Tag Archives: China

Summary: Confrontation with China has been dialed down. Criticism of the Fed has been walked back. There is less talk about the dollar. Employment data has been embraced. As a candidate, Trump took a hardline. China is manipulating its currency. The Federal Reserve is acting to help Clinton get elected. The jobs data is fake. Over the past week, the each of these three positions has been considerably softened. It is...

Digital Gold On The Blockchain - For Now Caveat Emptor - Bitcoin surpasses gold price - a psychological and arbitrary headline  - Royal Mint blockchain gold asks you to trust in the UK government - Royal Canadian Mint and GoldMoney blockchain product asks you to trust in government and the technology, servers, websites etc of the providers - Invest in a gold mine using cryptocurrency - but wait until 2022 for your gold and trust the miners that it is there - Blockchain and gold will...

If there is still no current or present indication of rising economic fortunes, and there isn’t, then the “reflation” idea turns instead to what might be different this time as compared to the others. In 2013 and 2014, it was QE3 and particularly the intended effects (open ended and faster paced, a bigger commitment by the Fed to purportedly do whatever it took) upon expectations that supposedly set it apart from the...

To my mind, “reflation” has always proceeded under false pretenses. This goes for more than just the latest version, as we witnessed the same incongruity in each of the prior three. The trend is grounded in mere hope more than rational analysis, largely because I think human nature demands it. We are conditioned to believe especially in the 21st century that the worst kinds of things are either unrealistic or apply to...

To my mind, “reflation” has always proceeded under false pretenses. This goes for more than just the latest version, as we witnessed the same incongruity in each of the prior three. The trend is grounded in mere hope more than rational analysis, largely because I think human nature demands it. We are conditioned to believe especially in the 21st century that the worst kinds of things are either unrealistic or apply to...

US trade statistics dramatically improved in January 2017, though questions remain as to interpreting by how much. On the export side, US exports of goods rose 8.7% year-over-year (NSA). While that was the highest growth rate since 2012, there is part symmetry to account for some of it. Exports in the latter half of 2015 and for that first month of 2016 were contracting at double digit rates, the base effects of the...

Gold Investing 101 - Beware Unallocated Gold Accounts With Indebted Bullion Banks and Mints (Part II) Investors looking to gold again but gold buyers need to exert caution Royal Mint - a royally expensive way to help the government Unallocated gold - unsecured creditor of a bank? If you cannot hold it, you do not own it Own gold bullion coins as insurance, to reduce counter party risk and to preserve wealth Conclusion - Reduce counter parties, Don’t over complicate Yesterday we...

The fact that China reported a small increase in official “reserves” for February 2017 is one of the least surprising results in all of finance. The gamma of those reserves is as predictable as the ticking clock of CNY, in no small part because what is behind the changes in those balances are the gears that lie behind face of the forex timepiece. Yet, each and every time the delta pushes positive there is the same...

  Why gold retains value? Interesting unknown gold facts “Prepare your jaws for a sizeable drop!” History, finite, rare and peak gold “It is beautiful to look at…” ‘Heavy metal’ – Thud sound of a gold bar (kilo) ‘Going for gold’ – Olympic gold medals to Chelthenham ‘Gold Cup’ Peak gold … “Hard work to get gold out of the ground…” How much an Oscar is actually worth? Importance of hiding gold creatively and securely if...

The Economist reports about the fintech revolution in China. By just about any measure of size, China is the world’s leader in fintech (short for “financial technology”, and referring here to internet-based banking and investment). It is far and away the biggest market for digital payments, accounting for nearly half of the global total. It is dominant in online lending, occupying three-quarters of the global market. A ranking of the world’s most innovative fintech firms gave Chinese...