Wednesday, March 16, 2022
Tuesday, March 15, 2022
Big Economic Trouble In China Further Threatens Global Supply Chain
So here is a vivid remind that not only has nothing been fixed in the country that single-handedly pulled the world out of depression during the GFC, but that things are going from bad to much worse.
1. China on brink of biggest Covid-19 crisis since Wuhan as cases surge
China is scrambling to address its most severe Covid-19 outbreak in two years, reporting soaring cases in a fresh wave that has seen the country tweak its zero-Covid policy by allowing rapid antigen tests for public use. After topping 1,000 for two days in a row, new locally transmitted cases surged to more than 3,100, this time driven by a spike in symptomatic infections, the National Health Commission reported on Sunday. It came as 16 provinces reported new coronavirus infections, as did the four megacities of Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing.
As a result of the latest covid breakout, China’s government has shut down the city of Shenzhen, a city of 17.5 million people known as China’s Silicon Valley, and is restricting access to Shanghai by suspending bus services. All businesses except those that supply food, fuel and other necessities were ordered to close or work from home. That includes Foxconn, Apple’s Chinese slaves:
FOXCONN SUSPENDS OUTPUT AT CHINA HQ, IPHONE SITE IN SHENZHEN
And since the port of Shenzhen – one of the world’s busiest container post is now also locked down, expect a fresh round of cascading chaos in Transpacific supply chains, just in time to join the snarled Transatlantic supply chains as the Ukraine war cripples all global seaborne traffic.
China is scrambling to address its most severe Covid-19 outbreak in two years, reporting soaring cases in a fresh wave that has seen the country tweak its zero-Covid policy by allowing rapid antigen tests for public use. After topping 1,000 for two days in a row, new locally transmitted cases surged to more than 3,100, this time driven by a spike in symptomatic infections, the National Health Commission reported on Sunday. It came as 16 provinces reported new coronavirus infections, as did the four megacities of Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing.
As a result of the latest covid breakout, China’s government has shut down the city of Shenzhen, a city of 17.5 million people known as China’s Silicon Valley, and is restricting access to Shanghai by suspending bus services. All businesses except those that supply food, fuel and other necessities were ordered to close or work from home. That includes Foxconn, Apple’s Chinese slaves:
FOXCONN SUSPENDS OUTPUT AT CHINA HQ, IPHONE SITE IN SHENZHEN
And since the port of Shenzhen – one of the world’s busiest container post is now also locked down, expect a fresh round of cascading chaos in Transpacific supply chains, just in time to join the snarled Transatlantic supply chains as the Ukraine war cripples all global seaborne traffic.
2. Chinese stocks are crashing
The Hang Seng tech index has plunged 61% from its peak last year. The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index of U.S.-traded stocks has fared even worse, down 68%, and with another bad day or two, the peak-to-trough decline could surpass its 72% crash in the 2008 global financial crisis. Meanwhile, in the US, Chinese ADRs collapsed 10% in a single day on Friday, the worst selloff since 2008, after the SEC listed 5 Chinese companies at risk of delisting should they refuse to show their books to American auditors, stoking panic every ADR will eventually be booted out. “The market is very panicky,” Paul Pang at Pegasus Fund Managers Ltd., who has sold almost all his stake in Alibaba Group, told Bloomberg. “Sanctions against China are not impossible, if China refuses to take sides on the war in Ukraine. Tech shares are among those risky names exposed in the crossfires in the rising Sino-U.S. tensions.”
Fear of a fresh regulatory crackdown by Beijing has escalated lately as policy makers proposed more curbs on online games. Earnings results so far have been unable to ease any worry about the growth outlook amid weakening consumer demand in China. The Hang Seng Tech Index is the one of the world’s worst-performing tech gauges since the war in Ukraine broke out and has dropped 17% in March, on course for its biggest monthly drop ever.
