Interest Rates Archives

Morgan Properties to Acquire Dream Residential REIT in $354 Million All-Cash Deal

August 28, 2025 Chris Thompson

Morgan Properties announced on August 21, 2025, that it will acquire Dream Residential REIT in an all-cash deal valued at US$354 million. The purchase price of $10.80 per unit represents a 60% premium to Dream’s February 19 closing price and 18% above the August 20 price. The transaction adds 3,300 units to Morgan’s portfolio. The deal reflects ongoing consolidation in the multifamily sector as REITs face valuation discounts. Dream’s board unanimously approved the agreement, citing value creation for unitholders. Completion is expected in late 2025, pending approvals. [more]

Ben Bernanke on the Pros & Cons of Negative Interest Rates

May 22, 2020 Chris Thompson

Lorimer Wilson from MunKNEE.com summarizes former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s 2016 article about Pros & Cons of negative interest rates. [more]

Recession Barometer – Dichotomy!

March 24, 2020 Bob Weir

U.S. economic pundits are now forecasting two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth, either Q1 and Q2 or Q2 and Q3. Either way, that is the definition of an Economic Recession. [more]

Recession Barometer – Combined Spread Falls To 6.5X

March 9, 2020 Bob Weir

Despite plunging interest rates last week, our Recession Barometer actually weakened, lessening the likelihood of an Economic Recession in the USA in the near future. [more]

Recession Barometer – Canada Continues On Recession Watch

December 15, 2019 Bob Weir

Canadian interest rates have risen quite a bit lately. Also, the spreads are narrowing. However, there is still no change to our Economic Recession forecast for Canada. [more]

Recession Barometer – Canada Continues On Recession Watch

November 19, 2019 Bob Weir

Canadian interest rates have shown some volatile tendencies of late, but the most recent trend is upwards. Since all of our recession-watch interest rate ratios are and remain inverted, we expect to see deteriorating economic fundamentals occur in Canada over the ensuing twelve months. [more]

Recession Barometer – U.S. Reading Continues To Fall

October 19, 2019 Bob Weir

Canadian interest rates rose sharply last week while U.S. rates stayed fairly constant. Spreads in both countries widened, moving away from Inversion. This lessens the possibility of an Economic Recession occurring in the USA. Canada is already on Recession Watch. [more]

Net Worth and Risk Aversion

October 16, 2019 Bob Weir

The net worth of U.S. households continues to increase while, at the same time, households’ leverage continues to decline. What this means is that U.S. households’ asset values are rising at the same time that risk aversion continues strong. This is a relatively healthy situation. [more]

Recession Barometer – Rising USA Spreads Lessen Recession Risk

October 12, 2019 Bob Weir

There was a sharp rise in interest rates in the final two days of last week. This moved key yield curve ratios away from Inversion levels and resulted in the Recession Barometer in the USA falling to 8.0x from 9.0x. Canada went on a recession Count-Down as of August 8. [more]

U.S. Recession Barometer: Reading Stuck At 9.0X

October 7, 2019 Bob Weir

Most of the yield curve ratio combinations that we follow weakened this past week. However, the most important metric, the 10-year/2-year ratio, actually widened. We will continue to monitor closely U.S. interest rate developments and yield spreads. [more]