June 25, 2025 | Israel – Iran War Over – Maybe Or Maybe Not?

Summary: Israel and Iran Keep Fragile Ceasefire After Devastating 12-Day War!: Crude oil has taken a quick round trip from US$59.74/b in late May to US$78.40/b late last week as Israeli and then US B2 bomber attacks knocked out the key nuclear weapons infrastructure facilities. Then when this operation was completed crude retreated to US$64/b […]

June 25, 2025 | Households Burning Home Equity at Fastest Rate Since 2008

In a sign of financial stress, an increasing number of homeowners are withdrawing equity from their homes for cash to pay down other high-interest consumer loans and credit cards. Debt consolidation is cited as the top reason for people taking out Home Equity Lines of Credit. See, Should you use your home equity to pay off […]

June 25, 2025 | How to Finance Foreign Real Estate

Geographic diversification — that is, buying and/or storing assets overseas — is a good way to hedge against the increasingly real possibility that the US government will go a little crazy when the fiat currency experiment fails. But it’s not simple. Over the years, I’ve come close to buying real estate in Costa Rica and […]

June 24, 2025 | NATO Pledges $40 Billion to Ukraine

The neocons would never permit a true ceasefire. The war in the Middle East must continue in order to broaden the West’s conflict with Russia. Russia is not permitted to remain neutral, despite Putin’s insistence. Follow the money—NATO has assembled $40 BILLION to prolong aggression against Russia. “Let’s not forget, Iran is heavily involved in […]

June 24, 2025 | Rare Earth Recycling in Canada

This is the right idea…reduce waste, reuse, recycle. Ahmad Ghahreman, CEO of Cyclic Materials, discusses the plans to build a recycling plant in Ontario and the development of rare earth minerals in Canada. Here is a direct video link.

June 23, 2025 | The Strait of Hormuz – Incoming Global Energy Crisis?

  Supply chain constraints are inevitable during wartime. Shippers are actively avoiding the Strait of Hormuz that connects the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea amid the Iranian nuclear tensions. This is a significant disruption as around 20% of global oil is funneled through this passageway. Oman’s Musandam Peninsula hosts a narrow passageway with Iran […]

June 23, 2025 | Fade the Forecasts

Happy Monday Morning! Quite the headline this past week. CMHC gives up on goal to return to 2004 housing affordability levels. In other words, CMHC discovers they’d be insolvent if affordability returned to 2004 levels, abandons goal. Considering CMHC backstops the insurance market in this country, having national home prices (their collateral) decline 71% from […]

June 23, 2025 | Canada’s Cottage Collapse

The harsh math of recreational properties… costly consumption spending. ” Is it serving you and your family, or your ego?” Cottages were once a dream… but in 2025, they’re a financial nightmare. The harsh truth behind Canada’s cottage collapse. While prices are falling, affordability is still out of reach for many. A shocking 57% of […]

June 22, 2025 | As Always – Unintended Consequences of Neocon Objectives

  COMMENT: Marty, it is disgraceful that people take your work and issue books pretending it is their research. Yet it is even more shameful that Donald Trump isn’t calling you for advice instead of these people who couldn’t find the door in a room if the lights went out. You stated clearly that Iran’s […]

June 22, 2025 | It’s Official: We’re Back in the 1970s But with Even Bigger Risks and Opportunities

Okay, let’s see: We now (as of yesterday) have a Middle East war that’s threatening to interrupt the supply of oil. And… Deteriorating government finances. Civil unrest and political chaos. A revolting bond market. Soaring gold and rising silver. Yep, it’s official. We are back in the 1970s, which, for younger readers, was a decade […]

June 22, 2025 | Wall Street’s Epic Bunco Game

Tulipmania and the South Sea Bubble have nothing on the bunco game Wall Street has been running with Microsoft shares. I write on this subject often because the numbers are so huge, and because the game, which is intertwined with the biggest financial con-job in history, is not one you will ever read about in The […]

