Business

While the US Treasury's semi-annual report on the foreign-exchange policies of major U.S. trading partners has traditionally been, pardon the pun, a paper tiger, as the US has not named a single country as a currency manipulator since it did so to China in 1994, and it didn't go so far as to blame any country as an outright manipulator in the just released April edition, there was a new addition to the latest report.

Remember Wednesday night... after Facebook crushed it...

Overheard behind the scenes at CNBC today...

Submitted by Irina Slav via OilPrice.com,

Russia and Saudi Arabia have been (relatively) quietly fighting for market share in China ever since oil prices started their downward spiral in mid-2014 - now the battle is heating up, and teapot refineries are what could tip the balance.

With the Chinese government having dramatically clamped down on various forms of capital flight in recent months (incidentally, a key driver for the surge in the price of bitcoin over the past year), Chinese residents have been coming up with increasingly more innovative forms of capital flight. One, noted previously, has been the unprecedented scramble to purchase foreign companies with no regard for price. After all, if the only intention is to have a legal basis to ship funds offshore, and debt investors willing to foot the bill, why not.

Is Everyone Wrong On The "Causation" Of The Commodity Bubble? While it appeared 'retail' was responsible for the panic-buying chaotic volume surge in Chinese commodities, Axiom Capital Management's Gordon L Johnson points out that in fact... China Bank Special Interest Vehicles' "Bold" Commodity Speculation Is The Real Budding Black Swan

WMP Speculation Likely Cause for the ’16 Commodity Rally, Not Retail Investors ("Cab-Drivers").