Ex-Administration
Official Sums Up The Obama Administration's Insularity In One Brutal Sentence - (www.businessinsider.com) Politico
Magazine editor Michael Hirsh asked on Monday whether the Obama administration was full of a
"team of bumblers" on the foreign policy and national security sides.
At the heart of the criticism is the charge that the Obama White House is too
insular and often doesn't have a strategy. According to House Armed Services
Committee staffers who spoke to Hirsh, there is often a lack of coordination
among the White House, Capitol Hill, and the Pentagon. And the general feeling
is that the administration's National Security Council, which has beefed up to
300 members from 50, is reacting to a series of crises, rather than being
proactive with a coherent strategy. "There is a sense that the NSC is run
a little like beehive ball soccer, where everyone storms to wherever the ball
is moving around the field," one former administration official said.
US Homeownership Rate Drops To 1983 Levels: Here's Why - (www.zerohedge.com) The last time US homeownership declined down to 64.4% (which the Census Bureau just reported is what US homeownership declined to from 64.7% in Q2), was back in the fourth quarter of 1983. It goes without saying that this is about the bearishest news possible for those few who still believe in the American hom-eownership dream. Of course, those who have been following real-time rental market trends would be all too aware there is no rebound coming to the homeownership rate. The reason is simple: increasingly fewer can afford to buy, instead having no choice but to rent, which in turn has pushed the median asking rent to record highs. In fact in the past two quarters, the asking rent was just $10 shy of its time highs at $756 per month.
China
Fake Invoice Evidence Mounts as HK Figures Diverge - (www.bloomberg.com) The
gap between China’s reported exports to Hong Kong and the territory’s imports from the
mainland widened in September to the most this year, suggesting fake
export-invoicing is again skewing China’s trade data. China recorded $1.56 of
exports to Hong Kong last month for every $1 in imports Hong Kong registered,
leading to a $13.5 billion difference, according to government data compiled by
Bloomberg. Hong Kong’s imports from China climbed 5.5 percent from a year
earlier to $24.1 billion, figures showed yesterday; China’s exports to Hong
Kong surged 34 percent to $37.6 billion, according to mainland data on Oct. 13.
While China’s government has strict rules on importing capital, those seeking
to exploit yuan appreciation
can evade the limit by disguising money inflows as payment for goods exported
to foreign countries or territories, especially Hong Kong. The latest trade
mismatch coincided with renewed appreciation of China’s currency, leading
analysts at banks and brokerages including Everbright Securities Co. and
Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. to question the export surge.
São Paulo running out of water as rain-making Amazon vanishes - (www.reuters.com) South America’s biggest and wealthiest city may run out of water by mid-November if it doesn’t rain soon. São Paulo, a Brazilian megacity of 20 million people, is suffering its worst drought in at least 80 years, with key reservoirs that supply the city dried up after an unusually dry year. One of the causes of the crisis may be more than 2,000 kilometers away, in the growing deforested areas in the Amazon region. “Humidity that comes from the Amazon in the form of vapor clouds - what we call ‘flying rivers’ - has dropped dramatically, contributing to this devastating situation we are living today,” said Antonio Nobre, a leading climate scientist at INPE, Brazil’s National Space Research Institute. The changes, he said, are “all because of deforestation”.
Spain
central government moves to block new Catalan vote - (www.reuters.com) Spain's central government took the first step
on Monday towards blocking a "consultation of citizens" that the
Catalonia region intends to hold next month in the place of a full referendum
on independence from Spain that was barred by a court. The wealthy,
northeastern region earlier this month dropped plans to hold the referendum
planned for Nov. 9, but said it would still stage a non-binding vote that would
be open to anyone who wanted to cast their ballot. Spanish Prime Minister
Mariano Rajoy has vowed to block the initiative if it were found to be illegal
and on Monday asked the Council of State for its opinion on this new
consultation -- the first legal step towards preventing the vote. In a
statement released on its website, the prime minister's office said Rajoy had
asked the Council to issue its ruling as a matter of emergency so that a
decision could be made on how to respond at Friday's cabinet meeting.
[Champion]
Putin Says Don't Mess With Mother Russia - (www.bloomberg.com)
[Irwin] The Conflict Between Germany and the E.C.B. That Threatens Europe - (www.nytimes.com)
[Irwin] The Conflict Between Germany and the E.C.B. That Threatens Europe - (www.nytimes.com)
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