Is This a Buying Opportunity for Silver?

 

Gold’s recent correction has taken silver down with it. The white metal dipped below $21 an ounce at its lowest, about $8 off its August highs.

That has led some to speculate that we’ve seen a knockout blow for silver. These are generally the same people who have declared the gold bull dead. But I think it’s way too early to hang “rest in peace” over the silver market for the same reasons I don’t think the gold bull run is over. In fact, this may be an ideal buying opportunity.

In order to begin saying last rites for precious metals, you have to believe the Federal Reserve is actually going to tighten monetary policy and the dollar is going to remain strong. Both of these prospects seem pretty implausible.

UBS advises investors to put money in gold as hedge against economic uncertainty

 

© Pixabay.com

Read original article on RT.

The recent weakness of gold represents a “great entry point for investors” ahead of risk events such as the US election, said UBS Global Wealth Management.

“We like gold, because we think that gold is likely to actually hit about $2,000 per ounce by the end of the year,” the firm’s regional chief investment officer Kelvin Tay told CNBC.

He explained that “in [the] event of uncertainty over the US election and the Covid-19 pandemic, gold is a very, very good hedge.”

Stephen Roach: Why the US dollar is only going to fall faster and harder

 

A broken Statue of Liberty figure is seen amid glass shards outside a looted souvenir shop in New York City, after a night of protests on June 2 over the death of George Floyd. Is the world seeing the end of the aura of American exceptionalism that has given the dollar Teflon-like resilience for most of the post-World War II era? Photo: AFP

Given the unprecedented erosion of domestic savings, an explosive current account deficit, and the Fed determined to keep rates flat, expect the dollar to plunge by as much as 35 per cent next year

The US dollar slide has entered the early stages of what looks to be a sharp descent, having already fallen by 4.3 per cent in the four months ending in August in terms of its real effective exchange rate — the index that matters the most for trade, competitiveness, inflation and monetary policy.

This recent pullback comes after its nearly 7 per cent surge from February to April, when the dollar benefited from the flight to safety triggered by the Covid-19 economic shock. But even with the recent modest correction, the dollar remains the most overvalued major currency in the world.

Trump announces conservative judge Barrett as Supreme Court pick

 

Judge Amy Coney Barrett speaks after being nominated to the US Supreme Court by President Donald Trump in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC on September 26, 2020. PHOTO BY OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

It is well known that Donald Trump is the one who has served as the 45th president of the United States of America since January 20, 2017. Now, in the power of his functions, US President Donald Trump, announced on Saturday at the Conservative Appellate Judge Amy Coney Barrett as her third US Supreme Court appointment, sparking a fight in the Republican-led Senate to confirm her before Election Day in five and a half weeks.

Notably, Barrett appeared at the White House with Trump when she made the announcement. Trump called it “one of our nation’s most brilliant and gifted legal minds”. Certainly, should she be confirmed to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died at age 87 on September 18, Barrett would become the fifth woman to serve on America’s highest judicial body and, in fact, be you could say it would push his conservative majority to a dominant 6–3. With Trump’s fellow Republicans controlling the Senate, confirmation seems certain, although Democrats may try to make the process as difficult as possible.

Commended selection

Leslyn Lewis: Liberals try to pull bait-and-switch to take our minds off ineptness of the government

 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau prepares to leave a news conference on Parliament Hill on Sept. 25, 2020. PHOTO BY BLAIR GABLE/REUTERS

It is seen that instead of economic stability, Canadians have been given a plan that promised free money to all who gave up their freedoms for Trudeau’s paternalistic protection. And it is necessary to mention that five weeks ago, Justin Trudeau prorogued Parliament in a blatant attempt to evade scrutiny and accountability.

The WE scandal was undoubtedly dominating the headlines and its handpicked finance minister had just resigned, with parliamentary committees on the trail of one of the biggest scandals in Canadian history. Yet despite undeniable scrutiny, Trudeau made no statement of transparency or of restoring public trust.

In fact, instead, surprisingly with five weeks to prepare, both the throne speech and his totally unnecessary national speech showed no interest in changing course.

