…from my summer break. My apologies for the hiatus. Let normal business resume:
“A decade after the 2008 recession, the policymakers who countered it on its front lines are worried that the US may not be adequately armed for the next economic crisis.
“Speaking at a roundtable discussion on Tuesday, former Federal Rerserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and former Treasury Secretaries Timothy Geithner and Henry Paulson recounted the lessons they learned in the wake of the crisis, and where they fear Americans may have forgotten them.
““One of the most powerful lessons from this crisis should be that you want to work very hard to make sure that your defenses are robust,” Geithner was quoted by AP as telling the audience. “We let the financial system outgrow the protections we put in place in the Great Depressions and… made the system very fragile and vulnerable to panic.””
“There’s no chance China will cut its trade surplus with the U.S. in response to President Donald Trump’s tariff threats. For starters, Washington has made no specific demand to which Beijing can respond. But its efforts may have an unexpected side effect: a debt crisis in China.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-07-17/trump-s-trade-war-may-spark-a-chinese-debt-crisis
“A majority of Chinese consumers would be prepared to boycott US goods in the event of a trade war with Washington, a survey has found, signalling the high stakes in the escalating trade conflict between the two countries.”
https://www.ft.com/content/18ced918-89c7-11e8-bf9e-8771d5404543
“The U.S.-driven trade war has become the biggest “confidence killer” for the global economy, China’s foreign ministry warned on Wednesday, saying the whole world would fight back if the United States continued to be “wilful”. “
“China will take 28% of Venezuela’s 1.34 million barrel per day oil production. Venezuela will not get cash but would have to send oil for about three years to pay off the debt… If Venezuela oil production completely collapses then China would not be able to collect .”
“A twelve-year-old boy was killed in the Venezuelan city of San Felix overnight in an incident in which demonstrators protesting chronic power outages partially burned a small police station, police said on Tuesday.”
“In this once-thriving industrial city as in much of [Venezuela], public buses have gradually disappeared due to scarce or prohibitively expensive tires, motor oil, batteries and spare parts. Cargo trucks of all shapes and sizes have taken their place, but most lack even basic safety protections for human cargo and are increasingly associated with accidents and injuries to passengers – a further sign of the deteriorating quality of life in the crisis-stricken country.”
“Oil production by Brazilian state-led Petroleo Brasileiro SA in the Campos basin fell 1.4 percent in June over the previous month to 1.042 million barrels a day, its lowest level since 2001, as mature fields decline, according to company data. “
“Brazil’s Ministry of Health reported on Monday that after 25 years of sustained decline, the rate of infant mortality started to rise in 2016, partly due to the Zika virus epidemic as well as the economic crisis that the South American country has been facing. “
“During Putin’s first two terms, when prices per barrel soared above $100, the country could simply spend its way out of trouble, but a rise is always followed by a fall. When prices crashed from $114 in June 2014 to $27 in 2016, Russia’s finances collapsed. Even today, oil prices remain way below their peak at around $80 per barrel.”
https://www.worldfinance.com/markets/russias-stagnating-economy
“A year after the international community assembled a US$5.5 billion emergency package, Mongolian stock and bond performance reflected the escape from a debt crisis, but “more downside than upside risks” persist, according to the International Monetary Fund’s July program review.”
http://www.atimes.com/mongolia-debt-rescue-anniversary-shuns-celebration/
“[Iraq’s] economy is in dire straits. Iraq relies too heavily on its rich energy reserves as a source of revenue, and the government struggles to efficiently distribute services everywhere on its territory. In addition, the number of Iraqis living under the World Bank’s determined poverty line has grown over the past decade, while the rate of internal displacement has accelerated, largely because of the rise of the Islamic State and the fight against it.”
https://worldview.stratfor.com/article/iraqs-water-crisis-gives-public-one-more-reason-protest
“Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says Iran has lodged a complaint with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over the United States move to re-impose unilateral sanctions against Tehran.”
“[UK] Employment hit a record high and joblessness stayed at a 43-year low in the three months to May, but earnings growth slowed as the labour market continued to confound convention. The weakness in wage growth, which dipped from 2.6 per cent in April to a six-month low of 2.5 per cent, is unwelcome, but economists said that it was unlikely to deter the Bank of England from lifting interest rates next month.”
“A horrifying graph highlighting skyrocketing levels of household debt shows how vulnerable residents in Australia’s largest cities have become to economic shocks. The Reserve Bank of Australia board was warned of the dangers of rising debt levels in its most recent board meeting.”
