When one thinks of unstable, risky banking systems, the first thing that comes to mind are visions of insolvent, state-backed building - with or without long ATM lines - in China, Greece, Italy or, in recent times, Germany. However, according to the most recent report by the Bank for International Settlements, the country with the riskiest banking system is neither of these, and is a rather "unusual suspect."
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Whitney George & Rick Rule: Finding Value in Natural Resource Stocks
Posted with permission and written by Sprott U.S. Media (CLICK HERE FOR ORIGINAL)
It seems ever-exuberant energy traders are finally waking up to the reality that the global rebalance is not happening. A record glut of crude and surging production has sent WTI back to a $51 handle this morning (one-month lows) and has weighed on gasoline prices...
WTI has broken below its 100-day moving average as the machines ran overnight stops and then plunged after the DOE data...
“Inventory drawdown slower than I thought after cuts,” Saudi Arabia's Khalid Al-Falih admits.
Another day, another downgrade to US GDP: after yesterday the Atlanta Fed slashed its Q1 GDPNow estimate from 1.8% to 1.3% - with the forecast as high as 3% at the start of the year, and 2.5% as recently as the end of February - moments ago the Atlanta Fed has once again cut its US growth forecast, and now sees Q1 GDP of just 1.2%, on par with the disappointing 0.9% and 0.8% prints in Q4 2015 and Q1 2016.
Via Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,
Geithner's conclusion: current policy extremes, politics and astounding debt levels limit policymakers' emergency options in the next crisis.
Many of us disagree with the bloviated, self-congratulatory notion that the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury saved the U.S. economy, capitalism and everything else in 2008-09 up to and including the Central Bank of Mars and the bat guano futures market.