Inflation has hit the humblest of financial instruments. In the American government’s recent budget, the Obama administration revealed that pennies cost 1.8¢ to make, while nickels run 9¢ per coin. The U.S. treasury has spent $100 million more in some years than the currency is actually worth. The rising costs of zinc and copper are to blame, so fashioning the coins out of a cheaper material... 

It won’t come as a surprise for you to know that I’ve never been to a Death Row Records party, but I can imagine what it would have been like. The venerable rap label, started by endlessly incarcerated Suge Knight and hip-hop legend Dr. Dre, played a major role, if not the biggest part, in gangsta rap’s popularity. It’s no secret that guns, drugs and dubious characters played a big role... 

Three days before the Olympics began I had already lost count of how many times I heard I Believe. The song, sung by 16-year-old Montreal phenom Nikki Yanofsky, must have been on three or four times a night, so you can understand, after 11 days of speed skating, hockey and skiing, just how deeply lodged that track (and its equally epic variations) is in my head. We can debate whether or not the... 

Two months before the last federal election, Stephen Harper sat down with CBC’s Peter Mansbridge and uttered a line that he’d quickly regret: “I think there’s probably some great buying opportunities emerging in the stock market.” Many Canadians didn’t want to hear it; jumping into the TSX in October 2008, in the midst of the worst recession in decades, seemed ridiculous, to say the... 

Let’s face it — the last thing most investors want to do is read a bulky 200-page annual report. Sure, you might flip through a few pages, but most shareholders have never read a report from front to back. However, a new study shows that certain phrases in corporate filings can provide important warnings about trouble ahead. Looking for these phrases — something that is much easier to do... 

We were too quick to write off some of these embattled icons, but others crashed hard. The comebacks 1. Michael McCain Last year’s listeria outbreak could have ended Maple Leaf Foods CEO Michael McCain’s decade-long career at the company. But instead of hiding behind his lawyers, McCain faced the press and expressed his concern and commitment to fixing the problem. His public appearances paid... 

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It’s been a busy year for Dan Mass,  a Calgary-based broker with Canada First Mortgage. Besides his usual workload, he’s had to deal with a number of clients who have either had their homes foreclosed or have concerns that they won’t be able to pay their mortgage bills. “We’ve seen defaults rise this year for sure,” he says. While Canada isn’t facing U.S.-style delinquency rates—the...