Last week, we were dismayed - although not entirely surprised - to learn that Germany’s Social Democrats have proposed a €5,000 limit on cash transactions and the elimination of the €500 note.
The rationale: if you’re paying in cash for something that costs more than €5,000, you’re probably a terrorist or a “foreign criminal.”
Of course that’s nonsense but it’s a reflection of a changing world.
Back in the summer of 2011, when we reported that Canadian banks appear dangerously undercapitalized on a tangible common equity basis...
... the highest Canadian media instance, the Globe and Mail decided to take us to task. To wit:
Were the folks at Zerohedge.com looking at the best numbers when they argued that Canadian banks were just as levered as troubled European banks?
Via Dana Lyons' Tumblr,
While the broad stock market has been getting hammered, the utility sector hit a 52-week high this week – and achieved a significant relative breakout.
Everyone's favorite permabullish meteorologist, Deutsche Bank's very own Joe LaVorgna, has gone full-Zero Hedge of late, dropping the weather excuses for a decidedly bearish take on the state of the US economy.
Indeed it was just last month when LaVorgna cut his Q4 GDP estimate by "one full percentage point" citing "softer than expected data."
Ever since early 2015, we have repeated that with the world caught in a negative rate "race to the bottom", which even S&P now admits, it is inevitable that the US will join the rest of the DM central banks, especially after the flawed and much delayed attempt to hike rates into what is at least a quasi recession.