Much to be desired

Chris Selley: If Trudeau wants to help our COVID response, here's something better than empty boasting

 

A student from the University of Glasgow administers a self test for COVID-19 at a pop-up testing centre on September 24, 2020. PHOTO BY ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Health Canada has indicated that it is willing to consider rapid “at home” testing. Still, there is little evidence that he is actually considering it.

It is to be expected that many of the regular readers are already tired of repeatedly hearing various points that could be considered of great relevance, even so, it is necessary to treat them and in reference to this they can be treated based on the basic figures of Canada, which Needless to say, they are not worthy of satisfaction, much less pride, since 3,900 cases and 244 deaths per million have been established, thus ranking Canada in 17th and 25th place among 37 OECD countries, respectively. Now, it could be said that most of Ottawa’s sins were committed many months ago by reducing pandemic threat monitoring to focus on vaping of all things, thus ensuring that the risk to Canada was low, send PPE by plane to China and poke fun at anyone who suggested closing borders or wearing masks. The fact is, most of the blame is not on the feds. Neither does most of the solution.

Denial of new and effective methods

Sweden spared surge of virus cases but many questions remain

 

FILE - In this Friday, June 26, 2020 file photo employees socially distance due to the coronavirus as they have a drink after work, in Stockholm. Sweden's relatively low-key approach to coronavirus lockdowns captured the world's attention when the pandemic first hit Europe. Now, as infection numbers surge in much of Europe, Sweden has some of the lowest numbers of new cases and there are only 14 people being treated for the virus in intensive care in the country of 10 million. (Stina Stjernkvist/TT News Agency via AP, File)

STOCKHOLM (AP) — A train pulls into the Odenplan subway station in central Stockholm, where morning commuters without masks get off or board before settling in to read their smartphones.

Whether on trains or trams, in supermarkets or shopping malls — places where face masks are commonly worn in much of the world — Swedes go about their lives without them.

When most of Europe locked down their populations early in the pandemic by closing schools, restaurants, gyms and even borders, Swedes kept enjoying many freedoms.

The Weakness of Modern Monetary Theory

 

Less than a year before the novel coronavirus spread across the globe, Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates founder and billionaire intellectual, published an article on what he saw as the inevitable path for monetary, economic, and fiscal policy. In it, he partially endorsed a view that has emerged since the Great Recession: When monetary policy cannot provide further accommodation after nominal short-term interest rates hit the zero bound, additional fiscal spending is needed as stimulus.

This is not a particularly unusual position. Indeed, over the years, many mainstream Keynesian economists have expressed support for this approach — Harvard economist Lawrence Summers refers to it as “black hole” or “secular stagnation” economics. A year following Dalio’s article, with Covid-19 cases and death tolls mounting, governments in major developed countries around the globe appeared to endorse this view, authorizing deficit-financed spending amounting to between 5% and 10% of gross domestic product (GDP).

US Treasury market’s brush with disaster must never be repeated

 

The Federal Reserve was forced to intervene even more aggressively in March than it did in the financial crisis of 2008, but more action is required © AP

Fed tamed the chaos in March but must take further action to buttress future solidity

The US government bond market is akin to the investment world’s bomb shelter, a safe space where everyone can seek refuge when the rest of the financial system is exploding. In March, the bomb shelter itself started to rumble ominously.

Open Letter from Medical Doctors and Health Professionals to All Belgian Authorities and All Belgian Media

 

The following letter has made an impact on public health authorities not only in Belgium but around the world. The text could pertain to any case in which states locked down their citizens rather than allow people freedom and permit medical professionals to bear the primary job of disease mitigation.

So far it has been signed by 394 medical doctors, 1,340 medically trained health professionals, and 8,897 citizens.

We, Belgian doctors and health professionals, wish to express our serious concern about the evolution of the situation in the recent months surrounding the outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. We call on politicians to be independently and critically informed in the decision-making process and in the compulsory implementation of corona-measures. We ask for an open debate, where all experts are represented without any form of censorship. After the initial panic surrounding covid-19, the objective facts now show a completely different picture — there is no medical justification for any emergency policy anymore.

Exxon Used to Be America’s Most Valuable Company. What Happened?

An ExxonMobil Chemical complex in Baytown, Texas. BRANDON THIBODEAUX FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

It has been a shocking fall from grace for Exxon Mobil Corp.

