Trading in all securities were halted on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday following earlier reports of technical difficulties, although NYSE-listed issues was still trading on other exchanges.
After the halt, U.S. stocks extended their losses, but in low volumes, with the S&P 500 hitting a session low and the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq both falling more than 1 percent.
"It's under control. We're just waiting for word. There's no sign of panic at all," Mark Otto of J. Streicher & Co in New York said from the NYSE floor.
Photos from inside the Stock Exchange today:
"We're waiting to hear word on if there's going to be a reopening, and when it is or any more details."
U.S. markets were in the red even before the halt, which started just after 11:30 a.m. ET, as the slide in Chinese markets spurred concerns over its impact on global economic growth.
Beijing unveiled yet another battery of measures to arrest the sell-off in shares and the securities regulator warned of "panic sentiment" gripping investors in the world's second-largest economy.
Chinese shares have fallen more than 30 percent in the last three weeks, and some investors fear China's turmoil is now a bigger risk than the crisis in Greece.
"With China, investors fear that could be indicative of a broader economic weakness," said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James in St. Petersburg, Florida.
The New York Stock Exchange tweeted the announcement that they aren't under a cyber-attack!!!
With another bloody session in the books for China’s bursting equity bubble, it’s now abundantly clear that Beijing and the PBoC have lost control not only of the market but of the narrative as well, despite dozens of attempts to steer both in the “right direction.”
Having corralled selling by the National Social Security fund earlier this week and after discouraging local reporters from mentioning selling in the press, China has now made it illegal for big investors to dump shares over the next six months. Here are the details via Bloomberg:
China’s securities regulator banned major shareholders, corporate executives and directors from selling any of their stakes for six months, the latest effort to stop a $3.5 trillion rout in the nation’s equity market.
Controlling shareholders and investors holding more than a 5 percent stake in a company will be prevented from cutting their holdings over that time period, the China Securities Regulatory Commission said in a statement.
And here’s the official word from the CSCR (Google translated):
Recently, the stock market fell irrational, for the maintenance of the capital market, and earnestly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of investors, is now on the relevant matters are announced as follows: First, from now on within six months, the controlling shareholders of listed companies and shareholders holding more than 5% (hereinafter, saying large shareholders) and its directors, supervisors and senior management personnel shall not reduce shares held by the secondary market. Second, the major shareholders of listed companies and the directors, supervisors and senior management personnel who fails to reduce shareholdings in the Company, the China Securities Regulatory Commission will be given serious treatment. Third, the major shareholders of listed companies and the directors, supervisors and senior management personnel in the six months after the reduction of shares from shareholders with specific measures, separately.
Yes, the stock market "fell irrational" lately. And by "irrational" the CSCR apparently means that temperament that tends to fall over people once they realize they've helped to faciliate a completely "irrational", debt-fueled mania that's sent valuations on many listings into the stratosphere and lured in millions of farmers and hairdressers who are now collectively leveraged to gills.
In any event, this, like every other move in China's rapidly expanding plunge protection playbook, will fail miserably, meaning Beijing with ultimately be left with no choice but to "halt" whatever shares are still trading by the end of the week.
We can now add one more desperation measure to the annotated history of Chinese market intervention:
After a series of cyber failures involving first UAL, then this website, then the NYSE which is still halted, then the WSJ, some have suggested that this could be a concerted cyber attack (perhaps by retaliatory China unhappy its stocks are plunging) focusing on the US. So we decided to look at a real-time cyber attack map courtesy of Norsecorp which provides real time visibility into global cyber attacks.
What clearly stands out is that for some reason Chinese DDOS attacks/hackers seem to be focusing on St. Louis this morning.
Whether this is related to the series of suspicious cyber failures today, is so far unclear, although if there is a connection at least there is a way to keep track of the first global cyberwar in real-time.
Marana mall in the middle of nowhere next to railroad tracks.
