Traders Puzzled As Physical Oil Prices Tumble Amid Surging Chinese Crude Sales, Plunging Imports

What Causes Stagflation? Authored by Frank Shostak via The Mises Institute, In the late 1960’s Edmund Phelps and Milton Friedman challenged the popular view that there can be a sustainable trade-off between inflation and unemployment. In fact, over time, according to Friedman, expansionary central bank policies set the platform for lower economic growth and a higher rate of inflation (i.e., stagflation). A famous case of stagflation occurred during the 1974-75 period. In March 1975, industrial production fell by nearly 13 percent year-on-year while the yearly growth rate of the consumer price index (CPI) jumped to...

Chinese Refining Rates Unexpectedly Plunge To All-Time Lows As Economy Falls Off A Cliff Two weeks ago, when discussing the market "mystery" of sliding physical crude oil prices, we said that the most likely culprit were Chinese refiners, whose refining margins had just collapsed to the most negative on record. The reason for the margin collapse was China’s domestic fuel policy: it has long been Beijing's policy to soften price hikes to help shield consumers and avoid social unrest; which while beneficial to end, consumers is catastrophic to refiners and processors...

Economic Sentiment Belies Strong Economic Estimates Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, Economic growth metrics for the United States have recently shown surprising resilience; however, consumers’ economic sentiment has not. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis’s advance estimate, real Gross Domestic Product expanded at an annualized rate of just 1.4%, well below expectations and a steep drop from the 4.4% pace in the third quarter. However, the record-long federal government shutdown, which ran from October 1 through November 12, subtracted roughly 1 full percentage point from growth, as federal outlays plunged...