By Jeffrey P. Snider, Alhambra Investment Partners When commenting on any weakness in the US economy, it has become common even shorthand for any outlet or author to affix the conventional explanation. Suspiciously low growth rates and far too many outright contractions, especially in manufacturing and industry, are blamed on overseas weakness and the dollar as … Continue reading
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 Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk Economic forecasting, no matter how complex the underlying model may be, is essentially about extrapolating historical trends. We showed last week how economic models completely fail to pick up on structural shifts using Japan as an example. On the other hand, if an economy doesn’t really change much, as in the case … Continue reading
By Phoenix Capital Research The world has not yet fully realized the magnitude of the slowdown in China. The “official” China growth numbers claim the Chinese economy is plowing along at 6%. I use quotations around the word “official” because Chinese economic data points are complete fiction. Indeed, back in 2007, no less than current First … Continue reading
By Marc Chandler, Marc to Market Blog Yesterday, China launched its first gold fix. It will offer a fixing twice a day going forward yuan. The Shanghai Gold Exchange established the fix the same way it is done in London and New York, by prices submitted by financial institutions. In China’s case, 18 institutions, including two foreign … Continue reading
By Jeffrey P. Snider, Alhambra Investment Partners The focus on China and the Chinese economy is not just related to its size but more so the fact that it is the pivot point for the whole global system. In pure economic terms, as “end demand” from the developed world economies slows, the Chinese economy either absorbs … Continue reading
By Jeffrey P. Snider, Alhambra Investment Partners You can always tell what kind of monthly variation any economic account provides from the commentary by which it is described. And there are, apparently, only two options: upward variations mean stimulus is working; downward variation just means that there will be more stimulus. Even by this crude cipher, … Continue reading
Growth of the world’s second-biggest economy slowed to an annual rate of 6.7 percent in the first quarter of 2016, China’s National Bureau of Statistics reported Friday. It is the slowest quarterly growth for China since the financial crisis in 2009, but it is in line with forecasts and the government’s growth target of 6.5-7 … Continue reading
By Charles Hugh Smith The FX market is about to blow up in the Fed’s face, and there’s nothing they can do about it. Foreign exchange (FX) is a zero-sum game: if one currency weakens, another must strengthen. Since the value of a currency is relative to other currencies, all currencies can’t weaken together: at least … 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