Blaming oil, double-digit unemployment and a spine-tingling Bank of Canada PowerPoint.

• National Post. Oil prices mean perpetual recession. “The turmoil since August 2007 has not been blamed directly on oil prices but there’s a link.”
• Canada.com. Living on the financial edge. “Most Canadians are one paycheque away from financial disaster, according to the latest survey that illustrates people’s inability to get out of debt and save money.”
• Four Pillars. Beginning investment strategies to avoid. “On Tuesday I posted about Beginning Investment Strategies to Consider, and as promised, in this post I’ll detail investing strategies I think beginner investors should avoid.”
• Canadian Financial DIY. The benefits and imperfections of asset class investing. “One of my pet peeves is articles about investment performance based on the price variation of indexes such as the TSX, the Dow or the S&P 500. Unfortunately they do not reflect real world individual investor experience.”
• Reuters. Canada July bankruptcies show signs of improvement. “Canadian bankruptcies rose 35.6 percent in July compared to a year earlier, but the surge has begun to slow and business bankruptcies actually fell, the government said in a report that suggests the numbers of those unable to pay their debts may soon peak.”
• The Globe and Mail. Canadian household wealth rebounds. “Canadian households were wealthier in the second quarter of this year after losing ground in the three previous quarters, with stock market gains leading the recovery, Statistics Canada said Monday.”
• The Globe and Mail. Jobless rate to hit 10%, OECD says. “The Harper government’s stimulus package should have a big impact on stemming job losses but unemployment in Canada will still reach almost 10 per cent by next year, the OECD said Wednesday.”
• CBC. OECD sees signs of ‘broad economic recovery.’ “The world economy is showing definite signs of recovery, according to data released Friday by the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development.”
• CBC. Manufacturing sales up 5.5% in July. “Manufacturing shipments in July increased 5.5 per cent, well above the 2.5 per cent that analysts had been expecting, Statistics Canada said Wednesday.”
• Investment Postcards From Cape Town. Charts: Stocks face 15% correction in October. “I have over the years developed a great respect for the technical analysis of Robin Griffiths, technical strategist at Cazenove Capital in England. Although I do not receive his reports on a regular basis, his interviews with CNBC from time to time at least keep me in touch with his views.”
• Thicken My Wallet. The disconnect between the stock market and the economy. “Stock markets tend to be used by some as proxies for the state of the general economy given it is a readily and easily available source of information to rely upon where the ‘score’ is kept daily. But is this really a good barometer of our economic health? The answer is most likely not.”
• MoneyWeek. A double-dip recession is coming: here are three reasons why. “The papers are still full of the anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse. Pundits are cogitating, mulling over, and pronouncing their views on the crisis and what should happen next.”
• Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis. Yellen calls for “U” shaped recession and another jobless recovery. “One thing I like about Janet Yellen is that unlike Bernanke and Greenspan, she speaks understandable English and is not prone to sugar coating everything. I disagree with much of what she says, but not all of it.”
• The New York Times. China’s economy is back, while U.S. still ails. “Just eight months ago, thousands of Chinese workers rioted outside factories closed by the global downturn.”
• Forbes. Lehman’s lesson. “Letting Lehman go was a mistake.”
• Bank of Canada. Canada and the economic crisis: our performance and near-term prospects. A presentation to the 80th International Business Cycle Conference of the Kiel Institute.

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