There is nothing useful on this web site.
Even though the internet is the source of all truth, the only truth here is that everything else is a lie.
We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.
All art is quite useless.- Oscar Wilde
This blog will (hopefully) mark the end of the series on Asset Backed Commercial Paper. It all started on March 4 with a blog file named Asshole Backed Commercial Paper, intended as a spoof on the ABCP fiasco.
That version started off with the words "Today's rant is about the Canadian Financial Establishment."
If you book-marked that page, it was that title that was saved in the your favorites list.
The blog featured this picture, which was apropos for the title. It also included a masthead like the one at the top of this page.
I came to realize that these feeble attempts at satire might be lost on the casual reader. So I changed the name of the blog to How Safe Is Your RRSP? and I eventually dropped the masthead.
There are some occasions when I prefer to be taken seriously.
After the name change, I sent the new link to my friend Brian, who posted it March 5 on his Facebook group website "Canaccord and Other ABCP clients".
Brian had started the Facebook group in mid February. He told his ABCP horror story to a reporter, who thought the Facebook group a clever idea. The group had only four members at the time (including Brian and his wife) but that did not matter. Media consultants were asked for their opinions on the matter and what it all meant.
I had quit Facebook one month earlier (this will be the topic of a future blog). Now I found myself rejoining the popular social network for the sole purpose of following Canaccord and Other ABCP clients…sigh.
It was a fascinating discussion. At first it was a public group, accessible by any member of Facebook. This is a population roughly the size of Germany and includes some 7 million Canadians.
It became a private group within a few days of the newspaper article being published, so only members could view the group discussions. The stories were heart wrenching.
I asked to become a member after the switch to a private group. I had not joined until then because I did not own any ABCP. It's like asking to join the yacht club when you don't have a yacht. On February 22, I became member #24. The group was growing fast.
| Date | Members |
|---|---|
| February 20 | 4 |
| March 5 | 58 |
| March 14 | 100 |
| April 9 | 200 |
| April 25 | 284 |
By the time I posted How Safe Is Your RRSP? on March 5, the group had 58 members.
I emailed Brian a link to it. He promptly posted the link on the main page of his Facebook group.
The page was updated a few times, typically by adding links to other blog pages and updating the membership count of Canaccord and Other ABCP clients.
Membership in the group peaked at 284. There were 41 who were invited and did not reply. Not everyone wants to be a member. As Groucho Marx said "I would never join a club that would have me as a member."
But for a tiny group with an obscure name, they did good, real good.
What they accomplished is nothing short of remarkable. They challenged the Big Banks and the finest Bay Street legal beagles and won. 1800 small investors on the line, $400 million on the table. It doesn't get much bigger or better than that.
So maybe there is something to this social networking thing. But now that it's over, I'm still going to quit Facebook, again.
But I may rejoin again, if I ever find a use for it.