Skip to main content

Here we go!


First off, after a glorious summer, Labour Day weekend was mostly miserable, so it was three wasted days, which means lots of reading.  Certain themes resonated for Canada:

  • Swiss national bank pegs the Swiss Franc – they’ve had enough of the wild ride.  Not sure how it will work, because commentaries from the ECB seem to indicate that this was all news to them.  This means that many countries that are perceived to be sound (Canada, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway and Australia) may resort to the same process.  We know that the Bank of Canada is very concerned about all they “hot” money flowing into Canada (about 7% of GDP).  How do such economies protect their industry and citizen from global market fears?
  • Europe decided that a good old fashion panic was on the cards for Monday – while America celebrated “something” – but certainly not labour. Spider futures were wild on Monday, but Tuesday morning things cooled down.  BTW as of 6 am Tuesday AM (EST) the yield on 1 year Greek debt was 81% -- the two year paper is around 57%.  Greek default is priced in, haircut is around 80% (that’s the new 21%).  Ackermann of DB gave a terrific speech on Monday – he said that if Europe’s bank had to take provisions for their Sovereign bonds they would be nearly insolvent…lovely!
  • Confusion in the media:  Zero Hedge reported that protesters were in front of the Italian stock exchange on “labour day” as a significant protest… except Labour Day in Europe is May 1st, not September 1st (or 5th for the matter), our American cousins once again confuse ‘merica, for the rest of the world.
  • New research on Canadians’ attitude vis-à-vis Americans; five years ago Canadians envied Americans, today we feel sorry for them, truth be told we never wanted to be them.  How many of my Canadian friends living and working in the US were asked when they were getting their US passport – their answer that they would never give up their Canadian citizenship was met with surprise and disbelief (Americans have been brainwashed into believing that everyone in the world wants to be them!).  Today any conversation about America ends with a head nod – we wish them well, we like them, but we really don’t want to be them.
So that's the highlight of the weekend read.  I'm also looking at the whole story behind the "Etat Généraux" for the soveregnist movement in Quebec -- It's like a headless chicken, dead but keeps on running around.  
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

what people get wrong about tariffs

 The issue is simple. What percentage of the economy is dependent on tariff goods? The truth, is that the US economy is far more closed than people understand. People genuinely believe that all manufacturing has ceased to exist in the United States all given to China on the altar of woke policy the truth can be further from That statement. Only about 15% of US GDP is related to foreign trade. Of that amount, slightly more than half is from Canada in Mexico. And half of that is energy. What that means, is that about 7% of US GDP is tariff dependent. The proof in the pudding, is how little money tariff generates. People think that 30 or 50 billion is a lot it’s not in an economy that has $3 trillion. The impact on the US economy will be less visible but not absent. Inflation hasn’t occurred yet first because tests have hardly started to bite, but more importantly it’s such a small percent of the economy. Now certain things are critical. The rare earth metals from China were critical....
Post a Comment
Read more

Trump and Venezuela...

The US now owns Venezuela…and not in a good way.  America is not known for its nation building skills, and yet it now owns the disaster that is Venezuela.   Starvation and exodus are the natural progression.   In addition it will become a haven for narco-terrorists, more so than it already was. I am sure that Trump and his friends really thought that little attack very well…I guess that he will now attack Iran now.  
Post a Comment
Read more

Demographics

 I am preparing a kind of family tree for our children so that they know where they came from.  In my family I am the only survivor, although my brother and sister died recently they were both in their seventies (a story I told already).    It was a fun process, but it provided more than that.  First, I married relatively young I was 26 when I married and nearly 30 when our first child was born.   I was looking at my ancestors.  On my mother's side, she had 6 siblings, Four died before the age of 30, two in war, and two from illnesses.  Only she and a single sister survived.   The two boys had a child each but they died in WWII, and the other sister died as an infant.   what is interesting is that every one of my mother's siblings had children in their early 20s.   I know that my mom was hardly 20 when my brother was born.    What is remarkable is that among our friends, we are the only ones to have fou...
Post a Comment
Read more