After struggling to raise debt from third parties to repair crumbling infrastructure, the state of New Jersey has come up with a "clever" approach to fundraising that entails selling debt to their own insolvent pension funds...something we've dubbed the "Pension Ponzi Squared." Of course, because when everybody else shuns your debt for being too risky who better to sell it to than yourself?
Submitted by via InternationalMan.com,
In 1871, a large portion of the city of Chicago burned to the ground. The Chicago Tribune attributed the fire to a cow owned by a Mrs. O’Leary. The Tribune stated that the cow kicked over a lantern as she was being milked, burning the barn and much of Chicago.
Submitted by Valentin Katasonov via Strategic-Culture.org,
The financial crisis of 2007-2009 effectively terminated the process of globalization. In 2015 world trade suddenly dropped by more than 10% for the first time since 2009. Nothing like this has been seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s. But some politicians, public figures, scholars, and journalists continue to talk about globalization as an «objective» and «progressive» process, even though it has already ended.
Following news last week of a surge in Chinese retail gold premiums as demand for physical bullion soars amid China capital controls, Reuters reports that the chaos in India has sent people rushing to buy gold, paying as much as a 50 percent premium above official India prices. This renewed surge in demand for physical in india follows reports that India's top importer of gold, Axis Bank, reportedly suspending the bank accounts of some bullion dealers and jewelers following the arrest of some executives over money laundering.
“In my view, the Trump election has made a large Chinese devaluation more likely. Mainland Chinese investors are desperately trying to get out of the Yuan, and the People’s Bank of China is trying to defend the value of the Yuan. They are doing this by selling treasuries.”
- Russell Clark, Horseman Global