Investors Respond to Trump Uncertainty

Jeffrey Sachs and Warren Buffet comment on the danger of loss of confidence and stability for investors in Canada on Wall Street. 

Canada Just Made A New Trade Move — Trump LOSES Control | Jeffery Sachs

In this video, economist Jeffrey Sachs explains why Trump’s confrontation with Canada is quietly changing how US markets are being evaluated. This isn’t about tariffs or headlines, but about capital, confidence, and what happens when long‑standing financial relationships start to look less stable.

Sachs breaks down how institutional investors respond to uncertainty, why Canada’s role in US markets matters far more than most realize, and how Wall Street becomes the transmission mechanism for higher costs, tighter credit, and slower growth.

In this video, economist Jeffrey Sachs explains why Canada’s new trade move is not a confrontation with Donald Trump, but a quiet structural shift that reduces exposure to U.S. political volatility. Rather than escalating tensions, Canada has adjusted how leverage works inside the trade system itself.

Sachs breaks down how diversification, patience, and long-term planning can weaken traditional pressure tactics without retaliation, and why this approach reflects a broader global shift toward resilience over efficiency. (Canada Just Made A New Trade Move — Trump LOSES Control | Jeffery Sachs, n.d.)

Warren Buffet makes the case for the necessity of stability to make trade between the US and Canada continue to be mutually beneficial and why Canada is walking away from investing in the United States. 

(WARREN BUFFETT EXPLAINS WHY CANADA IS WALKING AWAY FROM THE US IT JUST HAPPENED, n.d.)

The Stock Market demands stability and predictability.

References

WARREN BUFFETT EXPLAINS WHY CANADA IS WALKING AWAY FROM THE US IT JUST HAPPENED. (n.d.). https://youtu.be/prllSJYOI48?si=CRN-U-N1UVfmkaQt 

You Tube. (n.d.). Canada Just Made A New Trade Move — Trump LOSES Control | Jeffery Sachs. https://youtu.be/QSGbWvTvREU?si=CH4TUmAY3J3Bw3yv 

Moral Collapse in DHS/ICE Killings

Lawrence Powell reflects on The Moral Collapse That Killed Renee Good and we contemplate the immorality in the killing of Alex Pretti. What we are witnessing is something deeper and more disturbing: the surrender of moral agency in exchange for belonging.

Bystander video captured from multiple angles appears to show another fatal confrontation between U.S. federal agents and an individual in Minneapolis on Saturday. Federal officials said the man was armed and that agents fired at him in self-defence. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz criticized the Trump administration and its immigration enforcement campaign, saying it is creating 'chaos' in his state.

History does not judge people only by what they do with their own hands, but by what they permit, excuse, and normalize. And it is unforgiving to those who confuse obedience with virtue and cruelty with order. (Powell, n.d.)

The Incident Management Intervention Model (IMIM) is what RCMP officers use to assess and manage risk in all encounters with the public. It helps to determine what intervention is needed, such as verbal de-escalation or the use of another method. 

Police officers must also clearly explain what happened before, during and after the incident. This process is called "legal articulation." This articulation will include the officer's risk assessment, helping people who were not there understand what the officer saw, what it meant to them, as well as how it made them feel.

An officer's intervention is measured against what a reasonable, trained, prudent police officer would do faced with a similar set of circumstances.

In April 2021, the RCMP updated the Incident Management Intervention Model (IMIM) annual re-certification training as well as the Incident Management Intervention Model graphic to place more emphasis on communication and crisis intervention and de-escalation. Crisis intervention and de-escalation now surrounds the graphic, emphasizing de-escalation as the preferred result of any interaction. Crisis intervention and de-escalation provides police with tools that can often be used instead of physical intervention options.

Six basic principles underlie the Incident Management Intervention Model:

 

• The primary duty of a peace officer is to preserve and protect life

• The primary objective of any intervention is public safety

• Peace officer safety is essential to public safety

• The Incident Management Intervention Model is consistent with federal statute law and common law authorities and in no way replaces or augments the law

• The intervention model must always be applied in the context of a careful assessment of risk, taking into account the likelihood and extent of life loss, injury, and damage to property as a result of the intervention

• Risk assessment is a continuous process and risk management must evolve as situations change (RCMP Incident Management Intervention Model, 2026)

Perhaps the DHS and ICE officers require more intense training in situational awareness, communication, crisis intervention, and de-escalation. The requirement to demonstrate these steps in the investigation of action in cases where lethal force was applied or face prosecution under the Law is very likely to reduce killing as the result of interactions with the public.

