ABCP

Do we need a national regulator?

The government of Alberta has stated that it will oppose the establishment of national securities regulator. They argue that it is a provincial responsibility, accorded to it by the constitution. They have offered few other reasons why this should be an exclusive right.

Canada has had many expert panels and commissions over the years that have consistently recommended replacing Canada's patchwork of 13 regional regulators with a single national regulator. The latest panel was chaired by Tom Hockin, the one before that by Purdy Crawford, architect of Canada's recent ABCP restructuring.

Economists and other experts on these matters have almost all agreed that a single regulator in Canada would be a good idea, both for investment and protection of investors.

Why then, the resistance?

I'm mad, mad as hell, over Alberta's resistance to a national security regulator.

I have rejoined Facebook under a new name and rejoined their group "Canaccord and Other ABCP Clients". An internet activist is reborn.

The ABCP fiasco is coming to a close after 18 months but retail investors will not be celebrating until the money is in a mattress, so low is the trust in lawyers, committees and banks.

Back in June 2008, I wrote what I said would be my last blog on a ABCP.

Until then, I had been an active and vocal member of the Facebook group Canaccord and other ABCP clients. I had written blogs about the group and the topic, posted links to news articles and sent e-mails to a whole gaggle of MP's. I was consuming every story I could find on Goggle News.

I was a Facebook ABCP group junkie. Worse yet, I didn't even own any of toxic paper or live in Canada at the time. It was a vicarious life.

Why would I care, you ask? Because I am Canadian! This curious connection to home was my nirvana. Does that make sense? Take off eh?

This blog will (hopefully) mark the end of the series on Asset Backed Commercial Paper. It all started on March 4 with a blog file named Asshole Backed Commercial Paper, intended as a spoof on the ABCP fiasco.

That version started off with the words "Today's rant is about the Canadian Financial Establishment."

Maybe I shouldn't complain. I don't own any ABCP, or a Blackberry, or even a car or a house. I travel light. But I do have a Canadian bank account. And I have used bank machines around the world.

We live in Holland now (and we ride bikes). We have lived in London, where everything costs more than it should; and we have travelled a bit - India, Equador, Norway, South Africa, Germany, France and more.

In all of these places we almost always succeed in obtaining money from an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) at one of the local banks. This is not a big challenge in most places.

My good friend Brian applies this phrase to all things that cost more than they should for no other reason except that this is Canada.

Cell phone services was the first item on the list. He bought a Blackberry a couple of years ago, that wonderful device made by an equally wonderful Canadian company called Research In Motion (RIM). He wanted a plan and technology that would work from wherever he happened to be in the world.

The best service plans (technology and price) are offered in the USA. This has little to do with RIM, and much to do with a peculiar canadian market oligopoly.

An ABCP legal conundrum

A historical perspective
on the Facebook group

Canaccord and other ABCP Clients

This article appeared online today. Because online articles have a habit of disappearing with time, I have reprinted it here for posterity. The images here are from my archive, the text from Canadian Business online.

There were many media stories that appeared over the last two months, but this is one of the most detailed and lengthy reviews.

ABCP: Hunter and the hunted

Congratulations to all of you for your accomplishment. Canaccord Capital has done what should have been done in the first place! Alone you were nothing, but together you are a force to be reckoned with.

The media heard from you, the politicians started listening, and ALL of those who are handsomely paid to ensure things work properly have reached a pivotal point in their careers.

The job is not done. You have not been paid yet. And trust is in short supply, just like the liquidity all the experts talk about.

This thing, this whole steaming pile of excuses financial taxonomists have labeled 'canadian non-bank asset backed commercial paper', will hopefully become a historical footnote.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Purdy Crawford has left the building.

It's Love, Brother Love
Say Brother Love's Travellin' Salvation Show-ow (halle-halle)
Pack up the babies and grab the old ladies
And everyone goes, 'cause everyone knows, brother Love's show

from Brother Love's Travelin' Salvation Show by Neil Diamond