I have been covering how many of our everyday structures are being converted into makeshift detention centers (i.e. FEMA camps).Hundreds of strip malls across Canada, the UK and the U.S. are having guard towers retrofitted to the existing structures. This is even happening with closed and abandoned strip malls. It is happening with newer construction. It is even happening with our schools, as I covered in detail in yesterday’s article.
Why would anyone send their child to school in this detention facility?
Tomorrow, I am covering how sports stadiums will also double as FEMA camps and the conditioning of the public to accept this tyranny has been underway for sometime.
Today, I am taking a brief respite from this three part series on FEMA camp conversions to discuss just how serious these conversions are and how some of the elite want to see tens of millions of Americans exterminated in re-education camps. Of course there are many who will say that Obama would never do such a thing. Really? The people who would utter such uninformed nonsense have never met Bill Ayers, are familiar with his background and understand the profound influence he has over the current President.
Bill Ayers Launches the Political Career of Obama
Bill Ayers launched the political career of President Obama. This is such a well known and well documented fact that even the mainstream media admits, through Fox’s Hannity and ABC talk show host, Larry Elder, openly discuss the fact that Bill Ayers launched the political career of Obama from Ayers Chicago home. Futher, these news entities refer to Ayers as a “terrorist”. Please watch the brief interview and see what kind of man launched Obama’s political career. If Fox and ABC are reporting that Ayers is the man who launched Obama’s political career, then why would the sheep continue to deny that fact? And why is it important that Bill Ayers is the architect of Obama’s career?
After watching this video, you will note that no mention of Bill Ayers announced intention to exterminate tens of millions of Americans was ever referenced. That is due to the fact that the corporate controlled media (all six outlets) are not permitted to discuss FEMA camps. Just ask Jesse Ventura about that reality as he was heavily censored when he covered the topic on this show, Conspiracy Theory. However, we do not need mainstream media cooperation to tell the American people the truth about Ayers genocidal desires for America, we have the work of former FBI special agent, the late Larry Grathwohl, for that revelation.
The Weathermen Underground Leader,Bill Ayers, told former FBI Agent and informant, and my late friend, Larry Grathwohl, that he believed that when the Communist takeover happened, he would have to incarcerate 50 million Americans into re-education camps and exterminate 25 million of them. Larry was an FBI special informant who had penetrated the Underground and became a member in order to take down the organization by getting Bill Ayers and his wife Bernadine Dorne arrested.
Bill Ayers, the father of Obama’s political career.
Bill Ayers still visits the White House.
Bill Ayers and his wife, Bernadine Dorne, launched Obama’s political career from the living room of their Chicago home. Tom Ayers, Bill’s father, funded Obama’s Harvard education. This information also appears in an affidavit obtained by “Sheriff Joe” Arpaio from Maricopa County, AZ. Bill Ayers still visits the White House. This affidavit has been entered into evidence against Obama by Sheriff Arpaio. Arpaio would go prison is this document was not authentic. And this is why many believe that Obama has unleashed the Justice Department against Sheriff Arpaio in which the Sheriff is accused by the Obama minions of violating the civil rights of illegal aliens. And what has the Sheriff specifically done to warrant the ire of the federal government for the past two years? Arpaio’s Maricopa County Sheriffs Department, upon making an arrest for breaking the law, and subsequently determining that the person was not a citizen, turned over illegal aliens to the Immigration and National Service as he compelled to do under federal law. This is why Obama is persecuting Sheriff Joe.
Nobody would believe these facts if they appeared in a movie. However, you better believe that this administration will not hesitate to send any of us to a FEMA camp and the intent is well documented. The reasons for the implementation of the NDAA, indefinite detention of Americans without due process of law, should be readily apparent.
Are you still in denial? Then go to the search engine on this website and type in Executive Order 13603. This is the Obama Manifesto in which he gives himself permission to seize control over all food and water, all food production, all natural resources, all manufacturing, all transportation and Obama has granted himself the authority to conscript any American (labeled a “consultant”) into a slave labor arrangement in a location of his choice. Again, the proof is hiding in plain site. Does this sound like this is a President who would hesitate to enact the mandates of his mentor, Bill Ayers?