“We can’t see any rebound signals at the present,” said Yan Kaiwen, analyst at China Fortune Securities. The market is concerned about inflation because of the higher prices for oil and other commodities, which will have a negative impact on the global economy, he said.
The Hang Seng tech index has plunged 61% from its peak last year. The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index of U.S.-traded stocks has fared even worse, down 68%, and with another bad day or two, the peak-to-trough decline could surpass its 72% crash in the 2008 global financial crisis. Meanwhile, in the US, Chinese ADRs collapsed 10% in a single day on Friday, the worst selloff since 2008, after the SEC listed 5 Chinese companies at risk of delisting should they refuse to show their books to American auditors, stoking panic every ADR will eventually be booted out. “The market is very panicky,” Paul Pang at Pegasus Fund Managers Ltd., who has sold almost all his stake in Alibaba Group, told Bloomberg. “Sanctions against China are not impossible, if China refuses to take sides on the war in Ukraine. Tech shares are among those risky names exposed in the crossfires in the rising Sino-U.S. tensions.”
Fear of a fresh regulatory crackdown by Beijing has escalated lately as policy makers proposed more curbs on online games. Earnings results so far have been unable to ease any worry about the growth outlook amid weakening consumer demand in China. The Hang Seng Tech Index is the one of the world’s worst-performing tech gauges since the war in Ukraine broke out and has dropped 17% in March, on course for its biggest monthly drop ever.
“We can’t see any rebound signals at the present,” said Yan Kaiwen, analyst at China Fortune Securities. The market is concerned about inflation because of the higher prices for oil and other commodities, which will have a negative impact on the global economy, he said.
3. Chinese bonds are crashing
While nothing new to those who have been following the collapse in the Chinese junk bond market – closely linked to China’s property sector – China credit stress reached new extremes in the offshore, USD market, where average junk yields rose above...
While nothing new to those who have been following the collapse in the Chinese junk bond market – closely linked to China’s property sector – China credit stress reached new extremes in the offshore, USD market, where average junk yields rose above...
Transgender serial killer, 83, charged with murder after cops find woman’s severed head in apartment
When cops went to Harvey Marcelin’s apartment to execute a search warrant and question "her" about a headless, limbless torso found dumped on a Brooklyn street, they found what they believe is the head of Susan Leyden, who was reported missing March 2, prosecutors said.
Marcelin served two stints in prison for killing two girlfriends in Manhattan and now identifies as a transgender woman, authorities said.
Marcelin was arrested for concealment of a human corpse on March 4 and ordered held without bail. She was indicted Thursday on second-degree murder and other charges.
A source said the head found in Marcelin’s apartment was in a plastic bag.
“Last week my office charged Harvey Marcelin with allegedly concealing the severed head of a woman in her home and discarding the victim’s torso in a bag on the street,” said Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.
”Today, the grand jury indicted Harvey Marcelin for murder, and my office is committed to vigorously seeking justice,” Gonzalez said. “The facts of this horrific case are gruesome and unsettling, and my heart is with the victim’s family and friends,”
A contractor who worked on the newly opened affordable housing development where Marcelin lives said he saw the suspect in the hallways and remembered her distinctive wig, nails and lipstick.
“I’m a pretty social guy,” the contractor said. “But something told me to stay away. With some people, you just get a vibe. Murdering someone is one thing. But killing and chopping?”
Leyden’s torso was found in a multicolored...
The Reality Of Our Inability To Maintain A Stable, Secure Life...
cat astrophe
Reflex in the sky
Warn you you're gonna die
Storm coming, you better hide
From the atomic tide
Flashes in the sky
Turns houses into sties
Turns people into clay
Radiation minds decay
Robot minds of robot slaves
Lead them to atomic graves
Plastic flowers, melting sun
Fading moon falls upon
Dying world of radiation
Victims of man's frustration
Burning globe of obscene fire
Like electric funeral pyre
Anti-Radiation Pills, Survival Food Selling Out in US Amid Panic Buying
Americans release their inner prepper.