June 22, 2025 | Strategic Investment Conclusions

Today we’ll talk again about the SIC—not the Strategic Investment Conference, but the Strategic Investment Conclusions it helped us reach. This is not a recap of the conference. It’s my reflection on some things I think we should practice in our lives and our investment portfolio management. The “strategic” part means we don’t seek information for its […]

June 21, 2025 | Trading Desk Notes for June 21, 2025

Market reaction to the Israel/Iran war has been muted Israel and Iran are at war, but you wouldn’t know it from looking at this S&P futures chart. The daily WTI crude oil chart shows a bigger price reaction, with prices up ~25% since the beginning of June. However, on the monthly chart, prices around $73 don’t […]

June 21, 2025 | JFK, Nixon – The Deep State Coup of the United States

June 21, 2025 | Danielle on CBC Weekend Business Panel

CBC News Network’s Weekend Business Panel takes on top stories of the week. Here is a direct video link.    

June 21, 2025 | Tech Talk for Saturday June 21st 2025

The Bottom Line Economic focus this week is on U.S. Core May PCE Price Index released on Friday. Earnings focuses this week are on FedEx on Tuesday and Nike on Thursday. Political focus this week is on the “One Big Beautiful Bill”. Will Congress pass the Bill before the July 4th holiday? Seasonal focus is […]

June 20, 2025 | Israel and Iran are at War But Investors are Unfazed

The Middle East has entered yet another war, this time between Israel and Iran. The U.S. appears poised to get directly involved, on top of its already substantial role as Israel’s main backer. So far, markets haven’t blinked. The S&P 500 is still trading within 2% of its all-time high, and oil is up only […]

June 20, 2025 | Traits of the Happiest People

  Based on my 78 years on this planet, here are what I believe tend to be the traits of the happiest people:   1.  Happy people are healthy – both physically and mentally.   2.  Happy people are married.   3.  Happy people are good at what they do – which gives them great […]

June 19, 2025 | The Legacy of Zero Interest Rate Policy: Misallocated Resources

Interest-rate suppression experiments of central banks dominated the world from 2008 to 2022, incentivizing the misallocation of $trillions of resources, record debt, and uneconomical asset prices. Real estate — the most widely owned and leveraged asset in the world — is one of the most glaring and consequential hangovers, with many areas now drowning in […]

June 19, 2025 | Powell Blames Trump Tariffs for Coming Inflation

    I repeatedly warned that the headlines would blame Trump tariffs for the incoming inflationary wave. Jerome Powell stated that “uncertainty is unusually elevated” as a result of tariffs, adding, “someone has to pay for the tariffs.” “Ultimately, the cost of the tariff has to be paid, and some of it will fall on […]

June 18, 2025 | Recession Watch: Should We Really Be Piling Into Equities and Options?

Auto prices have soared in the past decade, while auto loan interest rates have more or less doubled in the past two years. The result: hugely expensive “car mortgages” and spiking loan delinquencies: But as ominous as auto loans seem, they pale next to credit cards and student loans, where delinquencies have gone parabolic. Over […]

June 18, 2025 | China to Become World Nuclear Energy Super Power

China has discovered a massive 1-million-ton thorium deposit valued at $178 billion that could potentially power the nation for the next 60,000 years. Thorium is a radioactive metal found in the Earth’s crust that is three times as common as uranium. One ton of thorium can produce as much energy as 200 tons of uranium […]

June 18, 2025 | Israel Attacks Iran To Destroy Their Offensive Military Capability And To Decimate Their Nuclear Weapons Program

Israel and Iran at War: Israel had intelligence that Iran had completed building multiple nuclear weapons (8 to 10) and that they were now mating the weapons with their middle and long range ballistic missiles. This alone was an existential threat to them but there was also intelligence that Iran was prepared to give some […]

June 17, 2025 | War – It’s All Connected – Middle East, Russia, and China

  This Middle East War is deeply connected with the war to destroy Russia, and it is all orchestrated by the NEOCONS. I have written before that I argued with Bill Kristol back in the ’90s, whose father helped start the Neoconservative movement. They wanted to remove all opponents of Israel under the pretense that […]