Howestreet.com - the source for market opinions

ALWAYS CONSULT YOUR INVESTMENT PROFESSIONAL BEFORE MAKING ANY INVESTMENT DECISION

Danielle Park

Guest's Website

Portfolio Manager and President of Venable Park Investment Counsel (www.venablepark.com) Ms Park is a financial analyst, attorney, finance author and regular guest on North American media. She is also the author of the best-selling myth-busting book "Juggling Dynamite: An insider's wisdom on money management, markets and wealth that lasts," and a popular daily financial blog: www.jugglingdynamite.com

Juggling Dynamite - Despite cooling inflation, a falling interest rate and steady employment numbers, more and more Canadians are missing payments on their loans and mortgages. Andrew Chang explains what’s going on. Here is a direct video link.  Also worthwhile, see Can the US Auto Industry Survive without Canada? President Donald Trump says he wants every car sold in the […]

Juggling Dynamite - Well before the rising layoffs and economic disruptions in the first quarter of 2025, the global economy was registering a recessionary rise in unemployment and excess capacity, along with an accelerating decline in world dollar liquidity (WDL).  Hoisington’s Q4 2024 Review and Outlook explains the historical significance of these key indicators. Here’s a taste: Factories across the […]

Juggling Dynamite - Economic conditions today are more fragile than in March 2018 when Trump 1.0 signed a memorandum instructing the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to apply relatively modest tariffs of $50 billion on Chinese goods. As RBC chief economist Frances Donald points out: “In 2018-19, tariff policies raised the average import duty from 1.5% to approximately 3%. As […]

Juggling Dynamite - China followed Japan’s bubble-boosting playbook from the 1980s, and Canada followed China along for the ride through levered capital flows into commodities and our real estate market. The bust part is less fun. Low bond yields, weak inflation and a struggling property market have raised fears China may see its own version of Japan’s 1990s […]

Juggling Dynamite - Merryn Somerset Webb interviews GMO co-founder and notorious caller of market bubbles Jeremy Grantham. Grantham, who also serves as the firm’s long-term investment strategist, leans into his more than five decades of investing experience to explain the current “super bubble” in the markets. He comments on when we’ll see a correction, the fate of the […]

Juggling Dynamite - The good news is that shelter prices are finally retreating; the bad news is that this has significant knock-on effects for existing owners, debtors, lenders, and many other feeder sectors. Thousands of Canadians are missing mortgage payments — especially in Ontario and B.C. — as the affordability crisis stretches household budgets to the limit despite […]

February 26th, 2025 | Trumphoria Under Review

Juggling Dynamite - After the U.S. election, Trumphoria swept financial markets with parabolic moves in many risk assets into the new year. However, the realization may have dawned in the past month that government spending cuts, fewer immigrants, and tariffs mean more job losses, lower economic growth, and fewer passive capital flows into the stock market. From its […]

Juggling Dynamite - The Bank of Canada has slashed overnight interest rates by 200 basis points over the past seven months to 3% from 5%, while variable and fixed mortgage rates have fallen to around 4% from more than 5% a year ago. Mortgage rates of around 4% are not high; they are about average historically. The trouble […]

February 21st, 2025 | Policy Mayhem and Markets

Juggling Dynamite - Danielle DiMartino Booth, CEO of QI Research, discusses the release of the latest Fed minutes, and what’s next for monetary policy in light of an ongoing trade war. Here is a direct video link.  .

February 19th, 2025 | New Listings Spring Early

Juggling Dynamite - Despite snow banks and cold temps in much of Canada, property owners are getting a jump on what they hope will be strong spring demand. New property listings leapt 11% nationwide from December to January, the largest monthly increase in almost two years. The supply influx boosted the inventory of homes for sale in Canada […]

Juggling Dynamite - Despite a 200 basis point drop in the Bank of Canada’s overnight rate, Canadian mortgage rates have more than doubled from the pandemic’s easy credit days when buyers were engulfed in bidding wars (5-year fixed rates offered by banks, below since April 2020, courtesy of WOW.ca).So far, sellers’ high hopes have kept asking prices elevated, even […]

Juggling Dynamite - The latest Canadian Joe Debtor study finds that the average insolvent debtor owed $60,678 in unsecured debt in 2024, an increase of 12.2% from 2023—the largest annual rise since the study began in 2011. Driving the surge was a sharp rise in average credit card balances, which increased by 25.9% to $20,398 and accounted for 34% of […]

