Today we zero in on an article titled The US economy is far from sound, no matter what the hype from Stephen Roach writing for the South China Morning Post. Roach posits that the current upward correction in the stock market is fleeting citing low savings rates, unrestrained government spending and misguided policies. Essentially, America is living off of potential future prosperity.
Looking at Canada we bring an article from www.betterdwelling.com that shows a frightening sum of equity (close to $300 Billion) was used in February alone to secure loans for Canadians. This begs the question, what is all this equity being used for? Speculation in more real estate? Vacations? Home upgrades? A brand new car? or could it be debt repayment? It is more than likely that Canadians are using homes as an ATM machine to find the one vestige of prosperity while the middle class is being severely threatened.