Asia

Submitted by Leonard Brecken via OilPrice.com,

During the 1990s, developing nations including Mexico and many in Asia became very competitive manufacturing bases due to lower wage structures. This, I believe, was the root cause of the use of failed fiscal and monetary policy to “close the gap” with the competitiveness of low-cost wage structures around the world, which has played out for three decades. The result has been three bubbles and a worsening systemic problem of wage and taxation disparity between the U.S. and developing nations.

In our column last week we were warning you about Deutsche Bank’s problems and potential issues with its derivatives portfolio and its capital structure. The story continued to unfold in the past week and Deutsche Bank was pushed into a corner as more and more investors started to lose confidence in the bank. A plan to buy back $5.4B in debt in a desperate move to reassure the capital markets. In fact, Deutsche’s move is so desperate it will even start buying back debt that was issued less than six weeks ago.

The text that follows may be the best summary of what has happened on Wall Street - both forensically and philosophical - over the past 7 years, explaining how central banks broke the "market", and why traders, investors, regulators, policy makers, and everyone else suddenly has no idea either what is going on or what to do next. Not surprisingly, it comes from Deutsche Bank, which this week has been staring at the corpe of Lehman Brothers and wondering if it is next...

From DB's Aleksandar Kocic

Asphyxiation -- code orange?

With Q4 earnings season drawing to a close, here is a quick recap of the key issues facing corporate CEOs and CFOs based on their conference calls as summarized by Goldman's David Kostin: 1) Company managements forecast positive US GDP growth in 2016, in contrast with investor concerns of a potential recession. However, global growth prospects appear grim, particularly within commodity-exposed nations. (2) Strong domestic consumer demand persists amid industrial weakness. (3) Several firms announced large or accelerated share repurchase programs in 2016.

Submitted by Dalan McEndree via OilPrice.com,