Gwyn Morgan: If vote-buying was Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s real objective, how did he possibly expect to get away with it? BLAIR GABLE/REUTERS FILES
The prime minister said it was needed so students would have summer jobs. But students aren’t taking jobs that already exist
By Gwyn Morgan
Conflict of interest revelations surrounding the selection of WE Charity to administer the Canada Student Service Grant have dominated media coverage and led to investigations by parliamentary committees and the federal Ethics Commissioner. While getting answers on how WE was selected is essential, there’s been scant focus on the more fundamental question: why was this program — which the federal government has said has a budget of up to $912 million, of which WE was to be paid $43.53 million to distribute $500 million in grants — conceived in the first place?
(Kitco News) — A weaker U.S. dollar will continue to provide vital support for gold even as the market looks overbought and risks start to materialize, according to one research firm.
In its weekly update, analysts at Metals Focus said that bearish momentum in the U.S. dollar has been a tailwind for gold, which has seen prices hit all-time highs and push to within striking distance of $2,000 an ounce.
August gold futures last traded at $1,951.50 an ounce, up 0.35% on the day; meanwhile, the U.S. dollar index has fallen to its lowest level in two years.
(Reuters) — Boeing Co (BA.N) slashed production of its biggest twin-engined jets, delayed its new 777X by up to a year and began sunsetting the iconic 747 as it posted a bigger-than-expected quarterly loss dominated by the COVID pandemic on Wednesday.
The cuts mark the industry’s latest effort to tackle a crisis that has decimated demand for air travel, with oversupplied wide-body models like the 787 Dreamliner and 777 plunging deeper into an existing downturn.
Boeing also remains exposed to tensions between the United States and China, which has shelved plans to buy big U.S. jets.
“Our industry and our company are weathering challenges like none we have ever experienced in our lifetimes,” Chief Executive Dave Calhoun told analysts.
Michael Gayed says he’s not trying to scare anyone, but you wouldn’t know it from his latest take.
Back in May, the fund manager warned of the possibility of two crashes: first bonds, then stocks. With his ATAC Rotation Fund ATACX continuing to deliver the goods — it’s up almost 60% so far this year to rank among the best in its category — he’s still waving the yellow flag.
“It is a wild time in the markets,” said Gayed, who also runs the Lead-Lag Report. “Despite a crippling global pandemic, where the U.S. is failing miserably at a response with daily record after daily record cases being broken, and a U.S. economy that seems to be teetering on the edge of yet another Fed Monetary Policy response, stock markets have not seemed to blink when recovering.”
Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux had said that he had faith the projects existed, but that there needed to be more transparency around their existence.
Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna was cited by the Parliamentary Budget Office yesterday for “missing details” on thousands of public work projects, which have likely caused headaches for the Trudeau minister since a June 2 report from the PBO found that roughly 20,000 taxpayer-funded projects were lacking sufficient evidence to prove they had started.
“This is not a fully exhaustive list,” the Budget Office wrote on Wednesday. McKenna in a March 10 report to Parliament said “over 52,000 projects have been announced government-wide with contributions of approximately $57.5 billion. Almost all of these projects are either started or completed.”
Gold’s unrelenting march higher shows no signs of slowing after a plunge in the dollar swept prices past the previous high set in 2011 and put the metal on track for even bigger gains.
Bullion’s surge came as a gauge of the U.S. currency sank to the lowest in more than a year, the latest in a long line of bullish factors — including negative real rates in the U.S. and bets the Federal Reserve will keep policy accommodative when it meets this week — that are pushing prices ever higher.
With the world facing an extended period of unprecedented economic and political turmoil, gold’s now got $2,000 in its sights. Some in the market suggest the haven could rise even beyond that.
Both Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau have already acknowledged they should have removed themselves from the process because of family connections to WE and the perception of conflict of interest. DAVID KAWAI/BLOOMBERG
It is worth mentioning that at this stage of the WE scandal it might be useful to go in a negative direction. Thus, it could be said that perhaps it would be more efficient if we asked which key members of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet are not in any relationship with the Kielburgers, have not been speakers at WE events, did not receive a courtesy vacation in WE’s horribly expensive luxury complex ($ 4,000 per night) in Kenya, have no family members who work for WE, or who have equally not forgotten that they owe a regrettable share of change to some arm of the always numerous companies in WE.
