Hard to believe it, but we are already entering the last quarter of 2024. The year has been a mixed bag with lots of good news and bad news to report. As I write this, I’m following the Hurricane that rocked the Southeast United States1. I’m also following the ongoing situation in the Middle East. Israel has now sent troops into Lebanon. This was the situation that we feared, a larger conflict in the region2.
Of course, we had major fires right here in Alberta this year. Jasper is still recovering from that. In good news, we have seen prices continue to level off throughout the year.
The Inflation Rate in Canada has come down to 2% as of August this year3. The rate was closer to 4% a year ago, so this is good progress. We continue to see Interest Rates come down with Inflation cooling. While this doesn’t mean that prices will go back to pre-pandemic levels, it does mean that we are back into a more normal range.
Inflation is in the Bank of Canada’s target range so this should mean more Interest Rate Cuts. If you’ve been reading previous newsletters throughout the year, you would have read about the strong Stock Market. We’ve seen numerous Indexes hit new record highs here in 2024. Our own Toronto Stock Exchange hit a number of new highs this September4.
By the time you get this, we’ll be very close to the US Election. Polling in swing states continues to show a very close election5. Will this be like 2016 with an Electoral College win for Republicans or a significant Electoral College and Popular Vote win for Democrats? It’s still too early to tell. What we do know, is that just like in past election cycles, there will be a lot of misinformation out there. I try my best to find sources that are the least biased and most fact-based.
There are sources you can use to fact check claims made by candidates and their supporters. For many years now, I have used a site called Media Bias/Fact Check which can tell you how biased news sources are. I’m going to leave you with some links here. In a world of Social Media and YouTube Influencers, I have found these sites very helpful. I’ll urge you to take a look before the election in November!
- FactCheck.org: https://www.factcheck.org/
- PolitiFact: https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/
- Media Bias/Fact Check: https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/
Bryce A. Borden
1Associated Press: Helene and other storms dumped a whopping 40 trillion gallons of rain on the South
2Associated Press: Israel begins ground offensive against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon
3Trading Economics: Canada Inflation Rate
4Reuters: TSX hits new record high as China stimulus boosts commodities
