World Economic News and Discussion

Germany Continues Repatriation of Gold Reserves From Abroad

Deutsche Bundesbank has already delivered the precious metal valued at approximately 11.5 billion euros to Frankfurt. The country is planning to bring back half of the country's gold reserves until 2020.

The German central bank accelerated the withdrawal of Germany's gold reserves from overseas repositories, president of the Bundesbank Jens Weidmann said Sunday.

According to Weidmann, the bank is working on a new concept of the gold storage adopted by Germany in 2013, according to which at least half of the total gold reserves of the country should be transferred to Frankfurt until 2020.

Weidmann said that 366 tons of gold at a total value of approximately 11.5 billion euros have been delivered to Frankfurt so far.

"Thus, there are now about 1,400 tons or 41.5% of our gold reserves here. We comply with the schedule," Deutsche Welle quoted the banker as saying.

According to him, the rest of the gold will be stored in New York and London.

Gold is an additional reserve currency for Germany. According to the Bundesbank, the German gold reserve amounts to approximately 3,400 tons and is the second largest in the world after that of the United States.

"There are suggestions Germany wants its gold because it's worried its loans to less fiscally responsible sovereigns won't be repaid. But I believe Germany is preparing in case the euro were to eventually dissolve, so it wants its gold to potentially back a new Deutsche Mark. Perhaps they, too, recognize gold's return to its role as money," Peter Krauth wrote in 2013 for Money Morning.

The gold reserve is to a certain extent a financial regulator for Europe as a whole and ensures Germany a leading role among European countries.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/business/20160320/1036618662/germany-repatriation-gold.html#ixzz43iE9U3PF

Top Silicon Valley VC Laments: Startups Being Funded Are "Mostly Crap & Largely Worthless"

This is one of the things I was talking about when I debated back with Mike regarding how silicon valley is a dotcom 2.0 burst waiting to happen again.

America's "Advanced Stupid" In 2 Stunning Charts

It Took $10 In New Debt To Create $1 Of Growth In The First Quarter

And some on here wants Russia to mimic such economic success.

The yuan is nearing to become a true international currency. In October, the Chinese currency will be added by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to its list of reserve financial instruments.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/business/20160903/1044933366/china-russia-yuan.html

George1 wrote:

The yuan is nearing to become a true international currency. In October, the Chinese currency will be added by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to its list of reserve financial instruments.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/business/20160903/1044933366/china-russia-yuan.html

If IMF is a US tool, then why would IMF accept yuan as a reserve currency?

DerWolf wrote:

George1 wrote:

The yuan is nearing to become a true international currency. In October, the Chinese currency will be added by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to its list of reserve financial instruments.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/business/20160903/1044933366/china-russia-yuan.html

If IMF is a US tool, then why would IMF accept yuan as a reserve currency?

Why would the US and EU invest so much production in China at the expense of their own domestic workers?

Russia climbs two notches in World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness ranking

More:
http://tass.com/economy/902681?_ga=1.122805067.1337049799.1447427261

China Economy about to Collapse ?

Jim Rickards‏ @JamesGRickards https://twitter.com/JamesGRickards

Gotta love China. They buy WMPs with interbank loans. Make your Ponzi a carry trade! Place is like a frat house on fire, bros keep drinking.



Here's the China WMP graph. Once a Ponzi shrinks in size it collapses quickly. Bernie Madoff can explain where this goes. Game over in China

Didnt knew my country India has Public debt almost 70 % of GDP ( http://www.livemint.com/Politics/pfOStekeAkqH4KnBDUsuDN/What-India-needs-to-do-achieve-a-lower-debt-to-GDP-ratio.html )

a sustainable debt path as the principal macro-economic anchor of India’s fiscal policy and has favoured reducing debt to GDP ratio to 60% by 2023 from 68.5% in 2016.

So the goal is to bring it down to 60 % by 2023

I guess with a growth rate of 6-7 % we can manage such high public debt ?

During the entire period of Obama of 8 years the average GDP growth was 1.48% link

EU Growth rate for past 8 years has been the same less than 2 years , both countries have also accumulated huge debt in propotion of their GDP , for US it is ~ 108 % and EU it is ~ 90 % of GDP.