However, it is known who, in fact, if they are involved in it, down to their conflict of interest necks, are simply the most powerful number 1 and number 2 people in Canada, no less than the Prime Minister himself and his Minister of Finance. And while these are not elements of conflict of interest from their bizarre and ever-evolving history, the most curious part is how these two leaders, in particular, could so carelessly and casually entangle the government they lead to dole out a billion dollars of the town’s money to two of his friends.
Gold set a new record over the weekend as prices surpassed $1,920 an ounce, the previous all-time high set in 2011, but momentum may not stop until $4,000 an ounce is taken out, according to Frank Holmes, CEO of U.S. Global Investors, who based his prediction on the effects that monetary stimulus had on gold during the last recession.
It’s important to take Holmes’ forecast into context.
Although gold has already breached all-time highs in several foreign currencies, this is the first time since 2011 that the yellow metal has seen new highs in U.S. dollar terms.
As of 7:00 am EST, spot gold traded at $1,944 an ounce.
In 2011, gold did not consolidate around the peak and form a plateau; rather, the metal retraced almost immediately, beginning a long-term bear trend that troughed in December, 2015.
Five drilling rigs could be seen parked at Sam’s Trucking in Estevan on July 16. Normally, these rigs would be working in the field at this time of year, but on that date, there were no rigs drilling for oil throughout the entire province. Photo by Brian Zinchuk, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
In recent years, by mid-July there would be 30 to 50 drilling rigs working throughout Saskatchewan. Nearly all would be drilling for oil, but one or two would be drilling for potash or helium.
The active drilling rig count is one of the key leading indicators of the oil industry. As of July 16, there was just one rig working in Saskatchewan, and it was drilling for helium, according to Rig Locator (riglocator.ca). According the Rig Locator, no drilling rigs have been drilling for oil in Saskatchewan since the end of the winter drilling season in mid-March.
Additionally, Saskatchewan’s oil production went from 502,700 barrels per day (bpd) in March 2020, to 361,000 bpd in May, a decline of 28.2 per cent. When oil prices cratered in April, many oil producers shut down substantial portions of their production and all ceased drilling.
The tremendous destruction in demand for oil around the world came with the onset of the COVID-19 crisis in mid-March. This coincided with Saudi Arabia and Russia flooding the market with additional oil. In mid-April, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil briefly went into negative pricing territory for one day.
Norman Rockwell's "Freedom of Speech," from 1943.CURTIS PUBLISHING, INDIANAPOLIS, AND NORMAN ROCKWELL MUSEUM COLLECTION
For generations, Americans were raised to see robust debate as legitimate, desirable, and essential to democratic health. No longer.
“Freedom of Speech,” the famous Norman Rockwell painting that depicts a young man addressing a local gathering, was inspired by a real event. One evening in 1942, Rockwell attended the town meeting in Arlington, Vt., where he lived for many years. On the agenda was the construction of a new school. It was a popular proposal, supported by everyone in attendance — except for one resident, who got up to express his dissenting view. He was evidently a blue-collar worker, whose battered jacket and stained fingernails set him apart from the other men in the audience, all dressed in white shirts and ties. In Rockwell’s scene, the man speaks his mind, unafraid to express a minority opinion and not intimidated by the status of those he’s challenging. He has no reason not to speak plainly: His words are being attended to with respectful attention. His neighbors may disagree with him, but they’re willing to hear what he has to say.
What brings Rockwell’s painting to mind is a new national poll by the Cato Institute. The survey found that self-censorship has become extremely widespread in American society, with 62 percent of adults saying that, given the current political climate, they are afraid to honestly express their views.
The Big Idea is a series that asks top lawmakers and figures to discuss their moonshot — what’s the one proposal, if politics and polls and even price tag were not an issue, they’d implement to change the country for the better?
Stephen Moore, a member of President Trump’s economic recovery task force and an economist at FreedomWorks, has a bold idea for how to reinvigorate the economy: abolish the federal income tax, and replace it with a national sales tax.
On the face of it, it may seem like a radical notion especially since essentially all Americans nowadays have grown up having a chunk of their income pulled out by the IRS every year. But Moore notes that the income tax is a relatively new invention in the U.S. — having only been introduced in the early 20th century.
The media “feels empowered” to smear people like Covington Catholic High School students as there are no consequences for spreading misinformation, the Federalist senior editor Mollie Hemingway said.
