American bankers are jumping off buildings in London. HSBC, a London bank, inquires innocently of its customers what they plan to do with that cash they propose to withdraw, if they should by any chance be allowed to do so? Investors cast nervous eyes on the Chinese banking system. Turkey enacts drastic interest-rate hikes in failed bid to halt the collapse of their currency. Argentina and Venezuela--oh, there's no point following any further details in their concerted efforts to destroy their economies.
Granted that a currency and an economic system are based in large part on what people believe, there's still an apparent limit to how much can be achieved by lying. Signals from reality have an inconvenient habit of intruding.
No need, therefore, to address any of the usual nonsense contained in the SOTU address.
4 comments:
Had read about the HSBC thing, but hadn't read about the bankers killing themselves. Makes me wonder what's coming down the pike....
Of course, it could be unrelated: HSBC was responding to anti-money-laundering laws (at least so they claim), and the two dead bankers may have just coincidentally killed themselves at the same time. China's been lingering for a long while, as have the other countries; they may muddle through, some or all of them.
Or it could be something big.
I agree about the SOTU, though, without reservation.
But wait, there's more!
A Russian bank apparently is not allowing withdrawals,
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-01-28/russian-bank-halts-all-cash-withdrawals
and some back-story on the hanging death of a banker.
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=228076
Karl Denninger has some very interesting financial commentary about the trap that is artificially low interest rates- about the double edged sword aspect of it, hurting both borrowers and lenders.
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