Central Perk

vineri, 14 septembrie 2012

West Wing Week: 09/14/12 or "Eleven"

Your Daily Snapshot for
Friday, September 14, 2012

West Wing Week: 09/14/12 or "Eleven"

Welcome to the West Wing Week, your guide to everything that's happening at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. This week, the President and his administration commemorated the 11th anniversary of the September 11th attacks, and addressed the attack on the American embassy in Libya. We also took the "Rhodes Traveled" for a look back at the meaning of honoring 9/11. That's September 7th to September 13th or "Eleven."

Check out today's West Wing Week.

In Case You Missed It

Here are some of the top stories from the White House blog:

President Obama Discusses the Attack in Benghazi, Libya
President Obama condemns the attacks on an American diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya and praises the service of those who lost their lives.

Honoring Team USA at the White House
President Obama and the First Lady honor the Olympic and Paralympic teams at the White House.

President Obama's Rosh Hashanah Greeting
The President extends his warmest wishes to all those celebrating the Jewish High Holidays.

Today's Schedule

All times are Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).

9:25 AM: The President and the Vice President receive the Presidential Daily

10:05 AM: The President and the First Lady welcome the 2012 U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams to the White House

11:15 AM: Briefing by Press Secretary Jay Carney

12:30 PM: The President and the Vice President meet for lunch

1:25 PM: The President departs the White House en route Joint Base Andrews

2:15 PM: The President and Secretary Clinton will attend the Transfer of Remains Ceremony marking the return to the United States of the remains of the four Americans killed this week in Benghazi, Libya; the President and Secretary Clinton will deliver brief remarks

3:15 PM: The President arrives the White House

7:00 PM: The President attends a campaign event

Indicates that the event will be live-streamed on WhiteHouse.gov/Live

Get Updates

Stay Connected

This email was sent to e0nstar1.blog@gmail.com
Manage Subscriptions for e0nstar1.blog@gmail.com
Sign Up for Updates from the White House
Unsubscribe | Privacy Policy
Please do not reply to this email. Contact the White House

The White House • 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW • Washington, DC 20500 • 202-456-1111

Structured Social Sharing Formula - Whiteboard Friday

Posted: 13 Sep 2012 07:57 PM PDT

Posted by Dana Lookadoo

Sharing content via social media is simply the next step after hitting the "Publish" button. How do you ensure your shares on Facebook, Google+, and Twitter are optimized? With a little planning and coding, you can make them look their best so that they go viral and track effectiveness in analytics. In this Whiteboard Friday, Dana Lookadoo unpacks the Structured Social Sharing Formula (SSSF): 10 steps for optimizing Web pages and social shares. The process includes:

Marking up pages with microdata (Open Graph Protocol)
Best practices for formatting
How to find and use hashtags
Tagging URLs to track social referral data in analytics

Keep an eye on the blog next week for a supplemental post from Dana offering detailed steps from her Community Speaker presentation at Mozcon 2012. To learn more about social markup and tagging, download the free Structured Social Sharing Formula!

Video Transcription

"Hi Mozzers. All right. What we're going to talk about today is the structured social sharing formula, and I'm going to go over 10 best practices for rocking your SEO with a markup and how this is going affect Google+ and Facebook. So I'm going to run through these, and then we'll delve down a little bit.

So the first of your five items that you would cover are actually going to do with meta tags that are Open Graph protocol. We have the title tag and the description and the OG image and the type of the website and the URL.

Actually, in five of these, four of these are required. The title is one of the first required items, and we're going to break down that in a moment The meta description is not required, and the image is going to actually become your thumbnail image. The type has to do with your website type, and that's going to actually be default. If you don't put anything in there, they're going to assume that's a type value. The other values that you can look at are author, profile, book, video, and you can look more at OGP.me if you want to look up more about types. On your URL, that's your canonical URL. So it's your permalink. So that's pretty easy.

Then we're going to go over your UTM variables so that you can track your campaigns, and that way you're going to make sure that you're getting your social referral data. We'll talk about your share blurb that goes on Facebook and Google+.