Hemingway told Tucker Carlson on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Thursday that the reason the lawsuits against NBC, CNN and the Washington Post brought by Covington Student Nicholas Sandmann are resonating is because “currently there aren’t any repercussions really for getting stories completely wrong.”
“You are seeing this where the media feels empowered to smear people including in this case a child who had come out to Washington, D.C., for the March for Life and they did this over the course of days,” she said.
“They said false things about this boy and his school that were demonstrably untrue and right now there’s not a lot of accountability for this. They do these false stories, they get ratings, they get money, and they never really are held accountable for it. “
Jim Grant has long been skeptical of the mechanization of the Federal Reserve. He was warning about the distortions created in the markets and broader economy caused by the central bank’s monetary policy long before the monetary Hail Mary it threw up in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
In the WSJ piece, Grant asserts that the Fed’s zero interest rate monetary policy is hopelessly distorting the economy and policymakers, Powell in particular, should find a bit of humility.
(Kitco News) Gold is a better option than “chasing overvalued stocks,” writes FXTM chief mark strategist Hussein Sayed. “With yields expected to remain low for a long time, inflation projections likely to head higher in the months to come and geopolitical tensions on the rise, some great ingredients are present for the precious metal to continue attracting inflows,” Sayed says. Gold is very close to its all-time highs of $1,920 an ounce and is looking ready for more gain. “Only $50 away from the all-time high, it is only a matter of short time for the yellow metal to see a new record,” Sayed writes. In the meantime, stocks are continuing to ignore deteriorating U.S.-China relations. “After ordering the shutdown of China’s consulate in Houston and claiming two Chinese hackers targeted U.S. companies working on the virus and stealing information, we are yet to see the Chinese response,” Sayed notes. “The market reaction to the latest developments has been muted … Hopes for another round of U.S. stimulus and better than expected earnings from the big tech firms is keeping the rally alive despite valuations becoming extremely overstretched. But if worsening U.S.-China trade relations lead to re-imposing trade tariffs, then it’s likely to mark the short term top in equities.”
In other words, there is absolute anarchy on the ground in Portland — and the Governor of Oregon and the Mayor of Portland have refused to do anything about it.
Over there at Fox, Andrew McCarthy, now a senior fellow and contributing editor at National Review but himself a former federal prosecutor has nailed it exactly. Says Andy:
“[H]e shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” The Constitution says that’s the president’s job, but we’re not hearing much about that from the chattering classes.
This is the plain text of Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution. And Andy is right — the “chattering classes” are ignoring it outright. But even more disturbing is the silence or outright ignorance of America’s political class.
Permanent business closures are rising as the economic impacts of the coronavirus-induced government shutdowns continue to ripple through the economy.
This is yet another sign that the promised “v-shaped” economic recovery will likely never materialize.
Business closures on Yelp peaked about 177,000 on April 19 and fell to 132,500 as of July 10 as states allowed their economies to open up. But even as the total number of closed businesses declined, the number of permanent shutdowns spiked. According to Yelp, of those 132,500 closed businesses, 72,842 were shut down permanently. That means as of July 10, permanent closures accounted for 55% of all closed businesses since March 1.
The data only reflects businesses listed on Yelp’s website, but it provides a snapshot of the broader US economy.
(Bloomberg) — Global real estate investment fell by 33% in the first half as the coronavirus pandemic battered economies and disrupted deals.
The Asia-Pacific region took the biggest hit, with volumes down 45% from the year-earlier period, because it was the first struck by the outbreak, according to a report from broker Savills Plc. Investment dropped by 36% in the Americas and 19% in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Investment is “expected to remain well below pre-pandemic levels for the rest of 2020 as investors wait for market clarity,” Simon Hope, Savills head of global capital markets, said in a statement on Monday. “However, certain sectors are expected to outperform as investors focus on secure assets, namely logistics, residential and life sciences.”
The global economy has been hammered by the pandemic, with the International Monetary Fund forecasting a 4.9% contraction this year. IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath has said the cumulative loss for the world economy this year and next as a result of the recession is expected to reach $12.5 trillion.
Peter Schiff recently did an interview with Johnny Bravo. They talked about the gold standard, inflation, the looming dollar crisis, presidential politics, and the foolishness of Modern monetary theory.
Johnny opened up the show declaring that governments will never allow a gold standard. They hate gold. Why?
