Newsletter

In January 2017, clients of Hemisphere Capital Management (HCM) will get their first taste of the Client Relationship Model, Phase 2 (known commonly as CRM2). CRM2 introduces standardized reporting requirements for regulated Canadian financial advisors. Not surprisingly, HCM already meets the bulk of CRM2’s reporting requirements. Although well-intentioned, CRM2 will likely create confusion for most HCM clients rather than improve reporting transparency.

Following four decades of excessive credit expansion, the U.S. experienced a bursting credit bubble in mid-2008. In the aftermath, North American stock markets declined almost 50% by early 2009. Fast forward to the summer of 2012 and North American stock markets, exhibiting strong resilience, have now recovered to their pre-bubble highs.

From a financial perspective, the first decade of the 21st century consisted of a bubble of bubbles. First of these was the technology or dot-com boom that began in the late 1990’s and eventually burst in mid 2000. Responding to this collapse, the U.S. Federal Reserve (the central bank of the United States) aggressively cut short-term rates from 6% down to the 1.5% range in 2002 and held short rates at this level for over three years.

As a result of a number of recent high profile cases uncovered in the U.S. and Canada involving investor fraud and theft of client assets, Hemisphere Capital Management (“Hemisphere”) feels it is important to review our operational protections and regulatory controls that are in place to safeguard your assets.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a measure of all goods and services produced in the economy. The most common method of determining a nation’s GDP involves totaling all consumer spending, business spending/investment, government spending and net exports (exports less imports).