Black Swan

Bloomberg – At a time when analysts anticipate record profits for the biggest mining companies and a third year of gains in commodity prices, shipping lines carrying raw materials are set for the lowest freight rates since 2002.

WRBL – Synovus announces 850 layoffs

The Atlantic – Dire States    **HT J.M. Heinrichs

CBS (spit) – President Obama is planning to hand the U.S. Commerce Department authority over a forthcoming cybersecurity effort to create an Internet ID for Americans, a White House official said here today (waiting for the leftie outrage. Cricket….)

National Review – Businesses don’t like competition     **HT J.M. Heinrichs

Zero Hedge – For all seeking a reason why China will never voluntarily drop its CNYUSD peg, and why it will now actively buy PIIGS debt indefinitely, in its attempt to keep its currency low against the EUR and fixed against that ultimate debaser of currencies, just take one look at the December trade surplus. Even as gross trade surged to an all time high with total imports and exports just shy of $300 billion, at $295.2 billion, December’s trade surplus plunged from $22.9 billion in November to just $13.1 billion, the lowest since March and April when China actually had a stunning trade deficit, and a nearly 50% miss to consensus which was at $21.4 billion. The total 2010 trade surplus was $183.1 billion, down from $196.1 billion in 2009 and $295.5 billion in 2008. This means China has increasingly less linen (primarily dollars) to recycle in purchasing such items as copper and gold, and, to a much lower degree, US Treasurys. As the charts below demonstrate, the drop in exports was largest to the US (down 16.4% sequentially), the EU (down 11.5%) and, to a lesser degree, the Rest of the World (- 9.1%). Bottom line: should the EUR hit parity with the USD, and should the CNY continue appreciating vs the USD, this trend will get increasingly uglier, slowing down the Chinese economy even more, which in turn will continue to make the case for a China-led rebound ever weaker, and the case for increasing Fed UST monetization ever stronger (in the absence of Chinese purchasing power). Welcome to the connected world, where monetization is really an indication of weakness.

Kitco – Serious problems ahead for the British Pound

Future Pundit – Energy production and usage graphs     **HT J.M. Heinrichs

Telegraph – Economist Dambisa Moyo predicts in her new book that the West’s economic dominance will collapse unless some very difficult choices are made.

Before It’s News - Trading has been halted at Bangladesh’s main stock exchange amid protests over the largest single day loss in the bourse’s 55-year history. The exchange halted trading on Monday as per orders from the Securities and Exchange Commission after the benchmark index plunged 9.25 per cent within the first hour of trading.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 10th, 2011 at 5:22 pm and is filed under Green Shoots. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.