Chinese Real Economy Faces Extreme Pressure, & More

Downward Pressure on China Economy to Persist in 2015

BEIJING: Downward pressure on China’s economy will persist in the second half of the year as growth in infrastructure spending and exports is unlikely to pick up, a senior central bank official was quoted as saying.

Chinese companies are not optimistic about business prospects according to the central bank’s second-quarter survey, Sheng Songcheng, the director of the statistics division of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), was quoted as saying by the National Business Daily on Saturday.

China Caixin manufacturing PMI falls to 2-year low

BEIJING--The Caixin China manufacturing purchasing managers' index, a gauge of nationwide manufacturing activity, fell to a two-year low of 47.8 in July, compared with 49.4 in June, Caixin Media Co. and research firm Markit said Monday.

A reading below 50 indicates a contraction in manufacturing activity from the previous month, whereas a reading above that level indicates expansion.

"July data signaled that the downturn in China's manufacturing sector intensified at the start of the third quarter," said Caixin in a statement. "Renewed falls in both total new work and new export orders led manufacturers to cut production at the fastest rate since November 2011."

The final reading was lower than the Caixin preliminary July PMI of 48.2 which was a 15-month low. The preliminary figure is based on 85% to 90% of the responses to its PMI survey.

Puerto Rico just defaulted for the first time

"This was a decision that reflects the serious concerns about the Commonwealth's liquidity in combination with the balance of obligations to our creditors and the equally important obligations to the people of Puerto Rico," Puerto Rico's Government Development Bank president Melba Acosta Febo said in a statement.

The default is a historic moment in Puerto Rico's economic "death spiral," a term the island's governor, Alejandro Garcia Padilla, has used. The island is struggling with about $70 billion in total outstanding debt, and its economy is in recession.

EIA Capitulates Under Cover Of Darkness 

To be clear, the EIA, on a weekly basis, uses a proprietary model to estimate U.S. oil production and then on a monthly basis uses actual data to revise those figures. Thus, what we were witnessing from Texas RRC data and Bakken output appears to be spot on in estimating that actual production was well below EIA estimates.

Run away melting of Laurentian ice sheet when C02 increased

There was a shift in the ice 9,000 years ago when the ice sheet began to melt away. Surface melt drove final deglaciation. The level of CO2 that triggered the melt was much less than it is today. 

The FDA & Big Pharma Alliance: Lethal Cover Ups

It is undeniable that the FDA has a controversial relationship with the pharmaceutical industry. Not a single psychiatric drug is released into the market for administration until the FDA gives its safety a legitimate stamp of approval. But how legitimate is this stamp and are these drugs truly safe? The medical cartel formed by the matrimony between the FDA & Big Pharma must come under scrutiny and both parties must be held accountable for their inexcusable corruption.

Five Tips To Improve Memory And Boost Brain Power

Memory loss has become a problem from stress, unhealthy diets, smoking, drugs, alcohol; and memory loss is a common result of this type of lifestyle. Without having a long-term memory, we could not remember the basics of life and who we are. The prospect is frightening! Memory loss used to be considered only linked to aging but that has changed.

Methane Leaks May Greatly Exceed Estimates, Report Says

The problem, according to the author of the paper, Touché Howard, is that the backpack-size tool uses two sensors: one for low levels of methane emissions and one for higher levels. As methane levels rise beyond the capacity of the first sensor, the device hands off to the second, high-level sensor.

Why A Carbon Tax Would Be The Ultimate Energy Game-Changer 

Critics of renewable energy, seemingly blind to the massive subsidies devoted to fossil fuels and nuclear energy, complain that solar and wind energy depend upon subsidies. It is true that they have, in the past; it is also true that subsidies are no longer necessary. Consider these two recent projects tied to power purchase agreements: At the end of 2014, Saudi based ACWA Power bid 5.98 cents per kWh, for a project in Dubai, below the cost of natural gas in the region (which is 9 cents per kWh), without any subsidies, expecting double digit returns. Michael Liebreich, the founder of Bloomberg New Energy Finance says “This is the shot that will be heard around the world.

Model Shows How Surge In Wealth Inequality May Be Reversed

"The greatest significance of the work is that we succeeded in quantifying the relative effects of different factors contributing to wealth inequality," Berman told Phys.org. "The inequality surge is not due to a single factor.

 Therefore, in order to understand it better, such a quantification is important. I also think that a very interesting finding is how important personal savings are. Though other elements may be equally important in general, the dramatic decrease in personal savings is probably the single most important ingredient contributing to the increase in wealth inequality in the past 30 years."

Learning Success: 

APPLY Tips From The Best

Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway – He is a deeply conservative trader during the times that everyone around him is moving from one extreme to the other to the tune of huge losses and gains. Warren Buffett is a perfect example of patience, proving that slow and steady generally wins the business race. (Although I continue to press my own desire to spur Fishbowl’s inventory software business to race!)

Top Weekly Ideas and Insights

An Inconvenient Truth:

What Happens When Top Economists Realize Physical Growth Constraints?