I knew the late special FBI agent, Larry Grathwohl, very well. We spoke on the phone often and he appeared on my talk show numerous times. Larry Grathwohl repeated everyone of these allegations, no less than three times, on The Common Sense Show. Here is a video summation of what he repeatedly to my audience and myself in private conversations.
At the time that Ayers said that he was prepared to arrest 50 million American, force them into re-education camps in the Southwest and that he was prepared to murder 50% of them, the country has grown by 40% in population. That means that in today’s numbers Ayers would be prepared to murder 40 million Americans because they could not be “re-educated”.
Ayers Is Not Obama’s Keeper
I would be willing to listen to the argument that Obama, at the time he launched his political career with the backing of Ayers, and the fact that maybe that he did not know about Ayers notorious and terroristic background with genocidal intentions. However, how could he not know? And when Glenn Beck went on Fox every night , in 2009, and exposed these connections, and used this information to attack the credibility of the President, how could Obama not know at that point? Yet, Obama continued to meet with Ayers and does so to this day.
Jade Helm, Strip Malls and School Conversions to FEMA Camps
FEMA Camps are spreading like a bad cold
As the events of Jade Helm and well-documented practice for the extraction of political dissidents and the implementation of martial law, coupled with a meteoric rise in FEMA detention facilities, can anyone understand why I, and so many like me are concerned that Jade Helm, or its successor will go live and the nation will follow the script set by the mentor of this current President? Coupled with the unconstitutional passage of the NDAA, which allows for permanent detention devoid of civil liberties and due process, we are all in a great deal of danger.
Maybe, more people need to pay closer attention to the rapid rise of FEMA detention facilities. Who are they intended for? Is this the manifestation of Bill Ayers goal of exterminating 40 million Americans? After reading this, are you really ready to ignore the possibilities? You do so at your own peril.
On July 19th, join The Common Sense Show, as I interview Steve Quayle on the pitfalls and benefits of expatriation given the current political climate and these facts, in part, comprise the current political climate. More details will be forthcoming. Tomorrow, I will be discussing how your favorite professional sports team is willing to lend its facility to DHS and FEMA for unwarranted detention.
Do you think that mall conversions and school conversions to FEMA camps coupled with stadium and arena conversions add up to 80 million Americans incarcerated and 40 million Americans eliminated from the landscape?
And again, all the evidence is hiding in plain sight.
The German-American friendship no longer exists. It may still remain between citizens of both countries, but not between their governments. Perhaps it has always been an illusion, perhaps the United States pulled away over the course of time. But what binds these two nations today cannot be considered friendship. Openness and fairness are part of the essence of friendship, which is about mutual respect and trust. A quarter century after the United States helped the German people restore their national unity, little remains of this friendship.
As new documents from WikiLeaks and reporting by SPIEGEL show, the NSA has been systematically spying on much of the German government. America's spies not only listened in on Chancellor Angela Merkel's private conversations about sensitive political issues. The NSA also bugged ministries, ministerial offices and other government agencies. Not even journalism is sacred to the Americans -- at least not in Germany. American spies monitored at least one SPIEGEL colleague in Berlin -- spies who represent a country that considers itself a guarantor of freedom of the press, one of the cornerstones of a liberal democracy.
Today we know: The friendly smile worn by Angela Merkel's hosts in Washington all these years has been insincere at best.
Sept. 11 is not a good enough excuse for what has transpired. The terrorist attacks were horrendous, and a turning point for America and the world. It was understandable that the administration in Washington believed that they needed to protect their country against future attacks. Just as friends and family need support after going through a sudden, traumatic experience, the Allies were prepared to show their support for their friend.
