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Kyle Bass: If China Doesn’t Change, ‘Full-Scale Recession’ Sometime Next Year

"'The compounded annual growth of bank assets as measured by the China Banking Regulatory Commission has been 30.8%,' Bass wrote. 'To give some perspective, a 30.8% compounded annual growth of credit in the U.S. equivalent over 5 years would be an expansion of $33 trillion. This rate of credit growth is three times the total credit system growth experienced in the U.S. at the peak of the bubble in 2006... The debt-to-equity ratios of Chinese companies are exploding as they funnel new capital, not into yield returning investments, but into the black holes on their balance sheets that have been created by a slowing growth environment.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingKyle Bass: If China Doesn’t Change, ‘Full-Scale Recession’ Sometime Next Year

China’s central bank ready to unveil deposit insurance

"The central bank released the China Financial Stability Report 2013 on 7 June, saying that a consensus has been reached on the establishment of a deposit insurance system and that the system may be launched and implemented at a suitable time. Sources say China will set up an insurance fund and the maximum coverage for each bank account will initially be set at Rmb500,000. With the absence of a deposit insurance system, the state has actually taken on the responsibility to guarantee deposits in banks, which can easily lead to slack risk management and excessive speculation of commercial banks in seeking profits, the central bank report said." Continue reading →

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Loan Practices of China’s Biggest Banks Raising Concern

"Text message solicitations began arriving on the mobile phones of many of China’s wealthy last month, promising access to lucrative wealth management products with yields far above the government’s benchmark savings rate. The offers are not coming from fly-by-night operators but some of China’s biggest banks. They are raising huge pools of cash to finance a relatively new and highly profitable sideline business: lending outside the scrutiny of bank regulators. The complex way they go about making off-the-balance-sheet loans is at the heart of China’s $6 trillion shadow banking industry, which the government is now trying to tame." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingLoan Practices of China’s Biggest Banks Raising Concern

Mastercard and Visa Start Banning VPN Providers

"There’s an unwritten rule that Mastercard and Visa don’t accept file-hosting sites that have an affiliate program and PayPal has thrown out nearly all cyberlockers in recent months. It now turns out that these policies have carried over to VPN providers and other anonymizing services. Before the weekend customers of the popular Swedish payment service provider Payson received an email stating that VPN services are no longer allowed to accept Visa and Mastercard payments due to a recent policy change. The new policy went into effect on Monday, leaving customers with a two-day window to find a solution." Continue reading →

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Happy Endings in China?

"Couple potential (and ongoing) unrest regarding further urbanization with a lagging economy, an unbalanced banking sector and dwindling exports and you have a recipe for further questions about the Chinese Miracle. The biggest gamble of all may be the ChiComs' recent announcement that they intend to allow yet more free-market activity to take place. At what point do market forces begin to overwhelm ChiCom command-and-control facilities, especially when it comes to high-end monetary economy where the power resides? For all these reasons, we would imagine that even if China escapes a hard landing for now, there is one in store sooner or later ..." Continue reading →

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UBS starts Singapore gold-vault service amid bullion rout

"Switzerland’s biggest bank started storing gold for wealth-management clients at a facility in Singapore. The leased vault in the Singapore FreePort is available for clients in the city-state and Hong Kong. UBS joins Deutsche Bank AG and JPMorgan Chase & Co. in offering storage services in Asia. The Singapore government has been promoting the country as a bullion-trading hub, removing a 7 percent sales tax from investment-grade precious metals last year. Millionaires in Asia outside Japan [are projected to] create $7 trillion in new wealth by 2016, boosting the share of global riches from emerging markets to about 37 percent from 24 percent in 2008." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingUBS starts Singapore gold-vault service amid bullion rout

Why I Joined Shield Mutual

"Shield Mutual is the first implementation of a modern voluntaryist defense agency. The defense agency is owned and operated by well-known libertarian activist George Donnelly, whose mission is to be your greatest advocate should you be abducted by state, or non-state, affiliated criminals. What Shield Mutual will do is come to your aid in any way it can, such as organizing call floods to the police department responsible, contacting media outlets, fund-raising, hiring a lawyer if desired, posting bail if desired, contacting family, friends, and/or colleagues to inform them of the situation. I purchased a year’s membership for only $50 (paid in Bitcoin)." Continue reading →

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The Politics Of Bitcoin Mixing Services

"The emergence of services that mingle bitcoin for the purpose of returning bitcoin not associated with the original input address has had a somewhat spotty history. Also called bitcoin laundries, these web-based services charge bitcoin holders a nominal fee to receive different bitcoins than the ones initially transferred. The largest such service operating today is the Blockchain.info mixing service which has a maximum transaction size of 250 bitcoins and a 0.5% transaction fee. Other services include BitLaundry and The Bitcoin Laundry operated by Mike Gogulski." Continue reading →

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Bill Bonner: Are We Approaching a “Second Coming” For Gold?

"There are no moms or pops left in the gold market. Even serious, knowledgeable investors have gotten out. From what we read, it seems more like a bottom than a top. The public is not interested. And the professionals hate gold. If we were speculating – and we are not – we would bet that gold is a better buy than a sell. The price could go anywhere. But unlike the Fed's paper, gold won't go away. And, at $1,100 an ounce, gold is likely to be one of those few investments you don't mind telling your children and grandchildren about. If you buy, wait five years. Then let us know how it worked out." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBill Bonner: Are We Approaching a “Second Coming” For Gold?

SWAT Team Kills Armed Homeowner in Dawn Drug Raid

"Officers from the State Police special response team and DEA agents knocked on the door of Kohler's home at 6:05am. to serve a federal warrant. The newspaper described the special response team as 'akin to a SWAT team.' Officers knocked on the door, State Police spokesman Sgt. Michael Baylous said, but no one answered, so police 'had to break down the door or forcefully open it somehow.' When police break down the door, they saw Kohler pointing a rifle at them, Baylous said. The troopers opened fire, shooting multiple rounds and killing Kohler. Baylous said he did not think Kohler had fired his weapon, but it was still unclear." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSWAT Team Kills Armed Homeowner in Dawn Drug Raid