China’s Monetary Bazooka
The Chinese Monetary Bazooka– China has unleashed a monetary liquidity bazooka in an attempt to re-inflate not only Chinese Real Estate but also the Chinese Stock Market.
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China
The Crux of China’s Problems
China is risking more than a real estate collapse. China has turned its back on what created the Chinese Economic Miracle in the first place. Everyone is pontificating about China’s real estate bubble and whether Chairman Xi will do enough to stimulate the economy. Even though the media admits that so far a loose monetary policy hasn’t helped, they still believe that more of the magic cure-all monetary elixir will somehow eventually work.
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Is The U.S. A Powerful “Empire” In Decline?
Recently I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the idea of global “empires”. Back in the 1970s one of my teachers discussed the parallels between the U.S. and the Roman empire and those parallels are even more striking today. A simple search on the term, “Parallels Between the U.S. and the Roman Empire” will generate pages and pages of results on this topic from such esteemed writers as Doug Casey, Seeking Alpha and even Salon.
In the U.S. we tend to bristle at the idea that we are an “empire” but a recent YouTube Video by Ray Dalio got me thinking about this subject once again. The characteristics of an “Empire” are fairly consistent and specific. Truth in History lists 36 characteristics of an empire. These include:
Being the “World’s Policeman”.
Meddling in the political affairs of foreign nations.
Original citizenry becomes rich, lazy, fat and demands “bread and circuses”.
Has an expanded immigration policy.
Accepts foreigners into its realm as unskilled laborers.
Ray Dalio’s video explains how the ascendency to Empire status occurs and he focuses on three recent “empires” including the Dutch, British, and the U.S. He calls this “the Big Cycle” and focuses primarily on the financial aspects of Empire.
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China Ramps Up U.S. Crude Oil Imports
China has been buying a lot of U.S. crude oil lately, perhaps in a belated attempt to fulfill some of the energy import quotas agreed with Washington last year or perhaps in a bid to take advantage of supercheap U.S. crude. But the buying spree may be about to end.
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U.S.-China Trade War: Who will Win?
One of Trump’s campaign platforms was that the U.S. wasn’t getting fair deals in international trade. His two biggest examples were NAFTA (trade with Canada and Mexico) and trade with China. And in 2018 the media panicked and drove the markets down anticipating that Trump would somehow destroy all trade and the U.S. would plunge the world into another depression. Then in November 2018 NAFTA (North American Free Trade) was replaced by USMCA (United States-Mexico-Canada-Agreement) which included new protections for U.S. intellectual property, Digital Trade, Anti-corruption, and Good Regulatory Practices. It also included provisions “Creating a more level playing field for American workers, including improved rules of origin for automobiles, trucks, other products, and disciplines on currency manipulation.”And now six months later the Trump administration is taking on China. But China is not Mexico and it has a lot more clout so where does the U.S. stand in this fight?
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New Oil Cartel Threatening OPEC
When reports emerged that India and China are in talks about forming an oil buyers’ club, OPEC was probably too busy with its upcoming June 22 meeting to concern itself with that dangerous alliance. Now, it may be time for it to start worrying.
“The timing is right. The boom in U.S. oil and gas production gives us greater leverage against OPEC,” the Times of India quoted an Indian official as saying last month after the formal start of said talks. The two countries, after all, account for a combined 17 percent of global oil consumption and they are the ones that would be the hardest hit if prices rise as a result of OPEC’s actions.
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Cyberattack! Ransomware and The Future of Computing
The big news this week was the outbreak of a computer virus called “WannaCry”. According to CyberSecurity company Symantec makers of Norton Security, WannaCry is a “worm that spreads by exploiting a vulnerability in the Windows operating system. Once installed, it encrypts files and demands a payment to decrypt them.”
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God, Pascal, China and Japan
Why believe in something for which there is no evidence? The answer lies in decision theory.
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Why China’s Insatiable Appetite For Coal Has Likely Peaked
A recent report from Greenpeace found that China’s coal consumption declined in the first half of this year and new Chinese government data suggests that the country’s coal imports have dropped.
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Tapering vs. Economy And Trends
Everyone is aware that the “recovery” is lame and is primarily an illusion due to the printing of funny money by the FED. What effect will it have if the FED shut off the spigot over night? Well just the thought of that idea recently sent shivers down the DOW’s spine. So Bernanke had to
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