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The earnings season has started, and several major banks in the Eurozone have already reported on how they performed in the fourth quarter of 2015, and the entire financial year. Most results were quite boring, but unfortunately Deutsche Bank once again had some bad news. Just one week before it wanted to release its financial […]

Instead of allocating capital to expensive tail risk bets on direct asset class collapse (in equities, credit, and commodities), it appears, just as we detailed previously, the ‘smartest money in the room’ is “betting” indirectly on a stock market crash through eurodollar options. As we previously detailed, the costs of tail risk protection in credit […]

By Chris at www.CapitalistExploits.at Note: The following is a parody. Characters are fictional (some, at least) and any similarities that may exist with people real or imagined are purely coincidental. Really! December 10, 2015, around 2 AM Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the PBOC, turns to his wife, unable to sleep: “We just spent $150 billion this week […]Read More

As we previewed on Thursday, the biggest event of the week, and perhaps of the month, was not Friday’s nonfarm payroll report, but the January update of China’s FX reserves, which the PBOC released last night. The number came out at $3.2309 trillion, down $99.5 billion from the prior month, and $8 billion less than […]Read More

From the Slope of Hope: Over the past ten months, in steps almost too small to be noticed by the mass media, Apple has shed over two hundred billion dollars in value. That’s nearly one quarter of a trillion dollars in wealth which would have fed shareholder dreams of new houses, new boats, new jewelry, […]

“Russian and Syrian forces intensified their campaign on rebel-held areas around Aleppo that are still home to around 350,000 people and aid workers have said the city – Syria’s largest before the war – could soon fall.” Can you spot what’s wrong with that quote, from a Reuters piece out today? Here’s the problem: “could […]Read More

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics reveals that internet subscription on GSM phones in Nigeria has risen by 31.3% in the last one year. According to the data, Nigeria has a total of 97,060,548 in internet subscription with one of the four carriers of Airtel, Etisalat, Globacom and MTN as at September of 2015. With a total of about […]Read More

The restriction of forex on about 41 imported goods is taking its toll on importers of goods and services around the country. Even local manufacturers who claim to produce locally for export abroad or local consumption are feeling the brunch. They apparently also require inputs which are mostly sourced abroad to produce their goods. They […]

One of the biggest economic challenges Nigeria facing Nigeria today is its reliance on foreign imports of goods and services to survive. Even for its nascent manufacturing industry, it requires imports in the area of technological transfers, raw materials input and even tools and equipment required for manufacturing. This problem was again brought to light […]

Ten days ago, when Deutsche Bank stock was about 10% higher, the biggest German commercial bank declared war on Mario Draghi, as we put it, warning him that any further easing by the ECB would only push stocks (with an emphasis on DB stock which has gotten pummeled over the past few months) lower. What […]

From the Slope of Hope: A couple of Thursdays ago, we were all wringing our hands (or at least I was) about the powerful bureaucrat and lifetime government employee Haruhiko Kuroda and what his next move would be. He dropped a big bomb – negative interest rates – and created precisely the kind of market […]

Want to deposit cash at JPMorgan Chase? Then prepare to be treated if not like a criminal, then certainly a suspect of a very serious crime. The charge: being in possession of that “barbarous relic” known as cash. Soon, as cash becomes increasingly frowned upon, cash deposits will be slowly but surely phased out in […]