Corruption

The night began much like any other morning in Asia - with pure comedy gold from Japanese leadership with BOJ's Kuroda saying he is "not concerned about currency wars, there is no currency war," adding that he has "no plans for further easing." That coincided with a drift lower in Japanese stocks from the US close - but mots of Asian stock markets were green buoyed by America's victory against malicious sellers for the first time in a week. Meanwhile, in China, margin debt drops to a 7-month lows (but is still up 133% YoY). But as rumor-mongers face death squads and any broker caught not buying with both hands and feet faces prison, it is no surprise that Chinese stocks are higher in the pre-open (A50 +5%, CSI +2.7%) but large corporate bond issues are being canceled willy nilly even as China devalues Yuan to fresh 4-year lows (6.4085) and adds CNY150bn liquidity.

Too big to control, too volatile to be predictable, and too full of contradictions to achieve stability, China is a society that is on the edge of coming completely unglued. And so, appealing to the typical American conceit that nothing that ever happens to us is our own fault, scapegoating is a reflection of widespread economic ignorance. For the reality is that the policies of our own rulers limn those of the Chinese: pump-priming the currency, flooding the US economy with money, and creating massive bubbles is something they learned from us. And those policies are having the same effect here as they are having in China.

In spite of all the attention the nation has received in recent years, SCMP reports that thousands of so-called "politically exposed persons”, or PEPs - a category that includes heads of state and other top officials - hold Swiss bank accounts, a Swiss foreign ministry official said. But, perhaps not for much longer as Bern aims to finalize a law aimed at simplifying the process of freezing and unblocking such funds.

"China halts intervention in stock market so far this week as policy makers debate merits of an unprecedented government campaign to prop up share prices and what to do next, according to people familiar with situation. Some leaders support argument that stock market is too small relative to broader economy to cause crisis, says one of the people, who asked not to be identified as deliberations are private Leaders also believe intervention is too costly, person says."

Brazil's flagging economy, which is mired in stagflation and remains a slave both to China and to what looks like intractable political turmoil, has destroyed nearly 550,000 jobs YTD. As Barclays notes, " [the July] print is compatible with 140,939 job eliminations, pretty close to the historical low of -154,355 in June."

As asset bubbles are in the way of the Fed’s policy, a decline in stock prices removes the equity market bubble and enables the Fed to print more money and start the process up again. On the other hand, the stock market decline could indicate that the players in the market have comprehended that the stock market is an artificially inflated bubble that has no real basis. Once the psychology is destroyed, flight sets in.

"We conclude that, under current circumstances, it is only a matter of time until Brazil loses its investment grade status."

At a certain point, we suppose Joe Biden took a look at the state of the 2016 race for The White House and thought: "why not me?"

As the great EM unwind continues unabated, we’ve noted that in some hard-hit countries, the terrible trio of falling commodity prices, decelerating Chinese demand, and looming Fed hike has been exacerbated by political turmoil. Now, we turn to Malaysia where an already tenuous situation just got worse as PM Najib Razak is now facing calls for a no-confidence vote amid allegations he embezzled some $700 million from the country's development fund.

What began in early June with a surprisingly strong showing at the ballot box for the pro-Kurdish HDP has now ended precisely where many knew it would: with new elections.

Comedian George Carlin is known as one of the most controversial and outspoken entertainers of his time, and as far as the government is concerned, he could have possibly been a terrorist.

If there’s anything Brazil certainly does not need, it’s more bad news. The country is, in many ways, a symbol of the great EM unwind and the situation is made immeasurably worse by political instability. The economic outlook - which was already bad enough between a harrowing bout of staglflaton and dual deficits on the fiscal and current accounts - just got a lot worse as unemployment spiked to 7.5%, well ahead of consensus and the worst in five years. How bad is it you ask? Bad enough that BofAML now says the "key" stat to focus on is the number of participants in recurring street protests. 

"Finally another declared independent candidate, Deez Nuts, polls at 9% in North Carolina to go along with his 8% in Minnesota and 7% in Iowa in our recent polling."

Facing a growing public backlash and seeking to deflect charges that the government is complicit in a massive coverup of a completely avoidable disaster that ultimately caused the deaths of more than 100 people, Beijing has compelled the Party-affiliated majority shareholders of Tianjin International Ruihai Logistics to admit their role in circumventing restrictions on the storage and handling of hazardous chemicals.