But what has come to light has nothing to do with the attacks of Sept. 11 and the fight against terrorism. The US began systematically spying on the German government at least since 1999 (perhaps even earlier); in other words, two years before the attacks on New York and Washington. It is questionable that the German Agricultural Ministry's fisheries department, which the NSA also spied on, had anything to do with Osama bin Laden or al-Qaida.
Unscrupulous It wasn't security of the Western world that concerned the Americans. Instead they pursued their own interests, unscrupulously vying for slight political advantages in diplomatic dealings and in the struggle for economic prosperity. The reference to the terrorist threat has long become a fig leaf for habitual and brazen espionage.
In the US, the complaints, such as the ones formulated in this editorial, are taken as naive and twee. They are considered laughable. However, if naivety means that one has not yet given up the belief in fairness as the basis for the partnership, then one should be naive. It is also better than the pathetic act that Merkel's administration has put on for years with regards to the NSA: feigned public outrage over America's tactics.
The German government has engaged in a devil's pact with the US and its Orwellian spying machine. This may have been done out of fear -- fear of not receiving the potentially imperative information about a planned attack. But through her silence, Merkel has made the German government complicit. She allowed the law to be broken. She also permitted the principles that characterize open, democratic societies to be compromised.
The German government had the wrong priorities. There is no guarantee of security. Fear of an attack is no reason to sacrifice legal principles.
The chancellor must show Washington a clear sign of resistance. Germany must free itself from this pact with the NSA. In the future, it must write the rules for its cooperation with intelligence agencies itself -- which may mean that certain information will no longer be shared.
It would not be the end of cooperation between the two countries, particularly not on the issues of trade and foreign policy. Germany and America will have shared interests in certain matters. But currently, there's little room in the relationship for more than that.
While all Western eyes remain firmly focused on Greece, a potentially much more significant financial crisis is developing on the other side of world. In some quarters, it’s already being called China’s 1929 – the year of the most infamous stock market crash in history and the start of the economic catastrophe of the Great Depression.
In any normal summer, a 30pc fall in the Chinese stock market – a loss of value roughly equivalent to the UK’s entire economic output last year – after an ascent which had seen share prices more than double within the space of a year would have been front page news across the globe.
The dramatic series of government interventions to stem the panic – hitherto unsuccessful, it should be added – would similarly have been up there at the top of the news agenda. Yet the pantomime of the Greek debt talks, together with the tragi-comedy of will they, won’t they leave the euro, has relegated the story to little more than a footnote - even though 940 companies, more than a third, have now suspended trading on China’s two main indices.
The parallels with 1929 are, on the face of it, uncanny. After more than a decade of frantic growth, extraordinary wealth creation and excess, both economies – America in 1929 and China today – are at roughly similar stages of economic development. Both these booms, moreover, are in part explained by extremely rapid credit growth. Indeed, China’s credit boom dwarfs that of even the “roaring Twenties”. Borrowed money, or margin investing, played a major role in both these outbreaks of speculative excess.
True, the Chinese stock market bubble is only a one-year wonder, whereas the build-up to the Wall Street Crash of 1929 was more sustained. Even so, the comparison still holds. As noted by JK Galbraith in his classic account, The Great Crash 1929, even as late as 1927 it was possible to argue that American stocks represented fair value. It was only in the final year that the “escape into make-believe” happened in earnest, when the stock market rose by nearly 50pc. This applies to the Shanghai Composite, too. Stripping out the lowly-rated banking sector, valuations for just about everything else have rocketed, making those that ruled on Wall Street in the run-up to October 24, 1929, look relatively modest. Nor do the similarities end there. As in 1920s America, China’s stock market boom has ridden in tandem with an equally speculative real estate bubble.
The macro-economic backdrop is also surprisingly similar. Then, as now in China, rural workers had emigrated to the cities in vast numbers in the hope of finding a more prosperous life in fast-growing industrial sectors. In 1920s America, virtually all these sectors – from steel to automobiles and the new technologies of radio and consumer durables – grew like Topsy, inspiring households to invest in them and chase the apparently bountiful profits they were generating. A similar explosion in industrial activity has taken place in China, only more so. China has packed more development into a few short decades than any country in recorded history before, creating a worldwide glut in industrial capacity that even global demand, let alone domestic Chinese demand, is struggling to accommodate.
