Finance Blog number 1

Black-listed tax havens Andorra and Liechtenstein on Thursday relaxed their strict bank secrecy rules in the face of a global crackdown that looks set to force top offshore center Switzerland to open up soon.

The moves come as finance ministers from the G20 group of developed and emerging countries prepare to meet in Britain from Friday ahead of a summit in London on April 2 that is expected to seek ways to fight offshore tax evasion.

Other offshore centers, whose banking industries have thrived under privacy laws that have attracted foreign wealth, have also made concessions in recent weeks, as the financial crisis prompts cash-strapped western governments to be more aggressive against tax evaders.

The tiny Alpine principality of Liechtenstein said on Thursday it would comply with international tax and data sharing standards set up by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), by-passing neighboring Switzerland in the quest for more tax transparency.

“I’m quite sure Switzerland will take similar steps in the near future,” Crown Prince Alois von und zu Liechtenstein said.

Andorra, a bank secrecy stronghold nestled between France and Spain, said also on Thursday that it was planning to relax bank secrecy to be removed from an OECD blacklist. It planned to pass a law to this end by November.

The OECD list includes Liechtenstein, Andorra and Monaco, but France and Germany want others, including Switzerland, to be added paydayloans. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday she was optimistic tax havens would co-operate if the G20 threatened to blacklist them.

Monaco declined to comment on its plans on tax.

PRESSURE MOUNTS ON SWITZERLAND

Switzerland, the world’s biggest offshore banking center with estimated assets under management of $2 trillion out of a total of $7 trillion, is under pressure from a U.S. tax fraud targeting its number one bank UBS.

Swiss Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf told Swiss television on Thursday the government was working on a review of bank secrecy rules and expected to present its ideas “shortly.”

The government has asked a committee of experts to come forward with proposals on more tax cooperation in view of the G20 meeting and will discuss the topic at a meeting on Friday.

Walter Wittmann, an economic professor at the University of Freiburg was quoted by newspaper Blick am Abend as saying that Switzerland would be “guaranteed a place on the black list” if it refused to cooperate.

Any move by Berne will be watched by many wealth management players operating out of offshore financial centers.

A 2008 report by the OECD lists Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Panama, Singapore and others as states where it deems bank secrecy rules undesirable. 

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Upscale retailer Neiman Marcus NMRCUS.UL posted a quarterly loss on Wednesday, as sales suffered through the holiday season at the hands of frugal U.S. consumers.

The company posted a net loss of $509.2 million in the fiscal second quarter that ended on January 31, compared with a profit of $44.3 million, a year earlier.

Adjusted for charges, such as a non-cash impairment costs and a pension curtailment gain, Neiman said its loss in the quarter was $32.6 million.

Neiman, which runs both its namesake and Bergdorf Goodman stores, faced a 21.4 percent drop in second quarter sales to $1 saving account payday loan.08 billion, while same-store sales fell 22.8 percent.

The company has also said that it will cut out or delay some projects to give itself additional liquidity.

Neiman, like other upscale retailers Saks Inc and Nordstrom Inc, has taken a deep hit as even shoppers who frequent higher-end stores cut back on spending in the recession.

(Reporting by Aarthi Sivaraman; Editing by Derek Caney)

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Some fear that the protectionist trend spreading across the globe could escalate into a growth killing global trade war.

The "buy American" provision that Congress slipped into the stimulus bill last month is just one of several protectionist measures governments are calling for during this unprecedented economic crunch.

The buy American provision requires contractors who get U.S. stimulus money to buy U.S.-made steel, iron and other manufactured goods.

Granted, the provision is considerably weaker than initially proposed. It exempts companies from 20 developed nations, such as Canada, Japan and members of the European Union. It also allows contractors to buy foreign materials if buying equivalent U.S. goods would increase project costs by at least 25%.

Still, it applies to China, Brazil, India and Russia, among others, and it is part of a growing herd of protectionist measures. Governments, spending billions to prop up their economies, are under voter pressure to devote national money to help national industries.

But whether nursing domestic industry is good, bad, or simply hasn’t gone far enough to matter is up for debate.

Arguing for more protectionism

Supporters in the United States say protecting domestic industries, no matter what other nations do in retaliation, is vital if we are to maintain our manufacturing capability and the high paying jobs that go with it.

