Economy

Name This Hedge Fund … Its Leverage Is EXTREME To Say The Least …

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From the article:

“Luckily, the people managing it have years of experience in managing massive portfolios, dealing with illiquidity, and trading markets… oh wait!”

– Name The Hedge Fund (ZeroHedge, Oct 8, 2014):

 Back in 2007, the issue of leverage in the investment banking community (which hadn’t mattered to anybody for many years) suddenly mattered to everybody and for the usual reason in such cases: people started to worry about losing money. Amazingly, having financial institutions levered 30x became something to fear seemingly overnight; and, of course, whilst things like that can go on for a long time, as soon as the fear takes hold, it’s game over…

NAME THIS HEDGE FUND

Its leverage is extreme to say the least…

Read moreName This Hedge Fund … Its Leverage Is EXTREME To Say The Least …

V The Guerrilla Economist: ‘We Are In The Final Phase’ – ‘The Country That You Grew Up In Is Dead’ … ‘It Doesn’t Exist Anymore’ … ‘It’s Run By Neo-Satanic Faschists’ (Video)

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And yes, TPTB are testing who is exposing them and is standing up to them.

FYI.


06.10.2014

Description:

V, the Guerrilla Economist, walks us through the labyrinth of the current economic crisis – yes, there is one, and gives us possible dominoes that might fall first, an event or series of events that will ultimately bring down the U.S. Dollar.The Guerrilla Economist, who has a proven near perfect accuracy rate, is the founder and operator of his website, Rogue Money at www.RogueMoney.net. We’ll explore the proxy war going on between Russia (and China) versus the United States, and how this proxy war is laying the groundwork for a potential shooting war, or WW III. Sound ominous? It is, more than most people realize. The Guerrilla Economist will also discuss the Silver and Gold manipulation, and where both metals are expected to be trading in the next 3, 6, 12 and 18 months. Also, Mike Rosecliff will be interviewed with the Guerrilla.

Turkey In Turmoil After Tanks Roll Out To Stop Deadly Protests; Stocks Tumble

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– Turkey In Turmoil After Tanks Roll Out To Stop Deadly Protests; Stocks Tumble (ZeroHedge, Oct 8, 2014):

While geopolitics has largely dropped of the front news page, replaced by updates on the global Ebola epidemic (which until recently was considered nothing but fearmongering by those who prefer to avoid reality ews until it is far too late), things in the Middle East are getting worse, and while the US attack against ISIS has achieved absolutely nothing (in fact, the revelation of US strategies may have facilitated the incursion of ISIS into the town of Kobani, a mostly Kurdish city in north Syria), the latest geopolitical hotspot over the past few days has become NATO member Turkey (we provided a big picture summary in “Turkey, The Kurds And Iraq – The Prize & Peril Of Kirkuk“). It is here that violent clashes broke out across the southeast of the nation with several people reported dead and curfews imposed, as the region’s Kurdish people protested the advance of Islamic State just across the border with Syria.

As Bloomberg reports, demonstrators clashed with police and in some areas with members of local Islamist groups, according to Turkish media. Haberturk website said that five people were killed in Diyarbakir, Turkey’s largest Kurdish city. A curfew was imposed there at 10 p.m. local time as well as in Mardin, Siirt, Batman and Van, according to Hurriyet newspaper.

Read moreTurkey In Turmoil After Tanks Roll Out To Stop Deadly Protests; Stocks Tumble

End of the Empire

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– End of the Empire (OfTwoMinds, Oct 8, 2014):

If the top 1/100th of 1% crowding airports with their private jets isn’t afraid of impoverished, disenchanted debt-serfs with pitchforks, they should be.

By End of the Empire I refer not to the collapse of American Imperial power but to the excesses and anxieties that characterize the decay of Empire. I have covered the dynamics of Imperial decay before: How Empires Fall (April 17, 2013):
The imperial tree falls not because the challenges are too great but because the core of the tree has been weakened by the gradual loss of surplus, purpose, institutional effectiveness, intellectual vigor and productive investment.

