Items from Mr. Econocobas:
Bank of Japan Goes Negative on Interest Rates – NIRP as it is called has now officially spread to Japan, joining most of the Euro zone.
Stocks End Up 2% After BOJ Move; Nasdaq Still Posts Worst Month Since ’10
Advance Q4 GDP Data, 0.7% – The video is worth watching and listening to as well; expectations for 2016 GDP is the lowest in many years.
Items from Professor Preponomics:
US News
The Market Doesn’t Solve Problems; People Do (Mises) Excerpt: “The modern state can be defined as the institution that pretends to have the monopoly of solutions to social problems. But since the state operates like a monopoly, it behaves like a monopoly and therefore exploits the very people it is supposed to serve. In fact, proponents of government action imply that the members of the civil society are not able to find their own solutions nor able to identify what the problems are. But the most competent men do not need the state to answer our problems, they just need freedom.”
As Debt Talks Hit an Impasse, What’s Next for Puerto Rico? (NPR) This story will unfold again and again around the world and here at home… Excerpt: “What has been happening for the past maybe 20 years is that we have been covering those deficits strictly with debt,” she says. “And it just hits us in the face that all the debt we have accumulated is bigger than our capacity to raise taxes.”
Durable-Goods-Orders Decline Could Mean Economy Shrank in Fourth Quarter (Market Watch) Excerpt: “The report “tilted the scaled for fourth-quarter GDP, which now looks like it be in negative territory….”
International News
HSBC Curbs Mortgage Offering to Chinese Citizens in U.S. (Reuters) Excerpt: “Europe’s biggest lender HSBC will no longer provide mortgages to some Chinese nationals who buy real estate in the United States, a policy change that comes as Beijing is battling to stem a swelling crowd of citizens trying to get money out of China.”
China’s Banking Stress Looms Like Banquos’ Ghost in Davos (The Telegraph) Excerpt: “Bad debts in the Chinese banking system are four or five times higher than officially admitted and pose a mounting risk to the country’s financial stability, the world’s leading expert on debt has warned.”
China’s Economy Appears to be Slowing Significantly… (Outside the Beltway) Excerpt: “The fact that economic statistics were, and continue to be, provided by a central government that certainly has the incentive to exaggerate success and minimize signs of trouble ahead, for example, has long led experts to distrust official numbers, or at least to assume that the books were being cooked to some extent. Notwithstanding the unreliability of official Chinese government statistics, there have been some signs of what really might be happening in China behind the numbers.”
Personal Economics and Household Finance
10 Reasons to Prepare for an Economic Collapse (Back Door Survival) Excerpt: “A global economic collapse, unlike a natural disaster which, as tragic as it may be, is a short term event, will change our lives forever.”
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