Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse . I begin with a message from Diane Urquhart: You are welcome to put links on your Pension Pulse blog to these letters between Parliamentary Secretary of Finance Ted Menzies and myself. They are about whether preferred status for pension fund deficits and severance would increase the cost and availability of credit. I say it does so on only a nominal basis and so the Federal Government should amend the BIA Act to give prefe

Iraq Oil a Big Draw for Chinese HONG KONG — As the world’s second-largest and fastest-growing consumer of oil, China is showing increasing interest in oil fields in a country that had seemed until very recently to be firmly in the American sphere of influence for natural resources: Iraq. Chinese oil companies are expected to bid in Iraq’s oil field auctions that are set to start Tuesday, although Sinopec, the China National Petroleum Corporation and the China National Offshore Oil Corporat

With trading strategies that are based on complex mathematical equations, or that are driven by sophisticated “black-box” computer programs, managed-futures programs are usually able to remove human emotion from the investment equation – a reality that certainly helped them post strong returns last year, even as the volatile U.S. stock market whipsawed investors out of about $7 trillion in shareholder wealth.Managed futures programs - alternative-investment vehicles that enabled profession

With trading strategies that are based on complex mathematical equations, or that are driven by sophisticated “black-box” computer programs, managed-futures programs are usually able to remove human emotion from the investment equation – a reality that certainly helped them post strong returns last year, even as the volatile U.S. stock market whipsawed investors out of about $7 trillion in shareholder wealth. Managed futures programs - alternative-investment vehicles that enabled professiona

Good Evening: As Thursday dawned, market participants were a little on edge. Yesterday’s FOMC statement was found a bit wanting by most investors, leaving them concerned about not only the Fed’s exit strategy from Quantitative Easing but also Chairman Bernanke’s exit strategy for a successful escape during today’s Congressional hearings on the BAC-MER deal. Those worries proved premature on both fronts, and the U.S. capital markets celebrated with a solid up day for both stocks and bonds. Lo