Debt & Deficits

The majority of U.S. healthcare spending is not productive; it is a drag on productivity. As it stands now, U.S. healthcare will bankrupt the nation and doom it to permanent stagnation and recession as crystallized in these 3 charts.

The attempt to solve what was essentially a global debt crisis with mountains of more debt means we will have another global financial crisis – the question is when rather than if - and this will have an impact on our economic recovery and on asset prices and hence the importance of diversification in terms of geography and where and how they are owned.

In absolute size of net foreign liabilities the U.S. leads the way but, as a share of GDP, its position is much less than that of Spain & Poland who exceed the acceptable level of 60%. Where does your country rank?

The latest rage is writers saying that the current economic cycle is aging and we had better watch out as the ‘bubble’ will burst soon. NONSENSE. Here's why.

Many investors think that we could never have a crash like the melt-down in 2008 but they are wrong. The 2008 Crisis was a stock and investment bank crisis - but it was not THE Crisis. That will happen when the biggest bubble in financial history - the epic Bond bubble - bursts. Let me explain.

With interest rates being pushed lower year after year, interest expense as a % of disposable income has been declining in Canada and, for the moment, these low interest rates keep the whole thing glued together but, were interest rates to ever rise, Canada's economy would blow up. Here's why.

Most Americans are living paycheck to paycheck so all this access to subprime debt is going to do is allow them to consume future income and guarantee that any ability for future financial security disappears.

For a couple of years the world's central banks fooled the public into believing that perpetual debt was a good way to rejuvenate the markets but, alas, there will be no free lunch. Having a system addicted to perpetual debt is NOT a solution as the following 9 indicators clearly suggest. Again, nothing comes for free in this world.

Hardly anyone thought the Fed would fulfill their plan to stop monetizing the country's debt - and absolutely no one thinks they’ll succeed if they do - but the Fed is acting like it’s serious. The Fed has stopped adding and started subtracting - the money supply is falling - but will this cause the stock market to begin to tank like it did on the last two attempts causing the Fed to relent?

Q: Is it correct to assume throughout that an expanding trade deficit impacts the economy negatively? A: No, the relationship, if there is one, is that there has been a positive -- not negative -- correlation between the stock market and the trade deficit. Let me explain.