Asia

One month ago, Citi's credit team laid out its outlook for the coming year in what - in our opinion - was one of the gloomiest reports for the coming year, and included the following fascinating revelation according to which central bankers appears to have lost control: "That seems to be a growing fear among a number of central bankers that we have spoken to recently. In our experience, they too are somewhat baffled by the lack of volatility and concerned about the lack of response to negative headlines....

Long-time rumors about presidential candidate Nixon conspiring to delay the ending of the Vietnam War were recently confirmed.

A year ago, historian and journalist John A Farrell wrote in the New York Times:

Content originally published at iBankCoin.com

Let's be clear. The American market for Bitcoin is an aspirational one; but the true volume is done in Asia. Instead of going through the trouble of setting up shell corporations to launder their money, the Chinese have been using crypto currencies, which was beautifully marketed as some sort of rebellious form of capitalism -- creating millions of bedroom billionaires.

All of that might be ending soon, thanks in part of President Trump.

Spanish stocks and the euro fell, while Spanish government bond yields hit their highest levels in over a month after Catalan secessionists delivered an unexpected blow to the government of Spanish PM Rajoy by winning the Catalan regional election. Meanwhile across the Atlantic, U.S. equity futures and the dollar rose on the last trading session before the Christmas holiday. The MSCI index of world stocks was flat.

Pakistan is considering replacing the U.S. dollar with the Chinese yuan for bilateral trade between Pakistan and China, Pakistan's Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal said according to Dawn Online and The Economic Times. Interior Minister Iqbal, who has been central to the planning and implementation of China-Pakistan economic ties, was reported discussing the proposal after unveiling a long-term economic development cooperation plan for the two countries, Reuters added.