Of course, Chancellor Angela Merkel has denied that allowing the refugees in has led to the recent Islamic terrorist attacks. She has admitted that fighting crime and Islamist terrorism will be key challenges for the year, and she is adopting a law and order position after attacks in Germany have seen her approval ratings collapse. […]
The condo bubble has broken in many markets. Even rentals in Miami and other prime markets have begun to decline. In part, the rise in the dollar is now curtailing foreign investment. Likewise, I personally know some British friends who are selling property in the states to take advantage of the huge profit in the drop in the pound when converting back […]
With a total debt of almost 250% of GDP, China’s debt problems are well known. Meanwhile, the government is working on resolving the issue by following the playbook of US investment banks and creating securities structures to offload bad debt (remember CDOs?). The slowing economy has caused rising defaults. Analysts suspect the NPLs ratio to […]
Neither the Nikkei nor Hang Seng could decide on a direction today as both flip-flopped between positive and negative territory. Only Shanghai was to remain lower for the whole day closing well above the days lows but still 0.5% weaker. Yesterday we heard that the PBOC added (through 14 day reverse repo’s) cash into the […]
Believe it or not, someone can work hard to get into the Olympics and if they win the gold or silver medals, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is there waiting for their cut. Yes, American Olympians must pay taxes on the value of the medal. They also need to pay taxes on their prize money. […]
Historically, crops fail during periods when the weather turns sharply colder. Rising food shortages coincide with rising aggression. This seems to be a link back into ancient times. The way the climate is now turning colder is in direct harmony with the war cycle. Switzerland began recording temperatures in 1864, which provide a good European […]
Federal Judge Emmet Sullivan from the US District Court in Washington has ruled that Democratic Party presidential candidate Hillary Clinton does not need to give a sworn testimony in a lawsuit concerning her use of an unauthorized private email system for her work as US secretary of state. Instead, Clinton must respond in writing to questions submitted […]
A strong opening for the Nikkei, almost 1% but only to turn ahead of the lunch break. Although price action was whippy the volume traded was very poor. The afternoon session was a retracement of earlier losses but again in light volume. We closed the day up +0.6% but all eyes and ears will be […]
Private Blog Update August 24, 2016
When it came to BREXIT, the computer correctly forecast that the leave side would win and there would be a big turnout. I personally stated that I “believed” they would rig the election as they had done with every other European election from Austria and Scotland all the way to Italy and Spain. I […]
