China

As China expands its military and economic influence in Africa, the United States should feel “very nervous,” according to journalist James Poulos. China is planning to build a military base on the horn of Africa in Djibouti. It could be the first step toward Beijing’s deeper involvement with the continent. Sputnik reports: Last year, China began talks with Djibouti to install a “logistics hub” and airfield in the east African nation.

Back in September, just weeks after China's first dramatic currency devaluation, and when Bitcoin was trading at $220, we wrote that "China Scrambles To Enforce Capital Controls" and explained why this is "Great News For Bitcoin." Sadly, China's attempts to boost its capital controls failed as confirmed a few months later by the biggest one-month reserve liquidation in history which took place this past December, while fears about ongoing currency devaluation have led to lines of people rushing to exchange their Yuan into dollars. Oh yes, Bitcoin today is double where it was in September.

The best summary of what happened overnight comes courtesy of Michael Every, head of financial markets research at Rabobank Group in Hong Kong, who was quoted by Bloomberg as follows:

While the government helped boost stocks at least twice last week, according to people familiar with the matter, equities extended declines into the close on Monday. Even if state funds come in to defend the 3,000 level, it may not ultimately work, according to Michael Every, head of financial markets research at Rabobank Group in Hong Kong.

 

The decision to put U.S. military forces on “high alert” in South Korea shows that they are gearing up towards war with Russia and China, according to political activist Mike Billington.  Billington says that the world is on the brink of an economic crisis that only China can survive. A fact deemed intolerable by the United States.

On Friday we presented Kyle Bass' latest interview in which the Texas hedge fund manager explained the reasoning why he thought shorting the Yuan is the "greatest investment opportunity right now." The crux behind the argument was well-known to Zero Hedge readers, namely China's peaking credit cycle driven by soaring bad, or non-performing, loans which have so far been swept away, but which courtesy of a $35 trillion financial system are nothing short of a "neutron bomb", as we first dubbed the embedded risk, waiting to go off. Here is Bass: