ALWAYS CONSULT YOUR INVESTMENT PROFESSIONAL BEFORE MAKING ANY INVESTMENT DECISION
February 17, 2021 | Keeping Clear
Someone recently asked me how I stay rational and focused amid manic markets and people. It’s pretty simple, really: I know that crazy is as crazy does. Growing up, I witnessed alcoholism and destructive behaviors in close family members. I know the critical importance of self-control and maintaining mental health. For more than thirty years, […]
February 17, 2021 | Gold Setting Up Major Bottom So Could We See A Breakout Rally Begin Soon?
There has been quite a bit of chatter related to precious metals lately. The rally in Cryptos, particularly Bitcoin, and various other stocks have raised expectations that Gold and Silver have been overlooked as a true hedging instrument. As these rallies continue in various other stocks and sectors, Gold and Silver have continued to trade […]
February 16, 2021 | In-Your-Face Inflation: AutoNation Brags About Huge Jump in Per-Vehicle Gross Profit on Soaring Prices Despite Declining New-Vehicle Unit Sales
AutoNation, the largest chain of franchised auto dealerships in the US, reported fourth quarter earnings this morning – and even as the total number of new vehicles sold in the quarter fell from a year earlier, the company bragged about a number of records, all of them related to higher prices and stupendous growth in […]
February 16, 2021 | Re-Opening and New Variants Suggest Third-Wave in March
In Canada’s most populous province, Ontario, 27 regions will begin a gradual reopening today against the backdrop of stark scientific modelling that has predicted a third wave of infections and the potential of a third lockdown. Several community-based outbreaks of the more virulent and vaccine-challenging South African variant have been confirmed in Ontario over the last week. […]
February 16, 2021 | No Pipeline? Then Oil Moves By Rail
Gulf Coast refineries need Alberta’s heavy oil. But without Keystone XL, that oil will move by rail instead of pipeline. That’s bad news for jobs, and it’s bad news for our environment. Recent years have been good to anti-pipeline activists in Canada but not to the thousands of families put out of work. With US […]
February 16, 2021 | The Everything Bubble
A two-by-four at Home Depot now costs more than seven bucks. As mentioned here, puppies are going for three grand. If you can find one. Boats, RVs, quads, sleds and cruisers are sold out, backordered or just gone. Try buying a Peloton. Or a house in the suburbs, for that matter. Inventory is scarce and […]
February 16, 2021 | COVID-19: The Beginning of Sorrows?
Is it mere coincidence that every 100 years, the world is devastated by a pandemic? From the Great Plague of Marseille in 1720 … to the Cholera pandemic of 1820 … to the Spanish Flu circa 1920 … Pandemics seem to appear like clockwork. And major ones on even longer timeframes. Last summer, I showed […]
February 15, 2021 | The Plan
When the virus hit, the government was vexed. Jobs vanished. The economy cracked. Things looked bleak and hopeless. The real estate market froze with the first lockdown. What to do? The central bank trashed interest rates. Restrictions on lending were eased amid predictions housing activity would plunge – bad news, since it’s a big chunk […]
February 15, 2021 | Federal Reserve & Fake Conspiracies
QUESTION: I found your history of the Federal Reserve very insightful which nobody else has put together. Can you explain your comment that the ECB could go bankrupt but not the Fed? Thank you very much. HB ANSWER: Here is a full set of $1 bills with each issued by its respective Federal Reserve branch. […]
February 14, 2021 | No Scientific Evidence that Masks do Anything! Sweden Banning Masks
What is really amazing is how far we as societies are allowing politicians who have no qualifications in medicine to roll out draconian decrees. These measures are really intent on dividing the people to prevent civil unrest because the socialistic system is collapsing and they needed an excuse to throw all the economic restraints […]
February 14, 2021 | Weighing the Risks of Vaccination
Been vaccinated yet? I haven’t, although I’m trying not to give friends the impression that I’m making some sort of political statement. That means not emailing them links to every vaccine horror story that surfaces, or to growing evidence that the vaccine may not be all that it’s cracked up to be. That […]
February 14, 2021 | 5 Ways Biometric Security Can Be Spoofed
Remember when you were a kid and you tried to imagine what the world was going to look like in the far off, sci-fi sounding year of 2021? What did you imagine? Weekend holidays to the moon? Flying cars and jetpacks to take you around the elevated cities? Robot butlers? The end of all diseases? […]
February 14, 2021 | Overstimulation Risk
Among the many strange, unforeseen changes of the last year is a new respect for Keynesian economic theory. Practically everyone in power now agrees that deficit spending produces GDP growth. They differ only on its expected magnitude and duration. The few exceptions are mostly outside the halls of power. This matters because deficit spending, already […]
