VIDEO: 'No pressure' for Asian rate cuts

OTTAWA — With the announcement due in days, the overwhelming odds remain that second-in-command Tiff Macklem will be appointed the next governor of the Bank of Canada. Yet the nearer the date approaches to Mark Carney’s June 1 departure for London, questions are being asked about what is taking Finance Minister Jim Flaherty so long to confirm what markets and economists have long considered a near slam dunk.

Because having legal authority to buy corporate bonds, ETFs and REITs, in addition to everything else the Fed now buys, is apparently not enough to crush, mangle and suicide its currency, the BOJ is now considering adding yet another "asset" to its cocktail of eligible securities for purchase: those which Buffett once declared weapons of mass financial destruction - derivatives.

The appointment of Doug Porter as Bank of Montreal’s new chief economist is being welcomed by the financial community where he’s regarded as a skilled and effective commentator. Mr. Porter is the “obvious choice, and he’s also a good and sensible choice” for the job, said Finn Poschmann, vice president of research at the C.D. Howe Institute in Toronto. As a member of the C.D. Howe Institute’s council on monetary policy, he regularly provides input on the Bank of Canada interest rate policy.

By Peter Pham:A report from last week noting that private equity giant Blackstone (BX) was moving towards offering a pan-Asian property fund underscored the data that I've been collecting from around the region that suggests that bottoms are forming in certain markets.