World Economic News and Discussion

kvs wrote:https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-05-23/iphones-are-now-embarrassing-china-trade-war-deepens

Hilarious delusion about China falling into a recession because of US tariffs.   It is the USA that will fall into a recession.

Funny how inummerate is the author of the piece above.   Hwawei's domestic market volume is bigger than Apple's global market volume.

The International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker shows Huawei shipped 206 million smartphones, 105 million in mainland China, accounting for 26.4% of the domestic market last year. Apple placed fifth in the country with 9.1%. By 1Q19, that fell to 7% compared to a 3% share gain for Huawei, according to Counterpoint.

...

Apple is experiencing an innovation shortage and backlash across China. In 1Q19, iPhone shipments worldwide collapsed to 36.4 million units, a 30.2% decline YoY. Meanwhile, Huawei was the top smartphone manufacturer in the world for the first three months, recording positive growth. It should now make sense to Zero Hedge readers why President Trump and corporate elitists have waged an economic war on China; it's due to a rising China

As with Russia, pompous, hubris-filled western elites and their mouthpieces are deluded that China is some banana republic dependent on
exports.  China's biggest market is domestic and it drives its GDP growth.   This is rather easy to see since the country has 1.4 billion
people.  Its middle class growth potential is enormous and will eclipse the combined middle class of NATO.  

Also, as with Russia, NATO hyenas woke up too late to notice the "threat" of growth.  These criminally insane idiots will need to
perpetrate a genocide of Russia and China to keep their gravy train of world domination going.  Too bad for these maggots that they
will be wiped out at the same time they try to pull any such stunt.

GarryB wrote:Because it is deserved?

kvs wrote:https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-05-23/iphones-are-now-embarrassing-china-trade-war-deepens

Hilarious delusion about China falling into a recession because of US tariffs.   It is the USA that will fall into a recession.

ZeroHedge wrote:"Power Bills To The Moon": Chaos, Shock As Electricity Prices Across US Explode



Weather forecast models suggest the polar vortex will continue pouring Arctic air into much of the central US through Feb. 20. This means nat gas prices could rise even higher early next week as electricity demand continues to soar over the weekend as Americans crank up their thermostats and watch Netflix shows or mine Bitcoin.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/power-bills-moon-chaos-shock-electricity-prices-across-us-explode

ZeroHedge wrote:U.S. Home Prices Pass 2005's Peak Level

"Where's the inflation?" Central Bankers will undoubtedly and rhetorically ask critics and skeptics at a variety of upcoming speeches.

Meanwhile, U.S. housing prices have finally eclipsed their peak from 2005 in the years leading up to the Great Recession. Note that at the beginning of 2021, we said real estate was entering the year in a "massive bubble".

A combination of low interest rates and trillions in freshly printed dollars has led to the the median price of a single family home rising 14.9% to $315,000 in Q4. It was "the biggest surge in data going back to 1990, according to the National Association of Realtors," according to Bloomberg.

"Prices rose in all 183 metros measured by the group and 161 had double-digit growth compared with just 115 of them in the third quarter," the report notes.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/us-home-prices-pass-2005s-peak-level

ZeroHedge wrote:Polar Vortex 'Paralyzes' Texas Refineries, Forced To Shut Down Amid "Severe Cold Weather"

A brutal polar vortex has paralyzed much of Texas.

Three million people are left without power as an extreme cold snap sends power demand to record highs. Energy infrastructure, such as natural gas pipelines have frozen, halting fuel flow to powerplants, resulting in record-high electricity rates. Now we're learning the chaos has spread to the crude complex in the state.

Bloomberg reports Motiva Enterprises will shut down its Port Arthur refinery due to the cold weather. The refinery is North America's largest refinery, with a crude capacity of more than 630,000 barrels a day.

"Unprecedented freezing temperatures necessitated safely and methodically shutting down our Port Arthur Manufacturing Complex. We are carefully monitoring weather conditions and will resume normal operations as soon as it is safe to do so," the company said in a statement.

Reuters reports Chevron Phillips Chemical Co is preparing to shut down its refinery at Pasadena refinery because of the cold weather.

Sources told Reuters, ExxonMobil Beaumont Chemical Plant is planning to shutter operations due to "severe cold weather." ExxonMobil also said it's experiencing operational issues "caused by a winter storm" at its Baton Rouge, Louisiana facility.

What could prompt more refinery closures in Texas and along the gulf could be temperatures this week remaining well below normal.

https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/polar-vortex-paralyzes-texas-refineries-forced-shut-down-amid-severe-cold-weather

Hole wrote:"Unprecedented". Who could have thought about freezing temperatures in February?

ZeroHedge wrote:Polar Vortex 'Paralyzes' Texas Refineries, Forced To Shut Down Amid "Severe Cold Weather"

ZeroHedge wrote:Texas Frozen Chaos Becomes Global Oil Market Nightmare With 40% Of US Crude Production Offline

One week ago, when virtually nobody was following the sudden surge in certain obscure mid-continent nat gas prices...

... we warned that the ripple effects of the freezing vortex-induced calamity, which led to near record-low temperatures across the plains states, would ripple far and wide sparking logistical and commodity shockwaves not only in Texas and the continental US, but also around the world. Sure enough, just a few days later, Texas has been hit by a humanitarian crisis the likes of which it has never before seen with millions of people without electricity and increasingly without running water.

And even though Texas is doing everything in its power to contain the fallout that, it appears that the crisis is now spreading, because as a result of the persistent freeze and rampant "force majeueres" across the industry, more than 4 million barrels a day of output - almost 40% of the nation’s crude production - is now offline, Bloomberg reports citing traders and executives.

https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/texas-frozen-chaos-becomes-global-oil-market-nightmare-40-us-crude-production-offline

GarryB wrote:Not enough gas for their own consumption but they want to supply Europe...

ZeroHedge wrote:Japan's Incredibly Shrinking Population Is A Big Problem

Submitted by Ethen Kim Lieser of 19FortyFive.com, Science and Tech Editor who has held posts at Google, The Korea Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, AsianWeek, and Arirang TV. Follow or contact him on LinkedIn,

As the ongoing coronavirus pandemic continues to limit the number of foreign workers entering Japan, new government data has revealed that the nation’s population contracted by a record four hundred twenty thousand people last year.

That hefty figure shattered the previous mark of nearly three hundred thirty thousand, which was set just the year prior, and continued the downward trend seen over the past decade.

https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/japans-incredibly-shrinking-population-big-problem

AlfaT8 wrote:

No Patriarchy, no babies.
And i wouldn't listen to some New York Socialist academic for advice.
And their "Hope" is foreign workers apparently, LOL