Just seven years in the past, Exxon was the most important U.S. firm by market capitalization. It has since misplaced roughly 60% of its worth, with its market cap now at round $160 billion, after the pandemic crushed demand for fossil fuels.

Analysts estimate Exxon will lose greater than $1 billion…

Continue reading…

Source: Christopher M. Matthews | The Wall Street Journal

Private equity owners pile on leverage to pay themselves dividends

So-called dividend recapitalisations have become a feature of the loan market in recent weeks as investors seek debt that can provide some income

TPG, Apax load companies with loans, seizing on strong demand for high-yielding debt

Private equity groups including TPG and Apax Partners are taking advantage of blockbuster demand for corporate debt by loading companies they own with fresh loans and using the cash to award themselves a bumper payday.

Gavin Newsom’s Exceedingly Ignorant Climate Claim

 Scientific evidence reveals there has been no climate effect regards California’s wildfires! None! The data below proves it beyond all doubt. There is no denying that warmer temperatures can cause drier fuels and promote larger fires. But that fact is being misapplied to all wildfires. About 70% of California’s 2020 burnt areas have been in grasslands and dead grass is so dry by the end of California’s annual summer drought that dead grasses are totally insensitive to any added warmth from climate change. Dead grasses only require a few hours of warm dry conditions to become highly flammable. It’s fire weather not climate change that is critical. Furthermore, the century trends in local temperatures where California’s biggest fires have occurred reveal no connection to climate change. In most cases the local maximum temperatures have been cooler now than during the 1930s. Those cooler temperatures should reduce the fire danger. Newsom is either ignoring or distorting the scientific evidence, is totally stupid, or is a dishonest demagogue.

Maximum temperatures are typically used by fire indexes to issue red flag warnings because it is the heat of midday that has the greatest drying effect. Minimum temperatures are often low enough to drop below the dewpoint at which time fuel moisture increases. So averaging minimum and maximum temperatures is inappropriate. In addition, referencing a higher global average temperature is meaningless. Only local maximum temperatures determine the dryness of surface fuels during every fire. As in Park and Abatzoglou 2019, the months of March through October are averaged to determine maximum temperatures during California’s dry season.

Here are some relevant facts (from the Western Regional Climate Center). Trust the scientific evidence

Sweden shows lockdowns were unnecessary. No wonder public health officials hate it

 

You know who isn’t worried about a second wave of COVID-19? Sweden. The stolid Scandinavian kingdom has just carried out a record number of COVID-19 tests and found a positive rate of just 1.2%, the lowest since the start of the pandemic. As Sweden’s case rate drops below Norway’s and Denmark’s, those commentators who spent April and May raging against what a Washington Post op-ed called its “experiment with national chauvinism” and predicting colossal fatalities have suddenly gone quiet.

“Sweden has gone from being one of the countries with the most infection in Europe to one of those with the least infection in Europe, while many other countries have seen a rather dramatic increase,” says Anders Tegnell, the state epidemiologist.

True, and it has happened not despite the absence of a lockdown but because of it. Sweden encouraged people to work from home, made university courses remote, and banned meetings of more than 50 people but otherwise trusted its citizens to use their common sense. The authorities judged that since hospitals could cope, there was no need to buy time by ordering people to stay indoors. That judgment has been amply vindicated.

What’s the Price of Gold? It Depends.

 When someone asks what the price of gold is, the answer depends on which gold market he means.

In most cases, the different gold markets are close enough that the minor differences are insignificant. TV news anchors just want to know if the price is in a major trend, up or down (up). Old Uncle Ernie could be reminiscing about the bull market of the 1970s and comparing the price back then to the price today (spoiler: it’s higher today).

The Three Gold Markets

But if you’re studying gold, you may be curious about the differences between the three markets:

• Spot (also known as loco London)1
• COMEX futures
• Retail (i.e., physical coins and bars)

David Rosenberg: The real reason Canada's economic recovery is a mirage

Few other countries have turned on the monetary and fiscal spigots like Canada has, writes David Rosenberg. PHOTO BY GETTY IMAGES

Knowing how inorganic this recovery is makes it hard to be bullish on the loonie

I get asked all the time why it is that data in Canada have been looking so good. Well, few other countries have turned on the monetary and fiscal spigots like Canada has. It’s an embarrassment of riches — who knew so much money could grow on so many trees?

