Richard Conrad

Step 1) 100% tariffs on all Canadian imports until Carney shuts out China Step 2) Let Carney dig in with rhetoric that Canada won’t be bullied Step 3) Raise tariffs to 300% and use emergency measures to replace energy imports using nat gas, upgrading refineries to handle lighter shale, drawing from SPR, increase MX imports, lift VZ sanctions Step 4) Wait a few months, ignore Carney Step 5) Wait for Alberta to get really angry and start talking about secession Step 6) Offer to oversee referendum Step 7) Wait for polling data to show Alberta is likely to vote for secession Step 8) Ultimatum to Carney to step down for a conservative replacement and cut China completely from North American trade …. Or Alberta becomes the 51st state. 🤷‍♂️

BREAKING: China is accelerating efforts to stop its severe equity selloff, deploying two major state funds to buy domestic equities and stabilize capital markets, per Bloomberg.

NEW - U.S. to impose a 50% tariff on Canadian products in response to what the White House calls Canada's "discriminatory treatment" of U.S. cars, alcohol, and dairy — Reuters

I can see clearly now the rain has gone…🎶

The mainstream story about the weak yen is a cartoon. Everyone points to hedge funds borrowing cheap yen to buy Treasuries. Simple story. Easy headline. But Japan just spent tens of billions defending the yen directly in FX markets. Got almost nothing for it. Why? Because they were treating a symptom, not the disease. The real carry trade isn't a hedge fund trade. It's Japanese pension funds, insurers, institutional money, all quietly deciding that returns are better outside Japan than inside it. That's not speculation. That's domestic capital voting with its feet. And it explains something the textbooks can't: why BOJ rate hikes don't strengthen the yen. Under this framework, hikes can actually make it weaker. Japan may have finally named the real problem. Naming it and fixing it are two very different things.

I hate to bring this up again but there is a reason I can make this factual meme below. Chengdu builds high capacity, earthquake proof underground city center metro lines for $200 million per kilometer. Wage adjusted. When things cost less to build you tend to have more of it.