Asia: China Beige Book, the only large-scale independent data provider on the Chinese economy, released a report this Wednesday indicating a first-quarter recovery. After polling 3300 Chinese businesses, the firm found that private borrowing outweighed that of state-owned enterprises. However, the cost of borrowing has risen substantially. Bank loan rates currently average 6.9%, while the […]

There was a 14th-century Franciscan friar by the name of William of Ockham who is credited with having formalized the principle that “simpler solutions are likely to be more correct than complex ones.” Hence, we seem to always try to reduce everything to a single cause and effect. Some have rephrased this as “keep it simple, stupid,” […]

Asia: Still more bumps in the road, were the words used by the former treasury secretary Jack Lew regarding the US-China trade deal. Still, if no agreement is reached soon, the US has warned it will up the tariffs from 10% to 20% on the 200 Billion dollars’ worth of trade.  A hit to US […]

Asia: Little in the way of news from Asia. China promises wider financial access for foreign investors as US-China trade war talks enter a crucial stage. In an announcement to the UN in Geneva, Japan’s ambassador said his country has not developed fully autonomous weapons systems and has no plans to do so. Most of […]

QUESTION: Do you think that Bitcoin will replace gold as some people claim it is some new reserve asset? Thank you for being the voice of reason in the middle of all these people preaching their own position. GD ANSWER: That is really a bizarre question. I do not see how that is possible. As […]

Asia: The China-France bilateral agreement reached all-time highs. French exports such as luxury goods, agricultural, and pharmaceutical products experienced a huge growth over the past few years. Elsewhere, more reports were released today regarding China’s religious persecution of Muslims and Christians. Japanese inflation slowed in February as can be seen in falling gasoline prices. The […]

QUESTION: Hi Mr Armstrong, Thank you for continuous education. I hope to get your view on cashless societies. There are worries that nations will move to cashless transactions in the near future. Do you think this will actually happen? My guess is it will be a failure and there will be “black” markets where transactions in […]

QUESTION: Dear Martin, you commented very intensively on the ECB destroying bond markets and the failure of monetary policy in Europe. By yesterday the US Fed also declared the end of the shrinking of the balance sheet. Possibly they will start QE4. So I would warmly welcome your comment on the US Fed – throwing […]

Asia: As for the U.S.–China trade deal, there seems to be a disparity (or at least perception of disparity) between the original and current U.S. approach to the deal. President Trump had initially focused on a reduction of U.S. trade deficit by requiring China to purchase more goods from the U.S., whereas now U.S. officials […]

Asia: US-China trade deal remains top-of-mind, yet, as uncertainly looms on progress from here, President Trump stated that the tariffs could remain for quite some time. Separately, pressure is mounting from international countries against Chinese human right violations against the communities in the Uighur region. Wednesday was a mixed day for the major Asian stock […]