In any case we are told by MSM that these growth rates are anything but fantastic !

India is much poorer than China so not surprising that it's growing faster.

They are too pessimistic on China, IMO (what a surprise...). I predict a growth of 5.5% until 2025, the growth will remain atleast around 6% until 2020. Their growth so far have been exceptional, why would that change? They are investing very heavily in infrastructure, education and technology.

At the same time, they are way too optimistic on Mexico and Turkey, for example. Sure, I think they can achieve good growth rates, but higher than China? LMAO, how!? Both countries actually have higher PPP GDP per capita than China, Turkey especially so, and both countries are far from China's growth rate.

Also, for some reason they forecast good growth rates for Western Europe... almost 3% for the US, etc. Based of what exactly? At the same time, they are quite pessimistic about Eastern Europe. It seems Russia is not ranked at all?

In any case, based of those figures Eastern Europe would stop converging to Western living standards... Poland, the Baltics, Hungary, Romania and so on would barely grow by 3% a year, while Czechia would actually go below that.

On the other hand countries like France and Finland would achieve an average growth of around 3%... Oh yeah, and Saudis too. Umm... I don't think so.

My crystal ball:

India: 7-8%
China 5.5%
Mexico 4%
Turkey 3-4.5%
Russia 3-4%
Eastern Europe (Poland, the Baltics, Romania, Hungary...): 3-4%
UK: 2.5%?
USA: 2-2.5%
France: 2%
Sweden: 2%
Finland 1.5-2%
Germany 1.5%

Question is, are most of the growth healthy?

China and US, along with most of EU rely on debt growth in order to sustain some sort of economic growth - redoing a road 3 times in 1 year isn't real growth. India and Russia sees real growth due to investments and development in real production. Production in US has actually dropped. Same with retail spending. But what grew was debt.

India has higher growth thanks to its massive population. Their taxes per income is also higher. Although their GST tax did lower prices a bit.

We'll see. In any case, one thing to consider is that the Chinese debt is mostly domestic, banks are state-owned, etc. Overall the economy is much more "under control" than in the West.

Chinese human capital is also very high. They "should" be as rich as the Japanese and Koreans (just like Eastern Europe should be atleast as rich as countries like Spain and Italy). They just started their economic reforms later than South Korea. IIRC, pretty much exactly 2 decades later. They are simply doing pretty much the same thing as Korea, but on a much larger-scale.

That's why there is so much hype about the Chinese economy and it's "problems" in the West, because it's a threat for their hegemony. Just wishful thinking, nothing else. (Actually, that hegemony is already over, largely thanks to China.) China is simply just getting started, their average living standards are still quite modest. The urbanisation is still not finished either. That in itself is a major factor in economic growth.

When it comes to the West, I tend to question the "conspiracy theories" about their totally fake growth. Again, wishful thinking by "anti-Westerners". And even if their growth is "real", the West is still in relative decline. The world's average is growth rate is higher regardless, the rest of the world is catching up, so I honestly don't care too much either way. Neither should the others who don't/didn't like Western hegemony.

Of course, I'm not an expert, but isn't debt in many ways basically "investment"? The western countries have so much debt simply because they can. They control the markets (or rather, they used to). Because their financial markets and overall economies are so developed. Not to mention that the amount of debt actually varies a lot from (Western) country to country, no? I'm not saying that it's not a risk or that the Western growth model doesn't have issues and countries like the US are certainly living past their means (foreign policy ambitions), but I feel they're exaggerated in certain circles.

And I'm sure India's debt will grow as the country develops. At this point it's impossible to know how much debt they'll have when they reach China's current level of development (even that will take something like 15-20 years), let alone the West.

What makes the western economy developed over others?

Canada lost its manufacturing, so did Australia, and majority of US economy is either manufacturing of very specific items, some high tech, software bubbles and over inflated products. In all, property management and education is how US is "growing".

A real economy produces real goods. China is one of those nations. So is Russia. India is catching up. In the west, they all produce something specific and sell to each other. US mostly assembles end product which parts come from Mexico or other developing nations.

