People typically purchase stocks in a company for two reasons: to make money from an increase in stock price over time to make money from dividends However, there is a third way to make money with stocks… a very risky way called ‘short selling’. What is Short Selling Stocks In Simple Terms? A ‘short’ as it is called in the financial industry is a bet against a companies stock. To short a stock, you ‘borrow’ shares from someone with a…
The goal of a trade war is to increase access to some other countries markets. However, we can simplify the logic by reducing down from a country scale to an individual business scale. At the single company scale, Company A withholds a key product or increases price on that product because they want something from Company B, perhaps increased sales effort of some key line. At some point the cost becomes too much for one or both of the parties…
If you are wondering how someone like Donald Trump of the United States, Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines and Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil get elected to power watch the short video below. CNN’s Fareed Zakaria considers the 2019 Indian elections an notes that about one third of their candidates and federal officials have serious criminal charges against them. He the contrasts this to the United States with President Trump. The majority of Americans believe Trump committed crimes but large numbers…
From an American perspective, China has a strange confidence the belies and critical weakness that is just below the surface. US President Donald Trump is fond of pointing out that China sells much more to the US than the US sells to China. He believes that this trade imbalance gives him unlimited power to dictate Chinese policy and that belief has lead to the US initiating a trade war. Chinese President Xi Jinping knows that his country has an enormous…
Here are the numbers supporting what you likely already knew. George W Bush was not well liked or respected in the international community, largely because he polarized world leaders into “…those who are with (the US), or with the terrorists” Obama softened the US stance on international issues. He had been called the Consoler In Chief. Trump’s lack of foreign policy planning and his penchant for grandstanding has lead him to take hard line on almost everything. Thus far, he…
Do you remember when Health and Safety was called Common Sense? Steve Hughes explains that the Dutch don’t put railings around their canals because they assume people are not stupid. This is an excellent use of 90 seconds of your time:
In our recent short article titled Why DNA Tests Are Misleading we explained that DNA tests for racial background are far less ‘fact’ and much more ‘fiction’ than you have been led to beleive by slick ad campaigns. In this article we explain how these test can be dangerous to you and your family: How DNA Tests Can Be Dangerous DNA tests can be fun and potentially interesting but the results are questionable and you no longer control your own…
If you want to take a DNA test with 23andme.com, myheritage.com or ancestrydna.com you would be well served to think twice because these tests are much less “accurate” than you might think and they put you and your family at risk. How Are DNA Tests Misleading? DNA tests are misleading because they give your impression of scientific certainty when in fact there is a great deal of uncertainty involved because: 1 – Where You Are From OR Where People Live…
The cover of this weeks “The Atlantic” prompts a well logic’d article by David Frum (son of Barbara Frum and former speech writer for George W Bush), in which he explains two key points: the history and intent of refugee / asylum laws voters around the globe will select near fascists as a way to protect their borders As Mr. Frum correctly points out, the number of refugees (largely from Central America countries like Nicaragua) to the United States has…
Nearly 60% of people in the US, Canada and Britain believe in at least one notable conspiracy theory. This includes: 5% of Americans think airplane vapor trails are poison gas controlled by the government 46% of Americans believe in haunting’s or ghosts 60% of Americans believe the US Government had something to do with the murder of John F Kennedy 55% of Americans believe the US Government is withholding critical information about 9/11 attacks or was directly involved in the…
Earlier today I had a 61 year old, high school educated, well traveled co-worker tell me that on 911 the Pentagon was hit with a US Military controlled cruise missile and not a terrorist controlled airliner. Millions of people believe fully debunked conspiracy theories and enjoy sharing their views. It seems that regardless of how much common sense and scientific evidence is presented: “…at least 20% of Americans still believe in a link between vaccines and autism, and at least…
In this short video we took a 10 minute discussion about the Canadian economy an focused on the discussion about how Quebec’s SNC Lavalin is treated so differently from Western Canada’s Oil and Gas industry. If you have the time, the full discussion is quite interesting and you can watch it here on the BNN Bloomberg site: PART 1 and PART 2
If the insane value gyrations, scams and exchange failures of crypto currencies have not scared you away from them, this story should do the trick. QuadrigaCX was a Canadian based Crypto Currency Exchange until a few days ago when the founder, Gerald Cotten, died and took the decryption codes to his grave. This means about CDN $200M of ‘investor’ money is forever lost in hyperspace. To make this story worse, the are some very smelly peculiarities to it: It is extremely unusual that…
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has constant news coverage today and global thinkers like Elon Musk and Bill Gates warn of a dangerous future. A dystopian world run by robots and computers powered by AI not unlike that shown in the Hollywood blockbuster Terminator 2 is one that could come to pass, but it is highly unlikely to occur in your children’s lifetime. The original title of this article was “What’s In A Name? Change Algorithm to Artificial Intelligence & You Have your…
It is empirically a fact that we are living in the best time in human history. Poverty, sickness, insecurity are following their long term trend lines downward. However this short snippet from a Fareed Zakaria GPS interview explains that does not mean these trends will continue. There was yesterday, is today and will be tomorrow, the possibility of global catastrophe. Our modern connected world has virtually guaranteed that some crisis will affect you or your family in the coming years.…
Huawei is the massive Chinese telecom company that has mysterious financing and ownership. Their murky connections to the Chinese Government and military are of such great concern that some Western nations and companies have severed ties with Huawei. This is our third report in our series on the largest telecom company in the world. Our other two are: 10 Short Answers To Why Huawei is so Scary To Western Countries Who Owns Huawei? A Fascinating Story Which Countries Have Banned…