Got to love the media!

[The Hedgehog]

There are stories being circulated that 11% of mortgages are troubled. They classify that as past due or in foreclosure.

Although I don't take a 30 day past due too lightly, debts are not classified as troubled until they hit the 90 day point.

You can pull hundreds of bank performance reports and you will always see a big difference between 30 days and what we call NPA's (Non Performing Assets or troubled debt). This has been the case for decades.

Just another way the media is selling some doom and gloom.

Another interesting point is that the true troubled debt is spiking quite nicely now that folks are feeling good that they have some protection from foreclosure. That's a very bad thing.

[Lenny]

What I find interesting is, yes, earnings are down, but EVERY bank in Canada made good money in 2008. No buy-outs/bail-outs, nothing. There was a run at getting sub-prime here but it never made it through the Commons (your Congress) . Good thing. The only people with homes are people that could buy homes legitamately.

Now we have a .5 % interest rate as of yesterday.

But things are really starting to go sideways here :yes:

Chrysler outsold GM for the first time in Canada since 1949 as well. Our steel plants (owned by US Steel) have been idled as well.

I guess that is what happens when your largest trade partner is the USA and 80% of your GDP goes south to you folks.

Here we go... too :(

[The Hedgehog]

What I find interesting is, yes, earnings are down, but EVERY bank in Canada made good money in 2008. No buy-outs/bail-outs, nothing. There was a run at getting sub-prime here but it never made it through the Commons (your Congress) . Good thing. The only people with homes are people that could buy homes legitamately.

Now we have a .5 % interest rate as of yesterday.

But things are really starting to go sideways here :yes:

Chrysler outsold GM for the first time in Canada since 1949 as well. Our steel plants (owned by US Steel) have been idled as well.

I guess that is what happens when your largest trade partner is the USA and 80% of your GDP goes south to you folks.

Here we go... too :(

And you have RBC that owns a bunch of assets in our country. I have followed some of their purchases on occasion but need to look into that a little more. The company overall reported pretty good earnings and has plenty of capital as of year end 2008. I dunno how much USA exposure they have. I will try to look into that.

KUDUs on staying out of the sub prime though!