Dec
17th
Thu
17th
Shocker: Italian Government Bonds returned 80% more than Chinese Equities over the past 15 years!
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Slice of MIT
Baseline Scenario
Nov
23rd
Mon
23rd
Peg Me Baby
Check out this Google Finance Graph of USD / CNY exchange ratio vs USD / EUR
The last 18 months peg might actually be not far away from market price …
Nov
17th
Tue
17th
My view is that markets are still in denial about the structural wreckage of the credit bubble. There are two more boils to lance: China’s investment bubble; and Europe’s banking cover-up. I fear that only then can we clear the rubble and, very slowly, start a fresh cycle.
Nov
14th
Sat
14th
China vs USA In A Picture
Less then 200 years ago, the United States represented 1.8% of world economy. It peaked above 30% in the eighties and is now below 25%. China was above 30% in 1820, went back down below 5% and is now catching up quickly.
Courtesy of Financial Times
Oct
18th
Sun
18th
Percentages Are Misleading
This Economist article on misconceptions about China reminded me why I always prefer absolute amounts to percentages …
Sep
9th
Wed
9th
The Chinese Ministry of Finance said Tuesday that it would issue 6 billion yuan worth of government bonds in Hong Kong, a major step to internationalize its currency at a time of concern about the dollar.
Aug
22nd
Sat
22nd
There are more brokerage account holders than Communist Party members in China, as the market rallied in the past 12 months, boosting the key CSI 300 Index by 92 percent to records this year, the biggest gainer among 90 primary global indexes tracked by Bloomberg analytics.
Mar
19th
Thu
19th
How Much Is A Trillion Dollar?
Yesterday the Fed announced that they are going to print an additional $1.15 trillion, divided up as follows:
- $750 billion to purchase agency mortgage-backed securities
- $100 billion to purchase agency debt
- $300 billion to purchase longer-term Treasury securities
To put that amount of paper dollars in perspective, $1.15 trillion is roughly equal to:
- the yearly GDP of Mexico or Australia
- the amount of US treasuries held by China
- the external debt of about 150 countries in the world
Furthermore, compared to other world figures, $1.15 trillion would be equal to:
- 8.3% of nominal US GDP
- 10.4% of total US public debt
- 32% of non-G8 (or 194 countries) total external debt
- ~50% of the Italian total public debt (which stands at 105.8% of GDP)
- 12 times the sovereign external debt Argentina defaulted on in 2002
- 29 times the debt cancellation owed by Third-World countries to the World Bank in 2005
Sources:
Rank Order by External Debt, The CIA World Factbook
Third World Debt, Wikipedia
Finanza pubblica, fabbisogno e debito (pdf), Central Bank of Italy
List of countries of GDP, Wikipedia
China’s Leader Says He Is ‘Worried’ Over U.S. Treasuries, New York Times
