Back in December, New York-based China Beige Book International released what they called a “disturbing” set of data that pointed to pronounced weakness in the Chinese economy.
With European markets closed across the continent on Monday as the Easter holiday continues, overnight Asia was busy with the Shanghai Composite letting off some steam, and closing down 0.7% at session lows on concerns the Shanghai and Shenzhen home bubble have been popped prematurely by the politburo.
As TVIX, the double-levered long VIX ETF unleashed in Nov 2010, decays to record low prices...
An unusual (and almost unprecedented) event has occurred. Just as we saw in Gold ETFs, and Oil ETFs, TVIX Shares Outstanding have exploded by a stunning 225% in the last 4 weeks... [the last 3 times TVIX has undeergone such an epic surge in demand marked a major turning point and led a violent surge in VIX]
with the largest inflows (bearish bets) on record in the last week...
"Overall, I’d be rather cautious about investments in equities..." the editor and publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom report told CNBC's "Fast Money" traders this week.
However, "over the last 12 to 24 months, many sectors have had huge declines,...And I see here, there are some opportunities."
"...US markets are over-valued."
Faber also added that "I still think the mining sector has embarked on a new bull market."
Last week, when looking back at consensus economist forecasts for Japanese growth as of 1995, we compared what the pundits thought would happen, and what actually did happen: the result was what may have been the worst forecast of all time, leading to a 25% error rate in just five years later. It also unleashed the start of Japan's three lost decades.
But while laughably wrong economist forecasts are nothing new, a more troubling observation emerges when comparing the evolution of Japan's 10Y yields start in the 1990s...