Market anxiety rose three weeks ago, and remains elevated.
Source: Investing.com, accessed 9 May 2023.
I am surprised that worries did not increase when various entities noted the higher likelihood of default coming in June a week ago.
Update, 5/9/2023:
Hear also Wendy Edelberg on WPR on this subject.
Without listening to Edelberg yet, hopefully later tonight or sometimes this week, one thing that makes me extremely angry is this portrayal of Republicans as being naive or ignorant to how destructive this is. They know this is destructive and catastrophic. That’s why they passed on this bomb detonation when the orange abomination inhabited the White House. So quit selling us this crap “Oh, Republicans just don’t know how dangerous this is”. Republicans know the enormous danger and they revel in it.
Here’s where we are on federal debt and debt service. Both have been worse in the past.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=13mmL
Here’s where we are on federal spending and tax revenue as a share of GDP:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=13mnr
Pretty obviously, demand for all spending cuts, no tax hikes, does not represent a return to some earlier arrangement.
https://english.news.cn/20221128/9616407c82e047fea93cea5ef5f14f3e/c.html
November 28, 2022
China aids Africa’s poverty fight through agricultural cooperation
China has been implementing technical cooperation programs in Burundi since August 2009, sending a total of 45 experts to the African country in five batches to help develop agriculture.
BUJUMBURA — On a sultry afternoon, Charles Ngendakumana, a farmer in Burundi’s northwestern Bubanza Province, was busy adding a handful of grass to the cattle trough in the backyard of his newly-built rural home, a spacious single-storey bungalow with freshly painted lime walls.
Around him, about a dozen hens were running around. Pointing to them, he said these chickens had been given to his family by Chinese agricultural experts. “They also provided good rice seeds and fertilizer and taught me planting techniques so that I have enough food to feed my children”, the 43-year-old father of six added.
Four years ago, Ngendakumana began growing hybrid rice introduced from China under the guidance of Chinese agricultural experts. Since then, his farmland has also increased from half a hectare to five hectares in Ninga, a village in the Commune of Gihanga.
“Next, I want to buy more land, more cows, as well as several new water pumps when the dry season comes,” said Ngendakumana in a recent interview with Xinhua, asserting that this was “unthinkable” in the days before the arrival of the Chinese expert teams when he could not even get enough food.
Known as the “heart of Africa”, the East African country Burundi has a tropical climate with abundant rainfall. Its natural conditions are favorable to rice production, but the low yield of local rice production makes Burundians long suffer from food shortages.
To address such a challenge, China has been implementing technical cooperation programs in Burundi since August 2009, sending a total of 45 experts to the African country in five batches to help develop agriculture.
The Chinese experts are currently planting hybrid rice in 22 villages in the country in an effort to help realize Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye’s slogan — “Every mouth has food and every pocket money.”
The experts have visited fields in all 14 rice-growing provinces of the country to conduct research and trials, and successfully selected and introduced eight varieties of rice seed adapted to the local conditions. In this way, they have helped effectively address the problem of yield reduction or even extinction caused by rice plague in the mountainous areas of Burundi.
The Chinese experts also helped establish the first demonstration village of rice cultivation for poverty alleviation in Ninga village, where hybrid rice was grown for five consecutive seasons. Since hybrid rice was planted here, the village has increased its rice production by 1,661 tonnes, resulting in improved income for local households.
“Our hybrid rice yields are twice as much as the local varieties,” Chinese expert Jiang Daiming said. “Rice yields here used to be only two to three tonnes per hectare, while the introduced disease-resistant varieties can yield four to five tonnes per hectare, sometimes even seven tonnes.” …
https://english.news.cn/20230428/41b135fd2e0846bb9883cba809d52540/c.html
April 28, 2023
Diplomats from 14 countries visit Xinjiang
URUMQI — Envoys from 14 countries, including Brazil, Iran, Indonesia, Pakistan, Ecuador and Senegal, visited northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region from April 24 to 28 at the invitation of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Consuls general of 14 countries, stationed in different cities across China, visited the regional capital city of Urumqi, as well as Kashgar, Turpan and other locations in Xinjiang to experience first-hand the social and economic development of the region.
They said that Xinjiang’s achievements are remarkable, and that people of all ethnic groups live in harmony and happiness. They noted that the various lies fabricated by certain Western media are completely inconsistent with the reality of Xinjiang….
https://english.news.cn/20230504/7744d38f229f490abe46e5c2b56dc899/c.html
May 4, 2023
China’s Xinjiang sees tourism rebound in May Day holiday
URUMQI — Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region received more than 8 million tourist trips during the five-day May Day holiday, which ended on Wednesday. This marked a year-on-year increase of 140.81 percent, local authorities said.
Total tourism revenue generated during the holiday surpassed 6 billion yuan (about 869 million U.S. dollars), up 192.18 percent year on year, according to the regional culture and tourism department.
During the holiday, Xinjiang held various kinds of theatrical performances and cultural activities.
It is estimated that China’s domestic tourist trips during the holiday surged by 70.83 percent year-on-year to reach 274 million, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism said on Wednesday.
[ Wonderful that the Chinese so relish and enjoy visiting and coming to know ever more of China. ]
Importantly enough, according to scientists refereeing leading international journals, there have been a set of remarkable Chinese advances in food production under varied environmental conditions, advances that promise to allow for profound food production increases. Then too, there are the decades of work on hybrid rice by Yuan Longping, work that was as significant * as that of Nobel Prize winner Norman Borlaug on hybrid wheat.
* https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/23/world/asia/yuan-longping-dead.html
“Mr. Borlaug, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970, died in 2009. Mr. Yuan’s research arguably had effects at least as broad, since rice is the main grain for half the world’s population and wheat for a third.”
China has now developed a range of high-yield hybrid rice varieties, saline soil tolerant rice, sodic soil tolerant rice, heat tolerant rice, rice that avoids premature sprouting, rice that can even be grown as a perennial. China has an extensive gene-and-seed-bank of rice varieties, even including rice that has seeded in space.
Johanna Chua making some wild comments on rate increases on Bloomberg today. Interesting, not sure what to make of her comments. But Citi going down some untread path.
I’m listening to Ben Maller on old school a.m. radio. This is what insomniac degenerates do kids. And I’m gonna tell yeh, Even James Kwak is going to look up from his book writing and yell “Fire the coach!!!!!!” if the Celtics lose this series. Even calm, mild-mannered, cerebral James Kwak will demand retribution and a pound of flesh if the Celtics lose this series.
Who are the Celtics? Some kind of sports team?
A pack of Irish terrorists who are coming to your neighborhood? Oh wait – Sein Finn settled down.
terrorized the knicks in the 60’s, when you were young
The Celtics were an early 1980’s punk rock band headed by Liam Neeson, that later became a cult phenomenon. They broke up when the lead guitarist became a Jehovah’s Witness.
I was going to make a joke about Liam Neeson, but I can’t, I just can’t poke fun of one of my favorite action film stars. Remember…… I’m your creepy Generation X uncle who thinks he was the first white guy to have Black friends in grade school, there’s only so far I can take it.
Sixers v. Nuggets in the final?
I’m still cheering for the Warriors and the Celtics but damn!
Hanging on to that tiny thread of hope with the Phoenix Suns. Yes, I only became a Suns fan this year because Kevin Durant joined them, go ahead and call me “THAT bandwagon fan” I guess I deserve the label.