The Bank of Canada has taken its balance sheet relative to the size of the economy to 27 per cent — the average for the industrialized world is 19 per cent. The federal government deficit in Canada is on the precipice of testing 20 per cent of GDP, which is more than double the rest of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Who knew the Canadian government would be of the view that it oversees the world’s reserve currency, and who would have believed that the modern monetary theorists would have found such a welcome home in Canada?

Ross McKitrick: Ditch the fashionable green recovery plans

 

We have enough experience with green technologies to know they don’t run on solar and wind, they run on subsidies. PHOTO BY INA FASSBENDER/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Green technologies that were known money-losers before the pandemic are still money-losers today

There’s a curious idea floating around that the COVID crisis undid the principles of economics. Nobody puts it exactly like that, but it’s implied in the various proposals for restructuring the post-pandemic economy so that it will look very different from the one we experienced up to the end of January. Amid the buzzwords about “Resilient Recovery” and “Building Back Better” are proposals for an investment push into green technologies and new environmental policies, including initiatives that failed to pass standard economic tests before the pandemic.

So how, exactly, did the pandemic change the criteria for evaluating policies, investments and major public projects?

Governments Never Give Up Power Voluntarily

 All those in positions of political power, all governments, all kings, and all republican authorities have always looked askance at private property. There is an inherent tendency in all governmental power to recognize no restraints on its operation and to extend the sphere of its dominion as much as possible. To control everything, to leave no room for anything to happen of its own accord without the interference of the authorities — this is the goal for which every ruler secretly strives. If only private property did not stand in the way! Private property creates for the individual a sphere in which he is free of the state. It sets limits to the operation of the authoritarian will. It allows other forces to arise side by side with and in opposition to political power. It thus becomes the basis of all those activities that are free from violent interference on the part of the state. It is the soil in which the seeds of freedom are nurtured and in which the autonomy of the individual and ultimately all intellectual and material progress are rooted. In this sense, it has even been called the fundamental prerequisite for the development of the individual. But it is only with many reservations that the latter formulation can be considered acceptable, because the customary opposition between individual and collectivity, between individualistic and collective ideas and aims, or even between individualistic and universalistic science, is an empty shibboleth.

The Fed Promises More Dollar Destruction

 The Federal Reserve has potentially had the most memorable year in its more than a century–long history. What started out as a year of “Will they or won’t they cut interest rates?” blossomed into a time of slashing rates to near zero, unleashing unlimited quantitative easing, purchasing corporate and municipal bonds, and growing its balance sheet to a record high. Now, as the economic consequences from the covid-19 pandemic linger, the Fed has taken advantage of the crisis to modify its policies to be more expansionary — which will inevitably blow bubbles and wreak havoc on households everywhere.

The Jackson Hole Shift

Fed chair Jerome Powell delivered prepared remarks during the annual Jackson Hole symposium. Powell virtually announced a historic policy shift in the way the US central bank approaches inflation. The standard policy had been that when inflation climbs, the central bank raises interest rates to curb it, much like what happened in the 1980s. The Fed is no longer utilizing this strategy. Instead, it is damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead.

Positive COVID-19 tests in no-lockdown Sweden hit lowest rate since pandemic started

 

People walk in Stockholm on July 27, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. PHOTO BY JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

COVID-19, also known as coronavirus disease and incorrectly as coronavirus pneumonia, is an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

It is well known to produce flu-like or cold-like symptoms, including fever, cough, dyspnea, myalgia, and fatigue. Similarly, in severe cases, it is characterized by pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, sepsis, and septic shock that leads to about 3.75% of those infected to death according to the WHO. Certainly, there is no specific treatment yet, while the main therapeutic measures consist of relieving symptoms and maintaining vital functions.

In reference to this, it is necessary to indicate that the positive tests for COVID-19 in Sweden without blocking reached the lowest rate since the pandemic began.

The Welfare State Did What Slavery Couldn't Do

 The welfare state has done to black Americans what slavery couldn’t do….And that is to destroy the black family. –Walter E. Williams, the Wall Street Journal

On August 14, the Commission on Social Status of Black Men and Boys Act was signed into law. It establishes a nineteen-member panel within the Commission on Civil Rights to examine social problems that disproportionately affect black males.

