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The Canadian ratio of debt to income hit 163.4% in the second quarter, up from 161.7% at the end of last year, according to figures released Monday by Statistics Canada. That’s the highest ratio of debt to income ever recorded in Canada, and more inflated than the levels witnessed in the U.S. and Britain before their housing market collapses in the mid-2000s. Words: 625

This presentation* by David Rosenberg, comes courtesy of Joe Weisenthal (www.businessinsider.com). I’ve disagreed with Rosenberg on the recession call in the USA for a long time now, but we’re on the same page about a lot of the macro trends. Here are three pertinent trends that are worth highlighting from the presentation. Words: 555

Many investors are treating inflation as a certainty because the Fed has expanded its balance sheet to unheard of levels through its quantitative easing strategy. Some have even gone so far as to say that this program will utterly destroy the U.S. currency. To demystify this conclusion, I’m going to explain quantitative easing and why the Fed is using this monetary strategy. Afterward, I’ll explain why gold is still positioned to rise even if inflation continues to be low. Words: 786

For over two years now, I've been warning that the 2008 Crash was just a warm up and that the REAL Crisis would occur when the stock market realized that the Central Banks, lead by the US Federal Reserve could NOT actually hold the financial system together. Well, the Crisis I've been warning about is here. [Let me explain.] Words: 306

There are several variations of Long Wave theory, but the most famous is based on the work of Nicolai Kondratieff, a Russian economist who gave the various stages seasonal names, with summer and autumn denoting the peak of financial speculation and winter the aftermath of the resulting crash. The conditions for a global catastrophic failure are in place. Snow (in the form of trillions of new dollars and euros) is falling. There’s no way to know which dollar (or which external event) will start the avalanche, but without doubt something will. [Let me expand on why I hold that view.] Words: 888

Gold is one of the rarest metals in the world, and has a long history as a valuable and intensely sought-after element. The precious metal has served as the basis for physical currency for thousands of years, and many monetary systems throughout human history have utilized a gold standard that focused on the precious metal. Exploration and production of gold has become a major industry in regions that maintain significant deposits of the metal, and quests for gold have been the impetus of countless expeditions and discoveries. [Below are a list of the top 10 gold producing countries, the top 10 gold producing companies and a definitive guide as to the multiple options of investing in the metal.]

With the pop from the USFed’s latest attempt at financial shock and awe already seeping from lackluster markets, and the teleprompter news networks losing steam over their promotion of the same, it is time to take a look back at the decisions made on 9/13/2012 and set the record straight on some things.

With recent numbers positive for housing realtors, politicians, and others with vested interests, are quick to claim we are on our way back - but are such numbers really meaningful and sustainable? Many more objective analysts, however, are less sure or disagree with this conclusion that the bottom has been reached yet. Here's what some of them have to say. Words: 1377

I had the pleasure today of attending a presentation on Strait Minerals (formerly Strait Gold) which is listed on the TSXV under the symbol SRD. Strait Minerals is a mineral exploration company (copper, gold, silver, moly) with 4 properties in Peru. Below is a copy of said presentation - the straight goods - on their plans for the development of each over the coming years and their financial situation and arrangements.

In order to argue that we will not see a sharp slowdown in Chinese growth, it is not enough to claim that a) some expert or institution has predicted that Chinese growth will not slowdown, b)that China has enough savings in its coffers to bail itself out of a crisis or c) that Beijing leaders cannot tolerate growth below 8%, so of course growth will not drop below 8%. As greater evidence for the bear camp surfaces, China bulls need stronger justifications for their positions or risk losing credibility. [In fact, they need precise answers to 3 questions put forth in this lengthy but extremely insightful (dare I say, absolute best, article on the China sydrome to have ever been written!) article. Words: 4130