China

Overnight a historic event took place when China, the world's top gold consumer, launched a yuan-denominated gold benchmark as had been previewed here previously, in what Reuters dubbed "an ambitious step to exert more control over the pricing of the metal and boost its influence in the global bullion market." Considering the now officially-confirmed rigging of the gold and silver fix courtesy of last week's Deutsche Bank settlement, this is hardly bad news and may finally lead to some rigging cartel and central bank-free price discovery.

Having already exposed the fakeness of China's most recent trade data (and implicitly its GDP data), we were not entirely stunned by the fact that, as Bloomberg's Tom Orlik reports, China’s growth rates for quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year GDP for the past year don’t match.

So to start with, we have this entirely unsustainable "data"...

The world has not yet full realized the magnitude of the slowdown in China.

The “official” China growth numbers claim the Chinese economy is plowing along at 6%. I use quotations around the word “official” because Chinese economic data points are complete fiction.

Indeed, back in 2007, no less than current First Vice Premiere of China, Li Keqiang, admitted to the US ambassador to China that ALL Chinese data, outside of electricity consumption, railroad cargo, and bank lending is for “reference only.”

How The American Neoconservatives Destroyed Mankind’s Hopes For Peace

Paul Craig Roberts

When Ronald Reagan turned his back on the neoconservatives, fired them, and had some of them prosecuted, his administration was free of their evil influence, and President Reagan negotiated the end of the Cold War with Soviet President Gorbachev. The military/security complex, the CIA, and the neocons were very much against ending the Cold War as their budgets, power, and ideology were threatened by the prospect of peace between the two nuclear superpowers.

Submitted by Mike "Mish" Shedlock

Hungary has become the first Eastern European country to issue a yuan-denominated sovereign bond.

The deal that shows how currying favor with China may be a more important driver for the market than funding.

Reader Steve who sent me the story commented on Hungarian mortgages denominated in Swiss Francs only to see the  Franc jump over 20% in value overnight.

“Pretty clever guys!”, said Steve.

Anyone think this is a good idea?