Business

Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

The injustice of central-bank enforced neofeudalism cannot be suppressed like interest rates.

When it comes to central bankers gone “full Krugman” (as it were) you’d be hard pressed to find someone more Keynesian crazy than BoJ governor Haruhiko Kuroda. 

Kuroda - who earlier this year likened himself to Peter Pan on the way to explaining that it’s possible to conduct unconventional monetary policy in perpetuity as long as market participants continue to “believe” - has not only managed to suck up the entirety of gross JGB issuance, he’s also succeeded in cornering the market for Japanese ETFs. 

OPEC blowback continues to ripple around the world. With Russia's Ruble pushing back towards record lows against the USD, and Kazakhstan's Tenge having tumbled to record lows, the writing was on the wall for Azerbaijan. As Bloomberg reports, the third-biggest oil producer in the former Soviet Union moved to a free float on Monday and the manat crashed almost 50% instantly to its weakest on record with the second devaluation this year.

First the Russian Ruble...

Then Kazakhstan's Tenge...

Submitted by Joseph Calhoun via Alhambra Investment Partners,

Last week, the market got some good (and “good” is a relative term here) news with regard to Puerto Rico’s debt crisis. 

The commonwealth - which you’ll recall is struggling to crawl from beneath a debt pile that sums to $70 billion - managed to strike a deal with PREPA’s creditors and the monolines that will see bondholders and lenders accept losses of 15% with the insurers putting up a $450 million surety bond.