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Andrew Bell

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 “Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can” ― Herman Melville (1819-1891), Moby-Dick

The novel ― which D. H. Lawrence hailed as "one of the strangest and most wonderful books in the world” ―  was published on this day in 1951 as The Whale to little acclaim and subsequently went out of print. Which goes, once again, to show that Nobody Knows Nothing. The whaling tale’s rich mixture of philosophy, songs, poetry and  Shakespearean devices gained wide attention only in the 20th century. That trick of joining up at the end of funeral processions sounds like fun, by the way.

Reaction to Ottawa's new mortgage rules 

Menaces hiding under the surface of the economy – including the threat of a housing slump –  supply our Top Line on BNN this morning. Former Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO) chief warns that Ottawa has taken too long to cool the frenzy with devices such as tighter mortgage requirements. “I think we should have done those measures sooner, but it’s good that we’ve done them now,” Clark told our own Paige Ellis. 

Mind you, not everyone is happy with the policy. Gary Mauris, CEO of mortgage broker Dominion Lending Centres, told BNN yesterday that the crackdown punishes first-time homebuyers, whom he calls "the drivers" for Canada's economy. “The moves are really premature. What ever happened to capitalism and free markets?” Mauris said. 

We’ll get an economist’s take at 3:35 p.m. ET when we’re joined by Mark Zandi of Moody's Analytics. Moody’s reckons that the foreign homebuyers’ tax will cause Vancouver prices to fall over the next year. “While the price declines will be modest at less than 3 per cent in 2017, there are downside risks of even bigger declines,” the agency said.  As for the country’s biggest metropolis, Moody’s thinks  “Toronto’s detached single-family housing market is overvalued by nearly 30 per cent, this does not necessarily mean that prices will decline, given that the Toronto market is also supported by strong demand from foreign buyers.”

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: What to do with the Family Cottage?

Explaining life cycle investing to clients

A conversation with Gord Nixon  

BNN's Michael Hainsworth will have a feature interview with former RBC President and CEO Gord Nixon today in the 12:00 p.m. ET hour. Nixon will reflect on his time at RBC, share his views on the outlook for Canada’s economy, and follow up on the narrative established by TD Bank's former chief Ed Clark yesterday. Nixon is receiving the Ivey Business Leader award tonight in Toronto. 

Seabridge Gold's big mining project 

Speaking of whales, at 11:20 a.m. ET on Commodities we’ll check in with the CEO of a company that is pushing forward a copper-gold mining project in British Columbia with massive total reserves of 10.2 billion pounds of copper and 38.8 million ounces of gold. Rudi Fronk, CEO of Seabridge Gold (SEA.TO), will update us on the Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell (KSM) project, one of the largest undeveloped copper-gold prospects in the world. The mine would cost an estimated US$5.5 billion to develop.

National Bank has a Sector Perform on the stock warning that “given the large capital requirement, we don’t believe SEA will be able to finance the project on its own {but} we do not foresee any potential JV partners to undertake a project of KSM’s scale in the current commodity price environment.”

Finally, today’s British story – involving a “bizarre and dangerous chase” – is provided by gloucestershirelive.co.uk. The headline: Over 60s Spark Cow Stampede on Minchinhampton Common by Dangling Carrots from their Nissan Micra.

Not much we can add to that.

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.