Saturday, July 24, 2010

Zemanta: Bloggers’ assistant

There are times you wish you had an assistant to provide you with the facts and data as you are busy writing your blog. Zemanta offers a tentative solution. While you write your blog, it tries to provide you with the background material.

Let’s take Zemanta for a test drive. I would like this blog about the rising debt levels amongst Canadians. A recent Bloomberg story highlighted the fact that Canadians are getting more and more into debt. That is the ratio of debt to  disposable income for households have been on the rise.  If these trends continue, Canadian households are likely to pullback spending in the months to come.

The household debt has been rising in the US as well. See the image below that suggests that the household debt in the US has peaked.

According to an entry on Flickr:

On December 10th, the Federal Reserve released its latest  lHousehold Personal Debt 10 Dec 09atest findings on Consumer Debt Outstanding. In reflection of good personal choices, personal debt went down by 2.6% for the third quarter 2009. This is amazing because it brings the total personal national debt down to around $13.6 trillion. Also, for the first time ever, personal debt did not grow for the fifth quarter in a row. This decrease was due to a 13.6% drop in household home mortgage debt AND a 3.2% drop in consumer credit.

 

Image by eric731 via Flickr        

How did I get this image? Zemanta suggested it.

What about other related stories and information. According to Windsor Star, Canada’s household debt has reached $1.4 trillion. I didn’t search for this. Zemanta suggested it. By the way notice the 10% rule. If the US households are carrying $14 trillion in household debt, their Canadian counterparts would carry 10% of the US amount.

Another story in Toronto Star on May 11 refers to the fact that Canadian households are the most indebted people living in the advanced countries, according to OECD.

How do I know this? Zemanta suggested it.

Lastly, the Bank of Canada's governor offered the following comment on household debt in Canada in a Reuters' story:

"We don't expect a sharp uptick in household savings in Canada. Again, that is one of the risks to the projection that there could be a repair of household balance sheets, or an increase, I should say, in household savings in Canada. All of that said... household balance sheets in Canada are in quite strong shape and that is one of the big differences between Canada and the United States."

Who searched this item for me? Zemanta did.

Enhanced by Zemanta

No comments:

Post a Comment