Davos

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China Strikes Back: "Happy To Review World History" With Japan





On the heels of Shinzo Abe's seeming hyprocrisy in Davos, commenting that "if peace and stability were shaken in Asia, the knock-on effect for the entire world would be enormous," while he raises military budget, antagonizes China, and inflames the militaristic fervor in his own nation with war-crime shrine visits, the Chinese have struck back specifically at Abe's comparison of China and Japan's present tensions to Germany and Britain's in 1914... Foreign Minister Wang Yi - writing from the Chinese Embassy in the US, warned:

  • *CHINA'S WANG CALLS ABE'S STATEMENT ON WW1 'ANACHRONISTIC'
  • *CHINA HAPPY TO REVIEW WORLD HISTORY WITH ABE: WANG YI
  • *CHINA WANTS ABE TO RETHINK OWN COMMENTS, ACTIONS: WANG YI

Adding that, as we warned last night (and described in great detail here), China and the US need to show mutual respect and avoid conflict and confrontation on the matter of Japan.

 
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China Considers "Teaching Investors A Lesson" In Moral Hazard With Trust Default





China faces a very significant test of its reform policy pursuit rhetoric. With China's Bank regulator set to issue an alert on coal-industry loans - "as a result of outout cuts, they don't have much cash flow and thus they can't repay loans and debt," the massive growth in wealth products such as the CEG#1 (which offered a 10% yield for a 3 year term) based on these loans leaves the Chinese with a moral hazard dilemma - bailout or no bailout. ICBC has made it clear it wil not bailout investors since reputational damage would be "well manageable," and former-PBOC adviser Li Daokui adds that "a controlled default is much better than no default," noting critically that trust defaults "will teach future investors a very important lesson." Belief that contagion can be "contained" brings back memories of 2008 in the US but a total (or even partial) bailout will merely increase the leverage and risk-taking problem and signal government talk of policy reform is not real.

 
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Frontrunning: January 24





  • Emerging market sell-off raises specter of contagion (Reuters)
  • China Bank Regulator Said to Issue Alert on Coal Mine Loans (BBG)
  • Argentina to Ease FX Controls After Peso Devaluation (BBG)
  • Pimco's Gross problem: who can succeed the 'Bond King'? (Reuters)
  • Ukraine protesters seize building, put up more barricades (Reuters)
  • Mideast Turmoil Dominates Gathering of Business Elite (WSJ)
  • Central Banks Withdraw Dollar Funding (WSJ) - oh really?
  • Samsung warns of weak earnings growth this quarter (FT)
  • Three explosions rock Cairo, killing 5 (USA Today)
 
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Risk Off: Yen Soars, Equity Futures Tumble As EM Revulsion Escalates





It's Risk Off time.

Things got really out of control, and the USDJPY plunged by some 150 pips in the matter of hours, plunging as low as 102, when EM revulsion once again hit participants, in particular TRY and ARS which also supported bid tone in USTs. This also saw spot TRY rate print fresh record high, while 5y Turkish CDS rate advanced to its highest level since June 2012, while at the same time Argentina announced it would life currency controls and dollar purchases in the aftermath of the ARS devaluation by 13%.  And since everything tracks the JPY carry pair as we have been showing for the past year, futures once again plunged overnight, for now held by 1810 support, Treasurys are bid throughout, with the same treasury yields that have "no where to go but up" sliding to 2.71% from 2.87% at the beginning of the week, while gold is finally spiking as the realization that absolutely nothing has been fixed, that apparently nobody got the taper is priced in memo, and that soon the Fed will have to untaper, begins to spread. Are the central planners finally starting to lose control?

 
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Bank Of England Folds On "Forward Guidance"





Just a week ago, Ben Bernanke stumbled when he almost admitted that "forward guidance worked in theory, but not in practice," and while the Fed is sticking to its guns with lower for longer "forward guidance" to replace "as much money as you can eat" quantitative easing; and the ECB promising moar for longer; the Bank of England's Mark Carney just threw them all under the bus by u-turning on his employment-based forward guidance strategy. Having previously established thresholds for his monetray policy guidance, as the FT reports, he has now ditched those plans (as we warned he might "lose his credibility" here) as the British economy is "in a different place" now. And still, we are supposed to trust these bankers to run the world? Perhaps most interesting is the FT changed its title on the story very quickly!

