Michael Pettis: Do Markets Determine the Value of the RMB?
A thorough discussion of the background and implications of the so-far modest devaluation of the RMB.
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Does a Strong Dollar Hurt Emerging Markets?
Conventional wisdom has it that strengthening dollar hurts emerging markets via a sudden exodus of host money. A new study argues that real economy forces are a bigger driver, specifically lower commodity prices.
Read more...Saudi Oil Strategy: Brilliant Or Suicide?
Does it make sense to look at the Saudi strategy within the oil industry alone, or do analysts need to start factoring in deflationary economic policies around the world?
Read more...Frack Now, Pay Later: A New Era In U.S. Oil?
Oilfield services providers like Halliburton and Schlumberger are so desperate to keep the fracking party going that they are extending credit to already-levered frackers.
Read more...Wolf Richter: China’s Hard Landing Suddenly Gets a Lot Rougher
Despite the 7% GDP growth published and hotly defended by the Chinese government, it is increasingly clear that the country is beset with a host of immense problems, after a debt-fueled binge of overbuilding and over-stimulating.
Read more...Winning in Maui: TPP Ministerial Negotiations Fail, with No Date Set for the Next Round
Winning a battle in the long campaign against TPP: It was “domestic politics” that preserved our national sovereignty
Read more...China’s Stock Market Falling Off a Cliff: Why, and Why Care?
What explains the turmoil in Chinese stock markets, and what does it mean for the rest of the world?
Read more...Chinese Stock Market Rout Continues; Trading Halted in Over Half of Listed Stocks
The Chinese stock market meltdown is accelerating despite government intervention and is blowing back to commodities markets, including copper and oil, which are trading down based on concern that the stock market plunge is a harbinger of even more economic weakness. And the decline may represent the beginning of the end of the faith in China’s command and control economy.
Read more...Oil Markets Could Be In For A Shock From China Soon
China’s oil consumption is a bigger part of global demand than most analysts acknowledge. A slowdown in buying after China stopped stockpiling diesel for the summer Olympics was a proximate cause of the 2008 oil bust. China is again in a stockpiling phase, which could precede another not-well-anticipated demand drop.
Read more...How the China’s New Silk Road is Shifting Geopolitics
Even though China’s Silk Road initiative is in its early stages and still opportunistic, traditional rivalries could impede progress. Even so, the US is concerned about how China has gotten and is making countermoves.
Read more...How Much Longer Can The Oil Age Last?
I suspect readers will draw suitably concerned environmental conclusions from this forecast, that the oil era has at least another 30 years to run.
Read more...Witnessing A Fundamental Change In The Oil Sector
The U.S. oil production decline has begun.
Read more...Wolf Richter: Australia Runs out of Luck, Now Needs a Miracle
By Lindsay David, Australia, author of Print: The Central Bankers Bubble, founder of LF Economics. Originally published at Wolf Street. Australia, you have officially run out of luck. While leveraged property investors in Sydney and Melbourne are desperately hunting for a senseless “net-yield” that makes the yield on a German 2-year bund look rewarding, the […]
Read more...John Helmer: Why Faking is Failing in the Russian Art Market
Increasing buyer sophistication in the Russian art market is squeezing networks of fakers and forgers.
Read more...Why Did Commodity Prices Move Together?
As strange as it may seem, most economists loudly disputed the notion that the rise in commodity prices, particularly in the first half of 2008, was in large measure due to financial speculation. More and more analytical work (such as comparisons of price action in commodities trades on futures exchanges with ones that have large markets but are not exchange-traded, like eggplant, a staple in India, and cooking oil) have dented the orthodox view.
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