Montreal

S&P futures are slightly lower (ES -0.1%) as traders paid little attention to the latest missile test by North Korea on Friday, with shares and other risk assets barely moving, gold lower and focus rapidly returning to when and where interest rates will go up. Most global market are mostly unfazed, and the Korean Kospi actually closed up 0.4%, by the latest geopolitical escalation after a North Korean ballistic missile flew far enough to put the U.S. territory of Guam in range. European stocks edged fractionally lower while Asian shares advanced.

Amid Poloz-described "unsustainable prices" in various cities, and just days after the collapse of Canadian mortgage lender Home Capital Group and our discussion of the dire state of Canadian savers (and their record household debt), Moodys has cut the ratings on six of Canada's largest banks because of "ongoing concerns that expanding levels of private-sector debt could weaken asset quality in the future."

Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

Here’s your “it’s hard to believe, but true” article of the day.

Reason reports:

Lawmakers in Montreal have moved to crack down on new restaurants, in an odious attempt to protect existing ones.

 

“Montreal has one of the highest restaurant per-capita ratios in North America and the amount of places to eat is worrying local politicians,” reads a Canadian Press piece from earlier this week.

 

Submitted by Ronan Manly, BullionStar.com

 
Introduction

When discussing bullion banking mechanics, it’s important to understand what a bullion bank actually is, and what activities bullion banks engage in. This appreciation also helps highlight the major concerns which modern bullion banking poses.

Submitted by David Yager via OilPrice.com,