 
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Frontrunning: January 23





  • Gross Told El-Erian ‘Hell No’ Seeking to Stop Departure (BBG)
  • How Caterpillar got bulldozed in China (Reuters)
  • Davos Bankers Struggle to Convince Elite That Markets Are Safer (BBG)
  • Lucrative Role as Middleman Puts Amazon in Tough Spot (WSJ)
  • Arctic Air Blankets Northern U.S. as Texas to Get Snow (BBG)
  • Lenovo buys IBM's server business in China's biggest IT acquisition (Reuters)
  • SEC judge bars "Big Four" China units for six months over audits (Reuters)
  • U.S. Accuses Security Background Check Firm of Fraud (WSJ)
  • RIP BOE forward guidance: Bank of England rate rise is 'still some way off' - Fisher (Reuters)
 
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Top 1% Has 65 Times More Wealth Than The Bottom Half And The Global Elite Like It That Way





As we previously noted, the 85 richest people in the world have about as much wealth as the poorest 50% of the entire global population does.  In other words, 85 extremely wealthy individuals have about as much wealth as the poorest 3,500,000,000 do.  There is certainly nothing wrong with making money.  In fact, the founders of the United States intended for this nation to be a place where free markets thrived and where everyone could pursue their dreams.  Unfortunately, this country (along with the rest of the world) has moved very much in the opposite direction.  Today, we have a debt-based global financial system which is dominated by gigantic predator corporations and big banks.  Working together with national governments, these corporations and banks have constructed a system in which the percentage of all global wealth that is being funneled to the very top of the pyramid steadily grows over time. The Founding Fathers were very correct to be very suspicious of large concentrations of power.  In the early days of the United States, the federal government was very small and the size and scope of corporations was greatly limited.  Our nation thrived and a huge middle class blossomed. Sadly, over the past several decades the pendulum has completely swung in the other direction.

 
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Axel Weber Warns "Euro Will Come Down To Earth.. Markets Are Disregarding Risks"





It's not all ponies and unicorns in Davos today. Paul Singer's dismal views on financial fragility were followed up by a panel, as The Telegraph's Ambrose Evans-Pritchard reports, that poured cold water on the claims that the European crisis is over. Harvard professor Kenneth Rogoff said the launch of the euro had been a "giant historic mistake, done to soon" but EMU leaders are still refusing to take the necessary steps, and is squandering the "scarce resource" of its youth, badly needed to fortify an aging society as the demographic crunch sets in. But it is ex-Buba head Axel Weber that unleashed the ugly truth: "Markets are currently disregarding risks, particularly in the periphery...Europe is under threat. I am still really concerned."

 
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Shinzo Abe Delivers "Vision From Japan" - Live Speech From Davos





Comedy hour comes early today, courtesy of Japan's PM Shinzo Abe who just started speaking on the topic of "reshaping the world" at Davos. Like we said: pure comedy.

 
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Meet The Fortress Hotel That Separates The Davos Billionaires From The Peasants





The theme of this year's Davos meeting where the world's wealthiest and most powerful people meet to enjoy each other's company, a fawning media, and of course the best food and entertainment that money can buy, is social stability, class hatred, and how to fix a world torn by a record wealth inequality. An ambitious task to be sure, especially for the very people who have benefited the most from the record wealth transfer of the past 5 years. Still, while these true Robin Hoods of the modern gilded age are desperate for a few minutes of humanitarian TV exposure, or at least a soundbite or two, their advice to the peasants out there is quite clear: don't get too close. And just to make sure the appropriate distance of at least a few hundred meters to every member of the great unwashed class they are "saving" is maintained, here is the hotel in which the bleeding heart Davos billionaires are staying: a $170 million fortress surrounded by barbed wire, security cameras, motion sensor and even its own helipad.

 

 
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Thai CDS Rise To One Year Highs After Pro-Government Faction Leader Shot





Following last night's implementation of emergency rule in Thailand for a period of 60 days, where the ongoing clashes between protesters and the government mean the economy is likely set to grind to a halt at least judging by the constant downward revisions in the country's GDP, the default risk of Thailand just jumped to a fresh one year high, rising to 159 bps, or double where it was in May of this year (but still well below the 240bps hit at the peak of the European crisis in September 2011). However, since tensions do not appear to be getting resolved, expect this particular CDS to continue drifting higher, especially following news that the Thai leader of a pro-government group was shot last night.

 
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Frontrunning: January 22





  • Winter Storm Expected to Make Northeast Commutes Harder  (BBG)
  •  Invasion of Spanish Builders Angers France Struggling to Compete  (BBG)
  • Toronto mayor, caught ranting on video, admits drinking a 'little bit" (Reuters)
  • IBM's Hardware Woes Accelerate in Fourth Quarter (WSJ)
  • Sharp Divisions Come to Fore as Peace Talks on Syria Begin (NYT)
  • Afghanistan cracks down on advertising in favor of U.S. troops (Reuters)
  • Microsoft CEO Search Rattles Boards From Ford to Ericsson (BBG)
  • Banks Sit Out Riskier Deals (WSJ)
  • Netflix Seen Reporting U.S. Web Users Reach 33.1 Million (BBG)
 
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Snowed In? Not The Markets - Full Overnight Summary





New York City may be buried under more than a foot of snow, but global markets don't sleep, however judging by the color of futures this morning, today's respectable $2.25-$3.00 billion POMO will have a tough time digging US equities out of the red, following a tepid overnight session in which the traditional driver of futures levitation, the USDJPY, was flat as the BOJ disclosed unchanged policy despite some inexplicable hopes that Kuroda would increase QE as early as today.

 
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