There were only two possibilities and both related to their release. Either the Communist Chinese government was going to delay them, or would just say, screw it, everyone knows they’re going to be bad so let ‘em fly. There weren’t any questions about the data itself. Sure enough, the first glimpse at China’s economy in its full virus effects was [...]
It’s another example of the difficulties in trying to evaluate and analyze non-economic factors. China’s virus outbreak is a nightmare for those unfortunately living through it, and Chinese officials aren’t doing themselves any favors. Trust is a sketchy enough concept. The WHO today says there is no pandemic, which, as Erik Townsend of MacroVoices points out, immediately puts this announcement [...]
Being a member of the institutional “elite” means never having to say you’re sorry; or even admit that you have no idea what you are doing. For Christine Lagarde, Mario Draghi’s retirement from the European Central Bank could not have come at a more opportune moment. Fresh off the Argentina debacle, she failed herself upward to an even better gig. [...]
What’s going on in China? It’s a question that is on everyone’s mind. While most attention is focused on the unfolding human tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic, the potential for it to be compounded by any economic fallout makes for even more urgency. The sad truth is that China was in rough shape heading into the coronavirus. How rough, though? [...]
The coronavirus began during December, but in its early stages no one knew a thing about it. It wasn’t until January 1 that health authorities in China closed the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market after initially determining some wild animals sold there might have been the source of a pneumonia-like outbreak. On January 5, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission issued a [...]
After a stunningly bad October and November, the Census Bureau reports US imports rebounded in December 2019 on a seasonally-adjusted basis. Having fallen below $200 billion for the first time since October 2017, total imports of goods rose to $205.8 billion in the final month of last year. However, most of that increase, two-thirds of it, was due to “industrial [...]
The ISM’s Manufacturing PMI rebounded sharply in January 2020, according to preliminary assessments. December’s figure was revised upward to 47.8 from 47.2, which had been a decade low, and that’s only where it began. The first estimate for the twenties exploded out of contraction, or what’s associated with the idea, to reach 50.8. It was the highest since last July, [...]
While China’s coronavirus outbreak dominates Western media attention, the Chinese economy has been off for its Golden Week New Year celebrations. Unfortunate timing, to say the least. While global markets have been digesting the latest developments, domestic markets in China have been closed. Nobody really knows how they will reopen on Monday. As a consequence, the People’s Bank of China [...]
Chinese Industrial Production accelerated further in December 2019, rising 6.9% year-over-year according to today’s estimates from China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). That was a full percentage point above consensus. IP had bottomed out right in August at a record low 4.4%, and then, just as this wave of renewed optimism swept the world, it has rebounded alongside it. Rather [...]
I should know better than to make declarative all-or-none statements like this. I said there isn’t any data which comports with the idea of a global turnaround, this shakeup in sentiment which since early September has gone right from one extreme to the other. Recession fears predominated in summer only to be (rather easily) replaced by near euphoria (again). Narrative [...]
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