The reason that governments don’t like gold is probably for the same reason that kids don’t like chaperones at the senior prom. Because the chaperones are there to keep the kids in line and prevent them from doing things they really shouldn’t be doing. And that’s really what gold does. It’s kind of like a chaperone for government politicians because it keeps them honest. Because if you have real money, and government wants to spend money on programs, it needs to collect that money in taxes. And that generally puts a brake on a lot of programs because the public doesn’t want to pay.”
A coronavirus vaccine the University of Oxford is developing with AstraZeneca Plc showed promising results in early human testing, and is now set to move into larger trials that are likely to be decisive on how effective they truly are.
The results weren’t enough to convince the market, however. AstraZeneca Plc fell from a record high in New York trading on concerns over whether its vaccine can match the progress seen in programs from Pfizer Inc. and BioNtech SE, as well as Moderna Inc.
“In the competitive context they fail to impress,” said Bernstein analysts led by Ronny Gal.
The vaccine increased levels of both protective neutralizing antibodies and immune T-cells that target the virus, according to the study organizers. The results, published Monday in The Lancet medical journal, are a key milestone for one of the fastest-moving vaccine projects globally.
“Our hope is that we can actually start delivering a vaccine before the end of the year,” AstraZeneca Chief Executive Officer Pascal Soriot said on a call. “We’re working as quickly as we can but of course there are things you cannot control.”
Jamie Dimon, chairman and chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co., listens during a Business Roundtable CEO Innovation Summit discussion in Washington, D.C., Dec. 6, 2018. Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images
KEY POINTS
The range of outcomes for the economy in the second half is incredibly wide: JPMorgan Chase sees no fewer than five different paths it can take.
The bank has gotten more pessimistic, seeing unemployment in its default “base” scenario hitting nearly 11% by the end of this year, 4.3% worse than when it made the same forecast in April.
In a worst-case scenario where the virus surges further in the fall, forcing another round of widespread shutdowns, unemployment could peak at roughly 23%, the bank said.
“The word unprecedented is rarely used properly,” Dimon said this week. “This time, it’s being used properly. It’s unprecedented what’s going on around the world, and obviously Covid itself is a main attribute.”
Attempting to forecast the path of the American economy right now is like peering into a dark well — nobody knows how deep the hole goes.
Canada has endured attacks from China since the arrest of Huawei’s chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou. HOLLIE ADAMS/BLOOMBERG
Canada should have — as Australia has done — outed China’s behaviour as equivalent to acts of war, then joined the trade gang-up with the United States
Huawei Technologies Co. is not a tech corporation. It is a weapon, created and subsidized by Beijing that ruthlessly gobbles up and spits out competitors and countries. It’s also pushing a technology that will spread China’s surveillance ability around the world.
One of Huawei’s early victims was Nortel, Canada’s busted technology champion. Nortel had become a world pioneer in 4G and 5G networks before Huawei was even a twinkle in its founder Ren Zhengfei’s eye. Eventually, its intellectual property and talent became Huawei targets and a recent investigative piece in Bloomberg recounts the tragic story. This is not the only example of Chinese corporate predation in Canada and around the world in the technology sector.
Bloomberg’s headline said it all: “Nortel was once a world leader in wireless technology. Then came a hack and the rise of Huawei.” To be fair, the company also went under due to the incompetence of its Canadian management.
The UK’s decision to ban Huawei from its 5G networks is only the latest diplomatic setback for China. So, as China’s leaders ponder how to respond, they should heed the first rule of holes: when you are in one, stop digging.
CLAREMONT, CALIFORNIA — The United Kingdom’s decision to ban Huawei from its 5G networks has dealt a painful blow to China. Until recently, China was still counting on the UK to stick to its earlier decision to allow the Chinese telecom giant to supply non-core equipment for the country’s 5G networks.
But two recent developments made such a decision untenable. The first was the United States’ escalation of its war on Huawei. The US instituted a new sanction in May banning suppliers that use American technology from providing semiconductors to Huawei. Because US technology is used to manufacture the advanced semiconductors that Huawei’s products, including 5G base stations, require, the company’s supply will be cut off, making production of its 5G equipment in the future nearly impossible.
(Photo by DANIEL SLIM/AFP via Getty Images) AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
The Fed is going to buy stocks. I don’t know precisely when (sorry day traders), but it will happen, and probably soon.
