"A Reuters analysis of U.S. household data shows that the bottom 60 percent of income-earners have accounted for most of the rise in spending over the past two years even as the their finances worsened - a break with a decades-old trend where the top 40 percent had primarily fueled consumption growth."
"Donald Trump is the last person who wants to see interest rates go up. Not only does his personal business empire depend on low rates… so does his political empire."
"Over time, attaining financial wealth became an absolute prerequisite for wielding geopolitical power and influence. The old military variety appears almost feeble standing next to the contemporary Financial Arms Race."
"Beijing once again changed the game with their aggressive deleveraging campaign, which sent shadow credit creation crashing to record lows just last month."
"There were two big temptations to the American Republic of the 1950s; subsequent generations gave in to both of them."
"In addition to blaming the lack of creditworthy borrowers, banks are all blaming the rising prices of vehicles as a reason for their disintegrating lending standards."
"Beinner highlights the increase of global debt, now upwards of $237 trillion and the way the debt has been dispersed as risks to the economy. Rather than banks holding most of the debt as it happened in the financial crisis, this time it’s hedge funds, private equity and investment managers holding most of it. Also worrisome, he says, ratings agencies are again being overly generous with their appraisals allowing for companies with very high debt levels to gain investment-grade ratings."
"Former Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono says he was forced to print money even when he knew it would cause hyperinflation because the government was desperate to forestall a coup by hungry soldiers."
"Can you trust something that’s summoned into being, without a government backing it? As it turns out, this is precisely the conundrum that early Americans faced."
"The ineffable leader of the Bolivarian Revolution has recently announced the launching of a new currency, the so-called Sovereign Bolivar, which will replace the bolivar as the official medium of exchange starting in June."