"The manufacturing base here is totally inadequate to support first-world living standards," said Alan Tonelson, a research fellow at the U.S. Business and Industry Council, which represents small- and mid-size manufacturers.

A lack of manufacturing "is how we got here in the first place," said Tonelson, referring to the recession.

"The country isn’t going to import its way out, spend its way out or borrow its way out," he added."It’s got to produce its way out."

Although some U.S. trading partners reacted strongly against the original buy American rule - especially Canada and Brazil, the latter of which threatened a lawsuit - Tonelson sees little downside to more government support.

Many of our trading partners, he said, already have their own protectionist measures in place, whether they are explicit or hidden in the form of government bureaucracies that favor their own firms.

"[U.S. manufacturers] are already shut out of many procurement contracts," Tonelson said. "How much more harm could these provisions do?"

Although the buy American clause was watered down, Tonelson sees it as a springboard for further protections.

He named renewable energy as one sector deserving more government support. That support would go above and beyond the 30% tax break the stimulus plan offered to manufacturers of things like wind turbines and solar cells, and might require direct cash payments from the government.

"We’ve got this important precedent that’s been set," he said. "We’re going to try to beat this as far as we can."

Supporters of the free market

It’s precisely that line of thinking that’s got the free traders so worried.

Buy American, in its watered down form, isn’t seen as particularly restrictive. But there’s a fear it could grow. To free traders - including former Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton - that means perpetuating inefficient industries at home, driving the cost of goods up and the quality down, and hampering a global economic recovery.

A host of other countries have enacted or are pushing for various forms of government protection for their domestic industries same day payday loans.

For the last year or so England’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown has touted a "British jobs for British workers" campaign as the country attempts its own form of stimulus - a campaign that drew fire for being illegal and maybe even racist.

China recently expanded a tax break to cover exporters, a move many saw as protectionist. Turkey, Indonesia, India and Russia are just a few of the countries that have raised tariffs or placed other restrictions on imports. All this comes on top of the auto bailout in the United States, Europe and maybe soon Japan.

"That’s already getting big, and we’re just at the start," said Jeffrey Schott, a senior fellow with the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

The steel industry is sometimes held up as an example of why protectionism doesn’t work. Facing stiff foreign competition in the early 1980s, the U.S. steel business fought for - and won - protective tariffs on imported products from their overseas competitors.

Yet many went out of business anyway, relying on protectionism instead of making the painful yet necessary reforms that may have kept them in business.

Schott certainly wants domestic manufacturing jobs; he just doesn’t think trade protections are the way to get them.

"Politicians are getting pressed, they are concerned about money going abroad, but that’s the short view," he said. "If you impose restrictions, you’re just going to raise the cost of goods being produced. The sustainability of the recovery will be put in jeopardy."

There is another danger, too. Firms that gain government protection may be forced by the government to cater more to the domestic market.

This is already happening in banking, according to Paul Donovan, global economist at the Swiss bank UBS.

Donovan said the British government is requiring banks it bailed out to restrict lending abroad and free up money for the home front.

"It’s making it more difficult to be truly global," said Donovan.

In a global economy, having banks looking inward is just as dangerous as governments looking inward.

"You had a series of national responses to a global crisis," he said, "We need consistent, global regulation, not inconsistent national regulation."

Nowhere near the 1930s

The most extreme example of protectionism gone awry is the Smoot-Hawley Act of 1930. In an attempt to protect domestic manufacturers, the law put a tariff on a broad range of imports coming into America. Many now say it played a key role in turning a recession into a depression as other nations retaliated with their own tariffs and global trade ground to a halt.

No one says we’re anywhere near that.

Some say even the measures we’ve seen so far, buy American among them, are merely politically motivated blips, installed to placate the voting public but then quietly eased by the trade negotiators.

"Obama’s trade policy makes clear that the administration will pursue open trade," said Sean West, a U.S. policy and trade strategist at Eurasia Group, a political consultancy. "Despite minor distortionary acts, fears of real U.S. protectionism leading to a trade war are overblown."  

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Stocks plunged to fresh 12-year lows Thursday as investors waded through more grim news: GM said its survival is in doubt, bank shares took a beating, and Citigroup fell below a buck.

