IBPA Luncheon at The Ismaili Centre

Yesterday I attended the IBPA Luncheon at the gorgeous Islaimi Jamatkhana in Burnaby, BC. The event was hosted by Mr Rahim Rajwani and featured guest speaker Mr Al Kanji, Partner, Corporate Finance with KPMG.

Mr Kanji addressed our current economic position after the recession from Sept 08 when Backs and Institutions began going bankrupt. He points out that the world's tremendous financial growth in the past 30 years with aid us in turning toady's economy around and preventing a depression. Mr Kanji spoke about the contagion effect globally as banks sold debt to conduits to free up their balance sheets and take on more loans. Banks and financiers were very creative in the secondary markets to control exposure to their clients. Mutual Funds, Hedge Funds, and Insurance companies bought up CLO's and CDO's in the trillions. Then the sub prime problem due to liberal policies and irresponsible practices created the financial and real estate crash in the US and the Euros who implemented US strategies. The TARP bill had to be passed to bail out banks and prevent complete chaos and a mass cash withdrawal form the banking system. Canada, on the other hand, stayed conservative with tight bank regulations, and thus have seen 20% depreciation, not 65% such as in Arizona.

Mr Kanji closed with the TD economist outlook of steady 2% growth, especially as consumer confidence returns and the $3.7 trillion on the sidelines will get reinvested in the equity and real estate markets to beat inflation. He addressed the recent gains in the real estate market and insisted innovation and productivity must drive the Canadian economy to retain a strong Canadian dollar, not reliance on trade due to our weak dollar.

"A time of crisis is a time of opportunity." -Chinese Proverb