“China’s state media continued its aggressive rhetoric against U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, accusing Washington of being “double-faced” amid an ongoing trade dispute.
“”Pointing China with (sic) gun and artillery and then asking for a talk, the U.S. showed zero sincerity,” said the People’s Daily newspaper late on Monday.
“”Washington is playing double-faced tactics in the ongoing trade war,” the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party said in its editorial.”
“A major police presence sealed off a large section of Beijing’s financial district as petitioners gathered to protest over losses from investing in risky and unregulated peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms… Problems in the P2P investment business, estimated by Bloomberg to be worth €167 billion annually and with 50 million users, have been brewing for a while. The sector is largely unregulated and many investors have not been able to access their funds in recent weeks.”
“The Iranian central bank’s top foreign exchange official was arrested as part of a crackdown on financial fraud, the judiciary said on Sunday. Ahmad Araghchi’s detention happened one day after he was fired and as a new plan was revealed to ease forex rules amid a plummeting currency and rising prices.”
“Inflation [in the Philippines] continues to surprise on the upside making an aggressive monetary policy response imperative.”
https://think.ing.com/snaps/philippines-inflation-soars-further-in-july/
“Kenya is weighed down by swelling public debt and faces the possibility of a debt crisis (where the government can’t repay what it owes).”
https://allafrica.com/stories/201808060489.html
“I think that the new US sanctions have increased the odds of a balance-of-payments crisis in Turkey. I worry about the heavily indebted corporate sector. Turkish banks have about $55bn in forex deposits but they face heavy external debt repayments in the next 12 months. Both Turkish banks and companies need to retain access to external markets.”
https://www.ft.com/content/45b379ec-9959-11e8-88de-49c908b1f264
“Brazil closed its northern border to Venezuelans on Monday to slow mass migration from the South American country saddled with a crippling political and economic crisis, police said.”
“Venezuelan consumer prices rose to 82,766 percent in the 12 months ending in July, a member of the opposition-run congress reported on Monday, as the OPEC nation’s hyperinflation continues to accelerate amid a broader economic collapse.”
“The pound fell to a fresh eleven month low against the U.S. dollar Monday amid concern that Britain could leave the European Union next year without a formal trade deal, a so-called ‘Hard Brexit’ that could seriously damage growth prospects in the world’s fifth-largest economy.”
“…overall drug-related deaths [in the UK] last year rose to the highest levels since records began.”
https://www.channel4.com/news/uk-drug-related-deaths-rise-to-highest-level-since-records-began
“Germany’s total construction activity growth halted in July on a renewed downturn in civil engineering.”
“The “golden years” of retirement are significantly tarnished for some older Americans, whose ranks among the bankrupt have surged fivefold since 1991. Even though the U.S. population is aging, the spike in older Americans entering bankruptcy far exceeds the demographic shift… The culprit appears to be cutbacks in the social safety net — such as raising the retirement age and requiring seniors to pay more out-of-pocket health care costs — as well as a shift in risk from government and corporations onto individuals.”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-coming-storm-entering-retirement-broke-and-bankrupt/
“Put simply, the indicator is the total market cap of all U.S. stocks relative to the country’s GDP. When it’s in the 70% to 80% range, it’s time to throw cash at the market. When it moves well above 100%, it’s time to lean toward risk-off. Where’s it now? Approaching 140% and a new record high, according to Adem Tumerkan of Palisade Research. In our call of the day, he says that the indicator proves stocks are “extremely overvalued” and there’s “huge downside ahead.””
