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Wildfires in oilsands prompt evacuation orders as region braces for smoke-filled summer

Wildfires in oilsands prompt evacuation orders as region braces for smoke-filled summer

More than 65 per cent of Canada abnormally parched or in drought at the end of March

Wildfires erupted across Canada’s main oil producing province of Alberta and an evacuation order was issued as the region braces for a repeat of last year’s unprecedented season.

Members of the Indigenous first nation community of Cold Lake Number 149, northeast of Edmonton on the Saskatchewan border, were told to evacuate, according to a notice issued at 4:49 p.m. local time. Other regions west of the Cold Lake blaze were put on standby, with three wildfires in the province listed as out of control as of late Monday.

More than 65 per cent of Canada was abnormally parched or in drought at the end of March, leading the nation to brace for another smoke-filled summer. Unusually hot, dry weather contributed to the country’s worst-ever wildfire season last year, darkening skies over New York and other U.S. cities and prompting Alberta oil and gas drillers to shut as much as 300,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day of production.

An evacuation alert for residents of Saprae Creek, about 25 kilometres southeast of the oilsands capital of Fort McMurray, was cancelled. Massive forest fires burned down swathes of Fort McMurray eight years ago, forcing thousands of residents to evacuate and temporarily shutting more than one million barrels a day of oil production.

BIS warns of $80 trillion of hidden FX swap debt

BIS warns of $80 trillion of hidden FX swap debt

LONDON — The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has warned that pension funds and other ‘non-bank’ financial firms now have more than $80 trillion of hidden, off-balance sheet dollar debt in the form of FX swaps.

Dubbed the central bank to the world’s central banks, the BIS raised the concerns in its latest quarterly report, in which it also said this year’s market upheaval had, by and large, been navigated without many major issues.

Having repeatedly urged central banks to act forcefully to dampen inflation, it struck a more measured tone this time around and also picked over the ongoing crypto market problems and September’s UK government bond market turmoil.

Its main warning though was what it described as the FX swap debt “blind spot” that risked leaving policymakers in a “fog.”

FX swap markets, where for example a Dutch pension fund or Japanese insurer borrows dollars and lends euro or yen in the “spot leg” before later repaying them, have a history of problems.

They saw funding squeezes during both the global financial crisis and again in March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic wrought havoc that required top central banks like the U.S. Federal Reserve to intervene with dollar swap lines.

The $80 trillion-plus “hidden” debt estimate exceeds the stocks of dollar Treasury bills, repo and commercial paper combined, the BIS said, while the churn of deals was almost $5 trillion per day in April, two thirds of daily global FX turnover.

For both non-U.S. banks and non-U.S. ‘non-banks’ such as pension funds, dollar obligations from FX swaps are now double their on-balance sheet dollar debt, it estimated.

“The missing dollar debt from FX swaps/forwards and currency swaps is huge,” the Switzerland-based institution said, describing the lack of direct information about the scale and location of the problems as the key issue.

…click on the above link to read the rest…

Mainstream Media, Economists Mock “Cash Hoarding” Canadian ‘Savers’

Mainstream Media, Economists Mock “Cash Hoarding” Canadian ‘Savers’

With the Canadian people losing faith in their government’s ability to save their corner of the world as their currency loses value by the day, it is perhaps unsurprising that the always supportive of the status quo media comes out with a somewhat mocking “cash hoaring on the sidelines is foolish” puff piece… (via Financial Post)

Cash positions have been rising since the 2008 recessions, so the recent increase comes on top of what Canadians were already sitting on in their portfolios.

The result is the largest hoarding of cash in Canadian history.

So, FinancialPost explains, if you are holding on to that cash out of fear rather than need, you should consider jumping back in and benefiting from what is essentially a 20 per cent discount on stock prices.

But what if you need cash right now, because you’ve just hit your retirement years, or you need to liquidate some of your registered education savings plans because your child will soon be starting a university or college program?

The short answer is that you should have planned ahead: You want to have a certain amount of cash in your portfolio to meet more immediate needs so you’re not cashing out your investments at the bottom of the market.

It appears Canadians are ignoring the “sage” advice of CIBC World Markets: “While holding cash can guard against short-term spikes in volatility, it’s certainly a long-term drag on portfolio returns,” and moving to cash rather than have their capital destroyed by unwinding carry trades and deflating bubbles blown by their central bank overlords…

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Well-Known Canadian Journalist Visits Ukraine and Praises neo-Nazi

Well-Known Canadian Journalist Visits Ukraine and Praises neo-Nazi

One of Canada’s most known journalists was in Ukraine last month on reporting duty. Readers of mainstream media in Canada will be surprised to read Dianne Francis’ observations of her visit. She has penned several articles in the World Post praising the extreme-right and neo-Nazi paramilitary forces that are allied with the Ukrainian government in waging civil war in the east of the country.

The World Post is an international collaboration by Huffington Post.

Francis is one of the more recognized names in Canadian journalism. She is Editor at Large at the National Post, one of two national dailies in Canada. She is a longtime editor and columnist with the Financial Post, now published as the business section of the National Post. She is Distinguished Professor at the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University in Toronto.

Francis is a renowned conservative and pro-capitalist ideologue, but open support for the far-right in Ukraine comes as an eye-opener. Her articles have received no attention or critique, an all-too common sign these days of the political impunity which proponents of war against the people of eastern Ukraine enjoy in Canada.

‘Poignant moments with Right Sector neo-Nazis’

In a July 13, 2015 article in the World Post, Francis sings the praises of Ukraine’s far-right, calling them “remarkable patriots”. The article is incongruously titled, We are all Ukrainians.

Francis’ evident mission in Ukraine is to warn the world of—you might guess—a creeping Russian takeover of Ukraine. She writes from Kyiv, “This trip, I saw more [Ukrainian] flags than ever and met some remarkable patriots who have realized that the public itself must rally to the cause of trying to stop, and eventually reverse, the steady takeover [of Ukraine] by Russia since independence in 1991.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

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