Dear valued client,
**For those saving up for their first home, a new account is available – the First Home Savings Account (FHSA). The FHSA combines the benefits of a TFSA and RRSP; the growth and withdrawals are tax-free, and the contributions are tax deductible. There’s an $8000 annual limit and a $40,000 lifetime limit.
Please let me know if this account is of interest to you.**
Markets gained 3.4% this week as banking worries seem to be in the rearview mirror.
Is AI (artificial intelligence) development moving too quickly? Elon Musk certainly thinks so. He and more than 1000 AI tech experts signed a petition this week calling on developers to “pause giant AI experiments.” The petition warns that AI poses “profound risks to society and humanity” and asks AI researchers to freeze their projects for at least 6 months. The pause would be used to create and implement safety protocols to have adequate oversight on the development of AI systems. This is a big ask given the profits major tech companies are planning on accruing through such developments. These include OpenAI’s Chat GPT-4 (its latest version), Google’s Bart, and Microsoft’s added AI capabilities to Bing.
According to the letter, developers are “locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one – not even their creators – can understand, predict, or even reliably control.” The letter warns these technologies could reach a point where we “risk loss of control of our civilization.” Hopefully, humanity’s ethics will be able to advance at the same pace as its technological development.
On a brighter note, Canadian inflation figures came in at 5.2% last month, compared to 5.9% in January. There is still a way to go to get prices down to their 2% target. Though The Bank of Canada did not raise interest rates in its last meeting, my hope is that they have a long-term plan to bring inflation to an acceptable level.
More inflation data came in south of the border today. The United States PCE (Personal Consumption Expenditure Price Index) came in at 5% in February (compared to 5.4% in January). Though encouraging, there is still work to be done before declaring inflation has been sufficiently tamed.
“I do know that for the sympathy of one living being, I would make peace with all. I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe. If I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other.” – Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
Have a terrific weekend,
PW
