Nobody rings a bell at the top of the credit supercycle, to misuse an old adage. Except that this time somebody very powerful in China has done exactly that.
China watchers are still struggling to identify the author of an electrifying article in the People's Daily that declares war on debt and the "fantasy" of perpetual stimulus.
Written in a imperial tone, it commands China to break its addiction to credit and take its punishment before matters spiral out of control. If that means bankruptcies must run their course, so be it.
Fifteen years ago such a mystery article would have been an arcane matter, of interest only to Sinologists. Today it is neuralgic for the entire global - and over-globalized - financial system.
China's debt is approaching $30 trillion. The fresh credit alone created since 2007 is greater than the outstanding liabilities of the US, Japanese, German, and Indian commercial banking systems combined.
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To put matters in context, leverage rose by roughly 50 percentage points of GDP in Japan before the Nikkei bubble burst in 1990, or in Korea before the East Asia crisis in 1998, or in the US before the subprime debacle. This gauge is an almost mechanical indicator of a future credit crisis.
As we all know, China is in a class of its own. Debt has risen by 120 to 140 percentage points. The scale of excess industrial capacity - and China's power and life and death over commodity markets - mean that any serious policy pivot by the Communist Party would set off an international earthquake.
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The rot in the country's $7.7 trillion bond markets is metastasizing. Bo Zhuang from Trusted Sources said more than 100 firms cancelled or delayed bond issues in April due to widening credit spreads.
Ten companies have defaulted this year, with the shipbuilder Evergreen, Nanjing Yurun Foods, and the solar group Yingli Green Energy all in trouble this month. But what has really spooked markets is the suspension of nine bonds issued by the AA+ rated China Railways Materials, the first of the big central SOE's to signal default. "This has greatly weakened investors’ long-standing expectation of implicit government support," he said.
They were in the venue early. That implies some staff were in on it.
I got in a lot of trouble for saying that. I know for sure that they were in there early. I remember them staring at my buddy. I just chalked it up to Arab envy. You know what I mean? When a Muslim sees a cocky American dude with tattoos, he stares at him. I realized later it was Abdeslam and he was staring at my buddy because they thought he was a threat. There’s no denying the terrorists were already inside, and they had to get in somehow. During the shooting I went outside and the backstage door was propped open. How did that happen?
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I’ve heard you say you credit your childhood with your survival. You had a real dad who stuck around and taught you about guns.
I knew what gunfire was. I was able to think through it. I was also able to remember practical lessons of my life because I had to be in fights as a kid. My mom didn’t go sue anyone. I didn’t have playdates. I had some practical upbringing growing up in the desert where you got to get yourself out of your problems.
Also, the reason I’ve done well with this healing process is everything I was raised to believe was affirmed that night. In a way, that’s a blessing of God. When the first bullets started being fired, people looked at me. I remember that. It pissed me off because I knew right then and there it was going to be bad. I knew these kids had no idea what was coming. None. They’d never heard a gunshot in real life and it hit them so hard.
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You went to the hospital?
I had pieces of teeth and human bone pulled out of my face. A girl got shot right next to me by the shooter at the top of the stairs who I had met earlier. She stepped one step in front of me and her head just exploded. It blew pieces of her teeth and skull into my face.
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Do you think a percentage of the security staff was Muslim?
I know they were. Look, security guards backstage are notorious for being dicks. They check your ID every few minutes and nobody goes back and forth without being checked, even if you’re in the band. This guy didn’t care what we did. He didn’t even look at me.
The only time he seemed remotely interested in us was when he said to my girlfriend, “Do you speak French?” and “Where are you from?” She said she was from Texas and he was getting frustrated because that’s not what he meant. Then she said, “I’m American” and he lost interest. I honestly think he was trying to determine if she was Arab or not. She’s Mexican and she could easily pass for Lebanese and I think he was going to warn her if she was Muslim.
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Maybe one of the reasons the cops are so much more pragmatic about this threat is that they are the ones who have to go into Les Banlieues and confront these people. Naïveté is a luxury they can’t afford.
When the cops went in after the attack, they shut down, what, 450 mosques? They found recruitment material in every single one of them. What the **** is wrong with us that we don’t know about that?
A MAN was left red-faced when firefighters had to be called to hospital to remove a tool from his penis.
The man became stuck after his penis swelled up in the ring spanner on Monday and was he unable to remove it.
Tweed firefighters say it not uncommon for them to be called to such jobs where people leave it too late to ask for help.
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“We use a tiny angle grinder that’s air operated and use measuring tape to protect the skin and slowly zip away at it while keeping water running on it so it doesn’t get too hot.
“It’s a pretty delicate operation especially where it is, there’s a lot of blood vessels.
“We do quite a few of them.”
Britain’s first robot, Eric, is to be rebuilt and sent on a world tour after curators at the Science Museum tracked down lost plans while researching a new exhibition.
The automaton was built by First World Ward veteran Captain William Richards and aircraft engineer Alan Reffell, to replace the Duke of York in opening the Exhibition of the Society of Model Engineers in London in 1928.
