HISTORY & READINGS at Brian Ripley's Canadian Housing Price Charts & Plunge-O-Meter

California or Bust

10/21/2015

CLICK CHART TO ENLARGE

Residential Mortgage Debt as a % of GDP (Sep 2014 Source)

Australia (AUS)
Debt 1.3 Trillion
GDP 1.6 Trillion
Debt/GDP 81%
Canada (CAD)
Debt 1.2 Trillion
GDP 1.55 Trillion
Debt/GDP 77%
U.S.A. (USD)
Debt 11 Trillion
GDP 16 Trillion
Debt/GDP 69%

If it looks like Vancouver, it's probably San Francisco

The inflationists have bet the farm on housing in all the global markets that attract non-resident buyers. When I look at my long term (since 1956) Canadian Housing Starts with Census overlaid chart, it strikes me that we actually need a lot more housing if we want to see affordability again. But the price to rent ratio does not incent the construction industry. If offshore money is willing to buy physically depreciating negative yields, then let's help them along. Perhaps a public-private (us-them) partnership is in order. We build them, they finance them.

CLICK CHART TO ENLARGE

Trapped in Silicon Valley

Who will benefit from TPP

10/7/2015

CLICK CHART TO ENLARGE

CLICK CHART TO ENLARGE

Who will benefit from the Trans-Pacific Partnership?
Workers? Consumers? Small businesses? Taxpayers? Or the biggest multinational corporations in the world?

In Canada according to the long term GDP growth rate chart, our trade relationships have not worked out so well.

"The troubling, explosive growth of such cases point to a litigious future where corporate interests increasingly appear to trump national sovereignty with billions of dollars at stake."
John Fullerton Level 3 Capital Advisors and a former managing director of JPMorgan

This isn’t a partisan issue. Conservatives who believe in U.S. sovereignty should be outraged that ISDS would shift power from American courts, whose authority is derived from our Constitution, to unaccountable international tribunals. Libertarians should be offended that ISDS effectively would offer a free taxpayer subsidy to countries with weak legal systems. And progressives should oppose ISDS because it would allow big multinationals to weaken labor and environmental rules. Elizabeth Warren 2015

Those worried about the climate implications of the TPP need look no further than the Energy Advisory Committee to the United States Trade Representative, comprised predominantly of executives from the fossil fuel industry, including from Chevron, Halliburton, Nuclear Energy Institute, General-Electric Oil and Gas, Caterpillar, and other major fossil fuel corporations. Sierra Club 2015

Some 600 corporate trade advisers, with names like Halliburton and Caterpillar, are listed on leaked drafts published by WikiLeaks... Based on those drafts, we also know that the draft agreement includes a provision for what’s called “investor-state dispute settlement.” (ISDS). This little-known mechanism was initially created to protect corporate investments in countries where the rule of law is immature or at risk. In reality, it often empowers corporations to sue sovereign nations over any policies that conflict with their supposed right to the profits of free trade – including health and environmental policies designed to serve the democratically determined public interest. The Guardian 2014

WikiLeaks is raising $100,000 reward for TPP
https://wikileaks.org/pledge/#rd-6

Bernie Sanders "TPP: A Raw Deal"

Stop Calling the TPP a Trade Agreement. It Isn’t.

TPP is a corporate/investor rights agreement, and that is the problem.

TPP extends patents, copyrights and other monopolies so investors can collect “rents.”

TPP elevates corporations and corporate profits to and above the level of governments. TPP lets corporations sue governments for laws and regulations that cause them to be less profitable. Enabling tobacco companies to sue governments because anti-smoking campaigns limit profits has nothing to do with trade. Enabling corporations to sue states that try to regulate fracking has nothing to do with trade.

While giving corporations a special channel to sue governments, labor, environmental, consumer and other “stakeholder” organizations do not get a channel for enforcement. This helps enable corporations to break unions, force wages down and pollute without cost. This increases the power of corporations over governments – and us.

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE by Dave Johnson May 26, 2015