Already, there are warning signs of a slowdown, similar to those that front-ran the 1929 crash – depressed commodity prices and a virtual hiatus in global trade growth. The Chinese economy is like one of those cartoon characters who manages to keep running long after leaving the edge of the cliff, only belatedly to look down and plunge into the abyss.
Naturally, there are many dissimilarities too, not least that China is still essentially a planned and centrally-controlled economy which has so far managed to defy the usual rules of economics. The consensus is that this time will be no different, that even if the stock market does continue to crash, the impact will be no worse than 2007-08, when the Shanghai Composite fell by two-thirds. Yet after a massive fiscal and monetary stimulus, the wider economy barely lost a beat. Have no fear, the Chinese authorities have it all under control. Believe it if you will.
I don’t buy it. Indeed, I can see very little evidence for China’s technocratic elite having things under control. The firebreaks that China put in place over the weekend to mitigate the panic are, in practice, not much different from those applied during the Great Crash of 1929, only this time it’s public rather than private money that promises to quell the fire. They failed spectacularly in 1929. This time around, they’ve thrown the kitchen sink at the problem, but so far it has produced only a mild, and wholly unconvincing, rebound. The fire still smoulders, threatening to break out anew.
Besides, China cannot forever, Greenspan-like, keep answering each successive bubble by creating another. First it was gold, then housing, and when cooling measures threatened an all-out bust in the property and construction markets, the taps were turned on afresh, producing a further flood of money into the stock market. The authorities were happy to tolerate the bull market at first, hoping it might encourage a switch from debt to equity financing, but there seems little chance of that now. The stock market boom has only succeeded in adding to the debt.
Whether any of this turns into a calamitous economic meltdown obviously depends on the rest of the response. Policymakers have learned a thing or two since 1929; we now know that the real damage in financial crises is done not by the crash itself, but by a collapsing banking sector. Stock markets are only a signal of credit contraction to come. Even so, I doubt China has as much of a handle on its banks, and more particularly its shadow banking sector, as it pretends.
One further thought on these parallels. Now that the export-led model of economic of growth seems to have reached its natural end, at least for China, president Xi Jinping pins his hopes on internal consumer demand to drive growth, and he’s vowed to continue with the free-market reforms of predecessors to help achieve this. Unfortunately, it’s proving a difficult transition. Part of the problem with free markets is that by definition they cannot be controlled. Busts are as much part of their DNA as the wealth-enhancing properties of their booms. As China is about to discover, bad downturns come with the territory.
The Greek referendum, in which the Greek government’s position easily prevailed, tells the troika (EU Commission, European Central Bank, IMF, with of course Washington as the puppet master) that the Greek people support their government’s position that the years of austerity to which Greece has been subjected has seriously worsened the debt problem. The Greek government has been trying to turn the austerity approach into reforms that would lessen the debt burden via a rise in employment, GDP, and tax revenues.
The first response of most EU politicians to the Greek referendum outcome was to bluster about Greece exiting Europe. Washington is not prepared for this to happen and has told its vassals to give the Greeks a deal that they can accept that will keep them within the EU.
Washington has a higher interest than the interests of the US financial interests who purchased discounted sovereign debt with a view toward profiting from a deal that pays 100 cents on the dollar. Washington also has higher interest than the interests of the European One Percent intent on using Greece’s indebtedness to loot the country of its national assets. Washington’s higher interest is the protection of the unity of the EU and, thereby, NATO, Washington’s mechanism for bringing conflict to Russia.
If the inflexible Germans were to have Greece booted from the EU, Greece’s turn to Russia and financial rescue would put the same idea in the heads of Italy and Spain and perhaps ultimately France. NATO would unravel as Southern Europe became members of Russia’s Eurasian trade bloc, and American power would unravel with NATO.
