RE: A Pension Disaster..........Nice read Bluenote. The situation for financials around the world could best be described as tenuous. At the moment the Canadian banks are drifting down slowly but any catalyst could send Canadian banks tumbling much lower. California has resorted to IOU's in the past and it would not surprise me in the least to see that scenario plays out again. I mentioned on the CM thread that I was now stopped out of all 3 of my Canadian bank holdings. Personally I prefer to keep my stop losses very tight in an oversold situation.
What kind of disturbing here at home are the bubbles in the housing market in both Vancouver & Toronto. In Vancouver the average west-side bungalow sells for $1.15 million and the average east-side bungalow now sells for $675K. In Toronto the average price for a home is now $435K which is up from $370K from March 2009.
There are far too many negatives currently shrouding the Canadian banks and would stay away for now.
I will look to buy back into the Canadian banks when the correction runs its course and this could take many months or longer to play out.
Best of luck.