February 14, 2021 | Cannabis, Alternative Agra, Mushrooms, and Cryptos – Everything ALT is HOT – Part I
The recent rally in Marijuana and Alternative Pharma/Agriculture stocks has been impressive, to say the least. One thing we have to remember about this sector is that it rallied to highs in 2018 and 2019, then fell out of favor for many months. The anticipation of this new sector emerging within the US, and across […]
February 13, 2021 | Trading Desk Notes For February 13, 2021
North American Stock Indices Keep Rocking The major North American stock indices hit new All Time Highs again this week even as Old School valuation metrics continued to flash warning signs. It’s hard to know if buyers were motivated by optimism over vaccine programs, the coming re-opening boom, the wonders of centrally planned fiscal stimulus […]
February 12, 2021 | Call to Criminally Prosecute Cuomo for Hiding Death Counts in Nursing Homes
Cuomo’s staff has admitted that they deliberately understated the deaths in nursing homes to protect Governor Cuomo who ordered that COVID patients should be moved into nursing homes. There are now calls for his prosecution as he is responsible for the deaths of thousands of people in New York. He then issued an […]
February 12, 2021 | BEHIND THE STORY: “Seeing Red: BC’s Last Primary Forests” Map Weaves an Artful Fiction About Forestry
INFOGRAPHIC: ResourceWorks News takes a look at how GIS data is being employed to create a highly misleading picture of forest practices that is at odds with the obvious evidence from satellite photographs. What we discover is confusing, to say the least. In the image below taken from a Conservation North online mapping tool that is making […]
February 12, 2021 | Game Changers
Derek Holt’s a smart egg. We used to hang out together doing interviews when he was a budding econo rockstar at RBC, with strong views on real estate. In those days I ran and owned a TV production company from a studio I’d built on Bay Street in the financial canyons of Toronto. The business […]
February 12, 2021 | Corporations Are Jumping on the Green Energy Bandwagon
Many corporations are announcing new sustainability or net-zero emissions targets, by a set date, usually 2050. More than 620 companies announced a science-based target in 2020. The total for 2021 will be even higher. As they struggle to meet these targets billions of dollars will be invested to reduce carbon emissions and to purchase offsets. […]
February 12, 2021 | The Human Ups and Downs of Market Mania
Lest anyone thinks it is just large-cap tech stocks that are trading to Jupiter these days, the chart of small-cap stock prices (the Russell 2000 index below since 2001) shows an incredible 40% gap above their 200-day moving average. Sven Henrich points out in Signal Fire, never before has the weekly chart seen such a steep disconnect, […]
February 11, 2021 | Hydrogen: The Future and The Fine Print
Hydrogen makes a splash with the promise of jobs, green energy, and an emerging industry. But what stands in the way? Climate and activist groups are hopeful for hydrogen as a source of clean energy in the wake of Ottawa unveiling its hydrogen strategy. The federal government has been hailed for its foresight. According to the government, […]
February 11, 2021 | What’s Your Self-Preservation Plan?
Whatever people may think they are doing in risk markets today, it’s not investing. If you feel that you must hold sticks of dynamite, at least understand that the wicks are lit and define your self-preservation plan. David Rosenberg, chief economist, and strategist at Rosenberg Research & Associates, offers a lucid overview of our present […]
February 11, 2021 | The Wild West
In October a skinny detached, face-brick house in Brampton with a garage stuck on its snout was listed for $699,000 The neighbours were a tad started when it sold for $795,000. The sale price, in other words, was 114% of asking for the 31-by-100 property. This month 10 Eastview Gate came back to market, about […]
February 11, 2021 | The Number That Blows Up The World, “Everything Bubble” Edition
We’re deluged with numbers these days, many of them huge, ominous departures from historical norms. But one matters more than the others. To understand why, let’s start with some history. In the 1970s the US decided to enter the expensive and divisive Vietnam War, while simultaneously creating major entitlement programs including the also very expensive […]
February 11, 2021 | British Economy Declines Worse in 300 years – Thanks to Boris & his Buddy Bill
The official numbers are in. The British economy shrank 9.9% in 2020 thanks to the deliberate actions of Boris Johnson who should be dragged out of office, tarred, feathered, and stripped of all benefits. He is an absolute traitor to the British people and has sold out Britain to Klaus Schwab and Bill Gates following […]