Read moreEnd of the Empire

Markets In Turmoil Update

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– Markets In Turmoil Update  (ZeroHedge, Oct, 8, 2014):

BTFD’ers are absent as markets everywhere are in turmoil. Commodities are sliding with WTI plunging (almost a bear market from June highs) and copper crumbling. The USD is slightly lower (3rd day in a row). Treasury yields are slightly lower. But it is stocks that are turmoiling most as the Dow nears unchanged year-to-date. After the dramatic ramp off the lows last week, stocks have entirely roundtripped and then some to fresh cycle lows, led by Trannies and Small caps. VIX is back over 18. In Europe, stocks tanked once again with DAX closing below 9,000 for the first time this year.

Stocks have roundtripped and worse from last Thursday’s lows…

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HOUSING RECOVERY: Man Tries To Trade Decrepit Detroit House For New iPhone

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Man Tries to Trade Decrepit Detroit House for New iPhone
Man Tries to Trade Decrepit Detroit House for New iPhone (ABC News)

– Man Tries to Trade Decrepit Detroit House for New iPhone (ABC News, ‘Good Morning America’, Oct 8, 2014):

One homeowner is resorting to bartering for the latest iPhone as a tactic to sell a beleaguered property in Detroit.

The owner has dropped the asking price on a three-bedroom home in east Detroit from $5,000 to a new iPhone 6 as the owner is desperate to sell ahead of the area’s tax auction season where “thousands” of homes near foreclosure will flood the market, real estate broker Larry Else told ABC News.

“This house is really not worth much at all,” Else said.

Read moreHOUSING RECOVERY: Man Tries To Trade Decrepit Detroit House For New iPhone

Russia Central Banks Scrambles To Halt Plunging Ruble, Spends Over $2 Billion In Last Three Days As Inflation Soars

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– Russia Central Banks Scrambles To Halt Plunging Ruble, Spends Over $2 Billion In Last Three Days As Inflation Soars (ZeroHedge, Oct, 8, 2014):

Recently, not a day passes without the Russian Ruble hitting new record lows against the US Dollar due to a combination of both capital outflows from Russia, tumbling prices of crude – Moscow’s most important export – which deteriorates Russia trade and current account position, coupled with the most acute USD strengthening in history in the past few months over fears of a tightening Fed.

Yet for whatever the reason, after stoically ignoring the impact of its tumbling currency on the domestic economy (and as a reminder, Japan would kill for a currency collapse of this magnitude: just think of the “economic renaissance” that would result if only Abenomics was right about killing your currency leading to growth… which it isn’t), the Kremlin is finally starting to feel the pinch leading to the biggest central bank intervention in FX markets since the start of the Ukraine campaign, buying Rubles for a third consecutive day at an amount of over $2 billion, with $1.75 billion purchased in the first two days of the current intervention attempt, and another $420 million in foreign currencies sold overnight according to Bank of Russia data.

Read moreRussia Central Banks Scrambles To Halt Plunging Ruble, Spends Over $2 Billion In Last Three Days As Inflation Soars

Inside September’s “Born Again” Jobs Report

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– Inside September’s “Born Again” Jobs Report (David Stockman’s Contra Corner, Oct 7, 2014):

The September jobs report was greeted by a flurry of robo-trader exuberance because another print well above 200k purportedly signals that growth is underway and profits will remain in high cotton as far as the eye can see. But how many years can this Charlie Brown and Lucy charade be taken seriously—-even by the headline stalking talking heads who inhabit bubblevision?

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Japan Admits It Has Entered A Triple-Dip Recession

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– Japan Admits It Has Entered A Triple-Dip Recession (ZeroHedge, Oct, 7, 2014):

On Sunday we warned it would happen. Well, it happened.

From Goldman Sachs:

The Indexes of Business Conditions comprises leading, coincident, and lagging composite indices compiled from various economic statistics and market indicators. Since the components are already announced in advance, the composite indices come as no surprise as they can be estimated in advance. That said, the data release is closely watched as an indicator of potential turning points in the economy, as the Cabinet Office makes an assessment of the state of the economy based on the trend in the coincident CI, using a set of objective criteria that eliminates arbitrariness.