The first half of the Fed’s dual mandate is to promote maximum employment — that means avoiding and mitigating recessions. Supporting the S&P 500 is central to this effort, not because a fall in the market signals a recession is coming, but because it is the recession. This isn’t what we’re taught in Economics 101 and frankly it isn’t how most economists understand the market, so the idea requires a little backstory.
The Rise of Carry
The S&P 500 drives the economy through its central role in the global carry trade. Carry traders earn a yield spread, or an up-front premium payment, as compensation for the risk that the asset they’ve purchased will depreciate or the event they’ve insured against will occur. These transactions, and a wide variety others like them, are “short volatility”. They do well when the world stays the same but can crash suddenly when things change.
A man who wished to remain anonymous is seen in the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) (later named the Capital Hill organized Protest, CHOP) in Seattle, Wash., on June 12, 2020. JASON REDMOND/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Without a doubt, the fall of CHAZistan is evident, which has been said to echo throughout history. And it is CHAZ, unfortunately, it no longer exists, such is the destiny of nations and dynasties. This being the case, it has been said that he has followed the path of the Habsburgs, the Romanovs, and the Hohenzollerns.
On the other hand, another set simply targeted more CHAZ-friendly climates or applied to Portland’s Antifa chapter for diplomatic immunity. A cadre of top management, most of its founders and stars, fearful of backlash from unremoved and abolished law enforcement authorities, have fled as a group to distant Idaho.
There it is presumed that they will assume new identities and, as revealed in a note left at CHAZ headquarters.
Former Globe and Mail columnist Margaret Wente has resigned from Massey College's Quadrangle Society following controversy over her appointment. MATTHEW SHERWOOD FOR NATIONAL POST
Margaret Wente, who has long been the Globe and Mail’s leading columnist, is now the main focus of the news. Being that there are those who are defending her against what is considered as a coward and hypocritical treatment which she is receiving from Massey College. And is that after being nominated and chosen for one of the least exclusive groups of the Canadian academy, the Quadrangle Society of Massey College, Wente was abruptly rejected due to the insufficiency of her apparent fervor in proclaiming the ubiquity of racism in Canada and chase racists. In the same way, she was objected with a high affectation of the professional exaltation, that she was unloaded plagiarism. Of which it is necessary to say that it is not certain that it is true.
Now, focusing on Massey College, it is known that it was certainly founded in the 1960s, being at its time the ultimate expression of English imitation in post-colonial Canadian development. It was also the brainchild of former Governor-General, Washington Minister, High Commissioner of the United Kingdom, Chairman of the Liberal Party, and failed parliamentary candidate Vincent Massey, brother of distinguished film actor Raymond Massey.
It’s a scandal like none I’ve seen that has rocked the Trudeau government and spawned at least five investigations into the government actions.
Even CNN has speculated that this could bring down the Trudeau Liberals.
I’m not sure about that but it is a story that keeps on revealing more.
What started out as an attempt to help young people financially by introducing the Canada Student Service Grant has morphed into something else. The allegation is that this contract was just too cozy, that Justin Trudeau and others in his government were simply too close to the people getting a $912 million sole-sourced contract.
Along with giving the government headaches, this saga has shaken one of the biggest charities in the country.
Keeping track of it all can be difficult so let me try and help summarize the main points as well as how and when it all went down.
TIMELINE
It’s hard to know exactly when some parts of this story happened but thanks to testimony at the House of Commons Finance Committee on Thursday, we now know this saga didn’t begin with the government picking WE Charity out of thin air at the end of June. In fact, what we found out is that WE was pitching the government on running a program for youth in mid-April before the government announced its own intentions.
This timeline is the best reconstruction of how events unfolded.
WE circulated a proposal to several government ministers, including Ministers Bardish Chagger and Mary Ng, in mid-April.
On April 19, at a meeting with officials from finance and employment and social development, an unnamed finance official suggests to Rachel Wernick, senior assistant deputy minister at employment, that she contact WE.
Wernick calls Craig Kielburger on April 19, he tells her that he already has a proposal submitted to government but hears out what the government is now considering.
April 22, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announces the government will be moving ahead with plans to help young people economically during COVID-19 and says details will follow later.
April 22, on the day Trudeau is announcing his new plans to help youth, Kielburger submits a new proposal to the government, this time via email to Wernick.
