Business

Authored by Haley Zarumba via OilPrice.com,

As Venezuela’s oil industry goes down it flames, it’s looking like it may just take Cuba down with it.

Venezuela, once the crude powerhouse of South and Central America, is no longer able to produce enough oil to sustain its own economy, much less those of other countries. Cuba is frantically drilling in search for new reserves and reaching out for new suppliers, but there is no guarantee they’ll be able to stabilize their oil income any time soon.

One month ago, we first highlighted a troubling development for China's banking system, one which we called the "Great Shadow Unwind" and which showed that entrusted loans, a broad proxy for China's unregulated ‘shadow banking’ system, contracted for the first time since 2007, confirming Beijing's ongoing crackdown of China's runaway $8.5 trillion shadow banking system. Well, overnight, the PBOC released its latest Chinese loan data, and it had several notable highlights, most of which got lost in today's overall noise.

Authored by Michael Lucci via IllinoisPolicy.org,

Illinois’ total state economic activity has increased by only 4 percent since 2007, which is lower than the U.S.’ 10 percent GDP growth during the worst decade of the Great Depression.

Via Global Macro Monitor,

The yield curve is flattening like a pancake.  

Tightening cycles tend to do that.

Furthermore, the effective float of 10-year and longer U.S. notes and bonds is relatively small and greatly distorts the bond market signal.   We have written about this several times.

Authored by Seabreeze Partners Management's Doug Kass,

If you haven't read my opening missive, please do, as it's important.

This column extends the conversation about the problem with advanced market technologies and strategies a step further than most retail and institutional investors understand.