisors may be facing uncomfortable meetings with clients who are angry that their diligent saving hasn’t resulted in a large enough down payment."
News: Home Prices Are Now Higher Than The Peak Of The 2000s 'Housing Bubble.' What Gives?
Greg Rosalsky, NPR, August 17, 2021
"Even before the pandemic pushed the U.S. housing market into overdrive, the price of the average American home was on a rocket ride, climbing more than 50 percent between 2012 and 2019."
News: Climate risk scores could reshape Canadian real estate markets, some experts say
Emma Paling, CBC News, August 16, 2021
"If the house you're about to buy is going to be under water in 30 years, should that be disclosed during the sale?"
News: Second thoughts on the second-home sales boom
Hugo Cox, Financial Times, August 13, 2021
"The decision this month to scrap quarantine restrictions for vaccinated English travellers returning from France came as welcome news to Ralph and Laura Woodling."
News: The Typical U.S. Renter is Expected to be 'Housing Cost Burdened' By the End of 2021
Nicole Bachaud, Yahoo Finance, August 12, 2021
"The housing affordability advantages spurred in part by historically low mortgage interest rates and sluggish rent growth over the past year are eroding as growth in housing costs outpaces income growth."
News: The great real estate cool-down has come
Danny Sinopoli, National Post, August 11, 2021
"During the first week of August, a home seller in Hamilton received a purchase offer amounting to $100,000 above the asking price. But rather than thank the real estate gods for their munificence, the Steeltown homeowner rejected the bid, convinced that a better one was just around the corner."
News: Home Builders Are Restricting Sales, Pushing Up New Home Prices
Nicole Friedman, The Wall Street Journal, August 10, 2021
"Home builders have sold more homes than they can build. Now they are limiting their sales in an effort to catch up, helping push home prices even higher."
News: We need to heal traumatized urban landscapes – and people – after COVID
Jay Pitter, IRPP/Policy Options, August 9, 2021
"It has been said that traumatic incidents dislocate “the lived and imagined landscapes” of a city’s emotional ecosystem. This theory feels especially palpable as we approach the precipice of the post-COVID city."
News: House price growth slows as housing market cools
BBC, August 6, 2021
"The Halifax says house prices rose again in July after dipping last month, making the average price £261,221 and leaving prices 7.6% higher than at the same time last year.”
News: Toronto home sales fall to lowest in a year, but prices still rising
Ari Altstedter, Financial Post, August 5, 2021
"Toronto housing sales dropped for a fourth straight month, but a shortage of available properties kept prices near the highs they reached earlier this year.”
News: Posthaste: Looks like Canada's hot, hot housing market has peaked — earlier than expected
Pamela Heaven, Financial Post, August 4, 2021
"The big question now is how fast are we going to tumble down that mountain."
News: Apartment Rents Increase as Young Workers Head Back to Cities
Will Parker, The Wall Street Journal, August 3, 2021
"Apartment rents are rising fast, boosted by young professionals returning to cities and an expensive housing market that keeps many of them renting."