Submitted by Pater Tenebrarum via Acting-Man.com,
Portugal’s Rickety Banking System
After the unseemly bankruptcy of the Espirito Santo Group and the associated bank, then Portugal’s second biggest (likely a result of not praying enough, see: “Big Portuguese Bank Gets Into Trouble” and “Fears Over Banco Espirito Santo Escalate” for the gory details), Portugal’s state-run deposit insurance fund basically ran out of money.
As we have reported on numerous prior occasions, the biggest marginal buyer of stocks in both 2014 and 2015 (and forecast to remain in 2016), are corporations themselves, using debt-funded buybacks to push their stocks to record highs, allowing the smart money to sell in record amounts.
But what happens when companies are so levered that they can't possibly afford to issue any more debt, virtually all of which has been used to repurchase stocks, as we have shown before...
Submitted by John Rubino via DollarCollapse.com,
As China’s leaders figure out that pegging the yuan to the dollar while quintupling their debt in five years was a colossal mistake, they are, apparently, concluding that the only way out is a sudden, sharp currency devaluation. As Reuters reports...
Submitted by AnonWatcher via TheAntiMedia.org,
Serco. Chances are you’ve never heard of the company. If you have heard of the company, chances are you misunderstand the shear enormity of the global company and their contracts.
Remember a week ago when every TV anchor, pundit, asset-gatherer, and commission-taker stormed onto mainstream media and proclaimed the credit market collapse "fixed" because prices had 'stabilized' over the holiday period "proving that 3rd Avenue was a one off" and this dip was a buying opportunity? Yeah, well that was all complete crap... as Investment-Grade cost of funding hits a 3-year high, HY bond spreads blew out to cycle wides, 'triple-hooks' soared to their worst levels in almost 7 years, and credit protection costs rose by the most in years.