Discover more from Life in the 21st Century
When you kiss me
Does the lipstick on your lip stick on my face
When you miss me
In your dreams does your lover have my face
Here’s some rock and roll trivia, if there can be such a thing. Not only were the Buzzcocks essential to their era’s sound, but they were responsible for getting the Sex Pistols their first appearance on UK TV and funded The Fall’s first single. It never got more punk rock than the Buzzcocks.
How do you separate capitalist US’ monetary policy from communist China’s? The FT has piece, “Corporate debts mount as credit funds let borrowers defer payments”:
“A growing list of cash-strapped companies have turned to their lenders at private credit funds for relief in recent months, seeking to conserve capital by delaying payments on their debt.
“The rate at which companies are opting to increase their principal balance instead of paying cash, known as “payment-in-kind” or PIK, edged higher during the second quarter, according to a recent report from rating agency Moody’s. These types of loans have a catch: while they provide temporary relief, they often come with a higher interest rate on a mounting debt load as the deferred payments pile up.”
Then,
“Moody’s estimated that 7.4 per cent of the income reported by private credit funds was in the form of PIK during the most recent quarter. Analysts at Bank of America pegged the figure at 9 per cent and said its analysis showed that these funds had gone one step further: 17 per cent of the loans they hold give the borrower an option to pay at least part of their interest with more debt going forward, even if they are not doing so now.”
Isn’t private equity just debt, upon debt, upon debt ad infinitum? Call it Post-Modern Monetary Policy (PMMP, pronounced pimp or pump, your choice), a derivative of MMT for our financial mandarins.
Three weeks ago, the Chinese went full monetary pumping, including “new structural monetary policy tools to support the stock market.” I guess the CCP thinks they’re the Fed. After three and half years of Chinese stock values being cut in half, in three weeks they reflated by a third. But a lot PMMPers saying it isn’t nearly enough, China needs more.
One thing for certain, the last three years little good economic news has come out of China, in direct contradiction, with a couple hiccups, of previously over three decades of nothing but glowing reports of China as the global economic future.
Place your bets, with the latest Fed pumping, US stocks are at record highs. All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.
We must cultivate our gardens.
Subscribe to Life in the 21st Century
History, Science, Energy, Technology, Environment, and Civilization