Is a Hard Currency Standard the Fix for Canada's Wobbly Economy? Conrad Black Says Yes, But is He Right?

Canadians, brace yourselves for economic bumps in the first half of 2024! That's the sobering prediction from renowned author and columnist Conrad Black in his recent National Post article, "Hard currency standard the best way to fix Canada's teetering economy." But Black doesn't just paint a gloomy picture; he offers a bold and unconventional solution: ditch the current "ski slope" economic system fueled by inflation and embrace a hard currency standard.

Intrigued? Let's dive into Black's proposal:

NP View: Chinese interference shows Trudeau can't run a functioning government

The Peace Tower on Parliament Hill is seen on Oct. 5, 2021. PHOTO BY ADRIAN WYLD/THE CANADIAN PRESS

 

This article takes a hard look at the Liberal government's handling of the Chinese interference in Canada's elections. It argues that the Liberal's dismissive response shows that they cannot effectively run the country and are more concerned with protecting their own interests than national security. The author points out that the Liberals have failed to take allegations of foreign interference seriously and instead have tried to place the blame on the Conservatives. The article also questions the government's incompetence when dealing with the Freedom Convoy protests and their inability to take control of the border. This is a thought-provoking article that shows that Trudeau's government needs to step up and take responsibility for the situation.

Source: NP

Half the World Faces Starvation Under Net Zero Policies, Say Two Top Climate Scientists

 

In a paper titled ‘Challenging ‘Net Zero’ with Science’, Emeritus Professors William Happer and Richard Lindzen warn that Net Zero policies – the global movement to eliminate fossil fuels and its emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases – could result in “worldwide starvation” for half of the world’s population. They criticize the US Government’s Fourth Climate Science Special Report for fabricating data and omitting figures that contradict their conclusions, such as on extreme weather. They argue that the UN’s IPCC process of compiling reports is not based on scientific method, but instead is governed by two rules, and that the false notion of more frequent U.S. high temperatures is likely to pollute subsequent reports.

Read the original article.

Source: Chris Morrison | The Dialy Sceptic

Conrad Black: Is this a return to global MADness?

A nuclear weapons test is seen in Nevada in a June 18, 1957 photo. It's believed Iran and North Korea are about to become nuclear powers, joining the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, Israel, India and Pakistan. PHOTO BY GETTY IMAGES

 

In all of these circumstances, the rest of the world has little choice but to assume that Iran and North Korea are about to become nuclear powers, joining the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, Israel, India and Pakistan. The thought of the aggressive dictatorships of Iran and North Korea, which in all other aspects except nuclear weapons development and the techniques of totalitarianism, are poor and primitive countries, achieving such a military capability is distressing to any civilized person. And the fact that China and Russia, which are much closer to those countries than the major Western powers, have been so flagrantly cavalier in effectively encouraging them to become nuclear powers, is a cautionary tale about how far we are from the quasi-nirvana that much of the world thought had been achieved at the end of the Cold War when there would be no more threats of nuclear devastation. In fairness to Iran and North Korea, , they are correct to object that the existing nuclear arms control regime is rank hypocrisy.

Rupa Subramanya: How Ottawa exploited our fear to limit our liberties

A Charter of Rights Freedoms poster at the Freedom Convoy demonstration downtown Ottawa on February 08, 2022. Photo by Jean Levac/Postmedia

 

On June 14, the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suspended its controversial vaccine mandates as they applied to federal workplaces and for travel, the two sectors where the federal government had the authority to issue regulations. However, ministers made it clear that the mandates weren’t dead but merely suspended and could be revived if circumstances warranted. On August 2, my story for Bari Weiss’s Common Sense Substack blog based on a legal challenge to the vaccine mandate for travel before the Federal Court of Canada, made abundantly clear that at least this particular mandate had a lot to do with politics and much less to do with science and evidence. While we’ve not had a comparable court case for the federal workplace mandate, the documents made public in the travel mandate case cast serious doubt on Trudeau’s claim that his government followed science and the evidence.

Raymond J. de Souza: Criminal justice has a credibility problem — in Canada as well as the U.S.

A Secret Service agent is seen in front of former president Donald Trump's Mar-A-Lago home in Palm Beach on Aug. 9, 2022, the day after it was raided by the FBI. PHOTO BY GIORGIO VIERA / AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

 

Decades of police and prosecutorial abuses have demonstrated that it is right for us to be suspicious

The FBI raid on Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home has brought intense focus on America’s criminal justice system. Department of Justice is not in the custom of commenting upon ongoing criminal investigations, but an unusually chatty attorney general, Merrick Garland, held a press conference on the Trump raid, saying that he had asked the court to unseal the search warrant and the record of property seized due to «substantial public interest». Long concerned about abuse of police and prosecutorial power, I find myself reading, it seems every year, yet another «exposé» of how the criminal justice system gets it wrong.

