Tag: China

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Article: Financial Capitalism: The Endgame

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Financial Capitalism: The Endgame

TYLER DURDEN,  30 March 2021


In 2008, we had the opportunity, collectively, to reboot a broken financial system so it became fit for purpose.

But instead of reconfiguring finance to serve the real economy politicians and central bankers used quantitative easing to buy time which lulled the mainstream media into reporting that everything was back on track. Some people haven’t bought that story.

Marc Friederich and Matthias Weik are two economists who didn’t succumb to groupthink after the 2008 crash and now see financial capitalism’s end game.

Friedrich explained to Renegade Inc. that the authors’ intention is to help translate the complexity of a financial system by inverting it into a language that everybody understands. Having studied economics, and as children of the dot com bubble, the authors of four best-selling books in Germany, stress the important role sarcasm and dark humour play in their work in respect to making seemingly complex matters accessible to the wider public. Continue reading “Article: Financial Capitalism: The Endgame”

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Article: Farmmi Closes $7.4 Million Underwritten Public Offering of Ordinary Shares

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Farmmi Closes $7.4 Million Underwritten Public Offering of Ordinary Shares

PRNewswire, 24 March 2021

Farmmi, Inc. (“Farmmi” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: FAMI), an agriculture products supplier in China, today announced the closing of an underwritten public offering of 6,469,467 ordinary shares of the Company, at a price to the public of $1.15 per share. In addition, the Company has granted the underwriter an option to purchase an additional 15 percent of the ordinary shares offered in the public offering solely to cover over-allotments, if any, exercisable for 25 days, after the closing of this offering, which would bring total gross proceeds to approximately $8.6 million. The Company intends to use the net proceeds from this offering for general corporate and working capital needs.

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Article: Farmmi Prices $7.4 Million Underwritten Public Offering of Ordinary Shares

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Farmmi Prices $7.4 Million Underwritten Public Offering of Ordinary Shares

PRNewswire, 22 March 2021

Farmmi, Inc. (“Farmmi” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: FAMI), an agriculture products supplier in China, today announced the pricing of an underwritten public offering of 6,469,467 ordinary shares of the Company, at a price to the public of $1.15 per share. The closing of the offering is expected to occur on March 24, 2021, subject to customary closing conditions. In addition, the Company has granted the underwriter an option to purchase an additional 15 percent of the ordinary shares offered in the public offering solely to cover over-allotments, if any, exercisable for 25 days, after the closing of this offering, which would bring total gross proceeds to approximately $8.6 million. The Company intends to use the net proceeds from this offering for general corporate and working capital needs.

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Article: Crown Resorts: US private equity group Blackstone offers James Packer exit strategy

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Crown Resorts: US private equity group Blackstone offers James Packer exit strategy

Anne Davies, 22 March 2021

Billionaire James Packer has been offered a new exit strategy from Crown Resorts after the company received an unsolicited bid from private equity company Blackstone Group.

Blackstone, which already has a 10% holding in the casino giant, has offered to acquire all of the shares in Crown through a scheme of arrangement.

It is offering $11.85 a share, representing a 19% premium to the volume-weighted average price of Crown shares since the release of its first half results for the financial year 2021. Continue reading “Article: Crown Resorts: US private equity group Blackstone offers James Packer exit strategy”

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Article: Think twice before signing ‘2021 Hong Kong Charter’

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Think twice before signing ‘2021 Hong Kong Charter’

SCMP Editorial, 17 March 2021

A campaign seeking to unite Hongkongers based overseas and the international community to fight what it calls suppression of the city’s freedoms and autonomy had barely made a ripple before being branded “illegal” by the Security Bureau.

The “2021 Hong Kong Charter” will not just make its founder, Nathan Law Kwun-chung, and others liable to breaching the national security law, but also whoever else signs up. Such a move is likely to be seen as foreign collusion.

The 25-point document contains statements on Hong Kong, mainland China and the international community and calls for the “liberation” of the city and the end of China’s one-party rule – slogans that are now deemed in violation of the law banning acts of subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces.

It also mentions issues in relation to Tibet, Xinjiang and Taiwan, and urges the international community to “stand together, to safeguard democratic values under the threat of totalitarianism”.

The city’s development has always been at the heart of many overseas Chinese with Hong Kong roots, even more so in the wake of the political and economic turmoils in recent years. It would therefore be unsurprising if the campaign attracts some support abroad and at home.
Taiwan
But people should think twice before signing up to the document. The Security Bureau has warned that it would be an offence for anyone planning or participating in acts that undermine sovereignty or colluding with foreign forces to sanction or engage in hostile activities against Hong Kong and the mainland. The extraterritorial effect of the law makes those participating from overseas also liable.

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Article: China tells Alibaba to sell off media assets in tech crackdown

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China tells Alibaba to sell off media assets in tech crackdown

Mark Sweney and Helen Davidson, 16 March 2021

Beijing has ordered e-commerce company Alibaba to sell off media assets including Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post (SCMP) as the Chinese government looks to crack down on the growing public influence held by the country’s sprawling tech conglomerates.

