Juggling Dynamite

Lakshman Achuthan, co-founder at ECRI, Berkeley Professor Barry Eichengreen, and Brian Angerame, portfolio manager at Clearbridge Investments, discuss how the U.S. dollar and global politics play into the downward slide of commodities prices. Here is a direct video link.

The demand bust playing out today was purchased by the credit driven boom which spurred over-capacity and oversupply while destroying purchasing power under the weight of record debt.  This global slump has been well earned through reckless policies.  Here is a direct video link.

As the commodity drubbing continues today, the Canadian dollar index has made a fresh 52 week low and is now at levels not seen since 2003-05.

The chart here since 1981 offers a helpful long-term view.  Closing below .75 last Friday, and below .74 today, the new test band is the .70-.75 range where the loonie bottomed in prior cycles (see yellow box below).

However, now at the end of the late great commodity super cycle of 2001-11, and with the price of crude still falling and Canada’s housing and household credit bubble yet to deflate, a return into the red zone where the loonie submerged 1998-2003 cannot be ruled out.

So good to hear someone state the comprehensive case for renewable energy. Of course this is happening. The only incredible part is that so many people waste so much energy fighting against common sense.

Stanford professor Mark Jacobson (follow his work on Twitter here) was lead author on a study indicating that most countries can switch to run entirely on clean energy (including transportation) as early as 2050. Here is a direct video link.