In case you missed it, South Korea has introduced what is being called the world's first tax on robots amid fears that machines will replace human workers, leading to mass unemployment. Of course, one can't actually tax robots so what they're actually doing is changing the corporate tax code to provide disincentives for capital investments in technology. Genius plan if we understand it correctly. Per The Korea Times:
The omniptence of artificial intelligence is unquestioned. The 'future' is automation, robotization, and algorithmic domination is the mantra of the new normal prognosticators - and anyone who challenges this world view is a luddite or 'denier'.
There's just one problem - those quantitative, AI-based, computerized algos, that are supposed to be making people obsolete in the financial markets, are in trouble. As Bloomberg reports, program-driven hedge funds are stumbling, a promising startup has closed, and once-reliable styles are showing weakening returns.
As the Obamacare repeal and replace effort raged on in Congress over the past six months, several Democrats and even some of the original Obamacare architects stepped forward to argue that the crippling premium increases from 2014 through 2017 were just a 1x market adjustment and that everything would miraculously 'stabilize' in 2018.
The market riggers are now pulling the pin.
All market rigs end badly. And given the fact that this one has been particularly egregious, the results will be quite ugly.
You cannot pin the S&P 500, perhaps the single most important stock index in the world, for weeks and expect it to end well. This is particularly true when you’re pinning it using Risk Parity Funds and their “buy/sell” algorithms.
Those same algorithms that have mindlessly bought stocks every time the VIX gets smashed, will mindlessly SELL stocks when the VIX explodes higher.
Authored by Tsvetana Paraskova via OilPrice.com,
Chinese crude oil imports in July dropped to their lowest level in seven months, although they rose 12 percent on an annual basis, according to calculations made by Reuters on the basis of China’s customs data.
Last month China imported some 34.66 million tons of crude oil, or around 8.16 million bpd, which—according to Reuters calculations based on China’s General Administration of Customs data—was the lowest level since January.