This is simply unacceptable to Washington.
If reports are correct, Victoria Nuland has already paid a visit to the Greek prime minister and explained to him that he is neither to leave the EU or cozy up to the Russians or there will be consequences, polite language for overthrow or assassination. Indeed, the Greek prime minister probably knows this without need of a visit.
I conclude that the “Greek debt crisis” is now contained. The IMF has already adopted the Greek government’s position with the release of the IMF report that it was a mistake from the beginning to impose austerity on Greece. Pressured by this report and by Washington, the EU Commission and European Central Bank will now work with the Greek government to come up with a plan acceptable to Greece.
This means that Italy, Spain, and Portugal can also expect more lenient treatment.
The losers are the looters who intended to use austerity measures to force these countries to transfer national assets into private hands. I am not implying that they are completely deterred, only that the extent of the plunder has been reduced.
As I have previously written, the Greek “debt crisis” was an orchestration from the beginning. The European Central Bank is printing 60 billion euros per month, and at any time during the “crisis” the ECB could have guaranteed the solvency of any remaining creditor banks by purchasing their holdings of Greek debt, just as the Federal Reserve purchased the troubled mortgage backed “securities” held by the “banks too big to fail.” This easy solution was not taken.
The orchestration was a benefit to Western financial interests in general by enabling enormous speculations on the euro and gambling with derivative bets on sovereign debt and everything connected to it. Each successive “crisis,” such as Sunday’s No vote, became cover for an attack on oil or other commodities. The rigging and manipulation of markets can be hidden by pointing fingers at the latest “crisis.”
John Perkins in his book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, describes the process by which Western financial interests intentionally over-lend to weaker countries and then use the pressure of the debt to force the transfer of the countries’ wealth, and often sovereignty, to the West. The IMF and its austerity programs have long played a role in the looting.
In exchange for reducing euro debt on Greece’s books, Greece was to turn over to private interests its water companies, ports, and protected islands. Unless the One Percent can purchase the current Greek government as it purchased previous governments (for example, with payoffs to borrow money with which to purchase submarines), the referendum has frustrated the looters.
In my book, The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism, I explained that the Greek “debt crisis” had two other purposes. One was to get rid of the practice of restructuring a country’s debt by writing it down to a level the country could afford and to establish in its place the new principle that people of a country are responsible for the mistakes of creditors who over-lend. The write-down is no longer to occur on the balance sheet of the creditors’ but instead becomes a write-down of pensions, social services, and employment. This, too, is a process of looting.
The other purpose, as Jean-Claude Trichet, the previous head of the European Central Bank, made explicitly clear, was to further reduce the sovereignty of member states of the EU by transferring authority over fiscal policy (tax and spend decisions) from national governments to the EU in Brussels.
Washington favors this centralization of political power in Europe, and Washington favors the One Percent over the people. However, above all Washington favors its own power and has acted to prevent a Greek exit, which could begin the unraveling of NATO.
Russia and China have missed an opportunity to begin the unraveling of NATO by assisting Greece’s departure from the EU. Whatever the cost, it would be tiny in comparison to the military buildup that Washington is forcing on both countries. Russia and China might have decided that Washington could no more accept Greece’s alignment with Russia than Russia can accept Ukraine becoming a member of NATO.
If the Greek situation and the waiting Italian and Spanish situations are now resolved along the lines that this article suggests, it means that the NATO mechanism for Washington’s pressure on Russia remains intact and that the conflict that Washington has created will continue. This is the bad news and the downside of Greece’s victory over the looters.