Hackers steal $611,500 worth of user’s funds by hijacking the Curve Finance homepage

 

Hackers continue to search for weaknesses in popular decentralized finance protocols, and Curve Finance is the latest platform to fend off an attack. On Tuesday the popular decentralized stablecoin exchange fell victim to a domain name system hijack in which hackers briefly took control of the project's homepage. The exchange posted a tweet on Tuesday warning users to refrain from using the website due to the front page being compromised after several users reported a change in the nameserver. The attack appears to have been isolated to the front page of the platform, leaving its backend exchange which uses a completely different DNS unaffected.

The ECB "Bought Lots Of Italian Gov't Bonds And Sold Lots Of German Bunds" To Reverse Spread Blowout

 In the first data release since the ECB activated PEPP reinvestment flexibility, we find a heavy skew in country allocation, away from core countries like Germany and towards the periphery, especially Italy and Spain, over the month of July 2022.

The ECB bought lots of Italian gov't bonds in June & July and sold lots of German Bunds. This is the ECB steering proceeds from maturing government bonds in core countries like Germany and the Netherlands to benefit Italy. As the former Goldman FX trader correctly concludes, "Lo Spread" would be a lot wider without this going on.

The U.S. government underestimated the cost of the student loan program by billions

Students at Pasadena City College, in Pasadena, Calif., participate in a graduation ceremony in 2019. Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images

Government Accountability Office finds the U. Department of Education miscalculated the cost of the federal student loan program. From 1997 to 2021, the Education Department estimated that payments from federal direct student loans would generate $114 billion for the government. But the GAO found that, as of 2021, the program has actually cost the government an estimated $197 billion. A percentage of that shortfall, $102 billion, stems from the unprecedented federal student loan payment pause that began under the CARES Act in 2020.

Sabrina Maddeaux: Calling Pierre Poilievre a 'populist' is a lazy scare tactic used by the elites he threatens

Pierre Poilievre, a candidate for Conservative party leadership, speaks with supporters at Spruce Meadows in Calgary on Tuesday, April 12, 2022. Steven Wilhelm/Postmedia

 

There were certainly populist elements to Donald Trump’s campaign, but he is not a true populist, even if it is convenient for anti-populists to paint him as one. Calling Trump a populist, however, allows fearmongerers to undermine populist movements and politicians without actually having to provide proof for all the «isms» they imply. Take, for example, Poilievre. When elites and opponents warn he’s a populist leader, they hope voters will also hear «nativist,» «racist,» and «fascist» when there’s no evidence to back any of this –– and certainly none more damning than photos of our current prime minister sporting blackface.

Deflation: Bad for the Government, Good for Producers and Consumers. What's Not to Like?

Prices fall in a scenario where the currency is not inflated and, therefore, there are more sustainable investments and increased productivity. In an economy with little or no government intervention, there are more long-term investments, which increase the economy’s productivity. In a deflationary economy, the purchasing power of money tends to increase, as there is no monetary inflation by central banks and prices tend to fall. Consumers can purchase more products and services and companies have higher profit margins.

But governments do not like deflation, they are the most indebted entities.

John Robson: Liberals are infecting our military and police forces with wokeism. We will all pay the price

"I think policing, like soldiering, used to attract mostly serious, stoic applicants willing to endure hardship to protect order against chaos," writes John Robson. "But if so, those professions are unlikely to appeal to social justice warriors." PHOTO BY PATRICK GIBSON/COCHRANE TIMES

 

What the government is determined to fix is not the military's capabilities as a force, but its lack of social justice

Years ago, American political philosopher Harvey Mansfield made a troubling observation that I cited in these pages five years ago. You might suppose that a mere $8 billion under current circumstances, for what Gurney rightly calls unspecified purposes, indicates that the Trudeau Liberals are not serious about fixing the military. What they are determined to fix is the lack of social justice. And they really seem convinced that, if identity politics crushes all opposition, there will be such a flowering of true human fulfillment that lack of modern equipment, logistical support or actual soldiers will be of no importance in safeguarding our security.

