Low-income tenants are finding it increasingly difficult to pay for a roof over their heads as rents surge and the national rental assistance scheme fails to keep pace with soaring costs. Median weekly rents in capital cities rose 41 per cent from 1995 to 2009 in constant dollars but the Commonwealth Rent Assistance – an [...]
Investors are understandably scared of the sovereign debt crisis unfolding in Europe. Amid their angst, however, they are ignoring a more likely, and significantly larger, debt catastrophe that is about to hit the nation with the second-largest economy in the world Japan. Two decades of stimulative, low-interest-rate fiscal policy have made Japan the most indebted [...]
CHINA Chinese banks may struggle to recoup about 23 percent of the 7.7 trillion yuan ($1.1 trillion) they’ve lent to finance local government infrastructure projects, according to a person with knowledge of data collected by the nation’s regulator. About half of all loans need to be serviced by secondary sources including guarantors because the ventures [...]
EUROPE Germany and France made the first step today towards the coordination of their tax policies today, as German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble took part in the French Cabinet meeting and made a joint statement with French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde. “The convergence between our fiscal systems is a essential element in our economic integration [...]
CANADA Canadians are getting deeper into debt, fueling spending and increasing pressure on the Bank of Canada to raise interest rates even as growth slows. The ratio of household debt to disposable income in Canada is nearing U.S. levels, according to data from Statistics Canada, the Federal Reserve and the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The [...]
Two years ago, I realized that the total American debt was too great to ever be repaid in full, so I wrote a series of article to belabor the obvious: What can’t be paid, won’t be paid. Independent calculations by John Williams (shadowstats.com), USA Today, and even the former US Comptroller General David Walker all [...]
COMMODITIES DOE crude oil inventories rose 400,000 barrels, gas rose 1.1 m/b and distillates rose 3.9 m/b. EIA reported natural gas inventories up 51 bcf. GOLD, SILVER, PLATINUM AND PALLADIUM On Wednesday spot gold fell $0.20 to $1,191.50, as August fell $7.40. Spot silver rose $0.11 to $17.80, as September fell $0.04. Gold open interest [...]
The Securities and Exchange Commission moved to defuse turmoil in the bond markets caused by ratings firms’ refusal to allow their credit ratings to be used in deal documents. Late Thursday the agency said it would temporarily allow bond sales to go ahead without credit ratings in bond offering documents, a move that would end [...]
The last time a state defaulted on its bonds, it took eight years and the federal government’s help to come up with a remedy. When Arkansas defaulted on its bonds in 1933, the politicians and investors talked about the same things we would talk about today. The state blamed underwriters for allowing it to sell [...]
Now you can see how propaganda and psychological-war is conducted. Every once in awhile the writer pops up from nowhere and has perfect cover and backing and the message is sent. We look for this all the time and we find a number of writers are involved in misinformation. That often is how we know [...]
