Danielle Park's Contributions

Oil (WTI) has broken below $80 this morning on the back of surging global production, weakening demand and the strengthening U.S. dollar. Canada’s Federal budget forecasts...

Government-backed education loans may sound like a good thing. But once we realize that schools have been able to escalate education costs the past decade by surreal amounts only because students were able to pay by taking on student loans, we see the self-defeating circle for young people and for our economy as a whole.

The phenomenon of asset bubbles and irrational investor behavior upsets central bankers because they like to believe that markets move in accordance with their rational academic theories and hence that central planning can direct and control investor behavior and capital allocation.

MarketWatch discusses why the notion that millionaires are among the ultra-wealthy is outdated and why most high-net-worth individuals in the U.S. say they need at least $5 million to consider themselves rich.

Last week Detroit outlined its plan for necessary financial restructuring in bankruptcy. The emergency management team reviewed the cities public pension plans...

Seems like hardly a week goes by now, without at least one international think tank or commentator talking about lofty-looking Canadian realty prices and the over-exposure of Canadian banks and taxpayers via the CMHC underwriting of high leverage loans.

This morning copper has broken through 3.50 to trade slightly below the cyclical support which has been in place since the economic “recovery” began in 2009.

Bernanke’s testimony to the House Finance Committee yesterday morning is disturbing in so many ways. But only a few of the committee representatives are wise enough to ask the right questions.

Top line gains for the broad Canadian stock market over the past year have been driven by the financial sector as low rates have continued to drive yield-desperate capital into over-valued bank shares.

With the rally in US stocks back toward 2007 highs the past 3 months, many may assume that Canadian stocks have also recouped their 2008-09 losses. But that would be wrong.

Many commentators of late are proclaiming that China has avoided a “hard landing” and will be rebounding to 8% growth any day soon. A more sober assessment warns realists to not jump to robust growth scenarios quite so fast.

You really can’t make this stuff up. The world is engulfed in a frenzy of paying off one credit card with another. Round and round it goes.

This graphic of the “fiscal cliff” gives a good summary of the tax increases in dollars terms for each taxpayer group which range from an extra $412 to $3500 maximum per year for 99% of tax payers, and up to 120K for the top 1% of income earners.

I have never been a fan of Stephen Harper. But recently his increasing focus on end-running democracy and selling out Canadian resources to the communist Chinese government without debate or due process, have truly taken a turn for the sinister.

Thinking people have to care about how the ESM as proposed is designed to thwart and negate basic tenants of fairness, disclosure, democracy and the rule of law. This is a shockingly oppressive regime. Time to wake up.

The rule of law is a key maxim of a just society and democracy. It dictates that laws of the land be transparent, published and applicable to all. No one, regardless of title, position or wealth can be held above the law and government decisions must be predictable because they follow known legal principles and encoded rules.

A new study out of the Federal Reserve today confirms what some of us already knew. The leverage bubble excessively inflated consumer net worth from 1992 to 2007 and now that the bubble has burst, consumer net worth has fallen all the way back to where it began 18 long years before.

Over the past 20+ years I have counseled hundreds and hundreds of individuals, families and businesses on the full gambit of financial decisions from budgets and planning, divorce, bankruptcy, litigation and all forms of negotiation and financial settlement.

For more than a decade pension plans have been using unreasonable investment return assumptions in their funding plans. Since no one wants to admit this or face the increased contributions needed to catch up to capital requirements, the hole just keeps getting bigger.

Facebook was the most over-hyped issue I have seen in the past 20 years. That’s saying something, because new issue pump and dumps are the norm.