America

Bank of Canada Governor Is Right To Be Worried About The Economy

Written by Peter Diekmeyer, Sprott Money News

Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz cited numerous worries plaguing the economy during his speech to Toronto’s financial elites yesterday at the prestigious Canadian Club.

However, the title of Poloz’s presentation, “Three things keeping me awake at night” seemed odd, given positive recent Canadian employment, GDP and other data.

Authored by Gabriel Rockhill via Counterpunch.org,

"Economic recovery" in America no longer means what it used to mean.  Historically "economic recovery" was largely characterized by job and wage growth, distributed across the income spectrum, and a rebound in GDP growth to north of ~3%-5%.  These days, the notion of "economic recovery" has been hijacked by the Fed and bastardized in such a way that they celebrate "asset bubbles" rather than real growth in economic output.

Presented as 'exhibit A', here is the Fed's modern-day definition of "economic recovery" (chart per Bloomberg):

Avondale, a secretive Alabama-based drugmaker, has gained unwanted national attention after the company increased the price of a bottle of vitamins to almost $300 that can be bought on the internet for $5.

In the latest example of price-gouging in America’s lightly regulated pharmaceutical industry, records show Avondale inflated the price of Niacor, a prescription-only version of niacin, by “809 percent last month, taking a bottle of 100 tablets from $32.46 to $295”, according to the Financial Times.