Of the 11 indicators that make up the coincident CI, 8 made a negative contribution mom in August, as expected. The coincident CI fell 1.4 points in August to 108.5 from 109.9 in July. The three month average of the coincident CI declined 0.84 points, declining for 5 months in a row, and the 7-month average declined 0.87 points, a third month of decline in a row.

The Cabinet Office revised down its economic assessment to “signaling a possible turning point” from “weakening” for the first time since April, as the 7-month average sign for the coincident CI changed, and the change swung by more than 1 standard deviation in the reverse direction. According to the Cabinet Office, such a change in assessment provisionally indicates a likelihood that the economy has already fallen into recession. This is effectively akin to the government acknowledging that the economy is in recession.

Japan recession GS

Which means Japan is now in its third recession since Lehman, and fourth since 2008.

Read moreJapan Admits It Has Entered A Triple-Dip Recession

Walmart Ends Healthcare Benefits For Workers Under 30 Hours

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walmart

– Walmart Ends Healthcare Benefits For Workers Under 30 Hours (ZeroHedge, Oct, 7, 2014):

Under the title (only-a-PR-person-could-make-up) “Providing Quality Benefits for Our Associates,” Walmart – who employs 1.3 million people in America, has changed its eligibility standards for healthcare benefits. “Like every company,” they explain “Walmart faces rising healthcare costs,” and so are ending benefits for associates who work less than 30 hours a week.

Read moreWalmart Ends Healthcare Benefits For Workers Under 30 Hours

Global Equities In ‘Sea Of Red’ After German Industrial Data Horror, Hints Japan May Give Up On Weak Yen

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– Global Equities In “Sea Of Red” After German Industrial Data Horror, Hints Japan May Give Up On Weak Yen (ZeroHedge, Oct, 7, 2014):

While the economic data, especially out of Europe, just keeps getting worse by the day, with the latest confirmation that Europe is now officially in a triple-dip recession coming out of Germany and the previously observed collapse in Industrial Production which tumbled the most since February 2009, it was once again the Dollar and especially the New Normal favorite currency, the Yen, that was in everyone’s sights overnight, when it first jumped to 109.20 only to slide shortly after midnight eastern, when Abe repeated once again that a plunging Yen is hurting small companies and consumers – and to think it only took him 2 years to read what we said would happen in late 2012 – but also the BOJ minutes which did not reveal any addition easing, which apparently disappointed algos and triggered USDJPY slel programs, pushing the USDJPY 80 pips lower to 108.40.

Read moreGlobal Equities In ‘Sea Of Red’ After German Industrial Data Horror, Hints Japan May Give Up On Weak Yen

Europe’s Triple-Dip Recession Arrives: German Industrial Production Crashes Most Since February 2009

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This is the Greatest Depression.

Prepare for collapse.

–  Europe’s Triple-Dip Recession Arrives: German Industrial Production Crashes Most Since February 2009 (ZeroHedge, Oct, 7, 2014):

A few hours ago we finally got undeniable confirmation that Europe is once again in recession, its third since Lehman, only this one is worse: it is led by the “core” countries, with Germany in the forefront, a Germany which just reported industrial output which suffered its biggest monthly decline in more than five years in August. Specifically, German IP tumbled 4%, led by capital goods which crashed 8.8%; consumer goods sliding 0.4%, and basic goods dropping 1.9%, with the headline plunge far below the consensus of -1.5%, and below even the worst forecast of -3.0%, the biggest drop since February 2009, a result which according to the FT rose “fears that Europe’s biggest economy might be heading for recession and prompting renewed concern about the economic health of the eurozone.”

