Recent Posts

Is everyone back to buying cars?

Going by sales and stock prices, is everyone buying and making cars in China again? Not quite. A quick review of the numbers: Passenger vehicle sales rose 9.5% in October from a year earlier, and have grown every month since May. Green cars, like hybrids and pure electrics, are standouts: Sales are up more than 50%. Stock prices for companies ...

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That bond issuer never meant to pay you back

China’s $4.1 trillion corporate bond market can be tricky to navigate. If 2018 was known as the year private businesses started to fumble, this one will go down for its wave of ugly defaults among state-owned enterprises (SOE). Some are so unseemly that even state banks are cutting their exposure. A default, on its own, is unpleasant but not unacceptable ...

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Europe is planning its very own e-currency

The European Central Bank (ECB) appears serious about a digital euro. Barely a month after the central bank issued a major report on the topic, and opened a public consultation, President Christine Lagarde said “her hunch” is that the euro zone could have its own electronic currency within two to four years. Provided the rest of the institution’s governing council ...

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