​It’s been a great sunny week in Toronto, the great Canadian city on the lakeshore of Ontario, probably the best kept secret in Northeast America.
 
The city is booming, and it has been for some years now – it shows everywhere you look and it’s always good to be here, even for a short time.
About the 6 – Toronto downtown area code is 416 or 647, so if you get it, you’re part of a great community.
 
On Thursday I attended a graduation ceremony at the University of Toronto, a historic old campus in the heart of the city.
A fine young man graduated from the prestigious Rotman school of business and I was the proud dad.
And there was something the chancellor said in his speech during the ceremony that resonated with me.
He said this – we all need to do our best building communities, add to the quality of life with your work, with your talents, we must volunteer and get involved.
The distinguished old man was absolutely right and gave great advice – work hard to become a part of something great.
 
And I love the vibe of great universities. The way I understand their message is this: if you really want to know what’s going on in the world, read books and avoid the noise. Zoom out and think.
 
Still, some noise can be charming, but one needs to watch the right people for a meaningful input.
One is president Trump, of course. He is pushing the tariffs subject exactly how he promised to the people who voted for him. The mass media is up in arms. How can one even question the status quo? But the Donald is a businessman and he is totally right. All he wants is to start a negotiation to figure out what works best for America.
What’s wrong with that?
It’s a really long shot to figure out what will come out of it, but the conversation on the topic needs to continue. This is exactly what he is good at.
And he is not alone in Washington; he seems to have meaningful backing, from the army at least. If he didn’t, he would likely be dead by now like JFK.
 
And I like how Melanie puts her own spin on the events and shows how she is her own person.
On Thursday, the first lady boarded a plane wearing an olive-green Zara style jacket with graffiti-style writing on the back that read “I really don’t care do U?”
It’s a subtle art of not giving a damn, and I respect that. Live your life and let other people be. This message resonates with people way better than CNN would let you believe, assuming you still watch this channel.
 
So, how does it all look from the 6?
 
I spend less time here in Toronto than I would like, but I will say this:
The 6 will make you feel welcomed the way New York never possibly can. And we just elected a new major who is not far from what the Donald stands for. It’s like the best of both worlds.
The city is vibrant, the restaurants are great and people are very nice.
“Sure”, my younger son would say, “but we don’t really mean it.”
 
Still worth the trip to TO.
And I will give you a ride on my big cruiser down the DVP for a Raptors game if you impress me.

There is usually something significant happening in the world somewhere, but it’s highly unusual that something big is happening almost everywhere.
If you are like me, you are probably convinced that it is no coincidence and that all these events must be connected in some way.
As I sat on a Parisian patio, the news broke that President Trump will be escalating the ‘tariff war’ with Canada and referred to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “very dishonest and weak.”
I don’t recall the US-Canadian relations being this strained, ever.
And this seems to be just the opening salvo.
The Donald tweeted these words upon arriving in Singapore for a historical meeting with Kim, the Rocket Boy, from North Korea. And Kim almost never meets with anybody – during his reign he went to China twice and recently met with his counterpart from South Korea, that’s it.
Why, all of a sudden, is he now open to meet with his biggest adversary is a question worth asking.
As always, the “why” is what is most interesting.
One reason may be climate change – as the temperatures drop, food production will be affected. North Korea had devastating crop failures in the mid 1980s and again in late 1990s, which caused the death of about 2 -3 million people from starvation and hunger related illnesses. Kim Jong-un may be afraid that he will not be able to hold to power should that happen again.
But there is another aspect of this historical meeting in Singapore – it is the US’s gamble to put pressure on China. Should the Koreas unite under some scenario, the Chinese will have the American army on their border.
They were historically supporting North Korea to avoid exactly that.
Just like in our homes, it’s better to have a noisy little dog at the door than an aggressive stranger.
The stakes are extremely high and in this light it is rather obvious why Trump reacted so sharply to the Trudeau criticism (the Canadian prime minister called the tariffs “insulting” repeatedly). The American president must negotiate with Kim from a position of strength, and so the young Trudeau picked a terrible moment for his actions. It just shows who is a businessman and master negotiator and who is a leftist politician.
 
Moving on to Europe – the huge development here is the coming tampering of bond purchases (both, government and corporate) by the European Central Bank under Mario Draghi.
To be clear, the ECB is by far the biggest buyer of these papers, and if they even slow down where will the bid come from? Big money knows that, of course, and capital outflows from the core Europe have been intensifying.
In addition to money being parked in the US, there are reports of increased outflows to Scandinavian countries and even to Easter Europe, mainly Hungry and Poland.
The German Bunds are still flying high, but this is simply a bet that if the Euro fails, investors will end up with Deutsch Marks.
To end on a lighter note – on Sunday, the Swiss rejected a referendum to return to “Vollgeld”, which would mean the end of fractional reserve banking, the current modus operandi of the finance system worldwide.
It is not just. If a private person handled money the way the banks do, he or she would go to jail. So it’s not a surprise that a logical Swiss mind has a problem with it.
Anyways, the Vollgeld idea fell.
Weiter wie bisher.

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