The “Yield Curve” is nothing more than a line between the dots on a graph of interest rates. At the start of the graph (on the left) is very short term interest rates and at the end of the graph (on the right side) is longer term interest rates. When long term interest rates are lower than short term rates it means business is expected to DECREASE over time. When the graph trends down, it is called an “inverted yield…
One-China is an understanding that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) under the Communist Party of China (CPC) has complete legal and moral authority over both the Chinese mainland and break away island of Taiwan. How it came to be is a fascinating story but One China has been a diplomatic football ever since it was formulated in the early 1970’s by Chinese and Canadian diplomats. From 1971 through through the early 2000’s regional flair ups have lead many countries to…
‘One China’ is a policy by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that requires other nations to accept that the CCP is rightfully in total control of both the Chinese mainland and the nearby island ‘nation’ of Taiwan. The history of how One China came to be is a fascinating one. Brief History of One China In the early 1900’s China was ruled by the Chinese Nationalist Party (the Kuomintang or KMT) but a civil war began in 1946, after years…
Google built Android from scratch in about 3 years of serious work. With China’s: penchant for stealing intellectual property unlimited budgets massive talent pool how long do you think it is will take China to develop a solid mobile OS? Not to mention that the newest copy of anything is better than the first because the developers learn from mistakes in the original. As we explained in our recent article: US President Trump Just Killed Google Android, the US China…
When China began the ‘free-marketization’ of its economy in the 1980’s it was clear that China was going to be an economic powerhouse. They had an excellent blue print to follow in capitalist British Hong Kong and a singular drive to raise its citizens from the poverty of its communist past. However, few had predicted back then that China would look so completely inward for growth as they are today. It is clear that while foreign markets like the United…
You might have heard that British people are fond of tea and to buy tea from China in the 1800’s they needed something to trade. However, the Chinese wanted very little the Brits had to offer. One thing Chinese citizens did like was opium (yes, that is the same drug that is behind the opioid crisis today). Fortunately for Britain, it effectively ruled India from the 1750’s on and took control of India’s opium business from that point on. This…
This topic is a departure from our usual focus on politics, tech and China but we thought it made an excellent point in a funny way you would like. As a… lets go with ‘gruff’ person myself, I sadly see tiny parts of Coleman Sweeney in me (pun intended!) and I have signed up for organ donation too. Be an asshole and sign up! In most countries you just have to fill our an organ donor card or sign the…
Canada has a pushy trading partner called China and that “partner” is throwing its weight around currently by: Removing China’s (nasty) ambassador to Canada “…Lu has made a series of damning remarks about Canada-China relations in recent months”… SOURCE . Arresting Canadians in China on what appears to be spurious grounds “…The retaliatory arrest of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor on spurious national security grounds… have brought Canada-China relations to their lowest ebb since the establishment of diplomatic relations…
China is Canada’s third largest trading partner but it is a very distant third: The US and Europe account for 60% and 8% of Canada’s exports respectively China accounts for just 2.9% of Canada’s exports and 6% of Canada’s imports 25% of those exports are raw “mineral products” like copper and potash 10% of those exports are surface materials like wood, fish, and canola Canada imports three times as much from China as it exports to China Exports to China…
The numbers of oil tanker rail cars being shipped in 2019 and projected for 2020 and beyond are truly staggering. That got us to thinking about how long a train would they make and the results were quite interesting. If all the rail cars carrying crude oil just in 2019, largely from Western Canada, were connected in a single train they would be over 1400 kilometers. That is 50% longer than the distance from Calgary to Vancouver: a crude oil…
Today there are already about 60,000 Chinese manufactured vehicles entering the US and Canadian automobile market each year, some of which may surprise you; Buick Envision ($32,000) Cadillac CT6 Plug-In Hybrid ($75,000) not the standard CT6’s cancelled for US and Canada sales in 2018 Volvo S60 & S90 ($36,000 and $48,000) However, what you don’t see is a single Chinese brand like BYD (serious Telsa competitor), Chery (former Chrysler partner), or Dongfeng (sold 4.1 MILLION cars in China in 2018)…
It will come as no surprise to anyone in the oil sector, or involved in the stock market that Canada exports nearly all of its oil to the United States. What may be surprising is some of the secondary markets. For instance, you can see in the graphic below that The Netherlands and France are Canada’s second and third largest export markets for refined oil (i.e. gasoline, diesel…) Click to expand graphic 2017 Exports From Canada Click to expand…
Canada has a dynamic first world economy but still has its primary exports from primary industries: Click to expand graphic 2017 Exports From Canada In contrast to Canada’s raw material exports, Canada imports mostly finished goods: Click to expand graphic 2017 Imports Into Canada The following graph shows Canada’s imports in red and exports in blue from 1995 through 2017: Click to expand graphic Canada’s Imports and Exports From 1995 to 2017 This data came from MIT’s The Observatory…
The City of Toronto has the largest transit system in Canada that includes 2200 buses and they are now testing 10 fully electric units from each of New Flyer (Canada), BYD (China), and Proterra (US) Here are the numbers: 25% more reliable 30% few parts less items to inventory and manage saves money 25% lower maintenance costs 60% quieter which is a big deal for drivers and communities 75% reduction in energy costs $32,000 /bus /year energy savings $70 million…
It is oft said by those who disapprove of carbon taxes that: Carbon taxes are ineffective Carbon taxes target the wrong people The Canadian Federal Government does not have right to impose a carbon tax All three of these statements are demonstrably incorrect. University of Ottawa Professor of Law and Economics, Stewart Elgie, explains that the dissenting judges in the Saskatchewan and Ontario carbon tax cases are not disagreeing with the principle that the Federal Government has the right to…
There are many that think Huawei is just a puppet of the Chinese government and an equal number that think the Huawei bans and bad talk are nothing more than hype designed to stifle a non-Western competitor. We recently wrote two articles explaining some of Huawei’s background: 10 Short Answers To Why Huawei is so Scary To Western Countries Who Owns Huawei? A Fascinating Story but neither our previous articles nor the political hype have clearly explained why countries should…