Parliament Hill came under attack today after a man with a rifle shot a soldier standing guard at the National War Memorial in downtown Ottawa. A gunman inside Parliament has been confirmed dead. Ottawa police say shots were fired at three locations in Ottawa and one suspect is believed still at large. Here is a direct video link.
The picture of risk for the Canadian broad market: the financial sector is its most concentrated exposure (today 38% of the TSX) as the basket of shares (XFN) lept an outrageous 100% in the last 2 years of ‘QE-ever’ mania. Today rolling over once more at near-term resistance, a retest at short term support (marked below) seems likely.
For further thoughts on downside potential and ramifications for the Canadian market, see Canadian equity market: concentrated capital risk.
I am for the founding principles of democracy: one voice, one vote, self-initiative, self-reliance and individuals accepting personal responsibility for their decisions. I am for the rule of law–that rules must be transparent and applicable to everyone in the society regardless of station or association. I am for level-playing fields, hard work, self-discipline and fiscal conservatism that minimizes debt and encourages responsible spending and saving. I am against rigged markets and purchased political favor that affords a few great advantage, while tapping the public purse to prop up certain asset values and protect those few from their deserved financial losses.
It is not that anyone should expect income equality. A meritorious society naturally affords different compensation for different people and activities. It is the opportunity inequality which has become so extreme, systemic and self-defeating over the past 30 years. By multiplying debt to toxic levels, households, corporations and governments have all come to expect too much for too little. Now at the end of a 65 year debt Supercycle it is time for everyone, from the left to the right, to sober up.
Former Clinton labor secretary, Robert Reich joined Moyers & Company to discuss the 2013 documentary film, Inequality for All. Here is a direct link to the interview. Here is a direct video link to the “Inequality for all” film trailer in case you haven’t yet seen it.
