What is money? Money is a measurement unit for the purpose of exchange. Money is used for valuation of goods, settling debts, accounting for work performed, and standardizing the measurement of production. Money has to be divisible, portable, stable in value, easy to obtain, durable over time and must be trusted by all parties using it.

Imagine money that is too large to divide into pieces, heavy to carry, spoils after 2 days, gets damaged easily or can be eaten by animals? If these are the characteristics of the currency, it would not be that useful and many business deals would not happen.

The most important element of money is trust. If you work for someone and you are not sure if you will get paid, would you do the work? If you did the work, and you got paid for something that was not accepted in many places, is it a valid payment? The economy and money system are built on trust, and it can be broken by a lack of trust by the majority of people.

Read More

What is a reserve currency? This is the currency in which all other currencies are standardized against, and this measure is used for global trade, asset valuation, and account settlement. The current reserve currency is the U.S. dollar since it was the strongest currency after World War 2. The strength of the currency was based on its trade position, political influence, military might, resources available and liquidity/recognition in the investment world.

In the cryptocurrency world, Bitcoin serves this function as other cryptocurrencies are converted into Bitcoin to access most exchanges. Since Bitcoin has the brand recognition of being the first known cryptocurrency, it has the advantage of breaking milestones first.

Bitcoin was the largest cryptocurrency by market cap at the time of writing (January 2018), the first coin to be created in 2009 and the first currency to be utilized for futures trading around the world. Bitcoin is also the first decentralized currency in recent time, as there have been digital and electronic currencies created before and after Bitcoin that are not decentralized.

Read More

The spectre of NAFTA being cancelled is on many people’s minds since the election of President Donald Trump. Washington has pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and wants a better deal for the U.S. in the NAFTA agreement. The recent possible tariffs coming from the Trump administration is also heightening trade concerns. Is cancelling NAFTA a bad thing for Canada? There are 2 ways to examine this question.

The Current State

The first approach is looking at how things currently are and what is likely to happen using this assumption. Canada is the U.S.’s second largest trading partner and the U.S. is Canada’s largest trading partner by a large margin; the U.S. is Canada’s closest trading partner by physical location. Read More

Joe Barbieri, Tax Connections

Gold and Bitcoin have been used synonymously as safe havens and currencies. What is a safe haven? It is a place to park wealth or money when there is a high degree of uncertainty in the environment. It has to be something that everyone can believe in even if the current institutions, governments or players in the business game are not available. The wealth has to be kept safe in times of trouble. What are the risks to someone’s wealth? There is theft by robbery if it is a physical asset. There is damage by fire, flood or other elements. There is the legal issue in not being able to determine if the asset is really yours or not. There is access risk in that you may own the asset but may not be able to get your hands on it. You may own the asset but may not be able to use it due to some restriction. Who else do you have to rely on to be able to use your wealth – spending it, investing it or converting it into different units of measure (currencies)? Read More