Economy

The financial markets were in distress lately because of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's suggestion that the Fed might taper off its quantitative easing programs starting at the end of this year and ending in 2015. Here are five reasons why markets shouldn't worry too much about the Fed leaving the stage:

The Canadian dollar is at its lowest level versus the American greenback in nearly two years and that’s good news for the Canadian economy. Here's why.

It seems that the past few years of falling interest rates have lulled a big part of the global economy into financing with variable-rate debt...[As such,] when interest rates go up (as they did last week), there’s a world-wide reset in interest costs that, best case, amounts to a tax increase on individuals and businesses and, worst-case, threatens to blow up the whole system.

Lately, the dollar has been making a comeback and, as usual, gold is tanking...[That being said,] however, the timing of the dollar’s resurgence is a bit curious. Perhaps not coincidentally, gold began tanking just as the dollar was advancing against the yen. [Why do I say "Perhaps not coincidentally"? Read on.]

What does it look like when a 30 year bull market ends abruptly? What happens when bond yields start doing things that they haven't done in 50 years? If your answer to those questions involves the word "slaughter", you are probably on the right track. Right now, bonds are being absolutely slaughtered, and this is only just the beginning. So why should the average American care about this?

The global financial system is potentially heading for massive amounts of trouble if interest rates continue to soar. So what does all this mean exactly? [Let me explain.]

In celebration of Canada's 146th birthday on July 1st we take a look at some of Canada's extraordinary - and rather costly - coins.

If yields on U.S. Treasury bonds keep rising, things are going to get very messy. What we are ultimately looking at is a sell-off very similar to 2008, only this time we will have to deal with rising interest rates at the same time. The conditions for a "perfect storm" are rapidly developing, and if something is not done we could eventually have a credit crunch unlike anything that we have ever seen before in modern times. Let me explain.

Fearing that the flow of nourishing mother milk from the Fed could dry up, a resolutely unweaned Wall Street threw a hissy fit and the dummy out of the pram last Thursday. The end of QE is seen as the beginning of the end of super-easy policy and potentially the first towards normalization. There is only one problem: it won’t happen. Here's why.

Last Wednesday, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke promised to end his bond-buying addiction - cold turkey - in mid-2014. That is, as long as the economy is strong enough. As a result, investor fortitude was pushed to the brink. Stocks sold off hard, sending the S&P 500 Index down 1.4%. Before you head for the exits, too, let's get a little perspective.