Monday February 20 2017 Housing and Economic stories

TOP STORIES:            

China Credit Surging to Record Underscores PBOC Shift to Tighten - (www.bloomberg.com) China added more credit last month than the equivalent of Swedish or Polish economic output, revving up growth and supporting prices but also fueling concerns about the sustainability of such a spree. The credit surge highlights the challenges facing Chinese policy makers as they seek to balance ensuring steady growth with curbing excess leverage in the financial system. The PBOC recently moved to tighten monetary policy by raising the interest rates it charges in open-market operations and on funds lent via its Standing Lending Facility.

"Euro May Already Be Lost" - Vice-Chairman Of EuroThinkTank Warns "No Way To Avert Break-Up" – (www.zerohedge.com) The 1st of January 2017 marked the 18th anniversary of the European common currency, the euro. Despite its success from 1999 to 2007, after 2008 the euro has become a burden for many of its members. For example, living standards in Italy and Greece are below the levels when they joined the euro. Finland is the only Nordic country using the euro and it is also the only Nordic country which has not yet recovered from the financial crash of 2008. There have been many proposals on how to fix the euro and the EMU, but they are politically unpopular and unrealistic. In this blog-entry, we will argue that the euro will almost surely fail; we just do not know the exact timing of its demise.

Greece: the low-noise collapse of an entire country - (www.failedevolution.blogspot.gr) The Greek crisis is still there. European officials and the IMF have issued a new ultimatum to Alexis Tsipras. He has three weeks to present new austerity measures. Exhausted, the country is on the verge of financial, economic and moral collapse. Syriza officials are talking about getting out of the euro. ... The vacuity of all this austerity policy determined by certain financial ratios is obvious. European officials may argue that their bailout is working, they welcome the recovery of Greece and the budget surpluses, but the situation is quite different: passively we are witnessing the low-noise collapse of a whole country.

Ex-hedge fund chief on suing the government: 'I don't think they want the truth to come out' - (www.cnbc.com) David Ganek's lawsuit against federal authorities alleging improper conduct that led to the shuttering of his $4 billion New York hedge fund is inching closer to a long-sought conclusion. After Ganek and his legal team prevailed against a motion to dismiss, the government appealed. The Level Global Investors founder told CNBC on Tuesday he's awaiting a hearing in the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals next month. "The case has ripened in a way that arguably was unexpected," Ganek told "Squawk Box." "Two years ago ... most people would've said we had very little chance of surviving what was ultimately their filing of a motion to dismiss it," he added.

This is What Happens to Inflation when a Currency Gets Unpegged from the Dollar - (www.wolfstreet.com) On November 3, the Egyptian Central Bank removed all exchange-rate restrictions and raised its benchmark rate by three percentage points. This was done to obtain that all-important $12-billion bailout loan the IMF had provisionally agreed to provide in August, though by November 3, the IMF’s executive committee still hadn’t ratified it. In the unofficial market, the pound had already collapsed against the dollar. With the peg gone, the official exchange rate instantly plunged from 9 pounds to the dollar to over 15 pounds to the dollar, and four days later it was at 18 pounds. On November 11, the IMF stopped dragging its feet and ratified the $12-billion loan.

OTHER STORIES:

Markets underestimating pace of Fed rate hikes: Lacker - (www.reuters.com)
Inflation picks up to multi-year highs in China as cbank eyes tighter policy - (www.reuters.com)

The Hidden Side to the Reflation Trade Is China's Surging Prices - (www.bloomberg.com)
Yellen Testimony to Be Watched for Hints on Rates, Deregulation Concerns - (www.wsj.com)
Clues to look for from Janet Yellen - (www.ft.com)
U.S. Eyes New Tactic to Press China - (www.wsj.com)