References

Powell, L. (n.d.). The Moral Collapse That Killed Renee Good. Facebook. Retrieved January 26, 2026, from https://www.facebook.com/HLawrencePowell/photos/the-moral-collapse-that-killed-renee-good-by-lawrence-powell-to-understand-why-m/10162282889168388/ 

RCMP Incident Management Intervention Model. (2026, January 19). Royal Canadian Mounted Police | Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Retrieved January 26, 2026, from https://rcmp.ca/en/police-intervention/incident-management-intervention-model 

Outside Scope of Authority

Former law enforcement officer, Kramer Hammy has posted to “Threads” a discussion that proposes that ICE agents involved acted outside their “Scope of Authority” during the events involving Renee Nicole Good, the mom killed by ICE in Minneapolis.

ICE agents stand outside an ICE facility during a protest on Oct. 4 in Portland, Ore. The shooting of a Minneapolis woman has raised questions about ICE's rules for use of force. (Jenny Kane/The Associated Press)

"As a former officer, let me make something clear: ICE agents ARE NOT police officers, deputy sheriffs, or troopers. They are not local/state law enforcement. They are not federal criminal law enforcement. They have an INCREDIBLY limited scope of authority, and that scope of authority exists in detaining and arresting with probable cause and/or SIGNED WARRANTS those investigated and suspected of being in the US illegally. ("This ENTIRE Situation in Minnesota Was Outside of the Scope of Legal Authority, n.d.)

The use of lethal force by law enforcement officers has a controversial history in Western Society. Some of the guidelines that I recall expressed in Canada include:

• Preservation of human life is the highest priority of law enforcement.

• Lethal Force is justified to counter Lethal Threat

• When the RCMP activate a lethal weapon it is used to apply lethal force.

Many people have concerns that the training of ICE agents has neglected emphasis on the consequences of action outside of their scope of authority and in neglect of the moral and human respect that is required to prevent tragic outcomes from an ill considered and possibly illegal use of Lethal Force.

References

"This ENTIRE situation in Minnesota was outside of the scope of legal authority. (n.d.). Threads. Retrieved January 12, 2026, from https://www.threads.com/@bertwoodphotography/post/DTavZRije7V/this-entire-situation-in-minnesota-was-outside-of-the-scope-of-legal-authority 

Canadian Housing Crisis

The Canadian Housing Evidence Collaborative  (CHEC) is an independent, university-based research and knowledge mobilization organization that shares evidence, stimulates new research and advises on strategic evidence-informed action. CHEC brings together a network of more than 30 academics from across Canada and beyond who are engaged in independent, in-depth research exploring the connections between income, housing and health.

The pie chart below represents an unscientific allocation of a possible per cent contribution of each bullet point.

CHEC Causes of Housing Crisis (unscientific percents)

 CHEC explains that the rapid escalation in the cost of both home ownership and rental accommodation in Canada and around the world has a multitude of causes, some more important than others.

Fifteen bold bullet points from the web post “What caused the housing crisis?” are summarized below:

1. Low interest rates:

2. Increased money supply: 

3. Financialization of housing:

4. Failure to prepare for population increase:

5. Exit of government from affordable housing: 

6. Failure to protect existing affordable housing: 

7. Slow municipal approval process:

8. Bad forecasting housing inflation and student increases.

9. Cohort of wealthy homeowners who bid up prices.

10. Grow condos over rentals: 

11. Exclusive single-family Nimbyism: 

12. Failure to build new student housing: 

13. Money laundering illegal money: 

14. Foreign investors buying properties in Canada

15. Failure to develop approved properties 

(Canadian Housing Evidence Collaborative, n.d.)

The pie chart represents an unscientific allocation of a possible per cent contribution of each bullet point. Consider how you would change the allocation of percentage to causes that would more accurately reflect the situation in your area based on your experience.

References

Canadian Housing Evidence Collaborative. (n.d.). What caused the housing crisis. CHEC. Retrieved October 31, 2025, from https://chec-ccrl.ca/what-caused-the-housing-crisis/ 

West Bank Annexation

In a report in the Globe and Mail by Renata Brito And Matthew Lee of the Associated Press in Jerusalem, Vice President JD Vance criticized Israel’s Parliament after a vote passed a motion to encourage Israel to annex the occupied West Bank.

Between the River and the Sea

  

The Palestinians seek the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, for a future independent state. Israeli annexation of the West Bank would all but bury hopes for a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians – the outcome supported by most of the world. (Brito & Lee, n.d.)

Analysts like Amichai Cohen, a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, say that a “de-facto annexation of very large parts” of the West Bank is already underway, referring to the growing number of Israelis living in settlements in the Palestinian territory – even without any law supporting annexation.

In 2021, the Palestinian-American writer Yousef Munayyer argued that those who saw genocidal ambition in the phrase, (From the River to the Sea), or indeed an unambiguous desire for the destruction of Israel, did so due to their own Islamophobia.

