China

In the harshest warning yet that China is actively contemplating a worst case scenario for its diplomatic relations with the US, a senior Chinese military official said that “a war within the president’s term’ or ‘war breaking out tonight’ are not just slogans, they are becoming a practical reality.” The remarks, first reported by the SCMP, were published on the People’s Liberation Army website in response to the escalating rhetoric towards China from America's new administration, and as Beijing braces itself for a possible deterioration in Sino-US ties, with a par

Submitted by Bill O'Grady via Confluence Investment Management,

US equity futures are unchanged, trading near record highs after digesting a spate of earnings results on Thursday. The dollar pared its weekly loss as the yen and pound slid, while gold headed for its longest slump in three months. European equities fell and markets in Asia were mixed, while markets in China, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam were closed Friday for the start of Lunar New Year. Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore had shortened sessions.

For months/years we've covered the many real estate bubbles that have been inflating all over the world courtesy of Chinese billionaires looking to launder money offshore (here are just a couple of examples:  Vancouver, Sydney and New York).  But a new set of capital controls enacted in China on January 1st, and aimed specifically at curbing foreign real estate investments, may just be the needle that finally pops all those bubbles.

As Bloomberg pointed out earlier this month, the following new restrictions on foreign currency transaction were implemented earlier this year.

Heyman Capital's Kyle Bass, who as we reported two weeks ago returned an impressive 25% in 2016, spoke to Bloomberg TV's Erik Schatzker and likened President Donald Trump’s trade and tax policies to gasoline which will accelerate an economic "restructuring" - a polite word for crash - in China.