JPMorgan Predicts That Global Commodities Prices May Rise by 40 Percent

Marked ingots of 99.99 percent pure gold are placed in a cart at the Krastsvetmet non-ferrous metals plant in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia, on March 10, 2022. (Alexander Manzyuk/Reuters)

 

Russia is a main supplier for up to 10 percent of global energy production and about 20 percent of global wheat production. The commodities affected include oil, which is already up 33 percent from the same month the previous year, while natural gas has gone up by 65 percent since the invasion roiled the markets. Metals excluding gold, such as copper, are up by 7 percent from 2021, while wheat has surged upward by 33 percent. «In the current juncture, where the need for inflation hedges is more elevated, it is conceivable to see longer-term commodity allocations eventually rising above 1 percent of total financial assets globally, surpassing the previous highs seen during 2008 or 2011,» said the JPMorgan note.

LEVY: COVID hypochondriacs dread every case of the sniffles

 

It seems the common cold has made a comeback – or at least that it’s still around – but you wouldn’t know it from the continuing hysteria over COVID-19. Just a week ago, I was sick for six days with symptoms similar to those of the contagious Omicron variant of COVID. After five days of downing cough medicine and cold pills, eating the chicken soup my wife made me, and wearing a mask the few times I ventured out, I decided I’d better take a COVID test just to be safe. It wasn’t COVID.

Are You Ready for the End of the PetroDollar?

 Fallout from the war in Ukraine—what I call the New Iron Curtain—seems to be accelerating the shift away from pricing all commodities in US dollars. China and Russia have been working on this for a long time, but that’s now shifting into a higher gear with Russia demanding that «unfriendly» countries pay for oil in rubles.

COVID-19 Cases, Hospitalizations Jump Among Vaccinated: CDC Data

 

Vials of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine in Bridgeport, Conn., in a file image. (Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images)

Rex Murphy: 'Greenism' has helped Putin fuel his war machine

 

A member of a pro-Russian militia mans a tank on a road in the Luhansk region of Ukraine on Feb. 27, 2022. PHOTO BY ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO / REUTERS

Will the horror of what is occurring in Ukraine wake up the environmentally 'woke' governments of the world to their folly?

Rex Murphy: Trudeau's wild misuse of state authority

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrives at the House of Commons to speak on his invocation of the Emergencies Act, on Feb. 17, 2022. PHOTO BY DAVE CHAN / AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

 Are there no hero MPs willing to denounce this gross usurpation of citizens' rights?

Visualizing the State of Global Debt, by Country

Since COVID-19 started its spread around the world in 2020, the global economy has been put to the test with supply chain disruptions, price volatility for commodities, challenges in the job market, and declining income from tourism. To analyze the extent of global debt, we’ve compiled debt-to-GDP data by country from the most recent World Economic Outlook report by the IMF.

What is the main risk of a high debt-to-GDP ratio?

A rapid increase in government debt is a major cause for concern. Generally, the higher a country’s debt-to-GDP ratio is, the higher chance that country could default on its debt, therefore creating a financial panic in the markets. The World Bank published a study showing that countries that maintained a debt-to-GDP ratio of over 77% for prolonged periods of time experienced economic slowdowns. COVID-19 has worsened a debt crisis that has been brewing since the 2008 global recession.

Source: World Economic Outlook Report (October 2021 Edition)

The IMF Warns of Interest Rates

Global debt reached $226 trillion by the end of 2020, seeing the biggest one-year increase since World War II. Borrowing by governments accounted for slightly over half of the $28 trillion increase, bringing global public debt ratio to a record of 99% of GDP. As interest rates rise, IMF officials warn that higher interest rates will diminish the impact of fiscal spending, and cause debt sustainability concerns to intensify.

Read more.

Source: Raul Amoros, Christina Kostandi | Visual Capitalist

Jack M. Mintz: The measure of a model is how well it predicts

COVID-19 mandate protesters block the roadway at the Ambassador Bridge border crossing with the U.S. in Windsor, Ont., on Feb. 9, 2022. PHOTO BY GEOFF ROBINS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

 

With the trucker protest against mandatory health policies still in play, it is no surprise that the controversial Johns Hopkins economic study released last week made the front pages here. This is a far cry from Imperial College London epidemiology studies from almost two years ago that estimated lockdowns were needed to cut deaths by 98 per cent. The three authors, only one of whom, Hanke, is actually at Johns Hopkins, conducted a «meta-analysis» of 34 COVID studies focused on March 16-April 20, 2020. Comparing COVID deaths across jurisdictions, they concluded that mask mandates had the largest impact on mortality with rules such as shelter-in-place or school closings having only marginal effects.