In Canada, which was hit with an income shock after the downturn in prices of oil and other commodities, low rates have resulted in an extended period of loose money that has fueled a housing boom in pockets of the country.
.. even though inflation—at an annualized 1.3% rate in May—remains well below the central bank’s 2% target, and wage growth remains stubbornly low.
.. TD Securities, said it believed the central bank would hold off until October, arguing a rate rise now could hurt the Bank of Canada’s reputation as an inflation-targeting bank.
.. Six of the dealers surveyed added they expect Canada’s benchmark interest rate to hit 1% by the fall.
“Inflation isn’t pressing, but the economy is showing that it can easily live with interest rates a bit higher than they are at present and still generate solid growth,” said Avery Shenfeld, chief economist at CIBC World Markets.
.. Mr. Poloz said rate cuts delivered in 2015 have worked in helping the economy adjust to the income shock from lower energy prices, and that spare labor and production capacity in the economy was being “steadily” absorbed.
.. Mr. Shenfeld said one factor that may be driving the Bank of Canada is more concern about financial stability than it is letting on, highlighted by record levels of household debt and worries about a housing crash in Toronto and Vancouver.
“Why encourage excesses of debt?” he said. “We’ll trade off a bit of a delay in getting to 2% inflation if that gives sufficient benefits in financial stability.”
Trump has made our politics ridiculous
Anyone who doesn’t “get” Trump’s appeal is said to live in a “bubble.” This means that a substantial majority of Americans are bubble dwellers, because Trump’s disapproval ratings have been hovering between 54 and 60 percent in Gallup’s most recent surveys.
.. The cost of all this is very high. Our political discussion is being brought down by Trump’s self-involvement, his apparent belief that he can only win if he identifies an enemy to attack, and his refusal to make extended and carefully thought-through arguments about anything of substance. Spectacle drives out problem-solving. Our national attention span, never one of our strongest suits, follows Trump down to a level that, in fairness to children, cannot even be called childlike.
The health-care debate is the obvious example. The Republican Congress spotlights “repealing Obamacare.” But this is simply a slogan. What Trump and his party said they’d create was a better health-care system — “something great,” he enthused.
.. A functioning democracy would grapple in a bipartisan way with how to cover everyone more cost-effectively.
.. Trump will declare anything the GOP pushes through — no matter how many of the people who voted for him lose insurance — a “win.” That is all that matters to him.
.. If there was anything useful about the Trump campaign, it was the extent to which it forced Americans who live in thriving parts of the country to notice how badly other regions are doing and how angry many of the people who live in those beleaguered communities are.
.. But where are the practical remedies to help those workers find better-paying jobs? What they get from Trump are mostly symbols
.. Trump announced that thanks to his intervention, a Carrier plant in Indiana would keep at least 1,100 jobs in the United States. But last month, Carrier announced it was cutting 632 jobs from an Indianapolis factory and moving them to Mexico. It’s not clear what Trump accomplished — or if he cares.
.. employment in the nation’s auto plants is down from a peak of 211,000 last year to 206,000.
.. his budget cuts could cost more than 5 million American workers access to job training, job-search assistance and career-development programs.
.. Nothing should be more important to Trump’s presidency than keeping his commitments to workers in states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. But these don’t fascinate the president nearly as much as his vendettas and his role as a cable-news critic.
China’s Debt Crackdown Is Driving Borrowers Into Riskier Territory
Beijing’s game of Whac-A-Mole against financial risks is sending some borrowers into darker corners
China’s crackdown on debt is driving some companies to a murkier form of financing as it gets harder to secure bank loans or tap the bond market.
New loans from so-called trusts, firms that raise money from individuals and corporations to plow into riskier areas of the economy, reached 882.3 billion yuan ($129.5 billion) in the first four months of this year, according to data from the People’s Bank of China, nearly five times as much as the same period in 2016.
Trust firms, which often charge borrowers higher rates than banks, occupy a middle ground between banking and asset management. They are licensed and loosely regulated by China’s banking watchdog, but they lack some of banks’ protections, such as government deposit insurance, and they have more flexibility to invest in risky areas than banks do.
Trump is hunkering down inside his Fox-Breitbart echo chamber
Rather than avoid addressing the investigation via Twitter, particularly after White House aides suggested that the president might have lawyers vet his tweets, Trump is again seeking to use Twitter to divert attention from the investigation. It’s a sign Trump cannot be restrained from his impulsive Twitter use, and that he’s going to rely on it to draw attention to coverage he considers (somehow) favorable.
.. It is probably not an accident that Trump suddenly tweeted about Page early this morning. That’s because yesterday brought a barrage of negative Russia-related news: CNN reported that U.S. intelligence intercepted Russian communications with Russians saying that had “derogatory” financial information that could give them leverage over Trump and his inner circle.
.. The closer the investigation gets to the full story, the more Trump retreats into the Breitbart-Fox-and-Friends bubble. Inside this bubble, it is a truism that there is a “deep state” conspiracy theory
.. he’s really trying to blind himself, and his followers, from the scandal engulfing him.