Archive - Nov 2015

China's exports fell for the fourth consecutive month in October as evidence of collapsing global demand and trade continues to pile up. “A lot of Westerners think this helped us out a lot. But the 2% depreciation actually hurt us. It was in every newspaper and customers called us within hours pushing for 6% discount, so we had to give them 4%."

Paul Revere's politically incorrect ride...

The developing deflationary cycle stunting the world economy has arisen from the monumental harm that central bankers have already done, not from lack of sufficient vigor and boldness in attempting to contravene its consequences.

The potential outcomes are looking increasingly worrisome for financial markets across the board...

"Defeated isn’t the right word. The right word is annihilated.”

"Sluggish activity will spur firms to repurchase shares in an effort to boost EPS growth" - Goldman Sachs

In case you have been hibernating, the European Union (EU) is already in a complete state of disarray. Everywhere you look - economy, politics, security, society, demographics - there are very serious problems with no credible solution in sight. This does not bode well for the future of the EU, starting with those who will be living in it.  The EU doesn't need any nationalists to destroy its future prospects. It’s doing absolutely fine on its own.

"Things are crazy," says Charles Biderman summing up this bizarre situation. "We’re seeing the impact of the global slowdown on the US and that’s going to continue" adds the TrimTabs founder, and, in contrast to the mainstream view on Wall Street, he doesn’t think that the Fed is going to raise interest rates (and is more likely to start a new stimulus program). "Ultimately there will be a major correction," he warns and any new stimulus will merely serve the drug-addicted market.

"Not happy w $19k/yr prems, up 4x since ACA. Destruction of small business, middle class & private ins market "

The latest small business survey from NFIB shows mounting pressures for small business resulting from limited pricing power and modestly rising wages (in fact the worst pressure since 2008's crash and 1999/2000's plunge). This has not ended well in the past...

As mass migration (otherwise known as refugee crises) remains a topic of concern for much of the world, an increasing number of the world's population is choosing to become American citizens (even as those renouncing American citizenship hits record highs). As MarketWatch notes, nearly 800,000 people decided to become American citizens in the last 12 months and more than a third of them came from Asia...

Taking the Chinese GDP statistics at face value (an increasingly big assumption these days) we point out a rather ominous scenario which seems to be developing in the productivity dynamics of Chinese debt-financed growth.