Mish has written a disconcerting piece on China’s lending bubble as it relates to real estate. China’s housing market valuations are much worse than ours were at the peak. In Beijing, housing values are 22 times incomes. A quote from one of Mish’s sources states: A 90-square-metre (968-square-foot) apartment in [...]

Intellectual capital is leaving the US. For years real capital has been doing so, resulting in the shift of manufacturing from this country to other countries. Fear is also causing individuals to investigate ways to get some of their savings out of this country to whatever is considered a safer [...]

China is supposed to be the engine of growth that gets us out of the economic crisis. The following document suggests that is unlikely to be the case. According to Katsenelson, China may become another economic basket case in a similar fashion to Japan. To view the presentation, click on [...]

China increasing their sales of US Treasuries cannot be good news. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard writing in the Telegraph speculates that the sales are being used as a foreign policy tool to pressure the US. Whether or not that is the case, the US is vulnerable and dependent on China to finance [...]

In Jimmy Carter’s reign, the Wall Street Journal editorialized about “Ratcheting to Ruin.” The title derived from the fact that each cycle high in unemployment was higher than previous ones, and each cycle high in inflation was also. “Stagflation” was coined to describe what up until then was believed to [...]

Our ability to fund our deficits and fixed income needs ended last year. The Treasury market is perhaps the biggest bubble yet to burst. It is highly probable that this bubble reached its zenith and started to deflate 2009, propped up only by extensive and surreptitious quantitative easing. It is [...]

“… all Ponzi schemes eventually fail under their own weight. The US debt scheme is no different.” Sprott Asset Management Belief in the economic recovery story is akin to belief in Santa Claus. Both make us feel better, but both are unlikely. We may have another quarter or two of [...]

The United States is now dependent on the rest of the world to finance its government deficits. As the sovereign version of Tennessee Williams’ Blanche du Bois in Streetcar Named Desire, we are truly “dependent on the kindness of strangers.” The government has no way to finance itself other than [...]

Getting Gold and Silver may not be enough to protect your wealth according to Stansbury. Another excellent read by Porter Stansbury. While primarily focused on precious metals and currencies, and the possibility of returning to some commodity-based currency, Stansbury touches on many interesting topics. We are entering the period where [...]

Here is an interesting, one might say insignificant, piece of news. The US Treasury Department is apparently going to block an investment by the Chinese in a small gold mining company. Why? The claim is for “security reasons.” On its face that is laughable. So, why be troubled by such a [...]

Image via Wikipedia Douglas Holtz-Eakin, an advisor to John McCain in the last Presidential Campaign, raises this critical issue in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece: “At what point, some financial analysts ask, do rating agencies downgrade the United States? When do lenders price additional risk to federal borrowing, leading [...]

Image via Wikipedia Rosenberg in favor of gold and Treasuries (but Treasuries only near-term). Breakfast with Dave Read full article (PDF 435KB) November 5, 2009 QUICK TAKE ON THE FED You read the various bank economic departments’ take on the Fed statement and it’s split evenly on whether it was [...]

More terrible news from ZeroHedge on the Dollar and Treasuries. Does anyone not now believe that surreptitious Quantitative Easing has not been going on and will continue? Detailed Look At TIC Flows: August Treasury Purchases By China, Japan And UK Drop To Lowest Total Year To Date Submitted by Tyler [...]

Image by tfpeng via Flickr Not much to disagree with here, at least in the intermediate to long-term. If we have a market correction in the US, which seems almost inevitable, then the whole world will be affected including, if not especially China. There is much not to like short-term [...]

I-Believe-in-Strong-Dollar Turns Relic as China Begs (Update1) By Matthew Brown and Oliver Biggadike Oct. 8 (Bloomberg) — More than a decade after former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin made the “strong dollar” national policy, currency traders say the same words coming from the Obama administration have little meaning. Timothy Geithner, the [...]

Rolfe Winkler interview makes the case for gold even in a deflationary environment.

Beware! The noose around the dollar’s neck continues to tighten. A developing headline (no story posted yet) on Drudge reads: ARAB STATES LAUNCH SECRET MOVES WITH CHINA, RUSSIA, FRANCE TO STOP USING DOLLAR FOR OIL TRADING… DEVELOPING… Another informative story on Howe Street contained the following: SDRs, or Special Drawing [...]

An interesting interview on CNBC about the dollar, gold and the fix that the Fed finds itself in. There are a couple of points to be made. 1) The debt is, I believe, substantially greater than the $60 Trillion used in the clip. The social obligations (medicare, social security, etc.) [...]

Here is a must-listen by Julian Robertson, a legend on Wall Street and a knowledgeable investor. The interview is quite straight-forward and frank and provides a good overview of the important forces in play. Not crazy about his global warming views. Warming Data Doesn’t Cooperate, Just Change ItWisdom: Eisenhower and [...]

The Fed is filling up with toxic assets. This graph from Davos (via Zerohedge) shows the composition of the Fed’s balance sheet. Before the crisis (circa December 2008) the Fed held only Treasuries and a small handful of other assets totalling about $800 billion. Today, the Fed has assets of [...]

China can no longer afford to let gold or silver price slump Chinese state endorsement of gold and silver as good investments means the country can no longer afford to let precious metals prices drop by any significant amount. Author: Lawrence WilliamsPosted:  Wednesday , 09 Sep 2009MineWeb

China continues to position itself to become independent of the US dollar. Just more evidence of the building strains in the currency markets. . http://www.businessinsider.com/new-dollar-challenge-china-selling-yuan-bonds-for-the-first-time-2009-9