Business

Two weeks ago, as part of our continuing coverage of the Steinhoff fiasco in which it emerged that the ECB was the mystery and (not so) proud buyer of just issued Steinhoff (now junk) bonds (maturing in 2025 but set for bankruptcy much sooner) and which lost more than half of their value overnight when it the company announced it was caught in what may be a terminal accounting fraud scandal, we said that ", it seems virtually guaranteed that the banks will suffer steep haircuts on their Steinhoff exposure" and "so will the ECB, which on Friday was rumored it was considering selling

Authored by Mike Shedlock via www.themaven.net/mishtalk,

Ten percent of corporations survive only because central banks have kept real interest rates negative.

The BIS defines Zombie firms as those with a ratio of earnings before interest and taxes to interest expenses below one, with the firm aged 10 years or more.

In simple terms, Zombies are those firms that could not survive without a flow of cheap financing.

Authored by Nick Cunningham via OilPrice.com,

Oil prices are set to close out the year somewhere around 15 percent up, and the oil market looks more stable than it has in years.

But what does 2018 have in store?

Most analysts believe more of the same – inventory declines, some shale growth, a gradual increase in the oil price and eventually an end to the OPEC deal. But a lot of uncertainty remains.

Here are 5 key issues to watch as we head into 2018.

#1 U.S. shale growth

Having passed 6,000 for the first time in April, Nasdaq has now soared 17% since then to surpass 7,000 today...

As soon as cash markets closed last Friday (quad witch), US equity futures spiked... then spiked again on Sunday night's open, and again at the US equity cash open this morning...

And VIX has been crushed this morning...

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

Nations that attempt to limit cryptocurrencies' ability to solve these problems will find that protecting high costs and systemic friction will grind their economies into dust.

There's a great deal of confusion right now about the regulation of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. Many observers seem to confuse "regulation" and "banning bitcoin," as if regulation amounts to outlawing bitcoin.