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in theHERALD OUTLOOK is published each Spturday by the ALTON Home Newspaper of Hills Division of Newspapers Company Limited at Street Georgetown Ontario 1 St Class Mail Registered Number PUBLISHER David A EDITOR Brian MacLeod AD MANAGER Dan Taylor WR1TFKS Donna Kelt Hen Gibson Diane Smith CI Joan Mannall AIVhHTlNINGSAIIS Valois raig Teeter Roberts PRODIK tth NT Dave Hastings Annie Mylcs Wilson I IT Marie Shad bolt Double your money in just 6V years this tax holiday This arranf SNAFU by Bruce Beattie With the ic of compound in double your money in vears auming an per cent interest rate and no taxes Compounding raises the effec live interest on your investment allowing you to earn interest on in terest A base rate of per cent for example yields an effective an nual return of per cent on a fiveyear investment with interest compounded A base- rate of percent works out to a 13 per over five years Even higher returns result if interest is compounded semi rather than annual The way interest can grow tax free though is in registered retirement savings plans a good reason to set one up if you have not already done so Outside of RRiPs It usually is a good idea to let jour interest com pound rather than take it out in an nual payments provided you don t need the in Retired people who rely on regular interest in come will prefer to take their in terest as it is earned There is a way to put off paying taxes on compound interest If you think you will be in a lower tax bracket in two or three years you might want to take advantage of this tax holiday This arrangement will suit people planning to retire go back to school or take a off to write a book You will have to buv your GIC before Jan 1 though because the tax holiday ends this year Starting next Finance Minister Michael Wilson will put an end to the income tax provision that allows taxpayers to defer repor income on compound interest investments for up to three years If you buy your compound interest GIC before yearend you will not have to declare interest un til If 1991 is your low income year you can declare it then As Royal Trust points out in its man thly newsletter you do not need to choose a maturity date that com with the year in which you plan to declare the interest Interest bearing investments continue to be a good place to in vest your money given how high rates are after subtracting infia tion Which term to choose is a more complicated question Royal Trust for example believes in terest rates will fall soon as the economy slows If you agree you will want to switch to longer term investments to lock high rates On the other hand short term yields are attractive If you believe as some forecasters do that interest rates will stay pain fully high for the next few months you will be in no rush to switch Economists admit it a hard one to call The S economy is slow ing and one trend setting S bank has cut its prime business lending rate But interest rates in Canada are still up to four percentage points higher than they are south of the border and demand for credit is strong Berrys World Tell me why do I remain in this abusive relationship with my computer I dont know It just isnt the same Junior faxing Santa Claus his Christmas list A first hand look at where money went Vic parsons Resemblances to truelife per sons and events in the following are purely coincidental H J Stoneycroft leaned across his desk His bulbous nose twitched and his florid jowls quivered I tell you we members of Parliament have an obligation to taxpayers to check out the way public funds ate being spent he aruged forcefully The entertainment and hospitality in are vital to this country s economic makeup The object of Stoneycroft s atten tion fidgeted nervously on a couch Elvis Droodge MP for the riding of Upper Elbow Venison Tickle stared at the floor I guess so he muttered bare ly audible Why of course Stoneycroft exclaimed triumphantly after an hour in which he had used every device in his repertoire to per suade his colleague that a visit to de Stnp in Hull Que was in the public interest Stoneycroft had a decided ad vantage He was after all a veteran Droodge was merely a young pup whose ideals still need replied ed a massaging to bring them into line pol realities I 11 call a cab then Stoneycroft said rubbing hands We t be seen with our own cars And I II tell my staff we re off to a business lunch After all he chuckled the road to Hull is paved with good in vent ions HOI Twenty minutes later the cab arrived at the club had full view of his face Stoneycroft boldly chatted making no effort to conceal his identity When the MPs entered a blast of raucous recorded music assaulted their ears Stoneycroft chose a table and ordered beer while blinked as his eyes grew accustomed to the darkness So this was one of the strip clubs that had received loans from the Federal Business Development Bank When he had adjusted to the gloom wished he t Not two metres in front of him stood a young woman without a stitch as casually as though she were waiting for the bus Good grief Droodge gulped the Venison Tickle Vixen wouldn t have taken off that much even at the culmina tion of her act The MP didn t know from personal experience of course just hearsay Meanwhile Stoneycroft excused himself He had spied a senior bureaucrat among a group of what had initially appeared to be beer guzzling louts Too soon there was a beside Droodge A familiar voice asked if he would like her to dance especially for him PATRIOTIC COLORS looked up aghast He wasn sure if hehad turned white or red He was probably flashing between one color and the other The vofce belonged to none other than Betsy his secretary What are you doing here he cried in horror I just come over to earn a little pin money at lunch hour she The- pay at the office Story is a reporters dream that great Droodge to gather his thoughts Why I can have you working for me after this he Mr Droodge Betsy said quietly Do your constituents know you frequent these kinds of establishments It do for them to out would it This time Droodge knew for tain he had blanched He con sidered for a moment You re wiled up the lapels Jus coat right do hoping the wouldn get raise be with other bunk It would be so easy even fun to write a blistering column about the Federal Business Development Bank lending money to stnp joints across the country Its a jour s dream story one that begs for righteous indignation How can you lose hammering a government agency thats helping to finance tabletop stnp joints while other people are going hungry in the country You can t lose in criticizing the situation any more than Industry Minister Har vie Andre can win About the only thing he can say and he has on countless occasions is that procedures will be tightened up so that in future the bank will not find itself in the embarrassing position of financing erotic establishments Meanwhile as more and more of these loans are being revealed by a hungry media Mr Andre is squir uncomfortably under an op position onslaught It not easy to defend such loans when opposition MPs can cite examples of Ottawa cutting off funds for women s shelters and other worthy causes In fact it s probably impossible But tempting as it is to join the critical mob someone has to come to the defence of the government here At the very least we can try and correct the widespread im pression that Ottawa is taking money away from the needy for the express purpose of promoting the burlesque industry VERY COMPLEX It not difficult to make the point that the Federal Business Development Bank a Crown cor set up in to help rebuild the post war economy should not be helping stnpclubs However it s also not difficult to make the point that this has ab solutely nothing to do with govern ment funding The operates quite separately from government For all practical purposes it s a com bank established to help small businessmen who have ble raising capita It has managed to make a profit over the years Now whether it has outlived its usefulness is quite another ques tton It might well be time to close down this bank of last resort But so long as it remains in the business of offering loans to enterprises it going to be virtually impossible to avoid finan some questionable activities Bet if you went through the records of chartered banks you would find they have helped out some veryun savory operations And the difficulty Is in most cases the unsavory aspects sur face only after the loans have been secured In some of the cases already exposed the loans were approved for clubs and restaurants that had never employed strippers before While they might have changed their entertainment formal while still owing money to the the bank had no mandate to make value judgments on what customers watched The bottom lint for institutions was the