The International Monetary Fund is one of the most secretive and powerful organizations in the world. They monitor the financial health of more than 185 countries… they establish global money rules… and provide “bail-out” assistance to bankrupt nations. And on Oct 20th of this year, the IMF is expected to announce a reserve currency alternative to the U.S. dollar, which will send hundreds of billions of dollars moving around the world, literally overnight. According to Juan Zarate, who helped implement financial sanctions while serving in George W. Bush’s Treasury department, “Once the [other currency] becomes an alternative to the dollar, rules of the game begin to change.” And Leong Sing Chiong, Assistant Managing Director at a major central bank, said this dollar alternative “is likely to transform the financial landscape in the next 5-10 years.” Credit to Skywatchtv.com
As Iranian negotiations continue with the P5+1 nations, Israeli officials have complained that they’re being left in the dark. In response, US negotiator Wendy Sherman said she attempted to contact Tel Aviv, but was rebuffed. On three separate occasions.
Perhaps the fiercest opposition to any nuclear deal with Iran has always been the administration of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. As negotiations aimed at allowing Tehran to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes continue, Israel is concerned that it will be the target nuclear-equipped Iran.
To allay the country’s fears, Israeli National Security Advisor Joseph Cohen is supposed to receive regular briefings from either US Under Secretary for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman, or her counterpart in the European Union.
According to Israeli officials speaking to Haaretz, those updates have been less than forthcoming. Senior officials in the prime minister’s office say the last time they were contacted was 12 days ago, just before the renewed talks began in Vienna.
It also doesn’t help matters that the Obama administration isn’t on the best of terms with Netanyahu. That strained relationship has kept Secretary of State John Kerry from contacting the Israeli prime minister personally.
All in all, during the last ten days, Israeli officials say they have not been updated at all.
But that’s not for lack of trying. Senior US officials with Sherman’s office say multiple efforts have been made to contact Cohen to update him on the progress of negotiations. In the last ten days, three separate attempts were made, but all failed because of scheduling conflicts.
Although it’s not possible to know exactly what the mood is among Party officials in China regarding the inexorable slide in stock prices that’s unfolded over the course of the last three weeks, it’s reasonable to assume that at least some officials in Beijing are in the throes of Politburo panic after watching some $3 trillion in market value disappear into thin (and probably polluted) air.
Amid the turmoil, China has resorted to an eye-watering array of policy maneuvers, pronouncements, and plunge protection schemes aimed at arresting the slide.
Nothing has worked.
Not suspending compulsory liquidation for unmet margin calls, not billions in committed market support from brokerages, not a PBoC backstop for the CFSC, and not even a ban on selling by the Social Security Council.
For reference, here (courtesy of Bloomberg) is an annotated chart of the wild ride Chinese stocks have had in 2015:
And so, with every attempt to manipulate the market higher falling flat in the face of selling pressure from the hairdresser/ farmer/ banana vendor day trading crowd (which has now thrown in the towel on the whole “it’s easier than farm work” theory and now just wants to break even and head for the hills) the only thing left for China to do is “fix” the narrative.
In other words, when banning selling doesn’t work, the logical next step is to ban talking about selling. Here’s FT with more:
Shares have shed some 30 per cent of their value since mid-June, punishing small investors, some of whom have borrowed heavily to jump on board what had been a spectacular bull run.
“There is a panic but no matter how they [the authorities] jump in, this thing just doesn’t stop falling,” said Dong Tao, regional economist at Credit Suisse in Hong Kong.
Analysts said the more Beijing does the more it risks creating a perception of desperation, particularly if its efforts have no discernible effect.
“All this activity has supported a view that policy makers are in a state of panic,” wrote Mark Williams at Capital Economics.
“The financial system is about trust and transparency, but we’re not getting either from the government,” said Dee Sum, a 35-year-old banker in Hong Kong, whose family has sustained heavy losses on the stock market in recent weeks.
One domestic journalist, who did not want to be named, said the government had banned local media from using the terms “equity disaster” and “rescue the market” in their reports on the stock market.
So apparently, Beijing will now prevent journalists from accidentally jawboning the market lower so that Party mouthpiece media outlets are free to jawbone the market higher.
Needless to say, we doubt if this hail mary attempt to rescue the market will do anything at all to save China from its homemade equity disaster.
