This & That: Black Swans, Loonie Prices and more…

1. In a long and insightful interview with Knowledge@Wharton, Nassim Taleb explains the ideas from his books Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan and comments on the current political in the Middle East and economic situation in Japan, Europe and the U.S.
2. With the Loonie sitting close to $1.04 (US), Bank of Montreal found that a basket of goods were on average 20% more expensive here than in the U.S. Don’t you find it a bit ironic that a bank report says other sectors of the economy are charging Canadians higher prices?
3. Tempted to sell in May and get back into the market in the fall? Preet Banerjee explains why it may not be such a good idea. That’s even before you consider the tax hit in a taxable account.
4. If you are still looking for software to do your taxes, take a look at Canadian Financial DIY’s comprehensive review of tax software options available in the marketplace.
5. Larry MacDonald highlighted some insights he garnered on the current investment landscape from the latest Boeckh Investment Newsletter.
6. Canadian Couch Potato reports on some of the new Exchange-Traded Funds in the pipeline. Pretty soon, there will be more ETFs trading on the TSX than stocks in the TSX Composite Index.
7. Airlines are cutting back on how many bags passengers can check in. Michael James says that the new rules have some undesirable side-effects.
8. Money Smarts Blog offers some useful tips on getting your taxes filed on time and avoiding CRA late-filing penalties.
9. Million Dollar Journey featured a guest post that said that most Canadians don’t invest successfully because they don’t receive proper financial advice.
10. The Blunt Bean Counter explains the duties and responsibilities of an executor of an estate.
11. Canadian Financial Stuff runs down some of the advantages and disadvantages of online finance tracking tools such as Mint.
12. Looking for a stock screener? My Own Advisor offers some suggestions. For US stocks, I’d recommend ValueLine. The subscription is expensive but look for it in your public library. I’ve kicked the stock picking habit, so I find no value in stock screeners.

That’s it for this week. Have a great weekend everyone!