Juggling Dynamite

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren is eager to pursue legislation that would break up Wall Street megabanks and has pushed the issue with members of the Trump administration.

“We’re certainly reaching out to the administration,” Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television airing Wednesday. “‘So far we’ve had some good conversations and that’s what I want to see happen. I’m ready. Because you know, this is one of those basic things — folks on Wall Street may resist it. But most of the American people get it.”  Here is a direct video link.

From record leverage comes rapid repricing one way and then the other.  Levered traders are liquidating as excess supply of most commodities continues to swamp global demand.  This is dominant theme likely to persist for some time in the aftermath of the greatest debt bubble ever in human history.  If the producers are not yet concerned, they are in denial or– like the Saudis and their Aramco deal–trying to talk up values long enough to help them cash out.

Iron ore futures are under pressure again in Asia — signaling a possible return to the $50s for the benchmark spot price — as concern builds about the outlook for rising supply and China’s clampdown on leverage ripples through markets, possibly triggering forced sales.  Here is a direct video link.

Here is the price performance since March 2, 2017 of iron ore, steel, rubber and copper (chart zerohedge), down across the board from 9 to 46% in just 2 months.

Shelter prices are so over-valued relative to income levels today, that saving just a 10% downpayment now takes 12 years on average, compared with just 5 years to save a 20% deposit twenty years ago. In many cases, people are trying to circumvent the waiting and saving period by borrowing even the downpayments. Whatever the approach, inflated shelter costs are keeping people from being able to meaningfully save for other critical necessities like education and retirement, and this is leaving the society increasingly vulnerable.

It now takes about 7.5 years to save up for a down payment on a house in Toronto. In Vancouver, that number is over 10.5 years.

The data comes from the National Bank of Canada, which calculated how much it would take a median-income earner in several cities across Canada to save up enough for the minimum down payment on a median-priced home assuming they saved  10 per cent of their income.  Here is a direct video link.

More than half of Canadians are living within $200 per month of not being able to pay all their bills or meet their debt obligations, according to a recent Ipsos survey conducted on behalf of accounting firm MNP. A whopping 31 per cent of respondents said they already don’t make enough to meet all their financial obligations and two-thirds of survey takers said they are “less than very confident” about their ability to create an emergency fund.  Here is a direct video link.