Monthly Archives: May 2014

BlackRock: Russian Bond Market “Freezing Up”

“People thought sanctions were about visas for oligarchs wanting to visit Disneyland. But they are much more important.”

The Hazardous Hunt For Carry – Why The EM Rebound Isn’t Real

The monetary plumbers keep banging money market rates to zero, thereby ignoring what the money market rate really is in a financialized, debt-ridden system: the price of hot money, the single most important price in all of capitalism.

Russia Dumping US Treasuries? But Why the Heck in Belgium?

Belgium is known for its surprises. For example, it got by amazingly well for a couple of years without a national government, to the chagrin of a lot of people. Now that tiny country with a tiny economy is suddenly piling up a mountain of US Treasuries.

France Thumbs Nose at Obama Over Sanctions: Will Deliver Two Warships to Russia

The battle between the US and France has been brewing for months, but now it came to a head: the French government decided to spite the US and move forward with the contract to deliver two warships to Russia. To heck with those silly sanctions.

Why China Will Implode: It’s A Monumental Building Aberration, Not An Economy

China isn’t just another booming Emerging Market economy trying to cool down excesses in fixed-asset investment and transition to a consumer-based economy. That notion is an odd-confluence of propaganda from Beijing and hopium from Wall Street.

Russian Bank Lures German Savers As Russians Yank Out Money

Smart Russians are voting with their bank accounts, dumping rubles at the fastest rate since the financial crisis, and yanking dollars and euros out of banks at a record pace. So where do the teetering banks go to refill these holes? Where the dumb money is: German savers.

The Sheer Insanity of What You Pay For Medical Services

By Michael Gorback, M.D.: Confused and outraged by the prices, often unknown upfront, that you and your insurance company pay for medical services? You’re not the only one. Enter the bizarre world of “Place of Service” pricing.

The Growing Catastrophe Known as Abenomics

In a decade or two, nearly 40% of the Japanese population will be retired; and the single-risk it should never take is to induce a collapse of its currency, and the resulting sharp inflation of its import bill for virtually all its energy and industrial materials.

The Brutal, Beneath-the-Surface, Slo-Mo Crash of Stocks

Even while the googly-eyed mainstream media celebrate the Dow’s record high, beneath the gloss, thousands of stocks are getting gutted. And the carnage is spreading.