ALWAYS CONSULT YOUR INVESTMENT PROFESSIONAL BEFORE MAKING ANY INVESTMENT DECISION
May 14, 2024 | Breakthroughs, Part 1: Three Potential Threats To Oil, Gas, Uranium
This is the first in a series about breakthroughs in energy and other sectors that might affect some of our basic investment themes. Heading in, keep two things in mind: The vast majority of breathlessly hyped developments in science and engineering never make it out of the lab. Scaling up turns out to be too […]
May 14, 2024 | Swiss Army Knife to Remove Blade – Worldwide Ban of Knives
Those shouting for the removal of the Second Amendment in America do not realize that violent crime is STILL on the rise in other nations. The difference is that they are using either knives, bombs, or illegally purchased firearms to carry out the crime. Banning gun ownership will not change human nature; in fact, […]
May 14, 2024 | Household Debt, Delinquencies, Collections, and Bankruptcies: The Free-Money Era Is Over for our Not So Drunken Sailors
Total household debt outstanding ticked up by $184 billion, or by 1.1%, in Q1 from Q4 to $17.7 trillion, on declines in credit card balances, other revolving balances, and student loan balances, according to the Household Debt and Credit Report from the New York Fed today: Mortgage debt: +1.6%; to $12.4 trillion HELOC balances: +4.4%; […]
May 13, 2024 | Why The USA is Collapsing
Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh spoke at a judicial conference for the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears appeals from Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Justice Kavanaugh said that unpopular rulings tend to become the fabric of constitutional law, pointing to the unpopular decision at the time in Brown v. Board of Education, which held […]
May 13, 2024 | Canada Needs Bold New Focus on Net Income Enhancement
More malinvestment in propping up asset prices and the status quo is the opposite of what’s needed. The focus has to be on investments and incentives that increase longer-term efficiency and net income (with full cost accounting for the waste and harm created by different business models and revenue streams). Andrew Grantham, senior economist at […]
May 13, 2024 | Happy Monday morning!
Happy Monday morning! The labour market in Canada has weakened but hasn’t cracked, at least not yet. The economy added 90,000 jobs in the month of April, far surpassing all forecasts while also marking the largest employment increase in more than a year. What a pickle for the Bank of Canada. Rate cut expectations continue […]
May 12, 2024 | China Dethroned as Germany’s Largest Trading Partner
The United States has surpassed China to become Germany’s largest trading partner. Trade between the US and Germany came in at $68 billion (63 billion euros) during Q1, compared to about 60 billion euros between China and Germany. If we look at these figures, they pale in comparison to the aid packages we are […]
May 12, 2024 | Wall Street Journal Boosts Gold FOMO
The Wall Street Journal just published a long article (reposted via MSN) lamenting the fact that everyone suddenly wants gold. So thanks, WSJ, for the FOMO boost: Inside the 21st Century Gold Rush (MSN) – Eric Vazquez, a lineman for a power company in southwest Florida, says he’s holding a lot more gold than most […]
May 12, 2024 | Don’t Be Fooled by Gold’s Stealth Bull
Although there is no publicly traded company called Pirate’s Treasure, the impressive price history displayed in the chart above is real enough. The Canadian company holds royalties to five gold mines that could conceivably rank among the largest in the world someday, according to ‘Spartacus’, a Rick’s Picks regular known for his street savvy, his encyclopedic knowledge […]
May 12, 2024 | Danielle on CBC Weekend Business Panel
The CBC News Network Weekend Business panel takes a look at the top stories of the week. Here is a direct video link.
May 11, 2024 | Trading Desk Notes For May 11, 2024
Despite a quiet, low VOL week, the leading stock indices continued to rally, with the European benchmark index closing at all-time highs. Last week was chockablock with data and event risk; price action was wickedly choppy, and stocks rose. This week was so quiet that you sometimes wondered if the markets were open – and […]
May 11, 2024 | Why Does the Government Borrow Its Own Currency?
The problem with people’s attitudes toward the national debt is that everyone has forgotten why we borrowed in the first place. The theory was that if you borrowed rather than printed money, you were NOT increasing the existing money supply, and therefore, in theory, it would not be inflationary. However, the Democrats forgot […]
May 11, 2024 | Tech Talk for Saturday May 11th 2024
The Bottom Line All-time highs at the close on Friday for the Europe, Africa and Far East Index (EAFE Index) and its related ETF: EFA! Strength in the Index was bolstered by an all-time high set by Europe iShares (IEV) and by strength in Chinese and South African equity indices. Honorable mention is given to […]
May 10, 2024 | Indefinite Weekend Driving Ban in Germany?
