Category

Week-in-Review: Mon: PBOC chief economist “expect 2-way CNY price action,” Japan Q2 GDP -1.6% yoy (first fall in 3 qrtrs), Saudi Arabia non-oil exports -21.1% yoy (record low), Russia IP -4.7% yoy, Turkish nationalists reject Erodgan’s coalition plan (unemployment 9.3%), EU Trade surplus E21.9bln (prev E21.3bln), US empire mfg -14.92 (Apr 2009 lows), S&P +0.5%; Tue: Chinese equities -6% (no obvious catalyst), Ban

Week-in-Review: Mon: Chinese exports -8.3% yoy (CPI +1.6%), Japan current account surplus for 12th mth (consumer confidence -1.4 to 40.3), Sweden industrial orders +11.8% (strongest since 2011), Norway CPI +1.8% yoy (lowest since May 2014), Russian Q2 GDP -4.6% (car sales -27% yoy), Mexican wage growth +4.8% yoy, US Fed labor mkt conditions +0.3 to +1.1, Fischer hints no Sept hike, S&P +1.3%; Tue: China devalues

Week-in-Review: Mon: China manufacturing PMI 50 (exp 51.0), China new export orders 47.9 (down from 48.2 in June – lowest since June 2013), Korea exports -3.3% yoy (exp -6.8%), EU manufacturing PMI 52.4 (exp 52.2), Greece manu PMI 30.2 (previous 46.9, largest fall on record), UK manu PMI 51.9 (exp 51.5), Swiss manu PMI 48.7 (exp 50.5), US personal income +0.4% (exp +0.3%), personal spending +0.2% (exp +0.2%), ISM man

Overall: Mullah Omar died, blind to his abomination. An astronomer saw an aurora, one million times brighter than our northern lights, on a brown dwarf 18 light years away. India hanged the 1993 Mumbai bomber, his neck snapped. Facebook announced plans to bring internet connectivity to remote corners of the world using solar-powered drones, transmitting data using lasers that can hit a dime 11-miles below. One of fiv

Week-in-Review: Mon: China property prices extend rebound (70-city price index +0.3% m/m), Gold gaps through recent lows, RBNZ Keys acknowledges the speed of NZD fall, Athens repays E6.8bln to creditors, Greek banks reopen with E240/week withdraw limit, Hollande calls for creation of an EU gov’t, German PPI -1.4% yoy, EU May current account +E18bln (prev +E22.3bln), S&P +0.1%; Tue: China FDI +0.7% (exp +5%), BOJ

He sat in his cell. Quietly. Reading El Universal, scanning headlines, checking stock quotes. The Greeks had attempted escape. But were recaptured by German guards; to be expected. You see, if there’s one thing El Chapo learned in his sixty ruthless years, it’s that the most frightening sound is silence. With so much European screaming, there was relatively little to fear. Loudest amongst the crowd had been Varoufaki

“Who am I?” he asked. And the mirror reflected the answer; his silent eyes. “Well, how will I be remembered?” he pleaded. Silence. “Tell me the future!” cried the Greek leader. Silence. And all alone, away from the communist cacophony, unable to escape the fact that we are what we do, Alexis Tsipras swallowed the bitter hemlock. “Who am I?” asked Angela. Silence. “How will they remember me?” begged Merkel. Silence. A

“Say what?” said Xi. “Shanghai fell 12.1%,” said Zhou. “Last week?” said Xi. “No Shanghai fell 12.1% this week,” said Zhou, correcting his President, “You must be thinking of 2 weeks ago, when Shanghai fell 13.3%, because last week it only fell 6.3%.” Xi pouted worse than usual, sat in silence. Zhou squirmed, filled the void with a parade of policy pronouncements, “Last Friday we cut the required reserve ratios by 50

The little brown giant cleaned his glasses, adjusted his dhoti, and addressed the heaving masses. “A nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest,” said Mahatma Gandhi, exhausting the topic of statehood, presenting mankind with a seed. And as the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free, fled their homelands for America, the former withered, while the latter blosso

Overall: He stood at the podium. The temperature rising, the room shrinking. A victim of game theory gone bad. And as his options narrowed in inverse proportion to his desperation, Tsipras considered the rationality of irrationality. But having played a poor hand poorly, it was unclear whether even this tactic was worth the effort so late in the game. Of course, the Greek was not alone. Policy makers across the globe