cwericb

Haha. Corrected that. I think you and a lot of other people are going to be very disappointed. Sociopaths are not known for their altruistic ways.

I think the problem here is, for whom is he negotiating? Himself or the USA? I firmly believe it is NOT the latter and time will tell.

Umm, and you believe what Mr. Trump says?

Some Americans are beginning to become concerned about the U.S. and Russia becoming allies. But what is really happening is that Trump and Putin are becoming allies. Now get concerned.

One really has to wonder where the value is of having the President of the United States constantly insulting Canada and threatening to attempt to annex the country. Canada? One of the United States biggest trading partners and their closest ally for over 100 years? These insults and threats are creating a wave of nationalism in Canada and boycotts of American products and American companies that is sweeping the country. Is the U.S. goal to encourage Canada to import more from China, Europe, South America, etc, rather than buy U.S. products. What is the value in that? Why start a trade war that is going to raise prices for American citizens on a wide range of goods and perhaps force American auto plants to shut down? Americans don't seem to realize how important are the goods that the US imports from Canada. You know, Canada can probably get by without Peanut Butter, Florida Oranges and Kentucky bourbon. But Canada provides their U.S. 'friends' with massive amounts of electricity to help run their East coast and central cities. Canada supplies water to the Central U.S. and the West Coast - essentially free due to an agreement signed many years ago. Of course now it seems the U.S. has deemed it is acceptable to rip up agreements whenever the mood hits so one would guess that Canada might have to do this as well. Canadian oil keeps American refineries running with a necessary quality of oil that the US has difficulty or is unable to produce. And, it is sold to the US at a discounted price . Who benefits if the U.S. has to import oil from Venezuela or the Middle East? Canada also provides natural gas, lumber and minerals, that contrary to what the President may say, the US simply doesn't have the resources to produce. The sad part of this is that some in the US believe that Canada is taking advantage of the United States? Really?

Ya know when you are consistently wrong (and not by a little) quarter after quarter and year after year, most people would begin to question their own projections. One would also wonder if Mr. Horn has no one over him in management that might also question his ratings? Several years ago a 'financial advisor' at RBC told me that through 'RBC Direct Investing', I was lucky enough to have free access to Morningstar investing services and advice. Seeing Mr. Horn's comments and predictions regarding Fairfax, I have absolutely no confidence in anything I might see from Morningstar.

I guess the days are over when Fairfax would post great results and we would have two or three days to buy shares before the market would react. Took a long time for the market to clue in that Fairfax is the real deal.

RBC.

Nor did I. However prior to reading the exchanges on this board I was quite concerned about all the panic surrounding the potential tariffs. I looked at several of my Canadian companies that might be affected by tariffs. Considering the comments on CBoF I came to the conclusion that tariffs were probably unlikely or at least temporary and in the end would not hurt Canada as much as many were projecting. Again from comments here, I realized that yes, US imports from Canada represent a much smaller percentage than Canadian imports from the US. But really, how relevant is that? Canadians can get along just fine without American peanut butter, orange juice and booze. But Americans would have a much more difficult time without our oil, gas, electricity, lumber, minerals, etc, etc. Furthermore, past experience over the years told me that when markets drop, Fairfax shares often increase in value. I slept well.

Is not the problem here, that Politics can have a significant impact on investments? How many of us started to rethink some of their investments when Trump said he was going to put on his 25% tariffs? I certainly started to look at which of my holdings would be impacted and which ones might not. Just look at the number of replies on the subject before it was closed.

THIS!

1.5% of illegals crossed from Canada, 0.2% of fentanyl crossed from Canada. US figures.

No lies, Trump pre-staged the meeting with the threat. Short memory?

Meanwhile in Panama, Marko Rubio is threatening another nation. Turn over the Canal or else we are going to send in our troops.

That's the crazy thing about all this. Trudeau has been given a second chance to rescue his reputation by meeting Trump head on whereas up to now he was despised by so many Canadians. I don't think this is exactly what Trump had in mind.

This is quite true and today any inflationary impact can be very easily and quickly stopped.

Well as one who has lived through a period of 18-20% inflation rates and remember seeing my mortgage jump to 17.5%, inflation is no fun. You would pay your mortgage for five years and when renewall came up you would see that almost all of your mortgage payments had gone to the interest while the amount owing on your house had hardly decreased.

All good points. Trump has threatened higher tariffs if Canada retaliates which it has, so we will see how how things settle out. Keep in mind that a lot of Canada's exports are not particularly discretionary. oil, gas, lumber, electricity, etc. So simply not consuming electricity, oil, etc is not that easily done.

True. I guess that would be one way to avoid inflation.

Adding a 25% tax onto imports is not inflationary?

This is from something back in November... "President-elect Donald Trump has noticed something in his travels across the U.S. Many parts of his country are running out of water. Groundwater supplies are being depleted faster than they can be replenished. The American west is in a multi-year water crisis. National Geographic says the country is “running out of water.” For Trump, to “Make America Great Again” is to bring jobs, agriculture and energy production as well as manufacturing back to the U.S. He can’t do that without water, and he has already signaled where he could find some. Canada has a “massive faucet” that would take only one day to turn on, and all of that water “would come right down here and right into Los Angeles.”

Why do you think that is true?

John, you might feel a little different if you had just been stabbed in the back by your best friend.

Less than 1% of drugs and ileagles come into the US from Canada. This isn't about the border. Why would US/Trump violate signed agreements and declare an economic war on your closest ally as well as piss off so many other US allies? Remember that very secret meeting between Trump and Putin? Remember his love affair with Kim Jong Un and the president of China. One does have to wonder what the real agenda is.