February 22, 2025 | Montana Legislators Working to Ban mRNA Vaccines

Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccinations produce foreign proteins in the human body, triggering an immune response to prepare the body for future infections. Lipid nanoparticles flow into cells, mimicking a protein, but “the science” claims it does not enter the nucleus and, therefore, does not impact DNA. These vaccines are relatively new, with the first trial […]

February 22, 2025 | Tech Talk for Saturday February 22nd 2025

The Bottom Line The Dow Jones Industrial Average is following its typical seasonal pattern for the month of  February: During the past 20 years, the Average has a history of moving lower from mid-February to mid-March

February 21, 2025 | Population Collapse is a Serious Threat

Population collapse will be a very important issue in many parts of the world in the near future. Outside of sub-Saharan Africa, the number of births is not sufficient to maintain the world’s population at 8 billion people. The impact on the economy will be enormous and hard to imagine for those who grew up […]

February 21, 2025 | DOGE vs Corrupt Media

    Well, the country is still divided, with the Democrats screaming about DOGE. I would love to see Chuck Shummer in handcuffs and sent to Riker’s Island, where he belongs.  All we hear is how evil Musk is, and that he is UNELECTED. I do not recall ever voting for the head of any […]

February 21, 2025 | Wild Times in Precious Metals

Since the start of this century, gold has outperformed stocks — despite stocks being in an epic bull market: You’d think that gold would have gotten more attention after such an impressive run. But until recently, this has remained a largely neglected asset class. But Now…Damn   In just the past few weeks, the news […]

February 21, 2025 | Policy Mayhem and Markets

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 20, 2025 | Why Timing Matters For Short Selling

Betting against overvalued stocks can be insanely profitable — if you use put options and get the timing right. But those are big “ifs”. Here’s a cautionary tale. Back in May of 2023, when this newsletter was new and its recommended Portfolios needed fleshing out, I named the homebuilder stocks as excellent short candidates. Home prices were too high, […]

February 20, 2025 | Over a Quarter of Canadians See US as an Enemy

    The once strong alliance between Canada and the United States has come to an abrupt halt. More so than tariffs, Canadians were offended when President Donald Trump continually stated that America should absorb Canada as the 51st state. A recent poll found that over a quarter of Canadians now see the US as […]

February 19, 2025 | Moscow and Washington Discuss Peace – Trump Exposes Zelensky

  The United States will no longer tend to Ukraine as if it were a helpless victim in the war. The media would like you to believe that Russia invaded Ukraine without provocation. The events that led to this war are detailed in “The Plot to Seize Russia.” The official US government stance on the […]

February 19, 2025 | New Listings Spring Early

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 […]

February 18, 2025 | Homebuilder Sentiment Down as Tariffs Loom

  Tariff threats have dampened homebuilding confidence. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index dropped five points from January into February to a reading of 42, the lowest reading in five months. Builders were initially hopeful that the Trump administration would remove some red tape regulations to streamline the process. However, […]

February 18, 2025 | Bid-Ask Spreads Wide Under Canadian Shelter Prices

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 […]

February 17, 2025 | Washington in Meltdown as Bureaucrats Flee

  (“Swiss bank” (yellow), “offshore bank” (green), “wire money” (red) and “IBAN” (blue)) Google search results for “lawyer” have skyrocketed by 400% in Washington D.C. since Trump took office, according to WikiLeaks and Google Trends. The elites in Washington already have lawyers and methods to conceal their backdoor dealings, but their aids and others are […]

February 17, 2025 | What’s breaking Canadian consumers?

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 […]

February 17, 2025 | Trading Desk Notes for February 17, 2025

Back in the saddle again An apology: I have been unable to post the Trading Desk Notes for the past two days due to a frustrating firewall problem. I’m grateful that my tech guys were able to fix it, but it serves as a reminder that things can go haywire in our digital world!   […]

February 16, 2025 | Trump Confusion Syndrome

I think I’m going to start a new 12-step program. I sense there are a lot of potential members. The meetings would start with something like this: “Hi. My name is John. I have Trump Confusion Syndrome. I don’t think it’s contagious, but many of my friends are suffering similar symptoms. “I like a lot […]

February 16, 2025 | Wonks and Eggheads Still Don’t ‘Get’ Trump

Trump promised everything but a cure for cancer during last Thursday’s press conference, and there was no doubting his sincerity or his commitment to helping to shape a better world. Can he do it? One thinks of Teddy Roosevelt, who possessed seemingly limitless energy and zeal for taking on big projects, including building a national […]

February 16, 2025 | Pharmaceutical Marketing – Billions Spent to Make You Sick

  The United States and New Zealand are perhaps the only nations that permit direct-to-consumer (DTC) prescription drug advertising. Big Pharma is permitted to use every marketing tool at its disposal to glamorize medications to consumers, who are then expected to go to their doctors and ask for the latest and greatest pill, treatment, or […]

February 15, 2025 | RFK on Gates & Fauci

February 15, 2025 | Tech Talk for Saturday February 15th 2025

Reminder U.S. and Canadian equity markets are closed for a holiday on Monday. The Bottom Line Diverging trends! On one hand, equity indices are responding to higher than consensus fourth  quarter earnings and revenue results. Focuses this week are reports by Wal-Mart on Thursday and reports by a series of commodity companies throughout the week. […]

February 14, 2025 | Higher Inflation Could End Rate Cuts For This Year

Higher inflation returned this week. The numbers for January CPI inflation came in hotter than expected. A significant upturn in Core CPI on a monthly and annual basis raised eyebrows, although the markets were not rattled for long. Is this the end of rate cuts? Will rate hikes be next? The U.S. CPI released on […]

February 13, 2025 | China’s Real Estate Bust Leads Other Countries

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 13, 2025 | Could Canada Join the EU?

  An economist has made headlines for suggesting that Canada unite with the European Union bloc. Could Canada become the 28th member state? Absolutely not. The very idea that Canada would consider joining the European Union and abandoning the Canadian dollar for the euro is sheer economic insanity. To throw away its sovereignty and monetary […]

February 12, 2025 | US Total Consumption Falls While Commercial Crude Stocks Rise

President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu have given Hamas until noon on Saturday to release all remaining hostages (alive and the bodies of the dead) as Hamas has not met the phase one conditions. If the release does not happen then Trump’s ‘All hell is going to break out’ could escalate the fighting in the […]