Canada

By Sober Look Canada continues to face rising consumer debt levels. Since the post on Canadian housing risks (here), we've gotten a number of comments that Canada's housing is not overpriced (for example if measured in terms of gold). And…

Tim Duy has an interesting piece out that dovetails with something I had been saying in the comments here just yesterday. It has to do with austerity as an economic policy response in this post-crisis world. According to Bloomberg News,…

Last month, the Teranet-National Bank National Composite House Price Index showed that Canadian house price gains while moderating across the board are still robust. Combined with recent evidence of a precipitous drop in transaction volume,…

Scarcity is a powerful force and it leaves those in control of limited resources wielding great power. We think a scarcity of uranium will increase Russia's power; control over some of the last big, easy oil deposits has earned Saudi Arabia…

Canadian home prices have been growing quite rapidly, particularly as compared to the US. Some may argue that this is justified because Canada's unemployment rate is lower. 8.1% in the US vs. 7.4% in Canada. Is that enough to justify such a…

I have noted a number of times in the past that household debt levels in Canada have reached worrying levels. I am not the only one on to this. Canadian central bank head Mark Carney was in the news yesterday sounding the alarm on this as…

Good video with Steve Keen, the Australian economics professor with Max Keiser. Steve not only talks about the Australian economy and that country's housing bubble but also about the bursting of housing bubbles in Canada, the UK and Hong…

First, the trajectory of monetary policy in the US, Europe, China and Japan is in a more accommodative direction. Second, the underlying economies are showing preliminary signs of stabilizing. Third, the combination of easing monetary…

Banking sectors in both countries are highly concentrated. The top four banks in Australia account for about three quarters of the banking assets. The top six Canadian banks account for upwards of 90% of the Canadian banking assets.…

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission requires futures traders to identify whether they have an underlying business interest (commercials) or if they don't (non-commercials). Here are seven take-aways from the most recent report that…