Anti-radiation pills and survival food is selling out in the United States amid panic buying in response to the potential for the war in Ukraine to escalate to a nuclear conflict.
Manufacturers in the US are reporting depleted inventories of potassium iodide tablets, with IOSAT having sold out of its 14 pack boxes which ordinarily sell for $13.99 on their website.
Demand is so intense that the same box of pills is now selling for around $149 dollars on eBay.
Four boxes of Thyrosafe potassium iodide tablets were also selling for $132.50, while another listing featured a box of IOSAT 130 mg pills costing $89.95 each.
New York-based company Anbex, Inc., which supplies the pills to retailers, is completely out of stock and won’t have new stock until possibly next month.
“We hope to be back in stock in early April but we’re pushing for late March,” said Troy Jones, vice president of sales and marketing for Anbex.
Jones said demand began to spike in late February and had come from hospitals, municipalities and governments in the aftermath of Russia taking control of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
“The big run started on February 23 through February 28,” said Jones. “We sold out of all the inventory we had.”
The last time suppliers experienced similar spikes was back in 2018, when President Donald Trump tweeted he had a “much bigger & more powerful” button than North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un, in addition to the false ballistic missile alert over Hawaii that happened in January of the same year.
As we previously highlighted, despite being largely useless in the event of an actual nuclear war (they’re meant to be used to protect against radiation leaks from nuclear plants), Europeans have also been panic buying...
From their graves I heard the fallen above the battle cry...
Down from the glen came the marching men
With their shields and their swords
To fight the fight they believed to be right
Overthrow the overlords
To the town where there was plenty
They brought plunder, swords and flame
When they left the town was empty
Children would never play again
From their graves I heard the fallen
Above the battle cry
By that bridge near the border
There were many more to die
Then onward over the mountain
And outward towards the sea
They had come to claim the Emerald
Without it they could not leave
White House Changes Transcript of Kamala Harris Speech After Realizing How Badly She Screwed Up
The worst vice president since Joe Biden held the job has already established herself as being in deep over her head when it comes to handling any of the position’s responsibilities, but she’s shown a special knack for ineptitude when it comes to matters of foreign policy.
In a speech over the weekend, she proved it so badly that the official White House transcript had to be doctored to cover it up.
Speaking at the Democratic National Committee’s winter meeting at the Washington Hilton in D.C., Harris kicked off her speech with the usual glad-handing of domestic politics (“shout out to the Californians …”) before briefly touching on her recent trip abroad and the vicious war of aggression Russia is waging against Ukraine.
She should have left it untouched.
Listen to this:
As most people who take even a casual interest in world events probably know, the invasion was sparked at least in part by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s opposition to Ukraine joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the military alliance that helped defeat the evil empire of Putin’s beloved Soviet Union.
Maybe Harris doesn’t take even a casual interest in world events — beyond getting private-jet service to European locales. Her speech at the DNC event suggested she thinks Ukraine already is a part of NATO, a misunderstanding so grave that revisionists on the White House briefing desk had to rewrite a bit of history.
“Russia’s invasion threatens not just Ukraine’s democracy, it threatens democracy and security across Europe,” the vice president said.
“So I will say what I know we all say, and I will say over and over again: The United States stands firmly with the Ukrainian people in defense of the NATO alliance.”
That’s what CNN heard. That’s what Business Insider heard. It’s what the transcriptionists at Grabien heard.
But it’s clearly not what the White House wants posterity to remember, because after someone realized just how grave an error Harris had made, the White House transcript of her errant sentence included the word “[and]” — as though she said something she hadn’t.
Here’s what the transcript shows (emphasis added):
“So I will say what I know we all say, and I will say over and over again: The United States stands firmly with the Ukrainian people [and] in defense of the NATO Alliance. (Applause.)”
Fox News’ “The Big Sunday Show” caught the moment:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)