Via PandaHedge.com,
Overnight the People’s Daily published an interview with “anonymous authorities” on the topic of China's economy. It’s a very important article as the “anonymous authorities” is considered to be Mr. Liu He, who is the economy brain of President Xi Jinping. The interview sends strong signals that China policy will shift from its aggressive easing in Q1 to a conservative position which focus on structural reforms.
Things are increasingly upside down in the brave new centrally planned world: thanks to negative deposit rates central banks have put an explicit cost on saving, while in various instances, such as taking out a mortgage in Denmark and the Netherlands, the bank actually pays the borrower, thus rewarding living beyond one's means. Curiously, it was just a month ago when an offer was spotted in Germany offering a negative -1% rate on small consumer loans issued by Santander Bank.
Submitted by Tony Sagami via MauldinEconomics.com,
Get a load of this headline from a German newspaper, which translates into “Extreme Low Interest: Who Saves Is the Fool.”
The reason for that insulting headline is simple: central bankers have been waging a war against savers.
Submitted by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,
The chart below is simply horrifying. Not only are these median net worth figures scary, realize that 50% of the households in the country have less than these figures. Having a a net worth of less than $200,000 as you approach or enter retirement is a recipe for disaster. When 70% to 80% of that net worth is tied up in your house, you are nothing but a dead retiree walking. You should acquire a taste for cat food and learn how to panhandle for money.
In a recent note, Eric Peters, CIO of One River Asset Management, summarizes everything that's been happening over the past few years in one tidy anecdote. Citing an unnamed CIO, he points out that the central bank was created to help its member banks, and it attempts to impact the real economy by using interest rates as a mechanism to control the attractiveness of lending money.