Adding to the global woes: China defied expectations by failing to boost its economic stimulus program.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) fell 281 points, or 4.1%, to close at 6,594.44, ending at the lowest point since April 15, 1997. The Dow has now fallen 14 of the last 18 sessions.

The Nasdaq composite (COMP) fell 54 points, or 4% to close at 1,299.59, ending at the lowest point since 1279.24 on March 12, 2003, at the bottom of the previous bear market.

The S&P 500 (SPX) index lost 30 points, or 4.2%, closing at 682.55, the lowest finish since Sept. 18, 1996.

Stocks slipped at the open and kept falling from there, with the selling accelerating as the major gauges failed to hang on to key technical levels that traders watch.

"Once we broke through that 700 level on the S&P, which has been intact since 1996, all the people who were watching it left the building," said Joe Clark, market analyst at Financial Enhancement Group.

He said that with the major gauges at these levels, market pros have even less of a sense of where the so-called bottom is.

Stocks have been sliding on and off since peaking in October 2007 amid the housing and credit market collapse and the onset of the recession - which technically began in December 2007.

But the declines have picked up the pace year-to-date in response to growing pessimism about the economy. As of Thursday’s close, the Dow is down almost 25% this year, the worst start in the 113-year history of the Dow.

Since closing at a record 14,164.53 on Oct. 9, 2007, the Dow has fallen 53% as of Thursday’s close. Since closing at a record 1,565.15 on Oct. 9, 2007, the S&P 500 has fallen 56% as of Thursday’s close.

Since hitting a bull-market high of 2,859.12 on Oct. 31, 2007, the Nasdaq has tumbled 54.5% as of Thursday’s close. But the Nasdaq has never come near its record of 5,048.62 hit on March 10, 2000, at the apex of the Internet boom.

Financials: Among the big losers, financials were hit especially hard. Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), Citigroup (C, Fortune 500), Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500) and Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500) were among the losers. The KBW Bank (BKX) index lost 11.8%.

Citigroup fell for a time below $1 a share, to its lowest level ever at 97 cents, before ending at $1.02. More on Citi from CNNRadio.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) tumbled 14% after Moody’s lowered its long-term outlook on the company to "negative" from "stable" late Wednesday.

A variety of insurers slipped including Allstate (ALL, Fortune 500), MetLife (MET, Fortune 500), Chubb (CB, Fortune 500), Progressive (PGR, Fortune 500) and Hartford Financial Services (HIG, Fortune 500).

Failed insurance giant AIG (AIG, Fortune 500) slumped 18.6% as U.S. regulators discussed the company’s $180 billion bailout in a Senate hearing.

"It’s the same old story, with the financial sector continuing to hammer the market," said Steven Goldman, market strategist at Weeden & Co.

"Everybody is so bearish right now that you would expect to be in the midst of a counter-trend rally," he said. "But the implosion in the banking and insurance sectors is just overwhelming."

Stocks managed to snap back from 12-year lows Wednesday on hopes that China would announce that it was increasing the size of its stimulus plan. But the Chinese premier did not announce any boost to the $586 billion plan at a key political meeting in Beijing Thursday. (Full story)

GM: Concerns about the outlook for General Motors also weighed on stocks Thursday free instant credit reports. GM said in its annual filing that there is substantial doubt about the automaker’s ability to survive.

The company has sustained huge losses over the course of the recession and has already received $13.4 billion in federal loans. GM has said it needs additional federal money to stay afloat. GM (GM, Fortune 500) shares fell 15.5%.

Wal-Mart Stores: The world’s No. 1 retailer reported a bigger-than-expected jump in February sales, thanks in part to lower gas prices. Wal-Mart said that sales at stores open a year or more, a retail metric known as same-store sales, rose 5.1% in February versus forecasts for a rise of 2.4%.

Separately, the company said it is boosting its annual dividend by 15% to $1.09 from 95 cents per share. Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) shares rose 2.6%.

As a result of Wal-Mart, the overall retail sector posted a slight rise in February same-store sales, versus previous forecasts for a decline, according to Thomson Reuters.

Nonetheless, many retailers continued to see weaker sales, due to the impact of the slowing economy and growing joblessness.

Wal-Mart rival Target (TGT, Fortune 500) said sales fell 4.1%, sending shares 3.1% lower.

Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) said same-store sales plunged 30% in the month, sending shares of the clothing retailer down 13%. Nordstrom (JWN, Fortune 500) said sales fell 15.4%, sending shares of the department store chain down more than 10%.

Gymboree (GYMB) warned late Wednesday that first-quarter profit will miss forecasts and same-store sales in the quarter will slide 20% to 25%. Shares of the children’s clothing retailer plunged 27% Thursday.

Market breadth was negative. On the New York Stock Exchange, losers beat winners by more than 12 to 1 on volume of 1.88 billion shares. On the Nasdaq, decliners topped advancers by more than five to one on volume of 2.35 billion shares.

Economy: January factory orders fell 1.9% after dropping 4.9% in the previous month. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com thought orders would fall 3.5%.

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment fell to 639,000 last week from 670,000 in the previous week, versus economists’ forecasts for a drop to 650,000.

Another report showed that fourth-quarter business productivity was weaker than initially reported, falling at a revised 0.4% annual rate versus the initially reported 3.2% annual rate. Economists thought it would grow at a 1.1% annual rate.

Bonds: Treasury prices rallied, lowering the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 2.81% from 2.98% Wednesday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

Lending rates were little changed. The 3-month Libor rate held steady at 1.28%, unchanged from Wednesday, while the overnight Libor rate rose to 0.32% from 0.31%, according to Bloomberg.com. Libor is a bank-to-bank lending rate.

Other markets: In global trading, most Asian markets ended lower with the exception of the Japanese Nikkei. European markets tumbled.

In currency trading, the dollar gained versus the euro and fell against the yen.

U.S. light crude oil for April delivery fell $1.77 to settle at $43.61 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

COMEX gold for April delivery rose $21.10 to settle at $927.80 an ounce.

Talkback: Are you living on your unemployment check? How are you making ends meet? What bills are you paying - and which ones are sliding? E-mail your story to realstories@cnnmoney.com and you could be part of an upcoming article. 

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Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said "substantial" government investment was needed to counter the global financial crisis, while urging a role for private investment in fighting what he warned may be greater hardship ahead.

Wen made the remarks on Wednesday, a day before he gives his annual work report to China’s parliament, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

"Responding to the financial crisis requires substantial government investment, and at the same time we must take seriously guiding investment of social and private capital," Wen said free 3-in-1 credit report. "Social and private capital" is a term used to refer to non-government investment.

Wen said the country should prepare itself for greater hardships. "We must make long-term mental preparations to respond to even greater hardships," he said. 

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WASHINGTON–A private measure of the services sector shrank in February for the fifth straight month as the recession deepened.

The Institute for Supply Management, a Tempe, Ariz.-based trade group of purchasing executives, said Wednesday that its services index fell to 41.6 last month from 42.9 in January. The February reading was slightly above economists' expectations.

But any reading above 50 signals growth, while a reading below 50 indicates contraction. The index has fallen steadily since August as the economy deteriorated.

About three-quarters of Americans work in service-providing industries, such as hotels, retail, education, health care and financial institutions.

The ISM report is based on a survey of the group's members in 18 industries. It covers such indicators as new orders, employment, inventories and backlogs.

Members responding to the survey "are concerned about the soft market conditions, the negative outlook for employment and the overall state of the economy," said the report issued by Anthony Nieves, chairman of the ISM's non-manufacturing business survey committee, who is senior vice president for supply management at Hilton Hotels Corp car loans.

Only one industry – arts, entertainment and recreation – reported growth in February, according to the survey. Fourteen others registered contraction.

As the recession that began in December 2007 persists, companies are cutting thousands of jobs.

Only the transportation and warehousing industry in January's index reported increased hiring. Last month, two service industries – real estate, rental and leasing, and utilities – reported increased hiring.

The ISM on Monday said its companion manufacturing index rose to 35.8 last month from 35.6 in January. Analysts had expected the index to drop. Still, any reading below 50 indicates contraction, and the manufacturing sector has shrunk for 13 consecutive months.

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D.C. is poised to save up to $28 million in interest payments over the next four years after getting an AAA rating for new income tax-backed bonds, according to D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi.

To fund capital projects and infrastructure improvements, the city typically sells general obligation bonds backed by the city’s full credit. It sold $576 million in general obligation bonds last May, receiving grades of A1 from Moody’s Investors Service, A+ from Fitch Ratings and A+ from Standard and Poor’s. Most states get higher ratings for their general obligation bonds.