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It’s Official: Hewlett-Packard To Split In Two, Fire Another 5,000; Goldman Notches Second Spin-Off Success After PayPal

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– It’s Official: Hewlett-Packard To Split In Two, Fire Another 5,000; Goldman Notches Second Spin-Off Success After PayPal (ZeroHedge, Oct 6, 2014):

While the WSJ already broke the news yesterday that Hewlett Packard would split in two companies, and as such today’s “shocking” announcement will hardly have the impact of the just as “surprising” split of PayPal which came on the last day of September, what is probably most notable – in addition to the news that HPQ will fire another 5,000 workers, bringing the total to 55,000 – is that just as in the case of PayPal, so for Hewlett-Packard, the financial advisor, i.e., the company which pitched the spin off to executives, was none other than Goldman. One wonders where else Goldman is advising on “spin offs” to take advantage of the bubbly stock market valuations. As a reminder, HPQ is only doing this deal and accessing the public markets now because several years ago it tried to do exactly the same thing in a private transaction with a strategic or financial buyer, and found no bids. Luckily, now we have central bank froth and pervasive risk euphoria to help management bail out at the highest possible stock price.

From the Press Release:

Read moreIt’s Official: Hewlett-Packard To Split In Two, Fire Another 5,000; Goldman Notches Second Spin-Off Success After PayPal

What Bubble? Record $924 Billion In 65 Million Auto Loans: 31% Of All New Loans Are Subprime

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– What Bubble? Record $924 Billion In 65 Million Auto Loans: 31% Of All New Loans Are Subprime (ZeroHedge, Oct 6, 2014):

And now for something funny.

Earlier today, credit agency Equifax piggybacked on Experian’s auto loan data, and reported the following:

  • The total balance of auto loans outstanding in August is $924.2 billion, an all-time high and an increase of 10.8% from same time a year ago
  • The total number of auto loans outstanding stands at more than 65 million, a record high and an increase of more than 6% from the same time last year;
  • The total number of new loans originated through June is 12.5 million, an increase of 4.9% from same time a year ago
  • The total balance of new loans is $254.2 billion, an increase of 6.9% from same time a year ago and representing nearly half of total new non-mortgage credit originated
  • The total number of new loans originated year-to-date through June for subprime borrowers, defined as consumers with Equifax Risk Scores of 640 or lower, is 3.9 million, representing 31.2% of all auto loans originated this year.
  • Similarly, the total balance of newly originated subprime auto loans is $70.7 billion, an eight-year high and representing 27.8% of the total balance of new auto loans
  • Year-to-date in June, the average loan amount for borrowers with risk scores of 680 or lower are increasing the most, showing a 3% increase from the previous year. Loan sizes among borrowers with risk scores of 760 or higher show little change from the same time a year ago

At least we now know, definitively, what the reason for the US manufacturing surge in the late spring early summer was: a subprime credit-driven car buying binge.

But wait, there’s more: because here is Equifax’ “conclusion” based on the above bullets:

Read moreWhat Bubble? Record $924 Billion In 65 Million Auto Loans: 31% Of All New Loans Are Subprime

Why Stocks Just Won’t Drop: “Companies Spend Almost All Profits On Buybacks”

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–  Why Stocks Just Won’t Drop: “Companies Spend Almost All Profits On Buybacks” (ZeroHedge, Oct 6, 2014):

Back in May we revealed that the “Mystery, And Completely Indiscriminate, Buyer Of Stocks“, obviously a key player in a time when the Fed’s own indirect monetization of stocks was fading, was none other than corporations themselves, gorging on cheap debt and using the proceeds to buy back their own stock.  And while we explained that the vast majority of companies are using up as much leverage as they can to fund said buybacks, with both total and net corporate debt levels having risen to new all time highs refuting misperceptions that corporate debt is actually declining, something even more disturbing was revealed today, when Bloomberg reported that companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, are “poised to spend $914 billion on share buybacks and dividends this year, or about 95 percent of earnings!”

