Scott Barlow
A roundup of what The Globe and Mail's market strategist Scott Barlow is reading this morning on the Web
Let's hope provincial governments in B.C. and Ontario weren't listening, but Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz is advocating that the cure to Canada's housing bubble is to tax away the rising value of real estate,
"U.S. economist Joseph Stiglitz told BNN in an interview that capital gains taxes on higher-priced real estate, as well as policies or taxes targeting uninhabited homes, will help ease inequality and boost the economy.
"'It is not good to have the centre of cities empty, and forcing ordinary citizens to move way out into the suburbs,' Stiglitz said. 'It's bad for the environment – it increases transportation costs and pollution. It's bad for the way cities work. We should encourage more integrated, economically-integrated cities.'"
This idea will not be popular domestically.
"Taxes are best tools to avoid housing bust, Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz says" – BNN
=====
A report from the Financial Times implies that Elon Musk might be the primary threat to the loonie and Canada's resource-oriented economy,
"Tom Nelson, head of commodities and resources at Investec Asset Management, spends almost as much time tracking Tesla Motors as he does ExxonMobil or BP . Why? If the electric carmaker lives up to its pledge to upend the auto industry, it will have serious implications for oil demand."
In an entirely related story, Quartz magazine reports that the Norwegian government is seriously considering a ban on gasoline-powered vehicles within the next ten years.
"Great resource shift leaves investors walking tightrope" – Financial Times
"The Netherlands is considering a ban on selling gas-powered cars in the next 10 years" – Quartz
Related; "If peak oil arrives, investors will need to get smarter" – FT Commodities
"The 100,000-Barrel Oil Output Increase That Didn't Really Happen" – Bloomberg
=====
Andrey Melnichenko is the owner of Eurochem, one of the world's largest fertilizer producers, and his outlook for the sector won't be welcome in Saskatchewan,
"[Mr. Melnichenko ] said it could take at least a decade for the potash market to work off the excess because of the past 'disruptive' actions by the largest sellers … Potash prices have collapsed since 2013, when a trade pact between Russian and Belarusian producers, which helped prop up the market, fell apart. At the time, Canpotex Ltd., a Canadian potash exporter, and Belarusian Potash Co. controlled about 80 percent of global exports."
"Russia's Fertilizer Tycoon Says Potash Glut May Last a Decade" – Bloomberg
=====
Technology is frequently viewed as a rare growth industry in a slow-growth economic environment, but major technology firms are now laying off employees at a considerable pace, "Cisco will cut up to 5,500 jobs — or 7 per cent of its global workforce — as it restructures in what it warned is a "challenging macro environment".
Cisco became the second technology company to launch large-scale redundancies this year, after Intel announced cuts of up to 12,000 jobs in April, as the company tries to see off competition in the global software-defined networking market.'
"Cisco to cut 5,500 jobs as it restructures" – Financial Times
=====
Tweet of the day: "@S_Rabinovitch Number in this are jaw-dropping: China must hire 100 pilots/week for 20 years; offering $300,000 tax-free salaries " – Twitter
Diversion (video): "New Order's "Blue Monday" Played with Obsolete 1930s Instruments" – Open Culture