Lehman

global bank credit looks like it is already contracting in key markets, such as China, in which case global fundamentals are definitely deteriorating. This being the case, it will take increasing amounts of newly-issued money from the central banks to perpetuate the illusion that markets are rising, and that the economy is still growing, with or without state-directed buying of equities.

Some have started to ask: what happens if Glencore were to fail? Well, since Glencore is not just a miner, but probably the world's largest commodity trading desk, and is a key commodity counterparty for everyone, the answer is simple: Lehman... only this time in the commodity space.

And to think all it took was Gartman going short of stocks in 25% correction terms yesterday...

Keys in the week ahead:  equity markets--still look lower; China--volatility likely to continue; Fed--market says no Sept hike

Awareness about the concept of money is making a comeback. Gone are the decades in which the global citizenry was fooled to leave this subject to economists, governments and banks – a setup that has proven to end in disaster. The crisis in 2008 has spawned debate about what money is, where it comes from and where it should come from.

Large pools of gold in indebted nations will be vulnerable. Pool accounts, digital gold bullion vaulting providers and depositories in the UK and the US might have their companies and assets nationalized and have their clients gold and silver bullion confiscated.

The $80 billion Bridgewater All Weather Fund, a risk-parity model managed by hedge fund titan Ray Dalio, was down 4.2% in August, according to Reuters citing two people familiar with the fund's performance. This leaves the fund down 3.76% for 2015 as the frameworks for these funds are forced mechanically to reposition as correlations and volatilities across asset classes break down. Just as we saw in the summer of 2013's Taper Tantrum, the last 2 weeks have seen 4 to 5 sigma swings in daily returns and 'generic' risk-parity funds have suffered the biggest 3-month losses since the financial crisis.

Following China's official PMI print at a 3-year low, Caixin's PMI collapsed to 47.3 - the lowest sinec March 2009. Despite another CNY150bn liquidity injection (but the biggest strengthening of Yuan since Nov 2014 and a financial conditions tightening in FX trading), China, US, and Japanese stocks are plunging... SHCOMP -4%, Dow -280, NKY -340

"A cloudy fiscal policy along with unattractive economic data and oil prices continuing to decline fueled negative sentiment about the market which exaggerated fears among investors."

Following Milt Pappas' September 1972 'no hitter', The Dow dropped over 40%.  Carlos Zambrano's 'no hitter' in 2008 came right before the Lehman bankruptcy weekend and was followed a 6000-point-plus collapse in The Dow. So, when we saw Jake Arrieta's 'no hitter' this weekend, we can only imagine what doom it implies for US stocks.

If not for the squeeze at the end of last week, this would have been European stocks' worst week since Lehman. However, with the 'save' Stoxx 600 (Europe's S&P 500) dropped almost 9% - its biggest drop since the peak of the EU crisis in 2011...

What better way to mute demands for a return to sound money and the gold standard, than by making them equivalent to jihadist terrorism? Why, there are none, which may explain the hilarious appearance of the "Islamic State's" latest 55-minutes pro gold standard YouTube clip, which is nothing but a crash course in Austrian economics.