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Obama Threatens More Sanctions Against Zimbabwe Over Russian-Platinum Deal

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– Obama Threatens More Sanctions Against Zimbabwe Over Russian-Platinum Deal (ZeroHedge, Oct 6, 2014):

As Martin Armstrong exclaims, Obama is out of control. According to NewZimbabwe.com, Washington has said it will accelerate sanctions imposed against Harare in 2003, due to the Robert Mugabe-led government’s closer ties with Russia over the US$3 billion Darwendale platinum project. Herald columnist Nathaniel Manheru (who is thought to be Mugabe’s spokesman), reported, Washington explained its expectations on Zimbabwe, namely that Zimbabwe was expected (read required) to support those sanctions by avoiding any association with companies sanctioned by the Americans and their Western allies, or their subsidiaries or affiliates. Manheru said “it was ridiculous for the US to refuse to lift sanctions against Harare and then demand support for its measures against Moscow… This is where I am tempted to tell the American government to go and hang, hang on a banana tree, bums up.“

Read moreObama Threatens More Sanctions Against Zimbabwe Over Russian-Platinum Deal

SWIFT Announces It “Regrets The Pressure” To Disconnect Russia

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–  SWIFT Announces It “Regrets The Pressure” To Disconnect Russia (ZeroHedge, Oct 6, 2014):

With ever louder chatter that the west will force Russia to exit the global currency messaging and interchange service that is SWIFT – essentially locking it out of transacting in “developed” currencies – and with correspondingly louder retorts by Russia that it is prepared and would welcome such a move as it would merely force it to abandon the petrodollar and allign even closer with China, there was one entity whose take on the matter had been largely ignnored. SWIFT itself. Surprisingly, in a press release issued this morning,the member-owned cooperative, reveals that not only has it received “calls to disconnect institutions and entire countries from its network – most recently Israel and Russia”, but that it regrets “the pressure” as the “surrounding media speculation, both of which risk undermining the systemic character of the services that SWIFT provides its customers around the world.”

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Picturing Venezuela’s Surreal Prices

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– Picturing Venezuela’s Surreal Prices (ZeroHedge, Oct 6, 2014):

Venezuela’s economic crisis has led to some shocking and surreal price distortions that hit people’s buying power dramatically. While the government of President Nicolas Maduro calls the country’s minimum wage of Bs. 4,252 the highest in the region when converted to $675 using the official exchange rate, the galloping black market for currency considers it as just $42.50 when converted at the street rate of Bs. 100 per US dollar, the rate which many importers and retail outlets must use to acquire hard currency. From Coke to crayons and carrots and from Tires to TVs, Venezuelan prices offer a glimpse of a modern-day hyperinflation.

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War! What Is It Good For? (Hint: These 4 Companies)

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–  War! What Is It Good For? (Hint: These 4 Companies) (ZeroHedge, Oct 5, 2014):

As GreenLeft.org’s Peter Boyle explains, it is a sadly familiar story: More death, pain and terror for the many translates into large profits for giant weapons making corporations.

War

h/t @NineInchBlade

Led by Lockheed Martin, the biggest US defence companies are trading at record prices as shareholders reap rewards from escalating military conflicts around the world.

Read moreWar! What Is It Good For? (Hint: These 4 Companies)

German Politician Posts Anti-Semitic Video Of ‘Rothschilds Controlling The World’ (The Jerusalem Post)

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H/t reader squodgy:

“Yet another one backs down, grovelling and asking for forgiveness…..”

And for all those who didn’t know:

Anybody in Germany criticizing the Federal Reserve is now being labeled as anti-Semitic!

Well, at least that should give all those totally ignorant people a clue who is really behind the Fed.

Dear Sabine Wölfle, please add this book to your Facebook page and call your post:

“The Rothschilds: One family rules the world” – A well documented conspiracy FACT!

Die Rothschilds - Eine Familie beherrscht die Welt
(I find this cover to be  … very appropriate!)

@Amazon.de: Die Rothschilds: Eine Familie beherrscht die Welt.  (Preis: EUR 22,95

(Book title: The Rothschilds: One family rules the world.)