UK is even worst off than US. Its growth is entirely banking and service sector. Canada is resource base, same for Australia.

Nothing advanced about it or developed. They just know the US can print forever cause who will stop them? Now China, Russia and others are trying to.

This current method can't last forever. That is what Austin has been pointing out. That is also why US and western Europe is lashing out. They target the weaker link which was Russia. Or at least they thought it was the weaker link because of fallacies and they have Retards like Kudrin who thinks the west is Russia's only option and willing to sell out the entire nation. They (west) think such people still has authority but their positions give these people false hope in themselves and end up being useless for the west.

All in due time. For nations like Finland and the rest will end up turning east when they realise the west can't offer them anything anymore.

Of course the west won't just fall. It is just that their economic structure may fail and they won't be nearly as rich or open in their economies in the future. Especially once EU fails.

China can undergo a crash, but its long term prospects are good since there is a lot of development left
to go. China's GDP is nowhere near saturation level. Nothing is constraining China's growth since it
still has access to affordable energy and food. It actually has an industrial sector and can feed it with
the necessary resources to function.

By contrast, the USA, Canada and most of the EU are some sort of zombie consumer economies which float
on catabolic residual consumption as the middle class disappears. Without debt there would be no
OECD economies aside from special export dominated economies like Germany. Offshoring jobs and introducing
trickle down voodoo based on merchant profits from imported junk costing next to nothing resold for western
prices cannot be a long term economic model. At some stage true 3rd world conditions are reached (99%
dirt poor and 1% rich).

The western propaganda about China's economy is the same hate fantasy projection as in the case of Russia.
The western fake stream media is a total waste of space.

kvs wrote:China can undergo a crash, but its long term prospects are good since there is a lot of development left
to go.   China's GDP is nowhere near saturation level.   Nothing is constraining China's growth since it
still has access to affordable energy and food.   It actually has an industrial sector and can feed it with
the necessary resources to function.  

By contrast, the USA, Canada and most of the EU are some sort of zombie consumer economies which float
on catabolic residual consumption as the middle class disappears.   Without debt there would be no
OECD economies aside from special export dominated economies like Germany.   Offshoring jobs and introducing
trickle down voodoo based on merchant profits from imported junk costing next to nothing resold for western
prices cannot be a long term economic model.   At some stage true 3rd world conditions are reached (99%
dirt poor and 1% rich).

The western propaganda about China's economy is the same hate fantasy projection as in the case of Russia.
The western fake stream media is a total waste of space.

Is there any thing Russia can do help China become stronger financially and in bargain gain most from it.

Like Trade Russian Energy in Chinese Renminbi or keep Renminb in Forex and buy Chinese Government bond ?

Other than keep providing cheap energy and yes, trading in local currencies, not much else to help. I guess give access to Chinese businesses in Russia would help both sides as well.

https://awfulavalanche.wordpress.com/2018/01/21/america-kazakhstan-a-new-friendship-blooms-part-iii/

However, it had become known at the very end of December 2017, that just a couple of months prior to this (in October), $22 billion dollars of the National Sovereign Fund of Kazakhstan were blocked in the accounts of the Belgian filial of the American Bank of New York Mellon. These 22 billion comprise around 40% of the Sovereign Fund, and around 17% of the entire Gross Domestic Product of Kazakhstan.

- The fact that the money was confiscated in the course of a lawsuit by Moldavian businessman Anatol Stati, who was involved in investments in the Kazakh oil-gas industry (his investments comprised $150 million dollars), as a result of which he got into a quarrel with the Kazakh government.

- The fact that Stati’s lawsuit named a maximum of $4 billion dollars, and the Stockholm Arbitrage Court ruled in 2013 that Kazakhstan owed a compensation to the businessman in the amount of half a billion dollars; and yet seized $22 billion.

- The fact that this is apparently not the only — although it is the largest — case of blocking Kazakhstan’s money, on the part of the West. It is said that simultaneously there was a whole series of smaller financial arrests.

So a dispute over $150 million results in the seizure of $22 billion.

