Thank you for such an eloquent financial service! Further to your comment on China today, according to Tracy Alloway of Bloomberg, the Chinese 5-10 Yield curve inverted yesterday. Is this a bad omen or can China be different!?
This article from Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:
"China’s policy makers are likely to tolerate growth to have another leg down to 5 to 6 percent in the next five years, so that they could have bigger room to fix the structural problems and make growth more sustainable," Hu wrote.
That’s in line with earlier messages of tolerance of slower growth in exchange for stable development. Xi told a meeting of the Communist Party’s financial and economic leading group last year that China doesn’t need to meet the objective if doing so creates too much risk, Bloomberg News reported in December.
Xi’s speech, which ran for more than three hours and mapped out a grand strategy for China’s development by 2050 implies "a change in growth and development objectives," said Chen Xingdong, chief China economist at BNP Paribas SA in Beijing.
The party is seeking to share "growth and prosperity for the majority of people through reformation of income distribution," Chen said
Thanks to a subscriber for this edition of Hardings report for Maybank which today includes a section by Russell Napier. Here is a portion:
While developed world central bankers claim and deserve some credit for saving the world from a depression in 2009, their colleagues in the emerging markets may also have been key players in staying disaster. As OECD broad money growth actually contracted in late 2009, China saw broad money growth around 30% and India around 20%.
Could this have been a key factor in preventing a debt deflation? If so, we need to be concerned that as broad money growth in the OECD slows rapidly the growth of broad money in India and China has reached new lows.
In China M2 growth year on year, at 8.9%, is the lowest level of growth recorded since records began. That is a marked slowing from the growth rate of above 11% when the world thought Chinese growth was collapsing in 1Q 2016. That tightening in monetary policy occurs as three-month interest rates in China have risen from a low of 2.7% in 2016 to 4.7% today.
This article from Bloomberg News may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:
The platform links 372 police agencies who will use sophisticated artificial intelligence-driven tools to monitor and respond to fake news, blogposts and other items across about a dozen Baidu services, including the popular search engine, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. More than 600 organizations and experts in different areas will be enlisted to weigh in on their respective fields, according to an email sent by Baidu. They included official organs such as the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, as well as media outfits such as Shanghai United Media Group and Caijing.
Internet giants from Facebook Inc. to Twitter Inc. are struggling to deal with a proliferation of spurious news articles across social media services. Baidu’s approach allows the Chinese government to intervene directly and write articles in rebuttal. Items that its system decides are fake will be clearly labeled a “rumor” at the very top of search results, alongside an explanation penned by the relevant agency or organization, according to a sample page Baidu provided.
Thanks to a subscriber for securing an invitation for me to attend Jeff Gundlach’s presentation yesterday which as always was an educative experience.
My first experience of Shanghai customer service was in 1987. One afternoon we were bussed around the local Friendship Stores to spend money; but, I was having no more of it and took my camera to get some shots of real locals rather than Communist Party guides! My broken Mandarin got me an invite to join some locals at a table for food and beer. I politely declined the offer of food but said I would indulge in a beer. Unfortunately, the glass had a viral bug on it which 2 hours later caused my anatomy to require plenty of boiled eggs to help reverse my problem! We were staying at a hotel on The Bund. At 5pm we asked for room service and requested lots of boiled eggs on toast, only to be told, sorry, we only serve eggs at breakfast time! 30 years ago, Customer Service was unheard of.
This article from the South China Morning Post may be of interest subscribers. Here is a section:
On the same day, another e-bike user who had previously been caught twice driving in the opposite bike lane was fined 100 yuan for doing so a third time.
If traffic law breakers do not accept the charges, police will publicly broadcast details of their offence on the surrounding advertising billboards until the culprit hands themselves in.
Shanghai traffic police said that following the success of the pilot, more “electronic police” surveillance units will be set up at major traffic intersections across the city.
This article from Bloomberg News may be of interest. Here is a section:
As part of an early package of reforms agreed between the two leaders, Beijing agreed in May to allow U.S.-owned card payment services to begin the process of obtaining local licenses, in a move that would erode the near-monopoly held by China UnionPay Co.
China will open up its insurance market further, mainly by encouraging foreign insurers already operating locally to enter the health, pension and catastrophe insurance sectors, China Insurance Regulatory Commission Vice Chairman Chen Wenhui said earlier this month.
Chinese regulators last year decided to open up the nation’s fund market, allowing investment firms in China to be 100 percent owned by foreign managers. At least a dozen global money managers such as Man Group Plc, Bridgewater Associates and Fidelity International have announced plans since then to start private securities funds. Before the rule change, foreign firms were restricted from running such private funds in China but could take stakes in mutual fund companies and provide advice to onshore funds.
Hello as you are familiar with China, what do you think of JD.com? I was also wondering if you could analyze universities who enable you to do their programs online
This report by Scott Kennedy for the Center for Strategic & International Studies may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:
China’s embrace of intellectual property (IP) is highly positive when contrasted with the country’s original disdain for property rights of any sort and widespread violation of IP rights. However, China’s efforts to develop and obtain more IP is driven heavily by bureaucratic imperatives as opposed to market incentives. Moreover, China may now be a “large” IP country, but it is still a “weak” one. Whether one is discussing licensing and royalties, mergers and acquisitions, or dispute settlement, Chinese patents still have little commercial value.
China’s commercial success has outstripped its progress in technology innovation. Chinese companies are acquiring greater market share in high tech, particularly in the most commodified segments of sectors. The value-added contribution to manufacturing is growing in absolute terms, and domestic companies are contributing a growing share to China’s high-tech exports.
Overall, China’s high-tech drive may be characterized as “good-enough innovation.” From a negative perspective, China is investing—and may be wasting—a great deal of human capital and funding, but is still far from a leader in high tech. From a more positive perspective, China is achieving incremental progress by benefiting from its strong capacity in manufacturing, the accumulation and diffusion of tacit knowledge, and the opportunities provided by such a large market.
Regardless of the level of support they receive from their government, Chinese companies will face growing challenges in their interactions with multinational businesses and in overseas markets. Foreign governments and multinational businesses likewise need to decide how to strategically respond to China’s approach. They could take a firm stand in opposition, try to influence China’s approach at the margins, or go along with the strategy as best they can. In any case, if they are not careful, they could end up under the heavy foot of a fat tech dragon.
