They're Everywhere
So yesterday, we find out that every Fed District is reporting a slowdown. Then today, the G7 tanks it too. Consensus of the richest nations of the world?: The United States sucks.
The polls were taken after governments across the G7 nationalized swathes of the ailing banking sector and after the world's major central banks slashed interest rates in unison in an unprecedented move that even involved China.
Central banks are still flooding money markets with billions of dollars in temporary cash and dropping restrictions on access to funds but banks remain very reluctant to lend to each other and market rates are coming down only gradually.
This leaves the world economy in its most dangerous spot in a very long time, say economists, who have all but abandoned concerns over inflation given the rapid falls in asset prices and a halving in crude oil prices in just a few months.
Getting China to cooperate with "The West" to do anything is a tricky affair. After the whole "Those fireworks are absolutely not CGI" thing, and the "She's 18171514 13 years old. Wait, what's the age of consent again?" debacle, well, seeing them act in a concerted way with the West to preserve capitalism, well, that scares me quite a bit. Plus, it just plain looks bad.
Note to self: Do not blow economy up so badly that Cuba has to lower rates for us, because that would really just be embarrassing.
Most of G7 in recession, more rate cuts ahead [Reuters]