Business

Residential real estate is a slippery slope for China (especially when this frequently recurring bubble is in its bursting phase) . A critical problem the country is dealing with right now is the fact that it is now confronted with the realization that blind construction spending, building out ghost cities year in and year out, has resulted in a glut of vacant housing. There are two main issues China faces with an oversupply of vacant housing. First, it means that new construction has been slow, ultimately putting downward pressure on GDP.

Almost exactly one month ago, on March 10,Mario Draghi unveiled his quadruple bazooka, which among other features, included the first ever monetization of corporate bonds (this has unleashed such an unprecedented scramble for European bonds that there are virtually none left in the open market leading to massive illiquidity and forcing yield chasers to sell CDS instead of buying bonds, thus laying the ground work for the next AIG debacle).

In his speech yesterday, following the Treasury's crack down on corporate tax inversions, Obama blamed "poorly designed" laws for allowing illicit money transfers worldwide. Since the speech came at a time when the entire world is still abuzz with the disclosure from the Panama Papers, Obama touched on that as well: "Tax avoidance is a big, global problem" he said on Tuesday, "a lot of it is legal, but that’s exactly the problem" because a lot of it is also illegal.

• Cruz, Sanders score decisive victories in Wisconsin (Reuters)
• Clinton Can’t Get to New York Fast Enough After New Sanders Win (BBG)
• Trump, Clinton Have Single-Digit Leads in Pennsylvania (BBG)
• Panama law firm says data hack was external, files complaint (Reuters)
• ‘Panama Papers’ Puts Spotlight on Boom in Offshore Services (WSJ)
• Barclays partners with Goldman-backed bitcoin payments app (FT)
• China Inc. Scraps $7 Billion of Bond Offerings as Defaults Rise (BBG)
• Activists Reap Olive Garden Bounty (WSJ)

Less than two days after the US Treasury cracked down on inversion deals, and one deal in particular, Pfizer's pharma record $160 billion acqisition of Allergan, moments ago the two companies announced the deal is officially over.

From the press release:

Pfizer Announces Termination of Proposed Combination with Allergan