induscrypt/economics

From the page: ", China's total lending reached 140% of GDP at midyear. That kind of lending makes China an "outlier" compared with other BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) countries -- and is already well beyond the levels that "have led to sharp and brief credit crises in the past,""

From the page: Investors who are shorting the US dollar to buy on a highly leveraged basis higher-yielding assets and other global assets are not just borrowing at zero interest rates in dollar terms; they are borrowing at very negative interest rates - as low as negative 10 or 20 per cent annualised - as the fall in the US dollar leads to massive capital gains on short dollar positions.

**As with almost every such article, this one too does not give a 'sum of parts' kind of analysis and that means you cannot really take a call on its soundness and coverage. **

A question that has certainly crossed every mind.

A well written article that probes the reality behind the green-shoots data provided by US statisticians. Interesting that the fact-finding attempt comes from a non-US writer.

Go figure. But don't miss it if you intersted in economics.

From the page: "The big news of last week was Bernanke finally pulling the trigger and starting a program of quantitative easing, or money printing as they call it in the old country. Things have gotten to the point that Helicopter Ben will be second guessed on every move he makes. We think that you have to start with the assumption that the Fed has some data in hand that we mere peons are not privy to. Given that he made the decision after equity markets had already put in a substantial rally this was not the Fed coming to Wall Stâ€s rescue. It was the Fed coming to the bond marketâ€s rescue.

Yields on the 10 year Treasuries had been creeping inexorably upwards for over a month. As we have noted several times in the past few months, the Fed has to find ways to allow the Treasury to sell a mountain of paper without driving up interest rates at the worst possible time. Buying Treasuries will serve the dual purpose of pulling down rates and pumping money into the US economy. The announcement helped create the biggest one week loss for the US$ ever. As we note below, traders fear this makes an inflationary endgame all but assured when the economy really starts to recover."