By Salman Rafi Sheikh, Asia Sentinel The acknowledgement by Xu Shanda, a retired Chinese deputy director of the State Administration of Taxation, last week regarding potential losses of Silk Road projects has drawn widespread attention as it challenges the prevailing myth of an indomitable and inevitable system in which ultimately all roads will lead to Beijing. The … Continue reading
By Jeffrey P. Snider, Alhambra Investment Partners On April 12, Muhammadu Buhari, President of Nigeria, was in Beijing to negotiate Chinese aid for his ailing country. At home, the government faces an enormous budget deficit largely on the price of oil. The more immediate threat, however, is that Nigeria in large part due to oil prices … Continue reading
Beijing is set to invest over 6 trillion yuan ($926.6 billion) this year in the country’s high-tech research and development, as well as infrastructure development, including railway, fixed assets, water conservancy projects, local media reported on Thursday. The aim is to help develop sectors such as transportation, environment protection, urban planning, and tourism. Fixed asset investment … Continue reading
By Ellen Brown Exposing tax dodgers is a worthy endeavor, but the “limited hangout” of the Panama Papers may have less noble ends, dovetailing with the War on Cash and the imminent threat of massive bail-ins of depositor funds. The bombshell publication of the “Panama Papers,” leaked from a Panama law firm specializing in shell … Continue reading
More troubles may lie ahead for Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, as global equity index provider MSCI is considering dropping the nation from its benchmark Frontier Markets Index, which could put $500 million of equity investment under threat. On Thursday MSCI announced that it’s considering removing the country from its Frontier Markets Index, blaming currency restrictions imposed by … Continue reading
By Yesenia Lugo The biggest party in the governing coalition abandoned President Dilma Rousseff last week, increasing the likelihood that the leader of Latin America’s biggest country will be impeached and opening up the country to uncertainty. The $3 billion dollar scandal that’s engulfed Brazil has its origin in a cluster of construction companies and politicians colluding … Continue reading
The special investigator for a congressional commission recommended on Wednesday that the impeachment process against Brazil’s president, Dilma Rousseff, move forward, saying there was evidence she violated fiscal laws. “The facts show serious indications of unconstitutionality, illegality and fiscal irresponsibility,” Jovair Arantes said in a nearly 130-page report. Arantes’ conclusion had been widely anticipated because … Continue reading
After suffering since 2013 following the “taper tantrum” when the Fed announced the wind down of asset purchases and through the start of this year as the Fed warned of additional interest rate hikes, emerging market (EM) currencies have logged their strongest monthly rally on record in March, according to Bloomberg’s calculations. As the dollar fell with softer U.S. data and … Continue reading
The New York-based international ratings agency Standard & Poor’s revised China’s sovereign debt outlook down to negative, citing high levels of state and corporate indebtedness, which were mismatched with the country’s slower pace of expansion amid Beijing’s insufficient progress developing and implementing economic reforms. Standard & Poor’s has downgraded China’s credit rating outlook from stable to negative, … Continue reading
By Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk Get beyond endless Latin American headlines burning column inches and you come to far broader strategic conclusion: The seven ‘ugly Latino sisters’, namely Brazil, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico and Argentina are all deep political trouble from collapsed benchmark prices. It’s merely a case of who’s in more advanced states of political … Continue reading