The Balance?

Summary

Discussion of the potential effects on equity, bond, commodity, capital and asset markets regarding:

Japanese Industrial Output; Presidential Election Update.

What The Fed Thinks; Balance Sheet Effects of QE.

The French have a word for police informants: la balance. That's because the stool pigeons or snitches hold "the balance" between the cops and the criminals. Nicole is a Parisian streetwalker and Dede is her racketeering boyfriend, on the outs with his mob bosses because of a dispute over Nicole. A key police informant "balance" is murdered and the cops scramble to find a new one. Lacking their "balance" the cops decide on Dede, and begin to put a squeeze on he and Nicole. The title suggests more than one meaning for the phrase, since it's about a couple who are desperately trying to hold everything in their lives, "in the balance". What makes this film more absorbing than the ordinary crime movie is that it's more interested in the characters lives, rather than in their crimes.

Massive BOJ Earthquake?

"as for the mysterious disposition of $65B in CC spending, I DID NOTwrite the paragraph below, but perhaps it explains the great divergence in credit debt incurred vs. spending since February 2015... and perhaps a certain sound is very apropos, as in tick-tock-tick-tock....

VISA CARD: "ZERO 0% Introductory APR for EIGHTEEN (18) billing cycles for balance transfers made in the first 60 days, then 11.24%-21.24% Variable APR."

That eighteen (18) month at ZERO% grace period could be the only thing holding the consumer credit tidal wave up for the time being." - In Time?

Along those lines, it would seem the hammer of consumer spending has come down in Japan as industrial output dropped 6.2% in February due to sluggish demand both at home and abroad. This was the biggest MoM drop since March 2011, when a devastating earthquake in Japan crippled the country's supply chain. This time the devastating earthquake was provided by Abe-Kuroda?

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