Four days ago, we again profiled Canada’s unraveling economy.
For those who may be late to the story, the inexorable decline in crude prices that’s played out over the past 13 or so months means the country’s oil boom is now its oil bust and nowhere is the sharp reversal in fortunes more apparent than Alberta, the heart oil Canada’s oil patch.
The Punchline's Abe Gulkowitz is the author of our favorite chart-only newsletter, and as 2015 draws to a close, it is obvious that he has been very busy.
Earlier this week, we told a fascinating story about an unprecedented, multi-year smuggling ring involving Turkey, Iran, and Dubai (as well as China, Russia and countless other nations) which saw corruption reaching to the very top of the political and financial establishment: from president Erdogan in Turkey, to one of Turkey's richest people, Iran-born Riza Sarraf, to Sheikh Sultan Bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, the son of the ruler of Abu Dhabi and one of the world's richest people. The smuggled object in question was gold, billions of dollars worth of gold.
Authored by Eric Peters (h/t The Burning Platform),
When most people can’t afford to buy things outright, the cost of money – interest – becomes even more important than the cost of the things themselves.
While the traditional Barrons' flock of sellside penguins advisors is out and about, for the second year in a row predicting that, after being wrong on its consensus forecast for 2015 of double digit growth in the S&P500, the broader market will rise 200 points to 2220 by December 31, 2016...
... we are more inclined to go with the contrarian call by Prerequisite Capital Management which believes that Treasurys (deflation), not stocks (inflation) are the way to go in 2016.
Here are their arguments why.