On April 24, Volunteer Canada, a national coordinating body for the volunteer sector, reached out to the government to offer support in building a volunteer program aimed at youth.
Paula Speevak, president and CEO of Volunteer Canada testified at committee that between April 27 and May 19, her organization reached out to Minister Chagger’s office several times to offer help and to get details.
She said: “ … little information was available while program approval was pending.”
WE Charity contacts Volunteer Canada on May 20 to offer a potential role in the program for Volunteer Canada.
Meetings were held between May 25 and June 5 between the two groups. On June 5, Volunteer Canada told WE that they would not be participating citing several problems with the program including paying people to volunteer and paying below minimum wage.
On June 25, Trudeau announces the student grant program during his daily update. Minister Chagger later reveals WE is the group that will be running the program.
The Trudeau government dismisses questions of conflict of interest over the awarding of the contract. Both the PMO and WE Charity tell several media outlets that the Prime Minister’s family members were not paid to be participants at WE Day events.
Line chart of 30-year fixed rate mortgage (%) showing US 30-year mortgage rate falls below 3% for first time
The average interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage in the US has fallen below 3 per cent for the first time ever, mortgage finance company Freddie Mac said on Thursday.
The historic figure reflects how policy responses to the coronavirus pandemic have brought down borrowing costs, helping drive a recovery in the US housing market even as other parts of the economy face a more uncertain recovery.
The fresh low of 2.98 per cent — below anything on records dating back to 1971 — was down from 3.03 per cent the previous week.
The US, among most other global economies, crashed from a booming 2019 to a recession in 2020, which was triggered by the Coronavirus pandemic. At the end of the 4th quarter of 2019, the US had a record-breaking debt of $21 trillion. With the pandemic sending the economy into a tailspin, the 2nd quarter national debt is now over $26 trillion.
Trade is slowly opening back up, but we are still faced with a skyrocketing debt. Unemployment figures hover at 11 percent. However, many people are out of a job permanently. Thanks to the pandemic, the immediate economic forecast looks grim.
Now, a hedge fund manager who has returned 47% so far this year says he sees gold rising to $3,000 and possibly as high as $5,000 in the next three to five years because of inflation central banks are powerless to control.
I had no idea that things had gotten so bad. Earlier today, my wife spoke with the manager of a local grocery store because she wanted to place a large order for some canned goods. What she was told surprised her, and it certainly surprised me. The manager of this local grocery store told her that there are numerous nationwide shortages going on at this moment, and he indicated that there are lots of products that he simply cannot get right now. When my wife told me what he had said, I decided that I had to look into this, because I hadn’t heard that canned goods were in short supply. Well, it turns out that the manager that my wife spoke with was right on target, and that should deeply alarm all of us.
One thing that my wife was specifically told was that there is a nationwide shortage of aluminum cans, and this is having a tremendous impact on the soda industry.
Coke Life, Mello Yellow, Sprite Zero, Fresca and more. These are among some of the products you may have had trouble locating on store shelves in recent weeks.
And you’re not alone.
When asked about the situation, Coca-Cola told one Twitter follower: “We are seeing greater demand for products consumed at home & taking measures to adapt, working to mitigate the challenge during this unprecedented time. We appreciate your loyalty to our beverages; please know that we’re working hard to keep the products you love on the shelves.”
Apparently the big reason why there is a shortage is because people are consuming far more beverages at home than usual, and this has created a huge demand for canned drinks.
Right now, Coca-Cola and Pepsi are primarily focusing on using their limited supplies of aluminum cans to produce their core products, and this has made less popular flavors very difficult to find…
So far, the current economic situation, together with the response by major governments, compares with the run-in to the depression of the 1930s. Yet to come in the repetitious credit cycle is the collapse in financial asset values and a banking crisis.
When the scale of the banking crisis is known the scale of monetary inflation involved will become more obvious. But in the politics of it, Trump is being set up as the equivalent of Herbert Hoover, and presumably Joe Biden, if he is well advised, will soon campaign as a latter-day Roosevelt. In Britain, Boris Johnson has already called for a modern “new deal”, and in his “Hundred Days” his Chancellor is delivering it.
In the thirties, prices fell, only offset by the dollar’s devaluation in January 1934. This time, monetary inflation knows no limit. The wealth destruction through monetary inflation will be an added burden to contend with compared with the situation ninety years ago.