The act is a conscious response to the death of George Floyd, with the opening section of the bill being subtitled the “George Floyd and Walter Scott Notification Act.” Floyd died on May 25 after a white police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes. Walter Scott died on April 4, 2015, after being shot by a white police officer who had stopped him for a broken brake light. Both have become symbols of police brutality against black males. Invoking them indicates that the new commission will focus on the disparity with which law enforcement and the court system treat black males.

Peter Schiff: The Dollar and Bonds Are Bigger Bubbles Than Stocks

Peter Schiff recently called the stock market the biggest bubble ever. But he says he should have qualified that by saying it’s the biggest stock market bubble ever. There is an even bigger bubble floating out there — the dollar bubble. Peter talked about that in his podcast.

Tuesday was another bad day for the US stock market. The worst carnage was in the NASDAQ. It fell 4% on the day and entered correction territory, meaning it’s dropped 10% off its high. And that happened in just three trading days. As Peter Schiff said in his podcast last Friday, the stock market bubble may have popped. He reiterated that point on Tuesday’s podcast.

The air could easily be coming out of the stock market bubble. We’re down 10% on the NASDAQ in three days — three trading days. How do you know we won’t be down another 10% in the next three trading days? You don’t. Now, it could come back. Yeah, of course, the stock market could come back. I’m not short the US stock market. And there’s one reason I’m not short the US stock market and that’s the Fed. The Fed has got the market’s back. The Fed is the market’s friend. In fact, the Fed is the market’s only friend. The Fed is the only thing the market’s got going for it.”

Trouble Brewing in the Subprime Mortgage Market

 

Last month, we reported that mortgage delinquencies charted their biggest quarterly rise ever. Digging more deeply into the numbers, we find even more trouble brewing in the subprime mortgage market.

Of the 8 million active mortgages the FHA insures, 17% were delinquent in July. That ranks as the highest level in history. That translates to about 1.4 million delinquent FHA loans.

It’s not just FHA loans going delinquent in the subprime market. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the VA, and Ginnie Mae are also reporting a surge of delinquencies.

The overall delinquency rate for mortgages on one-to-four-unit residential properties spiked by nearly 4% in Q2, reaching 8.22% as of June 30, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s National Delinquency Survey. The jump in the delinquency rate was the biggest quarterly rise in the history of the survey.

The Welfare State Did What Slavery Couldn't Do

 The welfare state has done to black Americans what slavery couldn’t do….And that is to destroy the black family. –Walter E. Williams, the Wall Street Journal

On August 14, the Commission on Social Status of Black Men and Boys Act was signed into law. It establishes a nineteen-member panel within the Commission on Civil Rights to examine social problems that disproportionately affect black males.

The act is a conscious response to the death of George Floyd, with the opening section of the bill being subtitled the “George Floyd and Walter Scott Notification Act.” Floyd died on May 25 after a white police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes. Walter Scott died on April 4, 2015, after being shot by a white police officer who had stopped him for a broken brake light. Both have become symbols of police brutality against black males. Invoking them indicates that the new commission will focus on the disparity with which law enforcement and the court system treat black males.

Peter Schiff: The Dollar and Bonds Are Bigger Bubbles Than Stocks

 

Peter Schiff recently called the stock market is the biggest bubble ever. But he says he should have qualified that by saying it’s the biggest stock market bubble ever. There is an even bigger bubble floating out there — the dollar bubble. Peter talked about that in his podcast.

Tuesday was another bad day for the US stock market. The worst carnage was in the NASDAQ. It fell 4% on the day and entered correction territory, meaning it’s dropped 10% off its high. And that happened in just three trading days. As Peter Schiff said in his podcast last Friday, the stock market bubble may have popped. He reiterated that point on Tuesday’s podcast.

We're Headed toward Stagnation—Unless the Fed Reins In Its Money Printing

The US Fed is considering lifting its inflation target above 2 percent in order to revive the economy. Contrary to the accepted practice, the Fed is not expected to raise an alarm if the measured price inflation begins to rise. The US central bank is not expected to counter this increase with a tighter monetary stance as in the past. In fact, the idea is to continue robust monetary pumping until the economic data points toward a strong economy.