 EXISTENTIAL REALITY 

"Humanity's Coming of Age"

 - The Last Days of Economic Growth -

The Middle Class Is Dying, & More

If The American Dream Is To Own A Home, Then It Hasn’t Been In Worse Shape Since 1967

Thanks to the “Obama recovery”, the rate of homeownership in the United States has fallen to the lowest level in 48 years.  The percentage of Americans that own a home is widely considered to be a key indicator of the health of the middle class, and we have just learned that during the second quarter of 2015 that number dropped from 63.7 percent to 63.4 percent.  It is now the lowest that it has been since 1967. 

 Unlike a lot of other government economic statistics, this one is fairly difficult to manipulate.  Either someone owns a home or they do not.  And what the homeownership rate is telling us is that the percentage of Americans that can qualify for a mortgage has been falling dramatically.  Just take a look at the following chart.  This is not just a decline – this is a complete and utter collapse…

Puerto Rico Risking Point of No Return With Debt Payment Default

Puerto Rico is poised to set in motion a chain of events to force investors into negotiating a restructuring of the island’s $72 billion debt burden.

The commonwealth’s Public Finance Corp. will likely fail to make $58 million in bond payments due Aug. 1, the first default since Puerto Rico was ceded to the U.S. following the Spanish-American War. Government officials say they can’t make the payment because the legislature didn’t appropriate the funds last month for the current fiscal year.

A default would be the biggest salvo yet between creditors and the debt-ridden island since Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla said in June that Puerto Rico cannot repay its obligations and was seeking to delay debt payments for a number of years. Prices of the securities are tumbling as officials, who are pursuing the use of bankruptcy, prepare to release a debt-restructuring plan by Sept. 1.

“They’re setting up the process of the entire restructuring,” said Lyle Fitterer, who helps oversee $38 billion of municipal securities, including Puerto Rico debt, at Wells Capital Management in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. “They’re probably getting advice from someone saying if you’re not going to pay on som

Treasury Secretary says U.S. debt limit won't be hit before Oct. 30

The U.S. is not at risk of breaching the debt ceiling before Oct. 30, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said Wednesday, in a new estimate sent to Congressional leaders. Treasury has been using so-called extraordinary measures since mid-March. Lew told the lawmakers that those measures will now last through the end of October. The Treasury Secretary urged Congress to raise the debt limit as soon as possible. The debt limit caps how much the government can borrow. It used to be raised routinely but has recently become the source of a bitter political tug-of-war.

China Stocks Fall as Traders Puzzle Over Sudden Late-Day Swings

Chinese stocks fell suddenly in the last hour of trading, almost wiping out Wednesday’s rally and leaving investors in the dark about reasons for the moves.

The Shanghai Composite Index slumped 2.2 percent to 3,705.77 at the close, erasing an earlier gain of 1.5 percent. Drugmakers and technology companies led declines. A gauge of 100-day price-swings rose to the highest level in six years. Trading volumes in Shanghai have halved from their peaks in June, while margin debt, which had fueled a world-beating rally for China’s stocks, declined to a four-month low.

Thursday’s trading was almost a reverse image of the previous day, when the Shanghai Composite surged in the last hour to close 3.4 percent higher. Volatility has increased this week as Monday’s 8.5 percent plunge by the benchmark gauge shredded a calm induced by unprecedented state intervention.

Pensions and Medicare after an Economic Collapse 

As for medical care, there’s always been free medical care in Argentina as well as private medical care. The public one was not very good but it kept you alive before 2001. After the collapse it just became pitiful and patients ended up in leaking, cold, roach-infested hospitals and were asked to bring their own gauze, cotton and bandages due to lack of supplies. The government is now using the private sector to compensate for the poor public one, making the private care much worse than it used to be.

Russian debtors despair as boom turns to bust 

According to the Russian United Credit Bureau (UCB), 40 million Russians have loans or mortgages.

By June, 12.5m of those loans had not been paid for at least a month, and in another 8m cases the arrears stretched back over three months.

Hay For Cheese? Barter Booms In Rural Greece After Bank Shutdown

A rising number of Greeks in rural areas are swapping goods and services in cashless transactions since the government shut down banks on June 28 for three weeks, restricted cash withdrawals and banned transfers abroad to halt a run on deposits and prevent a collapse of the banks.

Learn Success: APPLY Tips From The Best

Jeff Bezos, Amazon– Jeff Bezos is a pioneer in world of internet commerce, and was instrumental in defining this space that is now defining many aspects of the internet world. It is Jeff Bezos who innovated the concept of “predictive analytics”–recommending products to customers based on search history and buying habits. Whether you like the concept or you hate it, the idea has made online commerce more profit rich and efficient, and is making online shopping a better experience for consumers throughout the world.

Top Weekly Ideas and Insights

An Inconvenient Truth:

What Happens When Science Confronts Unsubstantiated Fiction?

 EXISTENTIAL REALITY 

"Humanity Coming of Secular Age"

 - The Last Days of Theism -