Germany is moving full speed ahead to reach their asinine climate targets. The citizens who are in essence the very carbon they wish to destroy must be punished for not sacrificing enough to uphold Angela Merkel’s Climate Protection Act. Transport Minister Volker Wissing is now threatening the German people with “an indefinite weekend driving ban.” “In […]
May 10, 2024 | Because We’re Still Not Sufficiently Indebted…
Zero Hedge just posted a long look at how the “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) industry now accounts for about $700 billion of largely unreported “phantom debt”. This, speculates ZH, is why the economy hasn’t fallen into recession. Now come the unintended consequences: Pernicious effects of BNPL credit are piling up: the Harris Poll survey conducted […]
May 10, 2024 | Monetary Easing Tends To Be Contagious and No Quick Fix
This week, the Swedish central bank followed Switzerland in becoming the second G10 nation to ease base rates in the banking system. Both cited weakening economic activity. The Bank of Canada is expected to follow suit this summer, with 45% of outstanding Canadian mortgages up for renewal this year and next. Most were taken out when […]
May 10, 2024 | The U.S. Government Sliding Deeper and Deeper into Debt
The U.S. federal government will set a new record for borrowing this year, in the trillions of dollars. Government deficits reached a record high in 2020, due to government help to the private sector during COVID. But now, even without a crisis, the deficit has soared to new high levels. Will income taxes increase? The […]
May 9, 2024 | Finally, Some Good-Looking Gold/Silver Miner Charts
Long-suffering mining investors have been wondering how high gold and silver would have to go to finally breathe some life into their portfolios. It looks like $2300/oz gold and $27/oz silver have done the trick. Behold the (suddenly very pretty) price charts: Higher Metals Prices = Wider Profit Margins These price moves aren’t […]
May 9, 2024 | Mind those “defensive” equities
Danielle DB does a good job of summarizing the latest data, suggesting that a US recession is nigh and corporate revenues and employment are set for a drubbing. From the NYSE site, Caroline Woods and Danielle DiMartino Booth discuss the Fed’s continued fight against inflation, the spending power of U.S. Consumers and how A.I. could […]
May 9, 2024 | Strategized Civil Unrest Staged Across the World
Protestors throughout the West are protesting on behalf of Palestine in a deliberate effort to destabilize national politics. Greta Thunberg, a girl with no knowledge of war or science, took part in a Swedish pro-Palestinian protest that attracted a group of up to 12,000. These events are clearly staged when they use a famous social […]
May 8, 2024 | Canada Feeling The Burn of High Debt and Weakening Employment
The Nanos Pocketbook Index, a component of the broader Bloomberg Nanos Canadian Confidence Index and a measure of how Canadians perceive their personal finances and job security, fell to 50 last week, the same level as the pandemic low in April 2020. Fifty percent of respondents said that their finances had worsened in the past […]
May 8, 2024 | WTI Crude Oil Falls on Weaker US Demand and Rising Inventories
GLOBAL ECONOMIC, POLITICAL & MILITARY UPDATE Inflation pressure persists in the US leaving the Fed little room to lower rates at the coming meetings. Insurance, housing, food, electricity costs are all making consumers less able to afford what would have been considered basics. Going to McDonald’s, Starbucks, Pizza Hut or KFC with the family is […]
May 8, 2024 | AstraZeneca Pulls COVID Vaccine
I reported that AstraZeneca was recently forced to admit that its vaccine could produce lethal side effects amid a class action lawsuit in the UK. The British-Swedish pharmaceutical company was required to finally admit that their vaccine can lead to Thrombocytopenic Syndrome TTS, an autoimmune response that can cause blood clots, internal bleeding, and death. […]
May 7, 2024 | So That’s Who’s Screwing Everything Up
Most normal Americans have a sense that the people now running the country are off in some fundamental way. But the specifics have been fuzzy. Are they morons or evil geniuses? Are they controlled by foreign powers or home-grown mind viruses? Or are the aliens pulling their strings? Venerable pollster Scott Rasmussen claims to have found a […]
May 7, 2024 | Ukrainian Military Attempts to Assassinate Zelensky
As I have warned, Zelensky is seen as a puppet of the West, and they are starting to realize that he is destroying all of Ukraine on orders from the American Neocons. I have been warning that any assassination of Zelensky will come from within. Ukraine has reached the same realization where there […]