According to most experts, when an economy falls into a recession the central bank can pull it out of the slump by pumping money. This way of thinking implies that money pumping can somehow grow the economy. The question is, How is this possible? After all, if money pumping can grow the economy, then why not pump plenty of it to generate massive economic growth? By doing that central banks worldwide could have already created everlasting prosperity on the planet.

Is Trump a Turning Point in World Politics?

Will Donald Trump’s presidency mark a major turning point in world history, or was it a minor historical accident? Trump’s electoral appeal may turn on domestic politics, but his effect on world politics could be transformational, particularly if he gains a second term.

CAMBRIDGE — As the United States enters the home stretch of the 2020 presidential election campaign, and with neither party’s nominating convention featuring much discussion of foreign policy, the contest between President Donald Trump and Joe Biden apparently will be waged mainly on the battleground of domestic issues. In the long run, however, historians will ask whether Trump’s presidency was a major turning point in America’s role in the world, or just a minor historical accident.

At this stage, the answer is unknowable, because we do not know if Trump will be re-elected. My book Do Morals Matter? rates the 14 presidents since 1945 and gives Trump a formal grade of “incomplete,” but for now he ranks in the bottom quartile.

Winter Is Coming. Is It Time For “Value” To Shine? 08-28-20

In this issue of “Winter Is Coming Is It Time For Value To Shine?”

• Market Is At Technical Extremes
• More Signs Of Exuberance
• Is There A Rotation To Value Coming.
• Winter Is Coming
• MacroView: March Was A Correction
• Sector & Market Analysis
• 401k Plan Manager

Bulls Breakout To New Highs

When money dies, the barbarous relic – gold – comes into its own

The value of gold has soared over the past few months. CREDIT: Leonhard Foeger/REUTERS

A rising gold price reflects, above all other things, a loss of trust in the value of fiat currencies

Here’s a little anecdote that Peter Hambro, a long-standing advocate of the merits of gold as a store of value and means of exchange, likes to tell. In the late Sixties, his cousin, Jocelyn Hambro, invited Her Majesty the Queen into lunch at Hambros Bank in the City, and wishing to put on a bit of a show, he assembled a pile of gold bars to the value of £1m. Quite a pile it was too, taking up an entire corner of the room.

Continue reading on telegraph.co.uk

Source: Jeremy Warner | The Telegraph

The Key to Defeating COVID-19 Already Exists. We Need to Start Using It | Opinion

As professor of epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health, I have authored over 300 peer-reviewed publications and currently hold senior positions on the editorial boards of several leading journals. I am usually accustomed to advocating for positions within the mainstream of medicine, so have been flummoxed to find that, in the midst of a crisis, I am fighting for a treatment that the data fully support but which, for reasons having nothing to do with a correct understanding of the science, has been pushed to the sidelines. As a result, tens of thousands of patients with COVID-19 are dying unnecessarily. Fortunately, the situation can be reversed easily and quickly.

I am referring, of course, to the medication hydroxychloroquine. When this inexpensive oral medication is given very early in the course of illness, before the virus has had time to multiply beyond control, it has shown to be highly effective, especially when given in combination with the antibiotics azithromycin or doxycycline and the nutritional supplement zinc.

Major miners are running out of gold, and that’s good news for explorers

80 per cent of the world's top 20 gold miners have less reserves than 10 years ago: Auric Goldfinger, Goldfinger

Some of the world’s largest gold producers may be forced to engage in targeted acquisitions or expand their exploration activities to overcome a sharp decline in their gold reserves.

This is despite spending $US69.5 bn on acquisitions and exploration activities since 2010, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

“With top producers facing declining production profiles, shrinking reserves and a return to rising production costs, we expect many to expand organic exploration in the near term while leveraging targeted acquisitions to supplement their depleted pipelines,” said report author Robert Anders.

