Christine Lagarde remains at the IMF as one of three Troika members because she is a Socialist. She is now on board with raising both the retirement age and taxes while closing all borders to the movement of capital. She is also pushing behind the curtain for the SDR to replace the dollar, and then […]

According to statistics released by the State Forestry Administration, China has 2.6 million square km of desert that accounts for 27 percent of the country’s total land area. The desert areas are scattered among 12 provincial-level regions in north China. There is a serious problem on the horizon for China. Following the creation of the People’s […]

In Asian equity trading today, only the Hang Seng that disappointed investors after closing negative -0.3% whilst the others recorded gains. Shanghai posted a small gain of 0.3% as the PBOC set the Yuan mid-rate at 6.5412. Earlier we saw the (Caixin) PMI was marginally weaker than previous at 51.2 versus a previous 52.4. Meanwhile, […]

Asian cash markets followed their positive futures run from US trading session was met with strong openings across the board. The PBOC set the Yuan exchange rate at 6.5490 and even a ratings down-grade of China could not stop a 4.2% higher close. The Nikkei was also up over 4% but we did see weakness from […]

The commodity industry is bracing for a high year of bankruptcy and default filings that will impact mining and metals along with oil and gas. Moody’s has also warned of global speculative-grade corporate defaults that will increase by more than 30% in 2016, reaching the highest level since 2009. Those interested in mining shares should […]

There were some big smiles across the faces of many equity traders today as we have seen some of the strongest markets gains in a while. The Nikkei closed +0.4% but could not match the performance of the Shanghai or Hang Seng Indices when they closed up at almost 2% on the day. We saw […]

QUESTION:  Dear Mr. Armstrong, Your article on the trend set in motion with reference to Trump was fantastic. The world and how it ticks is truly fascinating, your work in investigating how it does so is worthy of any prize and will surely go down in history as the greatest investigation into humanity of all […]

All core Asian markets traded heavy by the close of business – it was hopeful that Japan was to be the exception – sadly, that was not to be the case! Although the Nikkei was higher for the majority of the day in the final ninety minutes it too was sold and closed down 161 […]

We saw healthy performances across all Asian Indices amongst the G20 headlines. There is much talk about additional fiscal stimulus coming from China whilst Germany takes the opposite view (expressed by Wolfgang Schaeuble) stating that easy monetary policy “risks serious side effects.” Core indices closed higher on the day (Nikkei +0.3% and Shanghai +1%) but […]

The impact of the collapse in oil is having dramatic effects on taxation in the Middle East and suddenly on the issue of government debt. The UAE will implement a 5% value added tax (VAT) beginning January 1, 2018. UAE Minister of State for Financial Affairs Obaid Humaid Al Tayer made the announcement after listening to […]