It was instead, he argued, merely a way to express a desire for a state in which “Palestinians can live in their homeland as free and equal citizens, neither dominated by others nor dominating them”. (Boffey, 2023)

The context and the intent is key.

The founding charter of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party trolls: “Between the sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.” (Boffey, 2023)

Amichai Stein writing in the Jerusalem Post reported that Prime Minister Netanyahu has declared there will be no Palestinian state west of the Jordan river even as he was weighing annexation.

One of the sources noted that there was no detailed discussion of what exactly Israel might annex, but rather deliberations over several options - one of which is the annexation of the Jordan Valley. (STEIN, 2025)

In the Ponder Patterns blog, Thursday, September 25, 2025, the post entitled Trump Canada and Greenland presented some parallels between Trump expansion threats and the history of Lebensraum.

The German geographer Friedrich Ratzel first introduced the term Lebensraum in his 1897 book Politische Geographie (Political Geography). According to Ratzel, a nation-state should become self-sufficient by acquiring resources and territories in order to maintain independence and thrive internationally.

 

Friedrich Ratzel (1844–1904) was a German scientist and geographer. He is regarded as the “father” of political geography, which acquired popularity in the 19th century. Ratzel relied on the Darwinian theory of evolution and stated that the characteristics of different nationalities were determined by their geographical environment.

 

Inspired by Darwin’s evolution theory, Ratzel compared the state to a living organism. He claimed that young states needed territories to sustain themselves, just like a living organism needs nutrients to grow. Just as organisms are bound to their environments, Ratzel believed states were also tied to their geographic locations.

 

Ratzel argued that the development of all species, including humans as a race, was influenced by their ability to adapt to geographical circumstances; those who successfully adapt to one location naturally migrate to others. Thriving species strive to expand the territory they occupy. This concept of territorial expansion was linked to the idea of Lebensraum—living space.

 

Three key foreign policy goals of lebensraum were established:

 

• Belief that borders of states were not fixed.

• Certain races were inherently superior and needed more territory to expand and thrive. 

• Lebensraum is utilized to ideologically justify the invasion of foreign territory. Expansion is necessary to accommodate the needs of racially superior people who need vast territories of the rich in resources. (Cussans, 2025)

Byline Supplement is a reader-supported publication covering populism and the global rise of the far right. An article, published Feb 19, 2025, concludes that Trump Isn't Joking About Lebensraum. Trump's plans for Greenland, the Panama Canal, Canada and Mexico aren't just idle talk. A senior US insider tells us what to expect.

Trump might appear to be joking, or playing coy about his intentions with Mexico, Panama, Greenland, and Canada. But he’s not. He plans on military action against cartels, and he is dead serious about acquiring the canal, plus Greenland, and annexing Canada. His “jokes” are just thinly veiled desires. Militarily, he could accomplish all of these. Hanging on to them is another matter.

His plans rely on a lot of the same calculi employed by the Germans leading up into World War II, and the Russians before their invasions of Ukraine in 2014 and 2022. Even if he doesn’t set off a massive conflict, it will result in the US becoming a nuclear armed pariah state. Unlike Germany and (to a lesser extent Russia), the US will have a plethora of ways to anesthetize sentiments in NATO countries that use some of the same social media platforms as the US public. (Trump Isn't Joking About Lebensraum., n.d.)

In William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, Queen Gertrude protests "The lady doth protest too much, methinks". The phrase is used to suggest that excessive or agitated denials can imply guilt. Does the protest of JD Vance over the West Bank, attempt to hide Trump’s ambition for expansion of his influence in the region?

References

Boffey, D. (2023, October 31). 'From the river to the sea': where does the slogan come from and what does it mean? The Guardian. Retrieved October 24, 2025, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/31/from-the-river-to-the-sea-where-does-the-slogan-come-from-and-what-does-it-mean-israel-palestine 

Brito, R., & Lee, M. (n.d.). Vance criticizes Israel’s parliament vote on West Bank annexation, calls move ‘political stunt’. Globe and Mail. Retrieved October 23, 2025, from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-israel-hamas-gaza-ceasefire-us/ 

Cussans, T. (2025, May 13). What Is “Lebensraum” and Why Did Hitler Promote It? TheCollector. Retrieved October 24, 2025, from https://www.thecollector.com/what-is-lebensraum-why-hitler-promoted/ 

STEIN, A. (2025, September 21). Benjamin Netanyahu: No Palestinian state west of the Jordan. The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved October 24, 2025, from https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-868295 

Trump Isn't Joking About Lebensraum. (2025, February 19). Byline Supplement. Retrieved October 24, 2025, from https://www.bylinesupplement.com/p/trump-isnt-joking-about-liebensraum