Juggling Dynamite

Good graphic below with some troubling data. CMHC suggests that housing should not constitute more than 30% of a household’s monthly income.  Spending much more on shelter, leaves little room for other necessities like saving for retirement and children’s education. This adds up to poor resource utilization and diminished economic strength. See:  Canadians may be paying too much of their income on housing.

A new map released Monday shows how buying a house in Canada’s largest cities is still inaccessible to those with average incomes.  Using the RBC Affordability Index, RateHub looked at home ownership costs in every major city by reviewing percentages of the national average household income before taxes. The costs include mortgage payments, utilities and property taxes.

 

There is no question that Wall Street has been running fiscal and monetary policy for decades, regardless of which party or President has been in power. Some of the more recent big picture connections are discussed in this clip. One thing for sure, no one has been looking out for the ‘little guy’, least of all Donald J. Trump.

Steve Bannon was fired from the White House on Friday, August 18th, 2017, but most of the media is missing the story of Robert Mercer, the billionaire that brought Bannon to the White House. Here is a direct video link.

TRNN Documentary: The Real Story of How Bannon and Trump Got to The White House from The Real News Network on Vimeo.

In an interesting footnote to this thesis, a Vanity Fair piece yesterday (see Steve Bannon readies his revenge) looks at the fallout of Bannon’s ouster and notes:

“Bannon has media ambitions to compete with Fox News from the right. Last week in New York, he huddled with his billionaire benefactor, Robert Mercer, and discussed ways to expand Breitbart into TV…

At Breitbart, Bannon has a brigade of similarly happy warriors. “We’re in a loud bar celebrating the return of our captain!” Breitbart’s Washington editor Matt Boyle told me on Friday night. Breitbart’s defense of Trump has so far helped keep the Russia scandal from gaining traction on the right. But that could swiftly change if Trump, under the influence of Kushner and Cohn, deviates too far from the positions he ran on. If that happens, said one high-level Breitbart staffer, “We’re prepared to help Paul Ryan rally votes for impeachment.”

Apparently Brietbart, Bannon and Mercer feel confident they can make or break the President depending on his adherence to their agenda.  This could get very interesting.

May we all keep open minds as we age.

A commercial real estate broker in Toronto, Canada introduces his 97 Year-Old Grandfather to “the future”. Here is a direct video link.