What Middle-Class Canadians Need To Know: 2013

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Moved To A New Location

Please come and visit me at my new website: www.youdontknowwhatyoudontknow.ca

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Why I Created This Blog

Rising poverty among immigrants a ‘tinderbox,’ (in Canada) study warns - The Vancouver Sun

World Bank chief: ‘No country’ immune to unrest from inequality

What happened to Canada’s economic miracle?

Canadian deposits safe under bail-in, but no guarantee: Carney

A million engineers in India struggling to get placed in an extremely challenging market

Don’t Blame the Work Force

It’s not just stocks; everything is overvalued

Peak Collateral

LNG Premium Price Downward Spiral, The Perfect Storm For Asian Energy Buyers

Potash fails to fertilize the Canadian economy

Our Broken Social Contract

Monday, June 10, 2013

Housing Bubble - Most People Have No Idea of What It Takes For A Government To Pull This Off! (Let Alone Why They Did It)

Housing Bubble Logic Explained:
Bubble was fuelled to build homes that would not otherwise exist today (the construction of otherwise impossible to build social housing through "covert" capitalistic means).

Canada Real Estate 3rd Most Over-Valued (Behind only Belgium and Norway)

How Do Canadian and U.S. House Price Fundamentals Stack Up?

Investing Related - You Take The Risk, Yet Any Premium Earned For Doing So Is Pocketed By Your "Advisor" and the "Financial Services" Industry

The Casino At The End Of The Universe

Fiduciary Duty of Credit Union CEOs: (correspondence regarding their moral and fiduciary duty to the credit union's member/owners - their ultimate employer)

Questions Asked at 2013 AGM (Vancity and Coast Capital):

I hope my credit union isn't guilty of this:

If this happens at B.C. credit unions, I wonder how much of their previously "earned" performance compensation (bonuses) the senior management will feel duty-bound to return to the credit union?

U.K.'s Co-op Bank agress to 1.5 'bail-in' rescue plan (click link)

If you are a credit union member, please, hold the credit union's leadership accountable. Email and/or phone them, and ask them to explain the issues I've raised, and brought to their attention:

Vancity CEO - Tamara Vrooman
Coast Capital CEO - Tracy Redies
Envision Financial CEO - Launi Skinner
Prospera Credit Union CEO - Bruce Howell

Oilsands and LNG

You Don't Know What You Don't Know - The Oilsands:

LNG - Supply greater than Demand!

The Straight Goods: LNG Premium Price Downward Spiral

Vaughn Palmer: B.C. Liberals under the gun on LNG

The Straight Goods: LNG Spin Zone Unraveled, Uncomfortable Facts

Will Any Politician, of Any Stripe, Ever Truly Step Up For Their Constituents, For Canadians?

Democracy and Capitalism

Correspondence with the elected politicians (and Bank of Governor Mark Carney) who represent me:

Emails sent to Mark Carney (Bank of Canada), Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Premier Christy Clark, Adrian Dix, Jinny Sims (MP), Stephanie Cadieux (MLA), all MLA's and MP's (including party leaders), and many major media outlets:

Everything You Need To Know, In One Video - The Economy, Politics, and Financial Markets

Global Economic Issues,Geopolitics, and Financial Markets

Joseph Schumpeter, the originator of the phrase “creative destruction,” authored a less well-known corollary at some point in the 1930s. “Profit,” he wrote, “is temporary by nature: It will vanish in the subsequent process of competition and adaptation.” (Bill Gross)

Canada

Canada Housing Crash Could Take Economy Down With It, Analyst Says

Canadian Housing Bubble 'Set To Burst,' The Economist Says

Debt In Canada

'Race to the bottom' that sank the U.S. better not happen here, Canada's finance minister warns banks
(He's shutting the barn door after he has already allowed the horses to bolt.)

CMHC Seeks CEO With Risk Management Experience
(Bad omen? Bank of Canada governor and CMHC CEO leave in the same month.)

Rest of the World

The True Chinese Credit Bubble: 240% of GDP, and Soaring

China braces for capital flight and debt stress as Fed tightens

Risk of Bank Failures Is Rising In Europe, E.C.B. Warns

Has The Next Crisis Begun? (Japan)

Kyle Bass: "The Next 18 Months Will Redefine Economic Orthodoxy For The West"

World Bank warns on Fed tightening shock for emerging markets

Albert Edwards: "One of the biggest economic bubbles is going into the Minsky Masher" (Australia)

Risk of Bank Failures Is Rising In Europe, E.C.B. Warns

The "War on Savers" Myth

World Faces Lost Decade of Joblessness - ILO Warns

America's Most Profitable Export Is Cash

For Those Wondering If The Unemployment Situation Is Cyclical or Structural

Federal disability trust fund on the brink (U.S.)

Lack of Character?

Capitalism Might Be Making Us Evil

Would Thatcher Succeed Now?

We have already tried Libertarianism - It was called Feudalism

Change to come slowly after election of Iranian moderate
Iran is using the exact same political system as the U.S. (good cop / bad cop) . Obama vs. Congress, Rohani vs. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Manufactured Consent (How Politics and the Economy Really Work)

All of Adam Curtis' BBC Documentaries in one location (click)

You Don't Know What You Don't Know

Noam Chomsky

BBC Series - Century of the Self

BBC - The Trap:

Entire 4-Part Series Can Be Found On YouTube

BBC - Pandora's Box

(Entire 6-Part Series Can Be Found On YouTube)

Education Related

Sympathy for the Luddites

The Once (but no longer) Golden Age of Human Capital

In one chart; we have a demand problem, not a skills problem

Let Them Make Their Own Jobs

A Brand New Report Shows Just How Wrong Silicon Valley Is About A Tech Worker Shortage

Does Expanding School Choice Increase Segregation?

What Does It Take For Traumatized Kids To Thrive?

The Thin Envelope Crisis

America's Higher Education Problem

Sukh's Thoughts:

Hate to say it but the education system is set up to provide a limited number of graduates because 80% of the jobs in an economy do not need anything more than a good high school education. And the best way to fill this large number of jobs is to have people blame themselves for not having done better in school.

Even if we provided all the resources necessary to ensure that everyone had a realistic chance of graduating with a post-secondary education of value, 80% of the jobs the economy needs filled would then be filled with disgruntled, "over-qualified/educated" people. It is much more effective to have people blame themselves for not having worked harder in high school and thankful for the low-paying job they have (but a job which the economy needs someone to do).

As a society, we almost intentionally throw as many distractions as we can at kids to distract them from attaining the goal of not just getting an education, but of the ability to think critically. Most kids, are not mature enough to do what is in their long-run best interest, so unless they have a strong support system at home, the number needed to fail is easily achieved.

I think in South Korea, 60% of high school kids go onto complete a university degree. Then there are not enough jobs for all these highly educated individuals. I think China runs into the same problem.

Who wants to get a university degree and then have to take a job where you are peers with someone with a limited education? It's too much to take for most people. The resentment, and social unrest, that builds can be very destructive for society.