Some quotes:

“If my sons did not want wars, there would be none.”
– Gutle Schnaper, wife of Mayer Amschel Rothschild
“I care not what puppet is placed on
the throne of England to rule the Empire, …
The man that controls Britain’s money
supply controls the British Empire.
And I control the money supply.”
– Baron Nathan Mayer Rothschild
“The best time to buy is when blood is running in the street.”
– Baron Nathan Mayer Rothschild

German Jewish social democrats slam her for anti-Semitism.
Edmond De Rothschild
A logo of Banque Privee Edmond de Rothschild. (photo credit:REUTERS)

– German politician posts anti-Semitic video of ‘Rothschilds controlling the world’ (The Jerusalem Post, Oct 1, 2014):

BERLIN – The working circle of Jewish Social Democrats blasted on Wednesday a German social democratic politician for posting a crude anti-Semitic conspiracy video about the Rothschild family on her Facebook page.

“This morning we became aware that the SPD regional politician Sabine Wölfle posted an anti-Semitic and conspiratorial video on her Facebook page. We are shocked that a regional politician lacks basic knowledge about the connotations of conspiracy theories, in which the frequently mentioned, all-encompassing, financial power of the Rothschild family stands at the center. We demand a clear apology for the spreading of anti-Semitic propaganda.”

Wölfle serves as a member of parliament for the Social Democrats in the government of the southern German state of Baden-Württemberg.

German anti-Semites have long depicted the Rothschilds as a nefarious family determined to control the world. Nazi Germany produced a 1940 film tiled “The Rothshilds” showing the Jewish Rothschild family as a lethal threat to Germany. The conclusion of the film shows a burning Star of David over a map of England, suggesting that the Jews control the United Kingdom in its war against Nazi Germany.

The alleged anti-Semitic video posted by Wölfle is titled “The Power of the Rothschilds.” The video, which was viewed by The Jerusalem Post, claims the family dominates the financial capital London and “control the media.” The narrator says the Rothschilds are responsible for the “mass murders of millions.”

Read moreGerman Politician Posts Anti-Semitic Video Of ‘Rothschilds Controlling The World’ (The Jerusalem Post)

Game Over Abenomics: “This Week Japan Will Acknowledge It Is In Recession”, Goldman Reveals

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Japan is finished.

– Game Over Abenomics: “This Week Japan Will Acknowledge It Is In Recession”, Goldman Reveals (ZeroHedge, Oct 5, 2014):

We have been waiting for this particular bolded sentence ever since we predicted it would take place back in December 2012 when a bunch of Keynesians, a disgraced former/current prime minister with a diarrhea problem and, of course, the Goldman Sachs’ corner suite, first unleashed Abenomics.

From Goldman’s Naohiko Baba, previewing this week’s key Japanese economic events

The Cabinet Office makes an assessment of the state of the economy based on the trend in the coincident CI, using a set of objective criteria. The August coincident CI is set to print negative mom. In this case, the Cabinet Office’s economic assessment will likely shift downward to “signaling a possible turning point” from the current level of “weakening”. According to the Cabinet Office, such a change in assessment provisionally indicates a likelihood that the economy has already fallen into recession. This is effectively akin to the government acknowledging that the economy is in recession.

And because every Keynesian lunacy has to end some time, RIP Abenomics: December 2012 – October 2014.

The US Dollar Is About To Inflict Carnage All Around The Planet

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– The US Dollar Is About To Inflict Carnage All Around The Planet (Th Automatic Earth, Oct 3, 2014):

As I watch the euro losing another 1.3% against the dollar today, it’s now at $1.25, and down from close to $1.40 recently, it’s getting clearer all the time: the greenback is busy eating currencies and economies alive.

There is of course the fact that Abenomics in Japan is living up to its longstanding promise of utter failure. And there is Mario Draghi torn between two lovers, one the one hand the Germany/Austria camp – with France as a surprise third – who don’t want the ECB to buy up junk paper, and on the other hand those EU members whose sole road to survival inside the EU is for Draghi to buy up anything that even looks like it was once toilet paper.

But Japan and Europe have been in the economic doghouse for a long time. It wasn’t until the Fed pulled the trigger on the dollar steamroller that they started paying the real price for it.

Read moreThe US Dollar Is About To Inflict Carnage All Around The Planet