CPP Losses Nov 13, 2008

From the desk of:

Shoobedoowa
Calgary
http://whatisgoingonincanada.blogspot.com/
To:

Diane Ablonczy (MP)
Calgary Nose Hill

1107 17th Ave North West
Calgary, Alberta
T2M 0P7

November 13th, 2008

Hello Ms. Ablonczy:

Given that your office did not reply to my (now seemingly) very relevant letter of Dec 20, 2007, I intend to hand out copies of this update quite liberally.

I am attaching an article addressing yesterday’s news of a $10 billion dollar loss to the Canada Pension Plan.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/081112/national/cpp_board_1

What are you crooks doing there? Why not get another good deal on some more of that “great value” ASSET BACKED COMMERCIAL PAPER?? hehe

Better yet………..what about those fantastic Canadian banks? You know….the ones which, by the words of your party, are “well capitalized”…….safest in the world…..all that good stuff ! What? $25 billion wasn’t enough? Another $50 billion now? I’m sure that the assets being taken off the bank’s hands are nothing less than top notch !!!

Sounds like your party, along with our friendly Goldman Sachs representative as the governor of the Bank of Canada, are doing a bang up job in getting the taxpayers money to where it needs to be. Are you going to be issuing a list of the foreign banks who are net beneficiaries of the Canadian version of “LET’S RAPE THE NATION”?

As we now know via developments in America……. the big heist is underway.

I guess we’ll just have to wait to see just how badly you are going to screw us.

With Sincerity,


Shoobedoowa
Calgary

CPP Fund loses $10 billion of value in its investments in latest quarter to $117.4B
Wed Nov 12, 3:03 PM
By Kristine Owram, The Canadian Press
TORONTO - The Canada Pension Plan fund said Wednesday it ended the second quarter of fiscal 2009 with a loss of more than $10 billion in the value of its assets, primarily becaue of the stock market turmoil that has battered share prices around the world.
The fund said Wednesday it had a negative 7.5 per cent overall investment rate of return over the previous quarter. The board had assets of $117.4 billion at the end of the period ended Sept. 30, a decrease of $10.3 billion from the previous quarter.
The decline was the result of a negative investment return of 8.5 per cent, or $10.8 billion, and a net inflow of $500 million in CPP contributions from Canadians.
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board said its four-year annualized investment rate of return was 6.6 per cent.
While the CPP Board's latest losses can be made up with future growth in the markets, if such red ink continues for years it would raise the spectre of possible rising contributions for workers or lower payments to retirees in the future.
The board invests the surpluses generated in the federal pension plan, which pays benefits to 17 million Canadians when they retire. The board operates separately and is managed independently from the plan, which administers the retirement benefits.
Other pension funds, ranging from the Ontario Teachers and OMERS plans in Ontario to Quebec's Caisse de depot, have also recently announced losses on their stock portfolios.
Last week, Canada's largest pension fund manager, the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec, said it will following a more cautious investment strategy to cope with a squeeze on its returns because of the global financial crisis.
The fund said it currently has enough cash to meet its commitments to depositors and business partners, and deposits will exceed withdrawals for many years.
But like all institutional investors, the pension fund has lost money on the stock market in recent months and said it must take a more cautious approach to its investments to preserve its financial health.
The Wall Street financial meltdown earlier this year has spilled around the world and battered stock and credit markets, intensifying fears of a global recession. The Toronto Stock Exchange, for example, has lost 35 per cent of its value since a mid-June record high, a loss of more than $600 billion in stock value of the companies listed on the senior Canadian market.
At the end of 2007, the Caisse had net assets of more than $155 billion, with about 36 per cent invested in the stock market, approximately 29 per cent in bonds and currencies and around 35 per cent in private equity and real estate.
In a related report this week, Desjardins Securities says Canada's corporate pension plan funding levels have hit an all-time low thanks to plunging stock markets.
The firm released a report that said company plans have assets worth just 72 per cent of their obligations.
Desjardins' review of companies in Canada's benchmark S&P/TSX composite index concludes that a typical pension fund has seen the value of its assets decline an estimated 15 to 20 per cent this year as markets hammered stocks and bonds in pension investment portfolios.
Most companies have not yet reported their pension data for year-end 2008, but the report estimates a typical pension fund could now have assets worth between 70 and 75 per cent of obligations, including obligations for pensions and post-retirement benefits.
That would be worse than the previous low funding level hit by Canadian companies in 2006, when a typical pension plan was 77 per cent funded.