Economy

One of the things that's being lost in the welter of rhetoric around the debt crises of sovereign nations is that these are not normal debtors, and government debt is not the same as personal debt. If you or I are in debt we are obliged to fulfil the terms of our repayment obligations or to go bankrupt or to pretend to die and go off and live on the life insurance. A country in the same situation has a range of other measures available to it...[Let's explore their options and what their implications would be for the country and its citizens.] Words: 1145

In light of the unfolding global sovereign debt fiasco that has turned out to be less of a waterfall and more of an avalanche [than anticipated I present below a description of the 5 stages of collapse and discuss our preparedness. If you haven't read it yet, perhaps you should.] It has been read by 70,000+ people so far - and is still being read by an average of 1,500 people each month - on my site alone. Words: 2525

Canadians are becoming increasingly vulnerable to a housing correction, exposing them to a perfect storm of high debt and falling assets, the Bank of Canada warns...suggesting that many Canadians have constructed their finances on a house of cards, with ever rising home values the key and vulnerable support. [Sound familiar?] Words: 770

There's been a major swing in what people now fear the most for the U.S. economy. Take a look. Words: 255

Despite the practical impossibility of real comparisons we know perfectly well that the value of a dollar or a pound, shekel, rouble or euro isn’t what it used to be...This fact, however, doesn’t stop us from almost exclusively focussing on how much money we have today rather than what it can purchase for us: we think about money in nominal terms rather than real ones [- and that is what is known as money illusion. Let me explain.] Words: 873

The stock market and inflation expectations remain joined at the hip. As the crowd anticipates higher inflation, the stock market rallies, and vice versa. This positive correlation between inflation and stock prices (a proxy for the economic outlook) won’t last forever and it’s anyone’s guess when [that will be but I have my views on it if you are so interested]. Words: 557

You might be able to predict the economy from the stock market, but you can’t do it the other way around. [As such,] ignore economists trying to forecast the market because the market knows better what is going to happen with the economy than even the leading indicators. [In fact,] the stock market leads the LEI by about a month. [Let me substantiate my words.] Words: 333

Currency wars arise when a country steals growth from trading partners by cheapening its currency to promote exports. The new currency war began in 2010 when President Obama declared in his State of the Union address that it was the policy of the United States to double exports in five years. Since the U.S. would not become twice as productive in five years, the implication was the U.S. would severely cheapen its currency to achieve this goal. [Let me expand upon this.] Words: 666

Much of what we see and don’t see regarding the modern-day tragedy that is Greece, is all about perserving the dream of a pan EU/European nation state, a United States of Europe if you will, rather than about bailing out the foreign bank holders of European sovereign debt. Let me explain my perspective. Words: 627

The ownership premium in Canada's largest cities is unprecedented, dangerous to new buyers, and unlikely to persist - and if analogies to the U.S. situation at its peak back in 2005 are at all valid, this is bad news. [Let me explain.] Words: 430