"While Wall Street clearly has gained much in the last year, Main Street hasn't. … Happy anniversary? Not."
- On the anniversary of the start of the stock-market rally, Barron's columnist Randall Forsyth says the Fed's cash-printing policies may have financed the surge in stocks, but small businesses still can't get the loans they need to grow and create jobs.
"Blame it on the public sector pension plan."
- Toronto-Dominion Bank chief economist Don Drummond , a former long-time federal civil servant, on why he's decided to retire at age 56. Federal public-servant pensions allow retirees to receive full pensions at 55 with no actuarial penalty - a perk that, ironically, Mr. Drummond himself recently argued the government could remove if it wanted to trim its pension costs.
"If you are not interested in the Bank's history, the Bank's gift to you on our birthday is an hour of found time."
- Bank of Canada boss, Mark Carney, in his speech marking the central bank's 75th anniversary, tells market watchers right up front that he won't be saying anything even remotely related to near-term monetary policy direction.
"For those of you relishing your hour, keep in mind that most of you will 'spring forward' this weekend."
- BMO Nesbitt Burns senior economist Michael Gregory points out that what Mr. Carney giveth, daylight savings time taketh away.
"A mere $500-million separated the two. In a billionaire's world, that is close."
- Forbes editor-in-chief Steve Forbes explains how Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim Helu "edged" long-reigning champ Bill Gates out of the top spot on the magazine's annual list of the world's richest people.
David Parkinson