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Strategies & Market Trends : The Financial Collapse of 2001 Unwinding -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: John Vosilla who wrote (2587)6/19/2019 12:33:08 AM
From: Elroy Jetson  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 13794
 
We use cleaner gasoline in California than you do in Florida, particularly during the six warmer months so prices are much higher than during the six colder months. - mckinseyenergyinsights.com

It's a specially formulated blend, known in California as CARBOB, which is refined only in California, Australia and parts of Europe. Other refineries in the US are not configured to produce it.

If you don't like it, why not stay home in your stinking Florida shit hole with your gators and stay out of California.
.

What gave you the idea we wanted some whiny Florida bitch visiting us?



To: John Vosilla who wrote (2587)6/19/2019 10:23:11 AM
From: elmatador1 Recommendation

Recommended By
George Statham

  Respond to of 13794
 
How Advanced Economies Are Looking More Like Emerging Markets
The European Central Bank dangles the prospect of more stimulus, a short-term approach that makes lasting progress harder.

By Mohamed A. El-Erian

June 19, 2019, 8:30 AM GMT+3

Mohamed A. El-Erian is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is the chief economic adviser at Allianz SE, the parent company of Pimco, where he served as CEO and co-CIO. His books include “The Only Game in Town” and “When Markets Collide.”


Yields on German government bonds on Tuesday ventured deeper into the uncharted territory of negative nominal levels, triggering various direct and indirect market reactions. More subtly, this reinforces a trend of the past decade: Advanced countries are behaving more like emerging economies in certain ways.

This does not mean that these countries are converging down toward their less prosperous and more institutionally unstable counterparts. But it does mean that adding an emerging-market perspective can help in analyzing the prospects of advanced economies.

Reacting to concerns of sluggish economic growth and inflationary expectations that could dip lower, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi announced in Portugal that “further cuts in policy interest rates and mitigating measures to contain any side effects remain part of our tools.” With some commentators likening his remarks to the famous July 2012 “whatever it takes” speech in London, the reaction in markets has included a sharp upward move in the prices of German government bonds. With that, the yield on the euro zone’s benchmark 10-year German Bund traded down 8 basis points to end the day at minus 0.32%.

The prospect of additional ECB stimulus has also boosted stocks, with the German DAX gaining 2% on Tuesday, and weakened the euro currency. It also added to the upward push experienced by U.S. stocks on the back of news that Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping will be having an extended meeting at the G-20 this weekend in Japan to discuss trade.

Not all the news is good for markets, however. The weaker euro set off a Twitter reaction from Trump that has some wondering whether and how the focus of U.S. trade policy will shift to Europe, with its protractedly large trade surpluses. There is also more concern about what persistent and more negative interest rates will do to the integrity of the European financial system, including its ability to deliver long-term financial protection services to households – the sort of thing people in the most developed nations have taken for granted in planning for their future.



This illustrates why the ECB announcement is yet another example of advanced countries behaving more like emerging economies. Erupting in the core of the global economy in 2008, the financial crisis involved “sudden stop” dynamics that tipped the advanced world into a “great recession” and threatened a multi-year depression. This so unsettled the advanced world that rather than returning to a status quo ante, faced “multiple equilibrium” – in which the prospect of one outcome increased the likelihood of a similar more pronounced outcome.

Policy makers in advanced economies failed to react quickly to structural impediments using structural tools. Instead, the mindset remained cyclical for far too long, deepening the structural challenges. With that, what was an economic problem quickly gained political, social and institutional dimensions – again similar to what repeatedly happens in the emerging world.

When it comes to the relationship between the economy and political conditions, the similarities between advanced and emerging countries have not stopped at bad economics fueling messy politics. More recently, we have also seen a reverse causation in which the messy politics contaminates economics and institutions. Examples include the rise of populist policies and political attacks on the independence and effectiveness of central banks.

Viewed in this context, the latest ECB announcement looks like yet another step in this broader process .

While ECB President Draghi has not tired from stressing on multiple occasions the importance of a more comprehensive policy response, including structural measures to promote higher productivity and lift other impediments to growth and financial stability, the central bank is again reverting to short-term stimulus measures whose effectiveness is increasingly in doubt. They can also take the pressure off politicians who, instead of pursuing needed reforms, will continue to be happy to see an excessive policy burden placed on the ECB. The short-term fixes also carry considerable risks of longer-term collateral damage and unintended consequences that complicate subsequent efforts at economic reform and a strengthened financial architecture.

Advanced economies are not actually becoming developing economies. But analysts and policy makers alike can benefit from looking more at the experience of emerging economies in assessing some of what lies ahead for the advanced world. The most important lesson to grasp now is that cyclical liquidity measures are no answer to structural impediments to growth and financial stability.

Such measures may buy the economy some time and give a short-term boost to asset prices. But this comes at mounting costs and risks, and these are not just economic and financial. With time, they are also developing deeper socio-political roots that render incremental reforms harder to enact, taking economies ever closer to cliff-like conditions involving the threat of accelerating economic and financial weakness in the absence of “big bang” reforms.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

To contact the author of this story:
Mohamed A. El-Erian at melerian@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Philip Gray at philipgray@bloomberg.net






To: John Vosilla who wrote (2587)7/23/2019 2:12:09 AM
From: elmatador  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 13794
 
It looks like the mainland Chinese paid some cash for HK Triads to attack protesters.
A brief history of Hong Kong’s triad gangs

Starting off as a patriotic movement to restore Ming rule in China, triads later turned to crime, including drugs, extortion, gambling and prostitution

scmp.com