Post 360: Booze, RVs, and Rising Mortgage Rates

Hello everyone,

I hope you had a nice weekend.  Things are finally starting to warm up here in the Toronto area: it has been a long winter.  And now that we’re near the end of March the birds are making their way back north including the Toronto Blue Jays (as some of you know I’m a birdwatcher and baseball fan).

Four more of my podcast interviews are now available for your viewing enjoyment.

I was on a live radio show in Singapore called Money and Me with Michelle Martin. The title of the show is Who Really Wins When Money is Printed?  She is an amazing radio host.

The Nova Society’s goal is to “inform your world with unbiased commentary…and that the greatest threat to civilization is misinformation (spreading information that one doesn’t know is false and with no intent of causing harm) and disinformation (deliberately misleading people in order to manipulate or cause harm).”  Dr. Mark Bound and I had a great conversation.

On Money Ripples, Chris Miles teaches people how to earn passive income and not rely on the stock market.  We had such a great chat that we are going to do a part two in April.

And finally, I joined Shawn Murphy on his Above the Bar podcast. He’s a former marine and he talks to people about any subject as long as they have a passion for it.  I was a good fit. 

Have a great week.

Summary

• What caused Canada’s housing affordability crisis?
  • Low interest rates or high development fees, or both?
• Wine exports to China have plummeted.
• The alcohol industry is still struggling.
  • Diageo sales go deeper into negative territory
  • Pernod Ricard sales do likewise
    • And a look back.
• Constellation Brands has had three straight quarters of declining sales growth.
  • But its Modelo Especiale is still the number one beer in America.
  • Brown Forman, maker of Jack Daniel’s, continues to experience weak sales.
    • Particularly in Tequila.
    • They are in talks to merge with Pernod Ricard.
• A look at the booze industry and younger people may be starting to finally drink more.
  • But this is being offset by those cutting back because of the soaring cost of living.
• RV maker Winnebago continues to grow its sales.
  • And a look back at the company and 2004.
  • Its share price is falling faster than an RV going downhill.
• Meanwhile, the largest RV maker Thor Industries also continues to grow its sales.
  • We look back at this one and a quick revisit to the land of the conglomerates.
• In Financial Ructions:
  • Canada’s money supply has been growing much faster than that in other developed economies.
    • Aided and abetted by ridiculously low interest rates for many years.
      • Thus, our record household debt to GDP.
  • Mortgage rates in the US are on their way back up.
• Book Review
  • We continue our review of False Dawn by George Selgin and we see that:
    • Gold inflows from Europe were the main stimulus to the US economy after 1933.
    • Mandating higher wages led to lower levels of employment.
    • And New Deal policies set out to reduce competition so large companies could increase prices.
      • PM: You can’t make this stuff up.