Thursday, October 23, 2014

Oil

Being the marginal monopoly producer of oil has its benefits, but also has its own masters.  Saudi Arabia cut production not so much as a reaction to demand, but as placation for its Western masters and their massive investment in oil that is far more difficult to reach.

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Even the slower uptake websites have noticed...

...what readers here knew years ago.

Chinese banks are seeing the writing on the wall in terms of the debt they've accumulated, and they are taking measures to protect themselves.
The Bank of China is planning the biggest sale of shares ever — $6.5 billion to offshore investors,Bloomberg says.  It's all in an effort to create a capital cushion.
China's banking system has piled up the most bad loans of any time since the financial crisis, and the banks are preparing for the moment those debts collapse.
Especially in corporate and property sectors, things are looking dire.
Let's tackle the corporate sector first. Last month, Morgan Stanley released a report saying China's corporates took on 5.4 times more leverage than ever before in the first half of 2014, bringing leverage up to levels unseen since 2006.