Madness in the Method

Seemingly oblivious to the idea of ‘purdah’ – a period of dignified silence to be observed in the run up to the taking of policy decisions—the ECB’s Chief Economist, Peter Praet, felt able to give AFP a wide-ranging interview this week and truly remarkable it was, too.

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Inside, Outside, Nowhere is Home

To the delight of everyone with a vested interest in the continuance of the global central bank bubble, the latest data round from China revealed that, in the past four months, the cumulative total of new RMB loans in China has set a major new high, amounting to no less than CNY4.6 trillion—a number 50% or so greater than the average of the preceding two years and one equal to around $730 billion, or $6 billion a day, even at today’s newly depreciated rate of exchange. Yet, in that same time, the figure for ‘total social finance’ rose by no more than (sic) the 2012-14 seasonal average of CNY5 trillion.

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