China Unveils a Dangerous New Economic Weapon During a Perfectly Timed Distraction

Caption: Representatives of the founding nations of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank applaud after Chinese President Xi Jinping unveiled a sculpture during the bank’s opening ceremony in Beijing on January 16. (MARK SCHIEFELBEIN/AFP/Getty Images)

 

China’s new Asian International Investment Bank could upset the balance of power in Asia.

On January 16, China inaugurated its new international investment bank. In a lavish, ribbon-cutting ceremony at the renowned Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping told the assembled dignitaries that they were part of “a historical moment.”

Yet most people totally missed the significance.

While Xi was inaugurating the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (aiib)—a project that former United States Treasury Secretary Larry Summers earlier called a “wake-up call” for America and the most important economic event since America led the world off the gold standard in 1971—the world was focused on collapsing stock indexes.

And for good reason.

Spectre of 1929 crash looms over FTSE 100 as traders take on record debts

 

The spectre of the 1929 stock market crash looms large for UK investors as traders borrow record amounts to invest in rising stock markets

Nothing has been learnt from the madness of the 1929 stock market crash as once again traders reach for record amounts of debt to pile into rising share prices.

The level of margin debt that traders are using to buy shares in the stock market reached the highest levels on record, according the latest data from the New York stock exchange.

Central banks are stuck on a money printing treadmill

Wednesday night’s panic in Tokyo, where the Nikkei dropped a stomach churning 7pc, kicking off a global chain-reaction that saw the FTSE fall 143.48 points, demonstrates just how difficult it is going to be for the world’s central banks to exit their loose money policies.

It’s not even as if Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Fed, said he was planning to exit; in fact, initially he said the reverse, in testimony to Congress. It was only in the Q&A, and in minutes to the last meeting of the Fed’s Open Markets Committee, that a clear bias emerged to slow the pace of asset purchases “in the next few meetings”, so long as the economic data were strong enough.