Belgium is a nation whose total GDP was reported at $535 billion (USD) in 2014, but is projected to fall to $464 billion this year, an enormous, year-over-year contraction of more than 13%. Yet what we are supposed to believe is that during a recent four-month period, the government of this faltering economy spent $161 billion ‘buying U.S. Treasuries’ (i.e. lending money to the U.S. government) at virtually no interest.
That works out to nearly 100% of Belgium’s GDP over that four-month period (at the previous size of Belgium’s economy, in 2014), and more than 100% of GDP if we look at the catastrophic estimate for this year.
There is no rational scenario we can construct where even the world’s healthiest economy would choose to lend 100% of its GDP (to a Deadbeat Debtor). Here readers need to understand that our GDP is not the nation’s ‘profits’, it’s simply a measurement of all economic activity. Thus, on a practical basis, no nation could ever muster that much capital, much less “loan it” to another government.”
HONG KONG — The chairman of the Hong Kong arm of one of China's biggest securities companies goes missing. The head of another firm resurfaces after months incommunicado. An executive at a film studio is detained for allegedly taking bribes.Associated Press
They're not plot outlines for crime novels but real life cases lifted from the normally dry Hong Kong stock exchange filings of Chinese companies over the past year.
The latest example came Monday when Guotai Junan International Holdings Ltd., the Hong Kong unit of a Chinese securities company, said it was unable to reach its chairman and chief executive Yim Fung since Nov. 18, sending its shares plummeting 12 percent.
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