Juggling Dynamite - Anyone who plays Monopoly can experience how quickly real estate holdings drag once cash in hand proves insufficient. Bubbles may seem fun on the way up, but they’re universally brutal in the inevitable deflation stage. China’s stimulus boom helped inflate global demand and real estate prices after the 2008 recession, but mean reversion has been […]

February 12th, 2025 | Investors Dumping Real Estate

Juggling Dynamite - Blackstone is selling off their subsidiary Home Partners of America, and doing big price reductions on certain homes. This is an indication of the ongoing investor selloff occurring in the US Housing Market. Big Wall Street investors like Blackstone and Amerst Holdings have lowered their purchases of homes, and haves started to sell off properties. […]

Juggling Dynamite - The Hoyes, Michalos 2024 Canadian Joe Debtor Survey is out and available here. The numbers portray Canadian households as increasingly cash-strapped and vulnerable to unexpected shocks or economic weakness. S0me standouts: The average insolvent debtor owed $60,678 in unsecured debt in 2024, an increase of 12.2% from 2023—the largest annual rise since the study began in 2011. […]

Juggling Dynamite - Today we’re speaking with Canadian investigative journalist Sam Cooper, whose deeply researched book Wilful Blindness exposes Canada’s damning role in the opioid trade. This might explain why the Trump administration is going on the offensive with our northern neighbor. Sam’s research uncovers an intricate network where the inputs to make synthetic opioids like fentanyl move […]

Juggling Dynamite - Human life is full of unforeseen risks every day. Unexpected events are the norm, not the exception. There’s no such thing as certainty. Only daily choices and habits are within our control. But that gives the disciplined a big advantage over the masses, who tend to careen helplessly from one crisis to another. Contrary to […]

Juggling Dynamite - Participating in a recent VRIC panel with my two favourite economists was fun, and I have included the video clip below. As the only money manager on the panel, I must add a caveat to David’s comments about the Canadian stock market being relatively cheaper than the U.S. That’s true, as I have noted many […]

Juggling Dynamite - According to the latest Canadian Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Professionals, 2024 saw a 15-year high in Canadian business and consumer insolvencies—about 375 daily. The group expects pressure on companies and consumers to continue in 2025 amid threats from potential tariffs and mortgage renewals. See, Insolvencies in Canada rose 12.1% in 2024, led by business filings: […]

Juggling Dynamite - How long the Trump bump will continue in stock prices is everyone’s guess. Still, great expectations increase room for disappointment, and nothing matters more to long-term investment returns than the level of fundamental valuation at the starting point. Donald Trump comes back to office astride extreme confidence and the most highly valued stock market of […]

Juggling Dynamite - Hoisington Management’s Fourth Quarter 2024 Review and Outlook is now available at this link. Always worth a mull. Here’s the main takeaway: “…fundamental determinants of inflation indicate the prospects for slower price increases are even more significant than in any year since the late 1990s. In addition to the growing factory capacity glut and rising UR […]

Juggling Dynamite - The Bank of Canada (BoC) cut interest rates by 25 bps this morning, bringing the overnight rate to 3%, 200 bps lower than when the central bank started easing in June 2024. Moreover, the BoC announced it would restart quantitative easing (Treasury buying) in March to reduce longer-term yields/interest rates and increase liquidity in the […]

January 28th, 2025 | Insolvency Cycle Picking Up

Juggling Dynamite - ‘Maximizing shareholder value’ has been about pumping up near-term valuations at the expense of long-term financial health and viability.  Private equity is excellent at this. Kristina Partsinevelos joins CNBC’s ‘The Exchange’ to discuss the latest data on bankruptcies. Here is a direct video link.  Households are increasingly struggling. The American consumer is showing some signs of […]

Juggling Dynamite - The trouble with overconfidence and securities priced to perfection is that something always happens to upend the narrative. Underdogs often accomplish more for less; it’s a question of when, not if. Necessity has always been the mother of invention because constraints drive ingenuity. Anna Edwards, Guy Johnson, Kriti Gupta and Mark Cudmore break down today’s […]

January 23rd, 2025 | Loonie Dives to 22-Year Low

Juggling Dynamite - Canada’s loonie (CAD) traded at .6939 U.S. this morning, the lowest since January 2003. Part of the weakness comes from the Canadian overnight rate at 3.25%, which is expected to be cut to 3% on January 29, 133 basis points (bps) below the current U.S. effective funds rate at 4.33%. Foreign capital flows where it’s […]
« Previous Page — Next Page »