Juggling Dynamite

Denying and discounting fossil fuel impacts on climate and water systems is one thing, ignoring toxic air is harder to do.  Air pollution made in China and other developing nations does not stay within national borders, of course.  On planet earth, we are all “Under the Dome.”

Smog in China is shortening lives. It got so bad that air pollution was said to have become the main cause of social unrest. The government’s response has been massive, with billions of yuan of investments in clean energy, but there’s still a long way to go. Bloomberg QuickTake explains how China is scrambling to clean its air. Here is a direct video link.

When powerful special interest groups are allowed to write preferrential laws for themselves and their industries, damaging public policy is the norm evident in most countries today.

Each year, state lawmakers across the U.S. introduce thousands of bills dreamed up and written by corporations, industry groups and think tanks.

Disguised as the work of lawmakers, these so-called “model” bills get copied in one state Capitol after another, quietly advancing the agenda of the people who write them.  See:  Copy, paste, legislate

USA TODAY and the Republic found at least 10,000 bills almost entirely copied from model legislation were introduced nationwide in the past eight years, and more than 2,100 of those bills were signed into law.  Here is a direct video link.

A decade of ultra-low interest rates and lax lending enabled Canadians to borrow and spend their way into a state of extreme financial fragility.  Today Canadian households are world leaders in terms of average household debt that is 180% of average disposable income (second only to Australians at 200%), and a household saving rate that is near an all-time worst at just 1.1% of income.

At the same time, Canadians are struggling with some of the least affordable home prices in the world (inflated by years of easy lending and debt addition).  The more and longer one pays for shelter and related costs, the less one saves for other goals like retirement and children’s education.  Meanwhile, Canadian household consumption has been driving some 60% of the nation’s economy (GDP).  Bottom line:  Canada has never been less prepared for an economic slow down/income loss/rise in unemployment, and yet it is underway nonetheless.

This has daunting implications for households, lenders, real estate prices, business reveunes, tax receipts, deficits and financial stability overall.  It also suggests great investment opportunities will present as this downcycle plays out, but only for those who anticipate and position for it in advance.

The number of Canadians who are $200 or less away from financial insolvency every month has climbed to 48 per cent, up from 46 per cent in the previous quarter, in a sign of deteriorating financial stability for many people in the country, according to a new poll…

“Canadians appear to be maxed out with no real plan for paying back what they have borrowed,” said MNP President Grant Bazian in a release. “This raises many alarming questions about how and if consumer debt will be repaid, particularly if conditions deteriorate or interest rates rise.”  Here is a direct video link