If there is a rogue regime on this planet, then it is the USA. And all courts in countries allied with the USA are not trustworthy.

kvs wrote:https://awfulavalanche.wordpress.com/2018/01/21/america-kazakhstan-a-new-friendship-blooms-part-iii/

However, it had become known at the very end of December 2017, that just a couple of months prior to this (in October), $22 billion dollars of the National Sovereign Fund of Kazakhstan were blocked in the accounts of the Belgian filial of the American Bank of New York Mellon.  These 22 billion comprise around 40% of the Sovereign Fund, and around 17% of the entire Gross Domestic Product of Kazakhstan.

- The fact that the money was confiscated in the course of a lawsuit by Moldavian businessman Anatol Stati, who was involved in investments in the Kazakh oil-gas industry (his investments comprised $150 million dollars), as a result of which he got into a quarrel with the Kazakh government.
   
- The fact that Stati’s lawsuit named a maximum of $4 billion dollars, and the Stockholm Arbitrage Court ruled in 2013 that Kazakhstan owed a compensation to the businessman in the amount of half a billion dollars; and yet seized $22 billion.
   
- The fact that this is apparently not the only — although it is the largest — case of blocking Kazakhstan’s money, on the part of the West.  It is said that simultaneously there was a whole series of smaller financial arrests.

So a dispute over $150 million results in the seizure of $22 billion.    

If there is a rogue regime on this planet, then it is the USA.    And all courts in countries allied with the USA are not trustworthy.

Fucking disgusting. But the americunts also do this BS to their allies, especially France. The US freezed the assets of several French corporations and Banks(including BNP Paribas I think) for allegedly dealing with Iran or just to remove competition.

Yup, it doesn't matter who you are, every so often the US has to remind the vassals just who is in charge. Often it is by levelling fines for some activity or other. There is also a lot of gold from banks around the world in the US that may or may not still be there, getting it back has proved to be difficult, unless perhaps you are the country responsible for the MH-17 case.

Such things would never happen 20 years ago, they never dared even to block or freeze Soviet assets and forex (which were minimal by the way). All this proves the elite desperation, we are probably seeing the very last days of the dollar hegemony.

http://realinvestmentadvice.com/is-the-u-s-economy-really-growing/



This is why Washington and its proxies are getting ready for war on Russia. The US economy is basically not growing after 2008.
This is in spite of record money injections and debt stimulus. There has been some sort of phase transition in the US economy
that its caretakers cannot fix.

It also appears that all the globalism is not yielding the rewards that were expected back in 1991. America is a trapped
wild animal ready to go for broke.

No surprise, Moscow dumping dollars to put more reserves in yuan, euro, and yen.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-09/russia-boosted-yuan-euro-holdings-as-it-dumped-dollars-in-2018

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-05-23/iphones-are-now-embarrassing-china-trade-war-deepens

Hilarious delusion about China falling into a recession because of US tariffs. It is the USA that will fall into a recession.

Funny how inummerate is the author of the piece above. Hwawei's domestic market volume is bigger than Apple's global market volume.

The International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker shows Huawei shipped 206 million smartphones, 105 million in mainland China, accounting for 26.4% of the domestic market last year. Apple placed fifth in the country with 9.1%. By 1Q19, that fell to 7% compared to a 3% share gain for Huawei, according to Counterpoint.

...

Apple is experiencing an innovation shortage and backlash across China. In 1Q19, iPhone shipments worldwide collapsed to 36.4 million units, a 30.2% decline YoY. Meanwhile, Huawei was the top smartphone manufacturer in the world for the first three months, recording positive growth. It should now make sense to Zero Hedge readers why President Trump and corporate elitists have waged an economic war on China; it's due to a rising China

As with Russia, pompous, hubris-filled western elites and their mouthpieces are deluded that China is some banana republic dependent on
exports. China's biggest market is domestic and it drives its GDP growth. This is rather easy to see since the country has 1.4 billion
people. Its middle class growth potential is enormous and will eclipse the combined middle class of NATO.

Also, as with Russia, NATO hyenas woke up too late to notice the "threat" of growth. These criminally insane idiots will need to
perpetrate a genocide of Russia and China to keep their gravy train of world domination going. Too bad for these maggots that they
will be wiped out at the same time they try to pull any such stunt.