“The Federal Reserve is ramping up the amount of temporary liquidity injections it is providing for overnight lending markets.
“Starting Thursday, the repo operation offerings will escalate to $120 billion from the current $75 billion as the central bank continues to calibrate the right amount of funding needed to keep the markets operating properly and to hold the overnight funds rate within its target range.
“The announcement came from the New York Fed, which did not elaborate on the reason for the increase.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/23/fed-repo-overnight-operations-level-to-increase-to-120-billion.html
“G7 finance ministers and central-bank governors subsequently pledged in 2013 not to target exchange rates, which was understood to include officials either “talking down their currencies” or pursuing monetary stimulus in a deliberate or explicit effort to depreciate them.
“The one major country to have violated this 2013 agreement is not China but the US. President Donald Trump has repeatedly engaged in “verbal intervention” to talk down the dollar. More worryingly, he has crudely pressured the US Federal Reserve to lower interest rates with the explicit objective of depreciating the currency.”
“”It’s like trying to run an ice-cream parlour in the desert.”
“That is how entrepreneur Lucas Toledo describes the uphill struggle of having a business in Argentina. With a hugely polarising presidential election only days away, the country is in the middle of another economic crisis.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-50060089
“Tens of thousands of protesters have flooded Chile’s capital, setting up flaming barricades and clashing with riot police after an apology and promises of economic reforms from President Sebastián Piñera failed to quell unrest and rioting has led to at least 18 deaths.
“Trade unionists in the world’s top copper-producing country joined demonstrators with a general strike in a movement that started with anger at a small rise in subway fares…”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/23/chile-protests-sebastian-pinera-apology-reform
“Sales at Freeport-McMoran, the world’s biggest independent copper producer, dropped in the last quarter hit by the switch to underground mining at its flagship asset and disruption in Peru.”
https://www.ft.com/content/109fe27c-f59c-11e9-a79c-bc9acae3b654
“Police fired gunshots and teargas as thousands protested in Ethiopia on Wednesday over the treatment of a prominent activist, residents said, in a sign that the country’s Nobel Prize-winning prime minister might be losing support among his powerbase… Protests quickly spread to the other parts of the capital and to the cities of Adama, Ambo, Harar and Jimma, residents said. Several people were reported to have been killed.”
“The Egyptian whistleblower who prompted rare street protests against President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi from exile in Spain has said he is in a “state of shock” and feels a deep sense of personal responsibility for those jailed for answering his call to demonstrate.
“But he insisted his fight to topple Sisi will enter a new phase…”
“Fears are growing over a looming cash crisis as Lebanon’s banks remain closed for their sixth day since mass protests began sweeping the country last week.
“No one seems to know when the country’s lenders will reopen, triggering warnings of a run on the banks when they eventually do.
““Indeed we are afraid of a panic mode once they open,” Fouad Zmokhol, president of the Worldwide Association of Lebanese Businesspeople, told CNBC from Beirut.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/23/lebanon-protests-fears-of-a-cash-crisis-as-banks-remain-shut.html
“Economic indicators for Iran released recently by the IMF and the World Bank show the impact sanctions have had on the Iran’s oil-fuelled economy. In its World Economic Outlook report published in October, the IMF said Iran’s economy would contract 9.5% this year.
“The number makes 2019 one of the worst years for Iran’s economy since 1984. Only Libya (19% of GDP contraction) and Venezuela (35% of GDP contraction) are expected to perform worse economically in 2019.”
https://www.dw.com/en/irans-economy-plummets-under-weight-of-sanctions/a-50950471
“Many [of India’s] finance companies have lost more than half of their equity value in the past year, and credit markets are charging huge premiums on debt issued by the riskier finance companies.
“A recent contagion analysis released by the RBI suggested that the failure of any top-five HFC or NBFC could result in the default of up to two banks.”
“Hong Kong protesters plan to rally on Thursday in support of demonstrators pushing for a separate Catalonia in northeastern Spain as a Chinese official denounced months of “mad violence” in Hong Kong and forces pushing for independence…
“The protests in Spain’s wealthiest region of Catalonia bear some resemblances to the demonstrations in Chinese-ruled Hong Kong…”
“China’s $13 trillion bond market seems calmer this year, with fewer defaults than 2018. Underneath the surface, though, is a churning current that threatens to swallow investors who aren’t careful.
“The case of Xiwang Group Co. is one such cautionary tale. Just days ago, this distressed industrial conglomerate in the northeast province of Shandong thought it could borrow for peanuts. The company, whose business operations span corn-oil processing to steel manufacturing, tried to raise 450 million yuan ($63.5 million) at a coupon range of 7.5% to 8.5%. The deal was scrapped Wednesday. Meanwhile, the company warned in a filing of “uncertainty” about its ability to repay a short-term 1 billion yuan note due Oct. 24.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-10-23/xiwang
“South Korea’s economic growth slowed more than expected in the third quarter…
“The trade-reliant economy has been among those worst-hit by cooling global demand as a prolonged U.S.-China tariff war disrupted world supply chains in a blow to business confidence and investment.”
“Japanese factory activity shrank at the fastest pace in over three years in October, largely hurt by slumping new orders and output, in yet another sign of broadening economic cracks in the face of slowing global demand and trade frictions.
“The weak reading adds to pressure on the government and the central bank to take steps to shield the economy…”
“Caterpillar just flashed the latest warning sign for the global economy.
“The construction and manufacturing equipment titan, viewed as a bellwether for global industry, revealed a 6% drop in sales and an 8% drop in profit per share in the third quarter.”
“History never repeats itself but, according to the IMF, it might this time (Red alert as world ignores history lesson, 17 October).
“Despite countless publications and studies related to the 2008 financial crisis and its effect on the whole economic system, politicians, central banks and economic institutions seem to keep using the same logic that they used 10 years ago.”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/oct/23/ignoring-the-lessons-of-the-financial-crash
“… across the globe, activists are taking to the streets in highly organized, persistent movements to tell their leaders: this isn’t good enough. Experts say we are seeing a tipping point of ordinary people fed up with measures imposed from above by a ruling class…
“The widespread unrest is about more than a hike in transport fares, say experts. It’s reflective of simmering anger over rising living costs going back years.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/10/24/world/global-protests-lebanon-chile-hong-kong-intl/index.html
^^^ This is what peak growth looks like:
peak oil production; increasing disparities of wealth; insufficient demand holding down commodity prices; trade friction and protectionism; an increasingly bizarre, complex and vulnerable financial system; worsening political polarisation and socio-political upheaval.
Read the previous ‘Economic’ thread here and visit my Patreon page here.
Great resource for staying alert to how fast and ferocious climate disruptions are occurring worldwide. Thank you for your dedication
No problem, Ian. Thank you for the kind words! JP