Archive - Sep 8, 2014

Tyler Durden's picture

Kentucky Man Arrested For "Terroristic Threatening" After Posting Song Lyrics To Facebook





It seems as if the never-ending stream of American plebs being arrested for the most innocuous activities, things that were seen as completely normal just a few years ago, is continuing its irrational march forward toward peak nanny-statism, at which point everything will be criminalized.

 

Tyler Durden's picture

Here Is Why Europe Just Launched The "Nuclear Option" Against Russia





Europe's leaders, we assume under pressure from Washington, appear to be making a big weather-related bet with their taxpayers' lives this winter.  As they unleash funding sanctions on Russia's big energy producers, Europe has pumped a record volume of natural gas into underground inventories in an effort to 'outlast' Russia and mitigate any Napoleonic "Winter War" scenario. The plan appears to be to starve Russian energy firms of cashflow - as flows to Europe are already plunging - and remove their funding ability, potentially forcing severe hardship on Russia's key economic drivers. There appears to be 3 potential problems with this plan...

 

Tyler Durden's picture

The Difference Between Theory And Practice





Theory: "Theoretically, there should be no impact from the consumption tax increase on corporate spending or long-term corporate planning," said Junko Nishioka, an economist at RBS Japan Securities in Tokyo.

Practice: "...but a large number of Japanese corporations seemed to see a large impact from the hike on final demand," as Capex collapsed 5.1%.

 

Tyler Durden's picture

Obama's Former Chief Economist Calls For An End To US Dollar Reserve Status





"...what was once a privilege is now a burden, undermining job growth, pumping up budget and trade deficits and inflating financial bubbles. To get the American economy on track, the government needs to drop its commitment to maintaining the dollar’s reserve-currency status...The privilege of having the world’s reserve currency is one America can no longer afford."

- former Chief Economist and Economic Adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, executive director of the White House Task Force on the Middle Class, and a member of President Obama’s economic team.

 

Tyler Durden's picture

How Empires End





Once an empire has reached this stage, it never reverses. It is a “dead empire walking” and only awaits the painful playing-out of the final three stages. At that point, it is foolhardy in the extreme to remain and “wait it out” in the hope that the decline will somehow reverse. At that point, the wiser choice might be to follow the cue of the Chinese, the Romans, and others, who instead chose to quietly exit for greener pastures elsewhere.

 

Tyler Durden's picture

China Hits 'Inflow' Panic Button- Strengthens Yuan Fixing By Most In 4 Years





The PBOC strengthened the CNY fixing by over 0.3% today - its biggest fixing move since June 2010 as the Yuan strengthens to 6-month highs against the USD. This seeming 'panic' move comes on the heels of last night's record trade surplus - which as Goldman notes - was likely dominated by FX inflows thanks to over-invoicing. It is unclear the reasoning for the move in the CNY fixing but one wonders if, with industrial commodities continuing to plunge (CCFD collateral value dropping) and now PMIs rolling over, if further over-invoicing is being anticipated as cover for a notable slowdown in growth. One thing is clear - after today's surge in the USD and decoupling with US stocks, something is changing.

 

Tyler Durden's picture

Dot Com Bubble 2.0 By The Numbers





This time it's different because, you see, "they have revenues"...

 

Tyler Durden's picture

Spot The Ticking Time-Bomb





One of these things is not like the other...

 

Tyler Durden's picture

Ten Reasons To Condemn Inflation





Inflation, defined as an expansion of the supply of unbacked money, is an elementary evil, always and everywhere that it occurs. It is the ignored and core cause of numerous problems in the economy and in society...

 

Tyler Durden's picture

Merkel Ally Slams Draghi's Plan To "Buy Junk Paper"





While Italian and Spanish political (and business) leaders are lauding Mario Draghi's plan to buy more assets and print more money, it appears not everyone is so excited. As Reuters reports, Christian Social Union chairman and Bavaria state premier Horst Seehofer (who is well known as an ally of Angela Merkel), blasted the ECB's plan: "It's only going to frighten a lot of people when ECB chief Mario Draghi opens up the central bank's money tap and at the same time buys junk paper," somewhat breaking the political taboo of criticizing the potential independence of the central bank.

 

Tyler Durden's picture

"Americans 'May' Feel Richer" But Michael Pettis Warns "It's Not Sustainable"





"Washington is absolutely correct, in my opinion, to want to boost American consumption, but the Fed seems to be trying to boost consumption by igniting another asset bubble in the hopes that, like before 2007, Americans will feel “richer” and so will consume more. This isn't sustainable, however, and will leave us, as Paul and Druckenmiller fear, even more heavily indebted and more dangerously exposed to the underlying weakness in demand."

 

Tyler Durden's picture

"You Can Take Your Scottish Freedom... But You'll Never Take Our Gold"





We can see it now, a wine-stained David Cameron staggers slowly towards Hadrian's Wall eying the hordes of Scottish gentlefolk staring at him; he glances back at his supporters (who cheer somewhat begrudgingly) before rapidly returning his eyes to the Scots and proclaiming... "you can take your freedom; but you'll never take our... Gold." As Reuters reports, an independent Scotland could lay claim to a part of the United Kingdom's 310-tonne gold reserves if votes go in favour of the "Yes" campaign this month, with ownership of Britain's bullion hoard up for negotiation along with other assets.

 

Tyler Durden's picture

No! The US Is Not 'Decoupling'





It's that time of year again... when sell-side strategists and status-quo narrative defenders aggregate en masse around the 'outperformance' of the US economy compared with the rest of the world (which - they note - explains why US stocks are outperforming as the US is the cleanest shirt) and declare - unequivocally - the US has decoupled. The only problem with that meme - it's total and utter rubbish in the increasingly interconnected world in which we live, wage currency war, and trade with one another... as the following chart shows, its simply a temporal issue, not a structural decoupling...

 

Phoenix Capital Research's picture

The Single Most Important Issue Facing Investors Today





The single most important item for investors to understand is collateral. Specifically, how there is a huge shortage of high grade collateral backstopping the trillions in derivatives trades owned by the TBTFs

 
 
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