Wall Street Journal

"More than 96% of respondents to the latest Wall Street Journal survey of 64 economists–not all of whom answered every question–said China’s gross-domestic-product estimates don’t accurately reflect the state of the world’s second-biggest economy. None of the respondents said China’s GDP was expanding 7% or more."

China's global meltdown-inducing "adjustment" continues unabated as fixed asset investment is weakest since 2000.

When a digital dickweed exposes the reality "the equity markets are broken," it can be shrugged off as the rantings of a kid in his mom's basement.

Another day, another story highlighting just how completely corrupt and sleazy the U.S. economy has become... The U.S. government is subsidizing the wealthiest developers to build projects for the wealthiest Americans. Someone must have taken a class taught by the Federal Reserve. Just another day in the imperial Banana Republic.

The last seven years of American history will be remembered for the unprecedented oligarch crime scene that it is. Branding what has occurred during the Obama administration an “economic recovery,” represents little more than a vicious assault on human intelligence.

Just 4 short months ago, Avon stock soared after a fake private equity offer from a fake entity appeared. With a 20% short base, the stock exploded higher. Today, with 17.4% of the stocks' float short, The Wall Street Journal sparks some panic-buying...

*AVON HALTED; DISCUSSES STAKE SALE WITH PE FIRMS, WSJ REPORTS

Avon has now been halted twice and is trading up 12% (before re-opening). It appears our observation that AVP has a Debt-to-Ebitda of a stunning 3.7x that has blown away hope/hype of the LBO copming to fruition... AVP is fading fast.

Late last month, tens of thousands of Malaysians donning banned yellow attire took to the streets in Kuala Lumpur to call for the ouster of Prime Minister Najib Razak whose government has been accused of obstructing an investigation into how some $700 million from a Goldman-backed development bank mysteriously ended up in Najib’s personal bank account. As it turns out, the story goes well beyond Goldman and Najib. As WSJ reports, the 1MDB debacle takes us deep into the shadowy world of sovereign wealth funds where it appears as though someone told a $1.4 billion lie...

Five Chinese navy ships are currently operating in the Bering Sea off the coast of Alaska, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, marking the first time the U.S. military has seen them in the area. Why the sudden interest? Because the Chinese have been studying the cycles. From generational theorists William Strauss and Neil Howe, they have learned that political/cultural cycles last only 65 years, and then they collapse, cycles first observed by Taoist monks and Roman philosophers. And China is exactly 66 years advanced since the Chinese Communist Revolution of 1949. In terms of generational cycles, China is on the eve of destruction. (In terms of the Strauss/Howe theory, so are we.)

Fool me once, shame on me; fool me twice, shame on you; fool me a third time, you must think we are all just idiots!! Following The ECB's Benoit Coeure "internal procedure error" where he leaked the imminent actions of the central bank to a group of well-heeled hedge fund managers - who proceeded to dump EURUSD ahead of the announcement, The ECB has decided - in all its arrogant wisdom - to decamp to Luxembourg to speak, once again, to participants in the world of high finance behind closed doors. The media aren’t invited (though the ECB will publish some prepared remarks from the board members.).

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) added another 15.98 tonnes of gold in August – at the same time its foreign exchange reserves fell a whopping $94 billion. 

"We’re exhausted by your antics and empty promises. If we so much as sniff continued nuclear development, we are going to covertly and overtly stop you, even if that means military action and pre-emptive strikes on your nuclear facilities."

Rickards said that gold is like “fire insurance on your house” ... “Nobody wants their house to burn down but if it does you are glad you have some insurance”. 

Having recently detailed the automakers' worst nightmare - surging new car inventories - supply; amid rapidly declining growth around the world (EM and China) - demand, it appears the bubble in new car sales is about to be crushed by yet another unintended consequence of The Fed's lower for longer experiment. As WSJ reports, Edmunds.com estimates that around 28% of new vehicles this year will be leased - a near-record pace - leaving 13.4 million vehicles (leased over the past 3 years in The US) - compared with just 7 million in the three years to 2011 - set to spark a massive surplus of high-quality used cars. Great for consumers (if there are any left who have not leased a car in the last 3 years) but crushing for automakers' margins as luxury used-care prices are tumbling just as residuals have surged.

The world is in the waning days of a historic multi-decade experiment in unfettered finance. International finance has for too long been effectively operating without constraints on either the quantity or the quality of Credit issued. From the perspective of unsound finance on a globalized basis, this period has been unique. History, however, is replete with isolated episodes of booms fueled by bouts of unsound money and Credit – monetary fiascos inevitably ending in disaster. We see discomforting confirmation that the current historic global monetary fiasco’s disaster phase is now unfolding.