Hong Kong

Less than two weeks after Guotai chief Yim Fung went "missing" amid Beijing's reinvigorated crackdown on market "manipulators," Citic Securities - China's largest broker - says it cannot find two of its most prominent investment bankers. Considering recent events, you don't have to be a detective to make an educated guess as to what might have happened to Jianlin Yan and Jun Chen.

“There have been arrests and crackdowns before on grass-roots labor organizations here,” one activist, He Shan, said in a telephone interview from Shenzhen, a mainland city that abuts Hong Kong. “But this is the most concentrated, the most serious. For us, this is unprecedented.”

"You can't 'comply' because there is no rule of law. The best thing you can do is establish processes for who is likely to be taken away, and how to make sure they aren't disappeared forever."

Hong Kong's once-upon-a-time raging housing bubble just got its last rites after November home sales sank to a record low as an imminent interest rate in the US this month scared away prospective buyers. According to Land Registry data, reported by SCMP, November saw 2,826 registered residential transactions, down 14.4% from October and 41.7% less than in November last year. This was the lowest print in the history of the series.

The very first major economic collapse in recorded history occurred in 218-202 BC when the Roman Empire experienced money troubles after the Second Punic War. As a result, bronze and silver currencies were devalued. As HowMuch.net depicts in the video below economic collapses date back thousands of years. While many countries today still feel the effects of the most recent Global Financial Crisis, it is important to note that economic troubles are not unique to the present-day, but rather date back to some of the oldest civilizations.

The third stock market collapse of this century is near at hand. The global economy is in the midst of an unprecedented commodity deflation and CapEx depression - the payback for 20 years of lunatic monetary stimulus and credit expansion. Yet the central banks are powerless to stop the payback. When the Fed announces a rate increase after 84 months of dithering next week in the face of GDP growth that has already decelerated to barely 1% this quarter the jig will be up. Monumental money printing has failed. Soon there will be no place to hide - not even in the Tremendous Ten.

BlueCrest Capital Management Limited "BlueCrest" announces it will, over the next several months, transition to a Private Investment Partnership, and will return to its clients the $8 billion it currently manages on their behalf.  Following the transition, BlueCrest will manage assets solely on behalf of its partners and employees.

• Russia Takes Aim at Turkish Economy Amid Fighter-Jet Spat (WSJ)
• ‘Commercial scale’ oil smuggling into Turkey becomes priority target of anti-ISIS strikes (RT)
• Russia-Turkey Ties Are Headed Into a Deep Freeze (WSJ)
• France signals softer stance on Assad after Russia talks (FT)
• China Calm Shattered as Brokerage Probe Sparks Selloff in Stocks (BBG)
• China Stock Bulls Hit Breaking Point as State Dials Back Support (BBG)
• China's Bond Stresses Mount as Two More Companies Flag Concerns (BBG)

• European stocks up, oil slides as concerns ease over Russia-Turkey tension (Reuters)
• ECB discusses two-tiered bank charges, broader bond buys (Reuters)
• New agonies, alliances as Fed debates post-liftoff plan (Reuters)
• A New Military Power Rises in the Mideast, Courtesy of One Man (BBG)
• Russia's Gazprom says halts gas supplies to Ukraine over payment (Reuters)
• Other central banks set to act, but Swiss policy cupboard bare (Reuters)

Once upon a time, luxury jewelry retailer Tiffany was seen as the bellwether for the global market, however not so much in the New Paranormal when as a result of the company over-reliance on China, and a new focus on aspirational middle-class consumers, the stock had recently been trading at levels not seen in over two years. Things went from bad to worse this morning when the company reported its latest disappointing earning, in which it also slashed full year guidance, blaming a strong dollar, lower tourist spending, as well as "volatile, uncertain economic and market conditions in the U.S. and other regions."

On November 18, the Chairman and CEO of Guotai Junan went missing, and given what we know about China's crackdown on anyone suspected of engaging in activities that might send stocks lower, you know what that means...

• Brussels on Edge as Lockdown Continues (WSJ)
• Stocks Pare Decline as Crude Oil Erases Drop on Saudi Comments (BBG)
• Italy’s Eni Plans to Pump Arctic Oil, After Others Abandon the Field (WSJ)
• Treasuries Decline as Economists Say GDP to Be Revised Higher (BBG)
• Why the Housing Rebound Hasn’t Lifted the U.S. Economy Much (WSJ)
• Argentina Fever Is Back for Investors as Kirchner Rival Triumphs (BBG)

The global economic order is shifting beneath the feet of Washington and Tokyo as Xi marches ahead with "One Belt, One Road" and prepares to extend the first loans from the China-led development bank that embarrassed the Obama administration earlier this year. 

As the poor get poorer, so the saying goes, the rich get richer; and until recently that was not just true, but apparently mandated so by The Fed. However, the last few months have seen the so-called "1%" appearing to struggle a little in their largesse. As we noted previously, not only are luxury jet values dropping for the first time since 2009, London mansion prices plunging, San Francisco home sales collapsing, fine-wine and diamond prices at 2009 crisis lows, and Sotheby's laying people off, but now, as Bloomberg reports, Swiss watches - the ultimate in luxury extravagance - have seen exports crash by the most since the financial crisis.

1.3 million transactions were scrutinized, 3,000 accounts were frozen, and according to Jinhua City Public Security Bureau of Economic Investigation Detachment Vice Captain Zhang Hui, it took 35,000 sheets of paper to print out all of the evidence.