While the rest of the global banking system falls apart, Canadian banks are receiving the highest rankings as healthy, competitive stocks. Mark Skousen of Investment U says that superior bank stocks will soar when the markets recover. 

The dollar remains strong…  GDP sinks to -3.8% …  Central Bank rate meeting week…  Gold outperforms just about everything! And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

Oil jumps $2 on better-than-expected GDP data… OPEC says “willing to go further” to balance market… Labour action in U.K., U.S. supports crude prices…

Oil fell below $41 a barrel on Thursday, pressured by more gloomy data on the state of the economy in top energy consumer the United States.

Pessimism about the U.S. economy and financial market is so thick right now you could cut it with a knife. I’ll be the first to admit that times are tough. But Americans have seen tough times before. And we have always prevailed.

It takes more than a globally competitive economy to have a sound banking system. For the third straight year, the United States finds itself at the top of the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) as part of its annual Global Competitiveness Report.