Alibaba has become the lightning rod in the crackdown on big tech after founder Jack Ma, one of China’s most popular, outspoken and wealthiest entrepreneurs, delivered a blunt speech last year criticising national regulators that reportedly infuriated the president, Xi Jinping.

Following the comments, Chinese regulators blocked the $34bn stock market flotation of Alibaba online payments subsidiary Ant Group, which would have been the biggest share offering in history, and Ma disappeared from the public eye for three months. Last week, it emerged that regulators are reportedly preparing to hit Alibaba with a record fine in excess of $975m over anti-competitive practices.

China’s protectionist business regime, which shuts out foreign companies including Google and Netflix, has enabled a group of homegrown conglomerates to flourish as the country looks to build the next wave of global tech champions to challenge Silicon Valley.

Beijing has struggled to maintain control over their activities and wider influence with Alibaba’s media empire expanding to buy SCMP, Hong Kong’s premier English-language newspaper, in 2016 and holding stakes in social network Weibo, video streaming service Youku and Yicai Media Group, one of the country’s most influential news outlets.

“What is interesting here is that the Chinese Communist party has done a good job of cultivating huge tech giants, national champions,” said Jamie MacEwan, a senior media analyst at Enders Analysis. “But there has always been a split under the surface between those who want to encourage the great tech leap forward and a growing unease among those worried about these huge companies and the big public figures at the head of them, like Ma, outgrowing the patronage of the [Chinese communist] party.”

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Article: The Next ‘Gamestop’: How China or Russia Could Attack Our Financial System

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The Next ‘Gamestop’: How China or Russia Could Attack Our Financial System

Robert Carlson, Gray Gaertner, 16 March 2021

Last week, the dramatic rise and fall in the price of Gamestop demonstrated how vulnerable the stock market is to social media speculation. U.S. regulators should now turn their attention to a greater risk—that in the near future, China, Russia, or another adversary could coordinate an unwitting mob to harm the American financial system.

The potential for financial warfare follows from a playbook that China, and especially Russia, have drawn from repeatedly to meddle in U.S. domestic politics. First, foreign state agents have used social media to spread disinformation or stoke existing grievances. Second, they have counted on naive users to share the original posts, allowing the content to reach a larger audience. Finally, they fan the flames to provoke action.

In 2016 and 2020, Russian propaganda decreased U.S. voters’ trust in their candidates and the political system. During last year’s protests over race and policing, foreign bots amplified instances of both racial discrimination and violent protests, further polarizing American society. Following Joe Biden’s electoral victory in November, Russian agents embraced false allegations of fraud, providing the rationale for an armed mob to assault the Capitol Building. China spends at least $10 billion per year on its own influence operations through the United Front Work Department, which promotes pro-Beijing narratives overseas.

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Article: Why Mitt Romney’s call for economic boycott of China Olympics comes as no surprise

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Why Mitt Romney’s call for economic boycott of China Olympics comes as no surprise

Dennis Romboy, 15 March 2021

SALT LAKE CITY — Sen. Mitt Romney’s call for an economic and diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Olympics in Beijing isn’t surprising given his political stances on China.

In his first speech on the Senate floor after taking office in 2019, the Utah Republican shifted his focus from Russia to China as America’s greatest geopolitical adversary. While running for president in 2012, he argued that Russia presented the biggest threat to the United States.

Romney said China’s economic strength and large population enable a military power that “could eclipse our own.”

“It is possible that freedom itself would be in jeopardy,” he warned. “If we fail to act now, that possibility may become reality.”

In his first two years in the Senate, Romney filed legislation to combat China’s economic aggression, condemned the Chinese Communist Party and sought sanctions over abuses of ethnic minorities. He pushed for a National Security Council task force to counter the Chinese government’s “sinister propaganda” about the origins of the coronavirus

Just last week, Romney and seven GOP colleagues reintroduced the Strengthening Trade, Regional Alliances, Technology and Economic and Geopolitical Initiatives Concerning China Act to advance a comprehensive strategy for U.S. competition with China.

“We must take decisive action now to confront China’s growing aggression, which includes linking arms with our friends and allies to dissuade the Chinese Communist Party from its predatory policies and demand that China abide by the norms and rules which the rest of us follow,” he said.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, of which Romney is a member, will hold a hearing on the issue this week.

Romney has accused China of unfair trade practices, stealing American jobs, currency manipulation and intellectual property theft.

“I think we have to hold China’s feet to the fire,” he said in 2019.

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Article: China tells UK to butt out of Hong Kong

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China tells UK to butt out of Hong Kong

Andrew Davis, 15 March 2021

China accused the UK of “groundless slanders” after the British government said Beijing’s crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong wasn’t in compliance with the treaty that paved the way for the city’s return to Chinese control.

“The UK has no sovereignty, jurisdiction or right of ‘supervision’ over Hong Kong after the handover, and it has no so-called ‘obligations’ to Hong Kong citizens,” China said in a statement posted Sunday (Monday AEDT) on the website of its London embassy. “No foreign country or organisation has the right to take the Joint Declaration as an excuse to interfere in Hong Kong affairs, which are China’s internal affairs.”

