The
Next American Farm Bust Is Upon Us - (www.wsj.com) The Farm Belt is hurtling toward a milestone:
Soon there will be fewer than two million farms in America for the first time
since pioneers moved westward after the Louisiana Purchase. Across the
heartland, a multiyear slump in prices for corn, wheat and other farm
commodities brought on by a glut of grain world-wide is pushing many farmers further into
debt. Some are shutting down, raising concerns that the next few years could
bring the biggest wave of farm closures since the 1980s.From his father’s
porch, the 56-year-old can see the windswept spot where his great-grandparents’
sod house stood in 1902 when they planted the first of the 1,200 acres on which
his family farms alfalfa, sorghum and wheat today. Even after harvesting one of
their best wheat crops ever last year, thanks to plentiful rain and a mild
winter, Mr. Scott isn’t sure how long they can afford to keep farming that
ground. Costs for seeds, fertilizer and equipment climbed so high and grain
prices dropped so low that he still lost more than $120 an acre. Afraid to come
up short again, Mr. Scott decided last fall not to plant 170 acres of winter
wheat, close to a third of the usual amount. U.S. farmers sowed the fewest acres of winter wheat this season in more than a century.
Italy’s
Banking Crisis Is Even Worse Than We Thought – (www.wolfstreet.com) In
this late winter of generalized discontent, it is not easy to pinpoint just
where the biggest threat to Europe’s increasingly flimsy union lies, so intense
is the competition. One obvious contender is the Eurozone’s third largest
economy, Italy, which faces a banking crisis, an economic crisis, a debt
crisis, and a political crisis all at the same time. The country’s Five Star
Movement is gaining momentum both in the polls and in its efforts to call for a
referendum on euro membership. In the meantime, Italy’s newly installed
government wants — indeed, needs — to bail out a growing number of banks but
has neither the money nor the political capital to do so. Things had gotten so
bad that the country’s two bad banks (Atlante I and Atlante II), ostensibly created
to stabilize the financial system, were themselves on the verge of
collapse.
Turns out that things are even worse than we had thought, following a
blistering tirade on Tuesday from Italy’s bad banker-in-chief, Alessandro
Penati.
NYC
Rents No Longer 'Too Damn High' As Landlord Concessions Soar - (www.zerohedge.com) After
years of gouging the precious, Ivy League snowflakes that flood Manhattan every
summer with nothing but their $10 million inheritance checks, a dream and the
Faconnable shirts on their back, New York City landlords, courtesy of the flood
of new apartment supply coming online, are being forced to offer
record-high rent concessions to attract tenants. Per the latest January
2017 rental report from Douglas Elliman, 31%
of NYC apartments rented in January included some form of rent concession, a
record high and nearly double the 16.4% from last January. Meanwhile,
average rental prices dropped 3.4% YoY and volumes declined nearly 5%. Manhattan
landlord concessions reached a new record as rental price trends remained
softest at the top. The market share of landlord concessions
rose to 30.9%, nearly double the 16.4% share of a year ago. Each
month since July, median net effective rent declined. The current month
experienced a nominal decline of 0.1% to $3,259 on a year over year
basis. The market share of concessions for 2-bedroom apartments was
the highest at 34.9%, followed by 1-bedrooms with 31.4%, 3 or more
bedrooms with 29.3% and studios with 26.4%.
How
China Lost $1 Trillion - (www.nytimes.com) It’s
a lot of money — but it’s shrinking. On Tuesday, China’s central bank said its
foreign exchange reserves slipped to $2.998 trillion in January. While they
dropped only a modest amount from December, the fall still put the reserves
below the psychologically important $3 trillion level. Three years ago,
they were at nearly $4 trillion. When they were last at $3 trillion, in early
2011, China’s economy was growing at a much faster pace — and the central
bank’s foreign-exchange reserves were growing rapidly. China keeps a firm grip
on the value of its currency, the renminbi. For years, that meant keeping the
renminbi steady as vast amounts of the world’s money flooded into the country
to buy the toys, shoes, electronics and other goods it makes.
Investors
fear "accident" as Greek debt repayment nears - (www.reuters.com) Investors
in cash-strapped Greece appear to be losing faith in a pledge from European
officials five years ago that the country's default would be a one-off. It was
partly the strength of that promise that allowed Greece to make one of the
fastest returns to markets of any defaulted sovereign, taking money from
private investors in 2014 just two years after it had imposed hefty write-downs.
Political jitters lift gold, dent euro and French debt - (www.reuters.com)
Dollar Policy Confusion Keeping Currency Traders Up at Night - (www.bloomberg.com)
Mortgage Ratings Blamed for Subprime Crisis Still Flawed, Ex-Insider Says - (www.bloomberg.com)
Worries Grow Over Euro’s Fate as Debts Smolder in Italy and Greece - (www.nytimes.com)
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