HoweStreet.com Radio - Is Canada’s Real Estate bubble bursting?

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook - Battery technology will be key to rapid adoption of battery electric vehicles (BEVs). The world’s largest EV battery manufacturer — Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (CATL) — has announced the specifications for a new battery design. Will this improvement push EVs into a dominant role? Here’s a release including a 4-minute video showing CATL’s battery compared to Tesla’s […]

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook - The inflation rate in Canada hit a new high for this cycle as it reached 7.7 percent growth. The Bank of Canada’s goal is to get inflation to 2 percent. Can the Bank of Canada succeed? Carolyn Rogers. Source: Bank of Canada Carolyn Rogers, senior deputy governor of the Bank of Canada said that “inflation […]

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook - The Federal Reserve hiked interest rates by 75 basis points on Wednesday. Only once before has the Fed hiked by such a large amount. Conventional wisdom says that when inflation is out of control the Fed must hike until it hurts, and even beyond. There is only one parallel to the recent surge in inflation. […]

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook - The dominance of the internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle is coming to an end as battery electric vehicle (BEV) adoption accelerates worldwide. While the demise of the ICE vehicle will take a decade or two, the impact is already being felt. The popularity of ICE-powered vehicles began in the early 1900s when the use of […]

HoweStreet.com Radio - Will offices ever run at 100% capacity again?

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook - Canadian banks declared victory, prematurely, over the COVID-19 crisis by reporting increased profits, in most cases, and raising their dividends. The looming interest rate increases powered by the central banks and the markets did not deter the banks in their optimism. Are Canadian banks adequately prepared for higher interest rates and a recession? A closer […]

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook - Central bankers are in a tough spot. They would like to curb inflation, but they know that raising interest rates quickly could trigger a recession. In the 1970s central bankers lost the battle with inflation for many years, and eventually they were forced to raise interest rates as high as 20 percent. Can central bankers […]

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook - Luna and TerraUSD are the crypto currency tokens which collapsed earlier in May. About $3 billion of reserves are gone and questions about what happened to the stablecoins are piling up. Touted as a safe haven for holders of cryptocurrency, the Luna/TerraUSD system failed spectacularly, going from a peak value of $18 billion in early […]

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook - The world is in a food crisis that will affect everyone. The inflation in crop prices is threatening to trigger widespread starvation in some poor countries. Grain producers will benefit from strong prices and increased demand for their exports. Russia, United States, Ukraine, France and Canada are main exporters of wheat in the world. Input […]

HoweStreet.com Radio - Interest rates could skyrocket

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook - Worldwide demand for battery electric vehicles is soaring. The cost of materials needed for vehicle batteries is rising even faster. Will the cost of batteries bring the electric vehicle revolution to a sudden halt? In some countries, such as Norway, the conversion to battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) is very advanced. With punitive taxes on internal combustion […]

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook - Worldwide demand for battery electric vehicles is soaring. The cost of materials needed for vehicle batteries is rising even faster. Will the cost of batteries bring the electric vehicle revolution to a sudden halt? In some countries, such as Norway, the conversion to battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) is very advanced. With punitive taxes on internal combustion […]

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook -   On March 29th the Canadian government announced a plan to reduce carbon emissions across all sectors of the economy, targeting a 40-45% reduction below 2005 levels (see plan here). The government is committing to $9.1 billion in new investment towards carbon capture technology, zero-emission vehicles, and cleaner electrical generation. Many stakeholders are still digesting the plan, so […]

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook - The current inflation surge in Canada and around the world demands answers from government. Will inflation be brought under control? How? I was invited along, with others, to present on March 28, 2022, to the Standing Committee on Finance for the House of Commons on a Zoom call. The topic is inflation, and the housing […]

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook - China Evergrande hit the news again, with a surprising announcement that a creditor had seized US$2 billion of funds from a subsidiary of the company. Creditors are upset that one lender received preferential treatment from the restructuring process, which is now being run by the government of China. Will foreign creditors decide to withdraw all […]

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook - Russia is threatening to use nuclear weapons in the current conflict with Ukraine if western countries intervene. Is there a significant possibility of a nuclear war? V. Putin issued a vague threat, but everybody thinks they know what he was talking about. In his warning to Europeans and North Americans who might be thinking about […]

HoweStreet.com Radio - Canadian Oil, Pipelines

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook - A doubling in the price of crude oil in a short period of time (a year or less) has been a reliable predictor of recession. In fact, every time in the post-WWII period when oil has doubled, there has been a recession. Will there be a recession after the current jump in oil prices? The […]

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook - Persistent increases in inflation signal the end of this bull market. The increase in inflation will push interest rates higher and stock market valuations will come down. The Markets Live segment of Bloomberg published a chart a few days ago that caught my eye. The chart shows the relationship between Manufacturing Business Prices Paid and […]

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook - The potential military conflict between Russia and Ukraine continues to escalate. Military conflicts usually cause markets to get more volatile for a time. But would an invasion of Ukraine by Russia precipitate a market crash?   Members of Ukrainian forces in an urban combat training exercise on Friday February 11, 2022. Source: Bloomberg Finance LP […]

HoweStreet.com Radio - Real Estate prices unsustainable

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook - Economists are underestimating inflation. The consensus is for inflation to drop to 2.9 percent by the end of 2022. But that consensus should be viewed with suspicion. How should investors act if we get higher inflation instead? The consensus of economists has inflation dropping from 7 percent to sub-3 percent by the end of 2022. […]

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook - The end of this bull market has arrived. Recently Jeremy Grantham described how this extreme valuation in the stock market, bond market and some housing markets is a very rare event. And he claims that it is over. Grantham first came to my attention at a conference in 2003. He was a keynote speaker and […]

Hilliard's Weekend Notebook - The Federal Reserve has been promoting asset bubbles for years. This easy money policy has created a series of booms, widened income and wealth inequality and added massive debt to the system. This week the Fed signaled it is ready to end this misguided policy. Will the Fed have the backbone to stop promoting asset […]