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Article: EMERGING MARKETS-Taiwan dollar shrugs off potential manipulation tag; other Asian FX gain

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EMERGING MARKETS-Taiwan dollar shrugs off potential manipulation tag; other Asian FX gain

Shruti Sonal, March 2021

March 11 (Reuters) – The Taiwan dollar strengthened on Thursday even as the country’s central bank warned of a potential U.S. scrutiny of its monetary policy, while other emerging Asian currencies gained as easing inflation fears and falling Treasury yields hurt the greenback.

The Taiwan dollar, among the best performing currencies in the region this year, added 0.6%. Taiwan’s central bank said it bought a net $39.1 billion to intervene in the foreign exchange market, as it stepped up efforts in November and December to “avoid serious disorder”, possibly putting the trade-dependent island in Washington’s crosshairs to be labelled a manipulator.

Most other currencies also gained as the U.S. dollar languished near one-week lows. The South Korean won climbed 0.6%, while the Thai baht added 0.4%.

However, the long-term outlook for the region’s currencies remained less than rosy.

A Reuters poll showed investors cut long bets sharply on the Chinese yuan, while turning short on most other Asian currencies, as improving prospects of economic growth in the United States and the recent rise in yields have bolstered the dollar.

Bets on the South Korean won, the Singapore dollar and the Malaysian ringgit all turned bearish for the first time since early last summer.

Most equities climbed higher, tracking gains on Wall Street overnight after benign consumer price data for February calmed inflation fears and Congress gave final approval to one of the largest economic stimulus measures in U.S. history.

The South Korean benchmark climbed over 2% after five consecutive sessions of declines, while Taiwan and Singapore added 1.6% and 0.9% respectively.

Thai shares hit their highest in nearly two months as consumer confidence increased for the first time in three months in February, bolstered by an easing coronavirus outbreak, government stimulus and the distribution of vaccines.

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Article: Nasdaq Futures Tumble As Value Surge Makes Europe A Sea Of Green

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Nasdaq Futures Tumble As Value Surge Makes Europe A Sea Of Green

TYLER DURDEN, 08 March 2021

US equity futures and global markets jumped higher at the reopen of Asian trading late on Sunday following news of the Senate’s passage of the Biden $1.9TN stimulus plan and the spike higher in oil following the Houthi drone attack on Aramco facilities in the Gulf, but have since dipped amid renewed reflationary fears which pushed Treasury yields as high as 1.61% overnight hitting tech stocks with lofty valuations even as value stocks and European markets were broadly in the red. After rising above $71, Brent has since faded gains and was last trading near where it closed Friday at $69. Bitcoin soared as HK-based firm the latest institution to convert cash into Ethereum and Bitcoin.

At 7:10 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 16 points, or 0.07%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 16.5 points, or 0.44%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 154.25 points, or 1.20%. Continue reading “Article: Nasdaq Futures Tumble As Value Surge Makes Europe A Sea Of Green”

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Article: GameStop: Markets Adjust, Politicians Frown

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GameStop: Markets Adjust, Politicians Frown

The week of February 22: GameStop, again, a poor choice for Interior, China’s rare-earths play, and much, much more, including the latest in our new podcast series, the Capital Record.

A slightly calmer day in the markets yesterday after Thursday’s wild ride, although GameStop — back in the news again after taking off again earlier in the week — stepped up to fill the gap for those who needed a little more volatility in their lives.

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Article: Form 6-K Antelope Enterprise Holdings Ltd

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Form 6-K Antelope Enterprise Holdings Ltd

Toppan Merrill, 12 February 2021

On February 12, 2021, Antelope Enterprise Holdings Ltd. (f/k/a China Ceramics Co., Ltd.) (the “Company”) entered into a Securities Purchase Agreement (the “Purchase Agreement”) with certain institutional investors (the “Investors”) for the sale by the Company of 588,236 common shares (the “Common Shares”), at a purchase price of $3.57 per share. The Common Shares were offered by the Company pursuant to its shelf registration statement on Form F-3 (File No. 333-228182), which was declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission on November 19, 2019. Continue reading “Article: Form 6-K Antelope Enterprise Holdings Ltd”

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Article: Antelope Enterprise Holdings Ltd. Announces Pricing Of Registered Direct Public Offering

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Antelope Enterprise Holdings Ltd. Announces Pricing Of Registered Direct Public Offering

PRNewswire, 12 February 2021

JINJIANG, China, Feb. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Antelope Enterprise Holdings Ltd. (f/k/a China Ceramics Co., Ltd.) (NASDAQ Capital Market: AEHL) (the “Company”), a leading Chinese manufacturer of ceramic tiles used for exterior siding and for interior flooring and design in residential and commercial buildings, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement with three institutional investors for a registered direct offering of securities with gross proceeds of approximately $2.1 million, before payment of commissions and expenses. The closing of the offering is expected to take place on or about February 17, 2021, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. Continue reading “Article: Antelope Enterprise Holdings Ltd. Announces Pricing Of Registered Direct Public Offering”

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