“We have largely forgotten what it is like to face an epidemic sweeping through a population”  -- Cambridge University historian Stephen Mawdsley

On this day in 1956, rock and roll king Elvis Presley was photographed being inoculated against polio in a campaign to get teenagers to take up the vaccine. (More recently, celebrities such Robert De Niro, Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy have been less helpful, publicly questioning the safety of vaccines.) During the previous half-century, polio  had affected hundreds of thousands of children around the world and Presley’s stunt helped to drive down the U.S. incidence by nearly 90 per cent over 10 years. But other initiatives – such dances where only vaccinated individuals could get in – were a major factor.

MORNEAU VOWS TO SUSTAIN HOUSEHOLD DEBT LEVELS

Our Top Line is a warning from Finance Minister Bill Morneau that Ottawa may not be done pouring cold water on the housing market. “I will continue to act to ensure that household debt levels are sustainable, that lenders are acting prudently, and that increases in interest rates or a housing market downturn don't put at risk the economic growth we are working so hard to accelerate,” he said in prepared remarks for a speech today in Toronto. But our own Paige Ellis, who attended the speech, tells us Morneau has also said this morning that no further actions are under consideration right now.

AMAZON UNDER PRESSURE  

Some Amazon (AMZN.O) investors fear that their own party is winding down. The stock - which is up more than 20-fold since 2006 – is under pressure this morning after costs in the company’s retail operations spiked as CEO Jeff Bezon spends heavily on new warehouses and original content for the Prime Video service.

We’ll look at the retailer from a credit perspective at at 12:30 p.m. ET with Moody's analyst Charles O’Shea.

He cautioned this year that “Amazon had a pretty clear freeway for the first 15 or so years of its existence as it built the online retail Autobahn. As its brick-and-mortar competitors are shifting their focus and capital expenditure dollars online with the goal of becoming multi-channel retailers, competition is heating up.”

---

Are You a Financial Advisor?

As we approach the final months of 2016, BNN’s Catherine Murray looks at some of the best ways to utilize TFSAs and RRSPs - and the tax implications that are making the TFSA extremely popular among high-net-worth clients.

Compensating advisors for selling mutual funds and ETFs

Sponsored: Don’t follow the investing crowd

Explaining life cycle investing to clients

---

ANTI-PIPELINE ACTIVISM AND POLITICS  

At 11:30 a.m. ET on Commodities, we'll speak with controversial commentator Vivian Krause, who says Canadians should question information from some environmental groups opposed to energy projects. She says U.S. money is helping to bankroll their activities.

“This U.S.-funded campaign against Alberta oil is unacceptable,” Krause wrote in the Financial Post this month. She says campaigners are “keeping Canadian oil landlocked within North America, stopping it from reaching overseas buyers and allowing the U.S. to dominate the market. Anti-pipeline activism claims to be about the carbon emissions and the climate but what it amounts to is economic protectionism.”

FORT MAC FIRE ADDS FLAVOUR TO ALBERTA WHISKY 

Also on Commodities, we have an Alberta business making (figurative) lemonade from lemon. At 11:20 a.m. ET, we'll be joined by Spike Baker, head brewer at Wood Buffalo Brewing Co.

The brewpub in Fort McMurray, is preparing a batch of whisky using a metric tonne of malt that was left on a side patio and absorbed smoke from this year’s forest fire.

“It was already heavily peated malt destined for whisky, but it absorbed this extra flavour,”  Baker told the Edmonton Journal.

“You can taste the malt, but it also has this smoky campfire taste to it. This is definitely going to be a one-off whisky because these conditions are never going to be repeatable.”

An auction of the whisky today will raise funds for the Friends of the Fort McMurray Firefighters Charities Association.

Finally, those locked in disputes over the temperature in their workplace will want to check out this Daily Mail report that “many offices install 'dummy thermostats.'” Seems individuals feel better with the illusion of control. And close-the-door button in elevators and crosswalk buttons for pedestrians are also apparently often fake.  

Now there’s an idea: Disconnect the front doorbell. We’re lying on the bed reading the New Yorker and drinking tea, okay? So you can push that thing till you wear your fingers down to nubbins.

Every morning Commodities host Andrew Bell writes a ‘chase note’ to BNN's editorial staff listing the stories and events that will be in the spotlight that day. Have it delivered to your inbox before the trading day begins by heading to www.bnn.ca/subscribe.