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Omaha Steve

(99,708 posts)
Sat Feb 28, 2015, 08:52 PM Feb 2015

China's central bank cuts rates again to boost economy

Source: AP-Excite

BEIJING (AP) — China's central bank cut interest rates for the second time in three months Saturday, adding to signs the country's leaders are worried the economic slowdown is deepening too sharply.

The People's Bank of China announced a rate cut on one-year loans by commercial banks by 0.25 percentage point to 5.35 percent. The interest rate paid on a one-year deposit was lowered by 0.25 point to 2.50 percent.

Rates were last cut on Nov. 22. The new rates take effect Sunday.

Last year, China's economic growth fell to 7.4 percent — the lowest since 1990. It is expected to decline further this year, and a steep economic decline can raise the risk of politically dangerous job losses.

FULL story at link.



In this Friday, Feb. 27, 2015 photo, a Chinese family walk past a China Dream billboard, showing messages pushed by Chinese President Xi Jinping's administration on display in Beijing. China on Saturday, Feb. 28 cut interest rates for the second time in three months, adding to signs that Chinese leaders are worried that the economic slowdown is deepening too sharply. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20150228/as--china-interest_rates-fecad81376.html

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China's central bank cuts rates again to boost economy (Original Post) Omaha Steve Feb 2015 OP
Imagine if we had 7% growth in this country! elias49 Feb 2015 #1
Notice the spread between what the banks pay depositors and what they charge for loans. AdHocSolver Mar 2015 #2
Couple factual issues with your post Yo_Mama Mar 2015 #3
The purpose of my post was to explain how the economy is rigged in favor of Wall Street... AdHocSolver Mar 2015 #4
 

elias49

(4,259 posts)
1. Imagine if we had 7% growth in this country!
Sat Feb 28, 2015, 09:03 PM
Feb 2015

Wow!
But thanks largely to the Republican House, we continue with anemic growth of 2 or 3%.
They truly have eyes on the wrong prize.
Hey Republicans! Pick door #FU.

AdHocSolver

(2,561 posts)
2. Notice the spread between what the banks pay depositors and what they charge for loans.
Sun Mar 1, 2015, 12:19 AM
Mar 2015

Borrowers in China are charged only 5.35 percent for the a one year loan while depositors receive 2.50 percent interest on their one year deposits.

This amounts to a "spread" between what the bank charges borrowers and what it pays depositors of .0535/.0250 = 2.14.

In the U.S., banks pay depositors about 0.10 interest on comparable deposits, while charging 14 percent or more on credit card balances. This amounts to a spread of 0.14/0.001 = 140.

Since the group of people who have savings deposits are largely the same people who borrow money to make purchases, what the Chinese are doing is essentially to increase the money supply to consumers to increase their economy, that is, increase spending.

Therefore, China is taking appropriate action to spur their economy.

U.S. policy, as practiced by the Federal Reserve (a wholly owned subsidiary of wall Street), is to pay practically nothing to depositors for the banks' use of depositors' assets, while charging usurious rates to short term borrowers who use their credit cards and aren't able to pay off their balances within the grace period.

The end result is that the banks siphon spending money away from consumers who would have more money to spend on goods and services if they weren't paying so much on bank interest.

It gets worse. Austerity measures promoted by the banks and Wall Street further siphons money away from governments which could increase economic activity by spending money on infrastructure and education.

Allowing offshore tax havens and reducing taxes on the rich removes money from the middle and working classes since governments either have to reduce spending or borrow the money from the wealthy (those who have it to lend) to pay the wealthy for the funds that they would normally get merely by taxing the rich.

To summarize, China is taking appropriate action to help their economy, by providing low cost funding to their people to increase spending.

U.S. policy, dictated by Wall Street and the large banks, and carried out by the Fed and right-wing conservatives in government, is designed to stall the U.S. economy by taking money away from those who would spend it productively.

This is the reality of the U.S. economy and of the so-called "global" economy.

