China's Port-Ponzi-Probe Spreads To Entire Warehousing Sector | Zero Hedge

Posted by straightlinelogic 11 years, 8 months ago to Economics
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As the last line of the story says, "This is not over." This is how financial snowflakes turn into avalanches.
SOURCE URL: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-06-23/chinas-port-ponzi-probe-spreads-entire-warehousing-sector


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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 11 years, 8 months ago
    Straightlinelogic, you have presented several news items like this China port-Ponzi-probe over the last few weeks. How do you think this is going to affect metals prices and to what extent?
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    • Posted by 11 years, 8 months ago
      Mr. Brenner,
      Markets have been anticipating commodities unwinds from the Chinese situation for several weeks, so prices have already declined. There may be more selling ahead, but the bulk of it is probably out of the way. Unfortunately, this will operate as a margin call in China and beyond, and margin calls often cause selling in other than the market of the initial margin call as traders indiscriminately sell other assets to raise cash. That is the danger of this developing situation. The danger is particularly acute when the same collateral is pledged multiple times. Such rehypothecation is disturbingly routine in many markets, including bond markets, and was one of the reasons the Lehmann Brothers situation unraveled so quickly in 2008, and why it had a global impact. Given that global debt is higher now than it was then, you can see the potential for disaster.
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      • Posted by Robbie53024 11 years, 8 months ago
        Never understood how it made any sense to the financiers that the collateral that they were relying on to back a loan had already been collateralized by someone else. Of course, so long as no loans are called, there's no problem. But when it starts to fall in on itself, you better be the first one out or you're going to get burned. That just ensures that the whole house of cards collapses quickly and absolutely. Utter stupidity.
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