Juggling Dynamite

A tear-down house on our street (one hour north of Toronto) was listed for 850K yesterday. We shall see what happens; but since people can still buy up to 1m with a minuscule 5 to 7.5% down and the rest in a loan backed by we, the taxpayers, crazy prices are now epidemic and spilling from downtown areas far into the suburbs.  The math and financial sense it, of course, are loonie tunes. See: Ugly math in Canada’s over-valued property market.

But with most of the ‘experts’ in the sector making up front commissions and fees on appraising, originating mortgages and moving properties, and politicians placating industry lobbyists and voters who want to get on the property ladder at all costs, there are few people with any interest in seeing the risks in all this.

Many naively believe/argue that home buyers can ‘afford’ these prices or that Asian cash buyers are an endless stream.  The same foolish thinking was dominant in the late 80’s as Japanese buyers moved capital into North American real estate and out of their own bubbling markets at home.  This chart shows what happened to realty prices in both the US and Japan over the full cycle.  If Canadian realty was included, it would show similar movements both in the 1985 to 1995 period, and also in the price boom between 2005 to date.
This chart courtesy of the Bank of Canada shows the alarming truth about the trend in government (taxpayer) insured high-loan-to income ratios over the past 3 years in Canada’s hottest markets. New loans that are greater than 450% of household income are now more than 30% in Calgary, Victoria, Vancouver and Toronto.
History assures us bubbles are amazing on the way up and financially devastating on the way down.  As Bank of Canada head, Stephen Poloz admitted on a panel May 3, 2016:  “There’s a crater under every bubble.  Every one.”

But even though the head knows this, the heart and will to do wiser things are painfully weak.  And so it goes: an ominous credit fueled crater is deepening beneath the Canadian economy with each passing week.

Pot growers have helped accelerate the tech for hydroponic farming with highly efficient water and energy systems.  Perfect.  Pass the Arugula…See:  Are shipping containers the future of farming?

There are more than 60 Freight Farms containers installed in 22 states and two Canadian provinces, in climates ranging from the long winters of Ontario to the sweltering heat of Texas. In a development that surprised even the company’s founders, the containers are increasingly making their way onto traditional farms for supplemental income outside the growing season. But most are parked in the interstitial spaces of cities, from warehouses and underneath highway overpasses to alleyways behind the restaurants where their crops are served. The result is hyperlocal produce, which sometimes travels just a few feet from farm to table.

…According to the U.S. Agriculture Department, the market for organic produce in the U.S. was $15 billion in 2014. Right now, a Freight Farms container can grow six of the 10 most popular vegetables in America, and demand for those items is expected to increase if Freight Farms achieves its ultimate goal of producing vegetables without pests or pesticide for less than the wholesale cost of their conventional alternative. If that happens, boxed farming could go a long way to feeding a growing population with shrinking arable land. And assuming Uber continues its success, there’ll be plenty more abandoned taxi depots, too.

Here is a direct video link.

We can thank Tesla for the leadership, but at long last Mercedes has seen the future and is rolling out a line of fully electric vehicles, with all the style and safety its brand implies.   The goal is to develop a completely new signature look from the ground up for 4 different models including an SUV.  See Mercedes to unveil its first all-electric vehicle at Paris auto show in September:

While Mercedes has introduced several plug-in hybrid powertrains in its lineup, the German automaker has not been pushing very hard on the all-electric front. The company never built an electric car from the ground up and its only battery-powered vehicles were built on existing model platforms (A Class and B Class) with drivetrains developed in partnership with Tesla.

But earlier this year, the company announced a change in direction and greenlighted 4 new all-electric cars for production. Now we learn that the company is set to unveil the first of 4 models later this year at the Paris Motor Show.

In a new report, Autocar cites insider sources revealing that the company is working on a new SUV for the first of its new EV lineup:

The new concept, currently undergoing construction at Mercedes’ prototype workshop on the outskirts of Stuttgart in Germany, is said to provide “a clear insight” into the external appearance, interior appointments, technical layout and overall dimensions of the German car maker’s first truly dedicated electric vehicle  – a uniquely styled SUV.