Juggling Dynamite

It doesn’t take genius or clairvoyance to figure out that Canada and its banks are coming into a period of deep, debt regret…  See:  DEUTSCHE BANK: ‘Canada Is In Serious Trouble’

Simply put, debt levels are very high, and with sky-high home prices cooling off, we could see pressure on the Canadian financial system and labor markets. While US households have been deleveraging since the Great Recession, Canadian household debt as a percent of household income is higher than ever.

These debt levels paint the very portrait of financial fragility as Canada is now side-swiped by crashing oil revenues and the falling tax receipts and rising unemployment this brings.  After all, as seen below, the oil boom produced the lion share of new jobs in Canada since 2008.  As layoffs mount in the sector now, national unemployment numbers will rise.

And then there is the concentration risk held in Canadian banks today.  Not only are they holding silly levels of subprime debt from wobbling energy companies, but they have extended record levels of  household debt as well.  In the process, disposable income (bottom line in blue) has flat-lined even with modest wage gains and the lowest interest rates in modern history.

Energy saving innovation will continue to slash consumption…These bulbs are available this spring. Who in their right mind wants to stick with ‘dumb’ bulbs? Here is a direct video link.

Electric and self-driving. The cars of the future are en route. For all the naysayers, I am reminded of what Microsoft manager Steve Ballmer’s mom said when he told her he was joining Bill and company in 1980: “Why in the world would anyone ever need a computer?”

For carmakers, success relies a lot on their ability to make the dashboard appealing and intuitive. And with a big innovation pushing towards cars that can drive themselves, designers can create dashboards that let us do all the other things we’d rather be doing. Bloomberg’s Sam Grobart takes a hands-on look at how Audi, BMW, and Mercedes Benz envision the dashboard of the future.  Here is a direct video link.