Chris Selley: School choice is a better way than the public-school pandemic panic

Ontario Premier Doug Ford tours a Toronto school to see the COVID-19 measures implemented as students return amidst the pandemic, Tuesday, September 1, 2020. PHOTO BY CARLOS OSORIO/THE CANADIAN PRESS/FILE

Many consider that the back-to-school plan is not adequate for its purpose. On the other hand, there are those who point out that COVID-19 almost never kills children, however, everyone is really concerned about who children can transmit the virus to, whether they are teachers, parents, grandparents.

Related to that, headlines like “Doug Ford is Risking the Safety of Our Children by Trying to Save Money” are scattered across the media landscape. And it is that the death of the second Canadian under the age of 20 due to COVID-19, an apparently healthy 19-year-old who lived near Montreal, was reported last month as a “dark first” and probably a sign of what it will come, given rising infection rates among younger Canadians.

Now, it should be noted that it could certainly be said that COVID-19 is not only relievingly non-lethal to children but is in fact remarkably so.

Strong figures

Exploding U.S. Debt Is a Problem, Not an Emergency

Tick, tick, tick. Photographer: Steve Pope/Getty Images

Don’t cut badly needed coronavirus spending now. (But pare Social Security and Medicare later.)

Government programs to blunt the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic will make the federal budget deficit much wider in 2020 than at any point in the last 75 years. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s new forecasts, released this week, predict that the deficit will be over $3.3 trillion this year, or 16% of annual economic output. Measured as a share of GDP, the annual U.S. budget deficit hasn’t hit double digits since 1945. The CBO forecasts that the 2021 deficit will be higher than in all but two years between 1946 and 2019.

These deficits will boost the national debt, which the CBO forecasts will total $21.9 trillion in 2021. Next year, for the first time since World War II, the national debt will be larger than annual GDP. Beginning in 2023, the CBO projects that the debt will be larger than at any point in U.S. history.

Diane Francis: Trudeau has bungled Canada's COVID-19 response

The government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau handed out twice as much in COVID-19 stimulus, as a percentage of the economy, as Germany, three times more than France and Italy, and 50 per cent more than Australia. PHOTO BY CHRISTINNE MUSCHI/REUTERS FILES

He’s not fit to run a G7 country, or even a lemonade stand, with handouts equivalent to spending of adolescent trust fund kid

A recent international poll showed that most Canadians believe Canada has done an excellent job battling COVID-19.

That’s true, but plaudits belong to the provinces for mobilizing their health-care systems and imposing sensible lockdown requirements. The feds, by contrast, have failed miserably. They have racked up frightful debts by recklessly handing out gobs of money, which will hobble the economic recovery.

China To "Gradually" Sell 20% Of Its US Treasury Holdings, May Dump It All In Case Of "Military Conflict": State Media

Ever since the early stages of the US-China trade/tech/virus/cold war four years ago, there were frequent rumors — which eventually gave way to increasingly legitimate chatter — that China was looking to go full “nuclear option” by selling some or all of its $1+ trillion of US Treasury securities, which incidentally has not been too far off the mark: as the chart below shows, after peaking in 2013, Chinese holdings of US debt have been steadily declining (and not so steadily in the aftermath of the Chinese devaluation), and are currently near the lowest level in 8 years.

In any case, while Beijing has been gradually reducing its Treasury holdings it has never shocked the market with a major liquidation; and yet this ultimate threat has now found its way into China’s premier state-run English language news source Global Times.

Almost All of America’s Failed Cities are Democrat Cities

That includes 42 of the top 43 centers of violent crime.

As Marxist and anarchist radicals continue to turn Democrat-run American cities into war zones, Democrats assure us that they alone understand how the current crisis can be resolved. White House hopeful Joe Biden, for example, vows that “as President,” he “will help lead” a national “conversation” about racial justice, “and more importantly,” he “will listen” to the “anguish” of the long-forgotten “little guy.”

Biden’s “little guy” narrative blends seamlessly with one of the most widely accepted claims in American political discourse today: the notion that the Democratic Party is the party that fights on behalf of the common man. We are told that Democrats in public office advocate for a wide range of policies that would improve the lives of the poorest and most powerless among us.

Trump Eviction Ban Lacks Crucial Cash for Tenants, Landlords

President Donald Trump’s expansive new eviction ban will help some tenants delay the inevitable. But it’s missing a key ingredient that only lawmakers can supply: money.