On September 28 1928 Eric stood up at the Royal Horticultural Hall, bowed, looked right and left and moved his hands as he proceeded to give a four minute opening address as sparks flashed from his teeth.
The robot was so successful that after his appearance he embarked on a world tour, amazing crowds in Britain, UK and Europe, before vanishing forever.
I need statistics. I need facts. And I need good methodology so I know, as accurately as possible, precisely what the hell I'm talking about. And one of the few economic stones I have left unturned with empiricism has been "corporate welfare." Specifically, how much is there?
This is an important statistic to know because when debating leftists they always claim that if we "just got rid of corporate welfare" then we wouldn't have a budget deficit nor (consequently) a national debt. That if we just stopped giving all those nasty corporations all that government cheese we'd be able to fund everything and everyone, from free education, to free jobs, to free house, and free healthcare.
Of course, when you try to peg them down on precisely how much in "corporate welfare" me and the other taxpayers give to these evil corporations, none of them have any figures. And so, as always with leftists, you can't rely on any kind of constructive debate that advances our understanding and moves us closer to a practical solution, simply because the left has no freaking clue what they're talking about. They're merely regurgitating talking points (usually lies) they heard from some other equally misinformed leftist and the real adult work of getting to the bottom of things and conducting research begins.
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I have come up with a cool $225 billion in annual corporate welfare (it should be noted however, this does not include TARP as - hopefully - that was a one time anal raping of the American taxpayer).
The Obama Justice Department contends that sexual orientation is not a personal decision, but is based on an array of factors affecting an individual’s sense of gender and is protected by civil rights laws enacted 40 and 50 years ago. In slapping the state of North Carolina with a suit charging HB2 violates sex discrimination provisions in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a 1972 education law and the 2013 Violence Against Women Act, Attorney General Loretta Lynch accused North Carolina officials of “state-sponsored discrimination against transgender individuals.”
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But Ed Whelan, president of the conservative-leaning Ethics and Public Policy Center and head of its program on the Constitution, the Courts and the Culture, says laws like North Carolina’s “do not involve by any conceivable measure discrimination on the basis of gender identity.”
North Carolina’s law disregards gender identity by defining gender as a person’s biological sex at birth, Whelan, a former law clerk to the late conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, said in a phone interview.
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McCrory told Fox News that Obama administration officials are “trying to define gender identity. And there is no clear identification or definition of gender identity.”
Perhaps, but [Pamela] Karlan [who teaches public interest law at Stanford University] said the medical profession has recognized that “people’s sex is made up of a complex group of factors, and for most people, the factors tend to reinforce each other.”
For most people, she said, “their chromosomal sex and their external genitalia and their sense of a social role, and the hormones that are coursing through their bodies all kind of align. For transgender people, their chromosomal sex and external genitalia at birth don’t necessarily correlate with their internal sense of gender.”
It has a fine walnut stock, a blue finish and a very simple inscription that reads “Albee to Lawton.” But this 19th-century rifle has become the most expensive single firearm ever sold at auction according to the Rock Island Auction Company, which recently sent the historic piece to a new destiny with an undisclosed buyer. The price: $1,265,000.
“Other guns have sold higher as a pair, but no other single firearm surpasses this new world record. It was an honor to be entrusted with an American treasure,” said Kevin Hogan, president of the Illinois-based company.
The rifle itself was a gift from one Congressional Medal of Honor winner to another. U.S. Army Captain Henry Ware Lawton and Lieutenant George E. Albee had been brothers-in-arms during the Civil War. The former continued his military career and saw combat in the Indian Wars, the Spanish American War and the Philippine American War. The latter went to work as a designer for the Winchester Repeating Arms Company.
After Lawton led a grueling but successful expedition which resulted in the capture and surrender of Apache leader Geronimo in 1886, his old friend was inspired to find a suitable recognition for the deed. His choice? The “Winchester Model 1886 Sporting Rifle (serial number 1)” which he obtained by virtue of his standing in the company. The gun survived in excellent condition.
2. Kids will stare
Much to their parents’ embarrassment, children are welcomingly tactless and often stare open mouthed before pointing out the obvious.
I smile and reassure them I am aware that my leg has fallen off and my offer to give them a detailed look at my prosthetic is rarely refused. However, I’m glad to say I’ve yet to fight a seven-year old for my leg back.
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6. You will forget that it’s gone
Protracted wearing of a prosthetic can be painful, so I usually remove it when seated. This habitually results in me falling over when I stand back up as I keep forgetting I don’t have a right leg any more.
Conversely, when sat down I instinctively stretch out my missing leg to stop my prosthetic toppling over. How ironic.
Eighty South African rhinos may soon be on their way to Australia in part of an ambitious effort to establish an 'insurance population for the world.'
The Australian Rhino Project, spearheaded by South Africa-native Ray Dearlove, plans to fly 20 rhinos per year between 2016 and 2019 to Australia, where they will make up a breeding herd to protect against possible extinction.
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Ultimately, Australia is serving as a secure place for the animals to live and breed - for now. If and when Africa becomes safe for rhinos again, the animals will be repatriated to their homeland - a feat that may not occur for generations, Dearlove believes.
