Perspective
Worthy Insights / Opinion Pieces / Advice
Economist – As California’s fires died down, fraudsters arrived 2/8
- “David Passey, a spokesperson for FEMA, says that more than 200,000 applications for relief related to the hurricanes and northern California wildfires are suspected to be fraudulent.”
Economist – China is in a muddle over population policy 2/8
Economist – The merits of revisiting Michael Young – Bagehot 2/8
- “A book published 60 years ago predicted most of the tensions tearing contemporary Britain apart.”
Markets / Economy
Bloomberg – Teslas Are Finally Replacing Porsches on the Autobahn – Elisabeth Behrmann 2/12
WSJ – Daily Shot: NY Fed – US Consumer Debt Balance 2/14
WSJ – Daily Shot: NY Fed – US Consumer Delinquent Debt Percentage 2/14
WSJ – Brace Yourself for Higher Cellphone Bills This Year – Drew FitzGerald 2/8
Real Estate
Economist – How a brothel owner created the world’s biggest industrial park 2/10
- “Google, eBay, Tesla and dozens of other tech firms have bought nearly all of the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center’s vast tract of land.”
Energy
Bloomberg Gadfly – OPEC’s Oil Price Nightmare Is Coming True – Julian Lee 2/11
Tech
NYT – The Autonomous Selfie Drone Is Here. Is Society Ready for it? – Farhad Manjoo 2/13
- “Autonomous drones have long been hyped, but until recently they’ve been little more than that. The technology in Skydio’s machine suggests a new turn. Drones that fly themselves — whether following people for outdoor self-photography, which is Skydio’s intended use, or for longer-range applications like delivery, monitoring and surveillance — are coming faster than you think.”
Environment / Science
Economist – Antidepressants are finding their way into fish brains 2/8
China
Bloomberg Businessweek – China Takes a Hard Look at Corporate Borrowers – Enda Curran 2/6
- “China’s total debt equaled 162% of gross domestic product in 2008. By 2016 it had climbed to 259%, an increase of more than $22 trillion, in large part because of massive corporate borrowing. And even with the current push to deleverage, it could reach 327% by 2022, according to Bloomberg Economics.”
- “China’s banking regulator last summer ordered lenders to examine their exposure to private conglomerates, which was a way to slow borrowing by corporations without raising benchmark interest rates. In China, the amount of lending, rather than official interest rates, is the best indicator of how tight or loose government monetary policy is. And the picture is pretty clear: Broad-based money supply growth slowed to 8.2% in December, the weakest since data became available in 1998. ‘They are tightening,’ says Chetan Ahya, chief Asia economist at Morgan Stanley. ‘China has always relied more on actually controlling the flow of credit through direct measures’.”
Bloomberg – China’s War on Risk Has Banks Fleeing Shadowy Wealth Products – Jun Luo 2/7
- “Chinese regulators appear to be winning their war against risk in one of the more dangerous corners of the country’s shadow banking industry — the so-called wealth management products that banks buy from each other in a search for easy profits.”
- “Interbank holdings of WMPs more than halved last year, to 3.25 trillion yuan ($514 billion) in December from 6.65 trillion yuan a year earlier, according to the annual report of China Central Depository & Clearing Co., an industry body. That suggests higher interest rates and increased scrutiny by regulators are deterring Chinese banks from their previous practice of using cheap interbank borrowing to invest in each others’ higher-yielding WMPs.”
- “The interbank WMP market will continue to contract this year, as China keeps interest rates high as part of its campaign against financial-sector risk, according to analysts from Shenwan Hongyuan Group Co. and Macquarie Group Ltd. Higher rates make it less profitable to use interbank borrowings to invest in WMPs. And many were deterred after the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) ordered banks to ‘self-review’ their interbank and shadow banking exposures in April, widely seen as a move to rein in the lenders.”
- “The CBRC and other regulators are working closely in an unprecedented campaign to curb the $16 trillion shadow banking industry, of which WMPs issued by banks are the largest component. Another risky area that is contracting rapidly is some $3.8 trillion of so-called trust products, which have been a popular way for debt-ridden property developers and local governments to raise funds. That market has been hit by delayed payments as wealthy Chinese savers turn sour on the products.”
- “Despite the retreat in the interbank sector, the wider WMP market continued to grow last year, albeit at a slower pace, according to the industry body. Strong appetite among individual investors helped the outstanding balance of WMPs rise 1.7% to 29.5 trillion yuan in December from a year earlier. Still, the escalating clampdown on all types of asset management products slowed the growth rate markedly from an average compound rate of about 50% between 2013 and 2015.”
Economist – Creditors call time on China’s HNA 2/8
- “Analysts had foreseen an unravelling for some time, before even the regulatory wrist-slapping. A Chinese business expert calls HNA’s empire-building ‘a classic case of overextending’. For five years it has only been able to service its debts by taking on new ones. Returns on its investments have not exceeded 2% in almost a decade, according to calculations by Bloomberg, a data provider. As a result, HNA’s ratio of debt to earnings before interest, depreciation and amortization is around a lofty ten, estimates Standard & Poor’s, a ratings agency. Bond investors have grown nervous, and the firm’s financing costs have soared.”
South America
WSJ – Daily Shot: Venezuela Official Exchange Rate VEF/USD 2/13
- “Venezuela has devalued its official exchange rate to be closer to the levels seen in the black market. This chart shows how many (bags of) bolivares are needed to buy one dollar – the official rate.”
- “This move eliminated a major source of corruption.”
- “BMI Research: – The move to … devalue the … official exchange rate is a positive step, as it will help to correct some of the extreme distortions in the market for foreign exchange. The massive discrepancy between the official and black market exchange rates has been a major source of corruption and arbitrage over recent years. Those with access to the subsidized exchange rate typically re-sell dollars on the black market at a substantial profit, rather than using the currency to import goods that must be sold at artificially low prices due to the country’s system of price controls. The market has reacted positively to the news of the devalued exchange rate, with the black market value of the bolivar rising to VEF233,531.1/USD as of February 6, up from a low of VEF266,630.7/USD on January 28.”
WSJ – Daily Shot: BMI Research – Venezuela Black Market Exchange Rate VEF/USD 2/14