This is the "big picture". The little ups and downs in the stock market and the unemployment rate, and the phony low-balled inflation rate, are irrelevant to what is being done to the world's economies. Even raising the minimum wage, while it is long overdo, and will help individuals affected by it, won't prevent a global economic collapse which is the GOAL of the oligarchy. Then they will OWN everything.


Yo_Mama

(8,303 posts)
3. Couple factual issues with your post
Sun Mar 1, 2015, 02:33 PM
Mar 2015

Although I think you are right on US interest rate policies - they have hurt Main Street and profited Wall Street, the opposite of the purpose.

But as for your specific points:
A) CC balances are not one-year loans - far from it. They are more like 5-10 year terms, with now a fixed rate over that term or variable rate (but no adjustment for worsening credit permitted). Overall US banks are lending at much lower rates - the Net Interest Margin for all US commercial banks is very low - below 3.2%, and lower than it was at the worst of the last recession.
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/USNIM

You can't compare these rates the way you are comparing them. CCs are unsecured loans that are still running 3% annualized write-off rates, which means that over a 5-10 year term, you are going to lose at least 20%. So interest rates have to be higher to cover that, and interest rates also have to be higher to cover anticipated future rate increases.
http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/chargeoff/chgallsa.htm
http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/chargeoff/delallsa.htm

And this is at a sub-3% deliquency rating!! If we get into another recession that's going to go to at least 5%!

Everyone's trying to acquire good credit risks - US CCs are an effed-up market currently.
http://www.bankrate.com/credit-cards/low-interest-cards.aspx?ic_id=home_credit%20cards_CreditCardRatesAverages_CreditCards_LowInterestCreditCards

If you look at interest rates for small business loans (from NFIB, see page 16 I think):
http://www.nfib.com/Portals/0/PDF/sbet/sbet201502.pdf

They are running below 5.5%, in fact around 5.3%. So not much difference to the "benchmark" rate for Chinese loans.

There isn't really a non-secured bank rate in China. Consumer credit is pretty minimal, and non-secured consumer credit basically does not exist. You can get a consumer loan from a Chinese bank if you pledge security, and that's about it. You still can't, as far as I know, get a car loan from a bank using the car as security!:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2010-04-28/ford-gm-promote-car-loans-in-china-as-90-of-drivers-prefer-to-pay-cash

Whether the Chinese rate cuts will work is an issue:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/china-pboc-central-bank-cuts-benchmark-lending-deposit-rates-1425121038

“The direct beneficiary of an interest-rate cut would be property developers and others with a heavy debt burden, such as local governments,” said Peng Junming, a former central-bank official who now runs an investment firm in Beijing, Junfan Investment Co. “Credit would remain very difficult to come by for small and private businesses even after the rate cut.”


Reviving the Chinese economy with less dependence on property will require more consumer lending, but right now it is hard for even smaller private companies to get credit, so I just don't know. Car sales would be the best way out probably.

AdHocSolver

(2,561 posts)
4. The purpose of my post was to explain how the economy is rigged in favor of Wall Street...
Sun Mar 1, 2015, 05:02 PM
Mar 2015

...and against Main Street.

I have a degree in Economics, not Banking, although I worked for a bank several years ago.

I find it upsetting that basic economic issues, which can be explained in terms that almost anyone can understand, are almost universally obscured by those who even bother to comment on economic issues.

Just like the tables, charts, and graphs that people post here on the stock market, deficits, employment and unemployment figures, GDP, and interest rates do NOT explain the economic reality of why the wealthy are getting wealthier at the expense of everyone else, the charts, graphs, and tables, besides being irrelevant, totally obscure the economic mechanisms at work and give one a headache.

The links you provided to the Fed, WSJ, and Bloomberg are not going to provide anyone information about how Wall Street is stealing from Main Street.

Moreover, Wall Street and the banks know damn well how they are destroying the middle class.

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