Caixin | Financial markets have been jolted by a number of defaults on corporate debt in recent weeks, with state-owned Dongbei Special Steel Group Co. missing a 700 million yuan repayment on May 5.
James Alexander | At first glance the abstract of this brand new research piece, The Macroeconomic Risks of Undesirably Low Inflation, from the Federal Reserve Board sounds rather dry and innocuous.
China’s Transport Ministry has announced a $770 billion three-year investment plan to improve the country’s infrastructures. For Bankinter’s analysts the investment may look very significant, but there are some uncertainties which call its effectiveness into question.
Benjamin Cole via Historinhas | Well, the web is an amazing place, and not even looking I came across this post by Adair Turner, former chairman of the United Kingdom’s Financial Services Authority and former member of the UK’s Financial Policy Committee.
UBS | Regulators are establishing a foundation to allow banks to deal with NPLs Regardless of the success of local asset management companies’ (AMCs) individual initiatives, debt-to-equity swaps or NPL securitization, the authorities are showing a resolve to create concrete structural change to allow banks to solve their NPL issues.
The US economy is trapped by outdated infrastructure. The big paradox is that financing it today is easy because of the overabundance of liquidity in the market.
Chinese corporate debt has not stopped growing since 2007 (it is around 160% of GDP). But given the level of reserves, Beijing does not yet understand the alarmism unleashed by international agencies.
It’s strange that in the US there are so many people worried about the possibility that the country might end up being like Greece. There are other crazy people who make the comparision with Zimbabwe. Greece or Zimbabwe, well it depends on whether the threat is related to the state going bankrupt or to hyperinflation.
Marc Chandler via Caixin | The U.S. dollar has had a rough few months. It has fallen against most major and emerging market currencies this year. A critical issue for global investors and policymakers is whether the dollar’s uptrend is over or is this just a respite. Much is at stake with the answer.
Benjamin Cole via Historinhas | Of late in monetary blog-land has been bruiting about central bank helicopter drops, usually defined as a last resort to boost aggregate demand and fight deflation.