Variable rate mortgages are a sweet deal when interest rates are falling, but apparently not so much when rates go in the opposite direction. It makes for a life just full of surprises, but not the happy kind.

We had a 1.3 per cent variable mortgage rate, which amounted to two payments of $1,275 each month, plus $370 in monthly maintenance fees.

On June 1, the Bank of Canada raised its key interest rate to 1.5 per cent, a half per cent hike. That month, our biweekly payments rose to $1,500.

July rolled around and our payment increased yet again. A couple days later, I went to buy gas for our car, thinking Evelin and I had $600 in our joint account. To my surprise, there was only $100 in there.

We’re paying more than $5,000 a month to live in a 900-square-foot townhouse, and $3,500 of that total goes to interest alone.

Since GDP simply adds up all borrowing and spending in the economy, no matter whether undertaken by governments or the private sector and with no regard for what the money was spent on, it’s quite a feat to get a negative GDP number. Nonetheless, Canada seems to have done just that.

Statistics Canada reported on Nov. 30 that third-quarter GDP contracted 1.1 per cent, compared with expectations of 0.1 per cent growth, according to Bloomberg.

What’s truly remarkable is that the decline in GDP has occurred in an environment where borrowing and spending by all levels of government has risen exponentially in recent years. That can only mean that private sector spending must be cratering in order to have an overall decline. And if you’ve had to pay $50 for breakfast for two as I did recently, you can imagine just how tapped out the marginal consumer must be.

After nearly thirty years of rule by a party which embraced the motto of “nationalizing the mines, banks and monopoly industry” South Africa will soon be at the point where there is nothing left to nationalize anyway.

ArcelorMittal South Africa (ACLJ.J) shares tumbled nearly 14% on Tuesday after the company said it plans to close its long steel operations due to weak demand and persistent infrastructure problems, potentially affecting 3,500 workers.

The company said steel consumption in Africa’s most advanced economy has fallen 20% over the past 7 years, due to limited spending on infrastructure and project delays.

The country’s persistent rail logistics problems and an intensifying electricity crisis had also added costs to the business…

Peter St Onge, Ph.D Last Thursday saw a near-failure of a Treasury auction. Which is the global reserve asset, the biggest block in the jenga tower in our Ponzi financial system. Why? Because the debt sales are too big, and foreigners aren’t buying anymore. The Fed typically hikes until something breaks. They’ve done the hikes. Now come the breaks.