“Ultimately, it creates new urgent pressure on Congress to get back to work and pass a final Covid 19 relief bill,” said Diane Yentel, president and chief executive officer of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. “On its own, it’s a half measure.”

An eviction ban through the end of the year — enacted with the authority of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and to slow the virus’s spread — provides no new money for tenants, or for landlords to maintain their properties and pay their bills, including mortgages and local property taxes. It expands a CARES Act moratorium that expired last month, extending it to all properties, not just those financed with federal backing.

Amid rising tensions, China likely to reduce US debt holdings

Photo taken on March 3, 2020 shows U.S. dollar banknotes in Washington D.C., the United States. Photo: Xinhua

China may gradually reduce its holdings of US Treasury bonds to about $800 billion from the current level of more than $1 trillion, as the ballooning US federal deficit increases default risks and the Trump administration continues its blistering attack on China, experts said. 

China, the world’s second-largest holder of US debts, has been systematically but determinedly trimming its holdings of US bonds in recent years. In the first six months of this year, China dumped about $106 billion worth of US Treasury bonds. On a yearly basis, China’s holdings of US bonds dropped by about 3.4 percent as of the end of June. 

“China will gradually decrease its holdings of US debt to about $800billion under normal circumstances. But of course, China might sell all of its US bonds in an extreme case, like a military conflict,” Xi Junyang, a professor at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, told the Global Times on Thursday. 

John Ivison: Trudeau's 'literally frightening' spending plan has some Liberals, bureaucrats very worried

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his new finance minister Chrystia Freeland have signalled that they are itching to remake Canada in their own progressive image – and that means new spending. PHOTO BY CHRISTINNE MUSCHI/REUTERS

Three weeks after the government unveils its new agenda, the cracks are already beginning to appear, as Trudeau’s spending plan has some liberals and bureaucrats really worried. Likewise, he has referred to the NDP, disparagingly, as liberals in a hurry.

Notably, it has been said that the New Democrats will have to move slightly if they want to avoid being crushed by a Liberal Party moving rapidly to the left in this month’s throne address. In this way, it is appropriate to bring up the fact that a senior official described the costly schedule of social programs that are being reduced as a “structural change in the way government in this country operates”.

There’s no question that the risk for Justin Trudeau and new Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is that spending too much, too fast, could drive away blue liberals concerned about economic growth and fiscal discipline. The details of the throne speech remain unknown to all but a few, but there are enough general indications for some MPs and liberal supporters to be genuinely concerned.

Speculation that overflows

John Robson: Why government only increases in size

PHOTO BY GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO

Given all that is happening today, it is appropriate to address an issue that could make some uncomfortable, as well as why the government is only increasing in size. In reference to that, it is no secret to anyone that in general and across the country, politicians who did not want to cut government in good times seem literally incapable of considering doing so in bad times.

A good question that has arisen and that has been circulating is, Is there something that the government does not do better than the private sector?

You could say that given the staggering variety of things modern governments undertake, regardless of jurisdiction, and how poorly many of them do, it shouldn’t be difficult to think of one that isn’t necessary. It is necessary to take into account one consideration and that is that the left does not like corporations and the right does not like subsidies.

Practical question

Terence Corcoran: You are not you, and other truths of the new world

"Wanderer above the sea of fog", by Caspar David Friedrich, circa 1817.

The effort to sideline individualism and associated economic ideas is being propelled by journalists, academics and political forces in the name of fighting racism and other isms

The storm has been moving in for some time, building up over decades of political and academic activism fuelled by the ideological advocacy of a long line of leftist intellectuals and writers, from Karl Marx through Herbert Marcuse’s New Left celebrations of the ’60s and ’70s to the Occupy Movement to Naomi Klein. After half a century of torch-passing from one anti-liberal theorist to another, North America and other Western nations have settled on a final truth: You are not an individual.

In the new world, people are slotted into assorted collective categories: white or Black, oppressed or oppressor, straight or LGBQ, steeped in inequality, male or female or other, green or a denier, young sidelined millennial or aging privileged colonialist, a Muslim or a Jew or a Christian. From now on, these are the primary labels that define and describe your role in life and shape the content of your mind and character. Forget and submerge your individual capacities and abilities, your intellectual independence, your personal perspectives, ambitions and failures.