odin

China's Helicopter Wen: World Champion of Money Printing

This is trade protectionism by another name. While China is not officially devaluing its currency, its certainly trying to dent its high intrinsic value (the value if the RNB was traded in the open market). The goal ostensibly seems to be support of the "exporter" classes -- so that the worker classes remain employed and happy. (Chinese form of trickle-down economics?)

However, the reality seems that the easy money is getting channelled in financial speculation (equities and commodities). Inventories are building. This seems to be causing some demand "push", as this is being interpreted as "green shoots" by the entities in the middle of the chain (or even supporting consumer optimism).

However, it is the sustainable consumer demand that matters and it is yet not clear to me that it is there -- whether from the Chinese consumer (which is ultimately NOT the auto-buying upper middle class nor the nouveau rich speculating in real estate nor is it the workers and students who are borrowing to buy stocks but the vast majority of Chinese households who would want to spend _earned income_ on various goods and services) or from the deleveraging and increasingly frugal US consumer.

Every good decision-maker (and investor), as MacroMan aptly points out, should consider the possibility that he is wrong and hedge accordingly. I wonder if the Chinese establishment has considered this case where they are wrong and the easy money does NOT trickle down to the workers, that jobs do not get saved, and whats worse, causes a crash in financial assets where people are playing with borrowed money. Anyone remember the agitation for govt support of the markets in 2008 when Chinese markets were falling?

If Goldman Sachs' Secret Sauce Is Compromised, What Happens Now?

Most banks have tweaked the OS to disable USB access. You cant plug in a USB HD to copy data.


On Jul 06 07:46 AM Free Mind wrote:

> I have just one issue here... Why on earth is this guy uploading
> such sensitive material from his workplace? He could have saved it
> on a usb disk and uploaded from wherever else (a cybercafé for instance).
>
>
> For being a computer wiz, that does not talk favorably of his intelligence.
> Or is there more to the story than meets the eye?

Goldman Releases Earnings Early; Has World Gone Crazy?

GS has traditionally been on a Nov YE cycle. However, when it converted to a bank holding company, it went on a standard Dec YE cycle. Hence, the mystery of the "missing" month.