Gandhi said in June that he believed bonds backed strictly by the city’s individual and corporate income taxes would receive a higher rating and, after the D auto loan.C. Council passed legislation approving the move, he announced March 2 that he had gotten his wish, when Standard and Poor’s gave the bonds a AAA rating, its highest.

“This is a testament to the sound financial policies that we have been following for the past 10 years,” Gandhi said in a release. “It is notable that even in these difficult financial times, the District has achieved this outstanding recognition.”

Mayor Adrian Fenty, D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray, D-at large, and D.C. Councilmember Jack Evans, D-Ward 2, praised the announcement.

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Stanford Financial Group’s Chief Financial Officer James Davis, accused with the company’s founder Allen Stanford of carrying out a $8 billion Ponzi scheme, has refused to cooperate in the investigation.

Davis asserted his Fifth-Amendment right, declining “to testify or provide an accounting … or produce any documents related to the matters set forth in the Commission’s complaint,” according to a filing with a federal court in Dallas on Friday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged both Davis and Texas billionaire Stanford, former Baylor University roommates, with carrying out a Ponzi scheme in which early investors are paid with the money of new clients.

Davis’ lawyer was not immediately available to comment.

Davis and Stanford, who have not been charged with criminal wrongdoing, face allegations of misappropriating “billions of dollars of investor funds” and falsifying financial statements issued by Antigua-based Stanford International Bank, according to filings with the Dallas court on Friday instant payday loans.

Meanwhile on Friday, the company’s chief investment officer Laura Pendergest-Holt, walked free on bail after posting a $300,000 bond.

FBI agents had arrested her at Stanford’s Houston-based headquarters and accused her of obstructing a probe into what the SEC called “massive ongoing fraud” by Stanford and his companies.

Stanford’s assets — pegged at $50 billion by the company — are under the control of a court-appointed receiver, Dallas attorney Ralph Janvey. A Dallas judge is expected to rule Monday on whether to extend the temporary restraining order that gives Janvey control of the assets.

The receiver thus far has identified only about $90 million in actual assets, an FBI agent told a court hearing in Pendergest-Holt’s case.

(Reporting by Elinor Comlay; Editing by Bernard Orr)

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Frank Heaps sits on his veranda while sailboats bob on the horizon and children play in the sand in front of his beachfront home.

"It really is pretty perfect down here," says Heaps, talking on his BlackBerry from the Caribbean island of St. Lucia.

"You wake up in the morning, have breakfast on the patio. You could putt a golf ball from my place to the water."

If you ever wondered what happened to the 67-year-old founder of the iconic Upper Canada Brewing Company, let’s just say he has landed in a good place.

Still, despite the idyllic surroundings, Heaps is working harder than ever.

After he famously pioneered the micro-brewery craze in Canada with Upper Canada, which has since been sold to Sleeman Breweries Ltd., Heaps has reinvented himself as a property developer in the Caribbean.

But between beer and real estate, it seems the operating philosophy hasn’t changed.

Selling premium real estate, it turns out, isn’t much different than selling premium beer.

"When you start out you never know if your venture is going to be successful. All you can do is make the best possible product you can. That’s what I started out to do with beer and that’s what I’m doing here," Heaps says.

"If you don’t compromise on quality, even if you’re premium priced, it will sell."

Heaps’s story resonates with anyone who has ever wanted a home in the sun. It’s also an entrepreneur’s tale that says someone with smarts, tenacity and a bit of luck can have a second act in them – even if it’s selling real estate during one of the worst global housing markets in history.

First the product: The Landings is St. Lucia’s first residential private yacht harbour, with the only freehold beachfront homes on the island.

On 19 acres of one of the best beaches, the apartments are built on a 60-berth harbour, with water views for every unit.

Condos start from $600,000 for 1,200 square feet to $3 million for 2,600 square feet. Owners have the option of placing their properties in a hotel rental pool when they’re not using them.

Heaps hopes to build 232 units by the time he’s finished.

So far, the economic crunch hasn’t hit the Torontonian as badly as it could have, since he has already sold the first two phases of his property. Of the 122 units, only five are still for sale.

Good timing helped immensely, since Heaps started selling three years ago, before the downturn.

Still, he acknowledges that he was averaging two sales a month last year, a number that has been halved to one sale a month this year.

"Sales have definitely slowed, and certainly many of our customers have been hit by the economic down cycle. But they are still buying."

So far Heaps hasn’t slashed prices. "That would not be in our previous purchasers interests or our own interests" he says.

But he has relaxed payment terms, allowing buyers a more flexible payment schedule.

Like his Upper Canada customers, Heaps is aiming for the "top 5 per cent of the market" someone who is willing to pay extra to have the best.

In 1985, he founded the Upper Canada Brewing Co., which brewed a premium dark ale and lager using an old Bavarian recipe and top quality ingredients. It ended up becoming one of the largest independent breweries in Canada.

"I travelled a lot, and what I did know was that there was a lot of better beer out there than what the big three were offering in Canada at the time," Heaps says.

He sold control of the company in 1995 and the new owners later sold the brand to Guelph-based Sleeman Breweries Ltd.

"I was retired and absolutely hated it," he says.

"A friend started talking about the concept of building in St instant personal loans guaranteed. Lucia and I was intrigued."

Heaps had lived in St. Lucia in the 1970s as an economic and land-use planner for the United Nations development program in the West Indies.

On a sailing trip around the island he cruised past the Rodney Bay area and he saw the possibilities for development.

"I had never done this before and I had no idea, to be honest, that this was going to turn out to be a quarter-billion-dollar project."

Of course, when he started Upper Canada brewing, he didn’t know anything about beer, either.

So as with his first venture, Heaps assembled a team, including local partners with the development know-how to get the project off the ground.

What may help somewhat is that some of his potential competitors who were selling units on the island have already stalled as financing and sales dried up. His larger competition, though, may be from other Caribbean islands. Jamaica, Turks and Caicos and the Dominican Republic, for example, have large-scale condo/hotel projects that have also been wooing foreign investment.

And they’re not shy about taking their shows on the road.

Representatives from the mammoth Cap Cana luxury development in the Dominican Republic hosted would-be buyers at the posh Hazelton Hotel in Toronto last year to entice them to buy luxury villas and play golf at the Donald Trump golf course.

Meanwhile, developers from Jamaica’s upscale Half Moon Hotel, where then-Jacqueline Kennedy stayed on holiday with JFK, were also in Toronto last year, hosting a Jamaican-themed party attended by runner Donovan Bailey and former Flare editor Suzanne Boyd at the members-only Spoke Club. Prices start at $2.4 million (U.S.) and range up to $6.5 million.

"There is an awful lot of competition out there, everybody is flogging a luxury home in the Caribbean," says Stephen Chan, a property investor who owns a vacation home in Jamaica and a portfolio of apartment buildings in Canada and the U.S.

Heaps acknowledges he has had to work harder to move units.

"During a downturn there is no question you have to offer the customer more incentive," he says.

When things get tough, the first instinct is to slash costs, but one thing he won’t cut he says is his marketing budget.

It has remained constant at around $600,000 (Canadian) annually.

But he says that his project is already a success because it was on a smaller scale and his sales are past the halfway mark.

"I think we just got it right. Very few people in the Caribbean have done the number of sales we have over the last couple years."

Heaps owns 25 per cent of the St. Lucia project, which has 19 shareholders.

"People keep asking me, which property did you give yourself? I have to remind them that when you have 19 shareholders, you have to buy your own property," says Heaps.

Phase three is currently for sale and he says he only needs to sell 20 more units to break even on the entire project.

Meanwhile, most of the infrastructure has been built and paid for, including the yacht harbour and the spa, he says.

"All the expensive stuff has been done, and we aren’t highly leveraged."

Heaps still calls Toronto home, and he isn’t completely out of the beer business. He is the chair of Toronto’s Steam Whistle Brewing, which is run by his son Cameron.

Like Upper Canada, Steam Whistle has a folksy image that appeals to an upscale crowd.

And while he says he needs to slow down to spend more time with his grandchildren, he is already on another project.

This time he is trying to convince the government of St. Lucia that he should build a wind farm, especially since electricity prices in the Caribbean are far higher than in North America.

"This kind of power is eminently viable here, and I think it can really help save the economy," says Heaps.

"But yes, I really have to start slowing down and enjoying the views a little more."

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