Hashtags, we're going to delve into a little bit on best practices. We can't do a demo on here, but at least you'll get an idea of what to do and what not to do. Moving into the best practices for Twitter and then best of all on how to document and track this. I'm going to save that for last.

So in looking at that, let's break this down. So if you look over here, we have the anatomy of a share snippet. The elements on Facebook and Google+
are the same. You have your avatar, and then you have your name. So it's starts out with your share blurb about the post, and then as move into this, you're looking at . . . okay, here's your title tag, which is actually controlled right here by the OG title. That actually becomes an anchor link to your page, to your URL. So keep in mind those two are related.

Then your description, this could be your meta description from your page. You may want to copy it, but you're not limited to the same amount of space. So you have about 188 characters or less before Google+ will cut that off. Interestingly I have seen last week that about 453 characters on a description. So I don't know if Google is testing things or if I'm part of that test group, but keep it around 188 or less.

Talking about length on the title tag, that's actually . . . I saw 134. I can't imagine a 134 title. So just follow best practices for title. I go to about 80.

All right. So now we are at our image, so your OG image, and you want that to be square. You want it to be 150 x 150 is optimal. The minimum is 120 x 120. This is very important, because if you do not put in the proper image, you can actually put in the code. You could put this OG image directive in the code. Facebook will honor it. Let's say the image is too small and it's not 150 x 150. It may be 110 x 110. Then it will show up on Facebook, and you'll have an image, but Google+ either won't put anything, or they're going to draw another image to the page. If you have ads on your page, you may end up with an ad showing there instead. So this is where you can really rock your engagement because images are everything and people are looking at them. So that's important to get that right and remember how they're working.

One other thing I want to keep in mind in this is we're using Open Graph here and not Schema.org, Why use two tags? We're just doing this all in one. This is an all in one formula to do it all at one time.

All right. So now let's talk . . . . we're done with the five meta tags that are going to go in the head, and so let's talk actually about your UTM variables. Your UTM variables are actually going to start with you have your URL, and you're going to start with your source. So in this case, we're sharing it on Google+.

Then you're actually going to use your medium. So how are you doing it? The medium here we're sharing it on social, so that's the medium. Actually your campaign, this is a Whiteboard Friday. So by doing this, you have voila your social referral data. Keep in mind this is really important because you don't get this unless . . . you're not going to see that something came from Twitter unless it actually came from the Web itself. TweetDeck doesn't send this information. So this way you can keep track and you can track all of your social shares.

All right. We talked about the share blurb. But I want to go into that a little bit more, because on this share blurb, so what you're actually putting in the "What's on your mind" or "What's New" box, that's really important. Obviously, it's important for people reading it, but when this actually becomes in search plus your world for personalized search, that actually can become a SERP. So when that snippet is actually showing, guess what the title of it is? It's your blurb. So you may want to think SEO. You may want to frontload keywords. So think about this. This isn't just a blurb. There's actually some SEO benefit on personalized search.

Let's talk a little bit more about hashtags. As you're entering in your description, you can type in your description and type in the # sign on Google+, and you're going to see an autocomplete. This is SEO. You're typing in "#S" and you can see a list of related. Start over "#SE" and you're going to see SEO. But what's cool with this, a little pro tip, you're going to see what the latest trends are is what people are showing. So if you want to show up within those trends, you can use the hashtags.

Two more things on hashtags. Facebook, just don't do it. Facebook is not Twitter. On Twitter, you could use tagdef is one that has autocomplete. There's twubs. You can out hashtags.org.

All right. So let's move back and talk a little bit more about Twitter moving on in our formula here. You want to make sure that your tweets are retweetable, but what you want to start with is you want to do your campaign variables first, then create you short URL. So you've got this. You're entering all this. It may be bit.ly or it may be a custom URL shortener, and then as you're creating that, you're going to want to create the title of your post and then the bit.ly or the short URL, your at, your by, your at profile, and your hashtag. That whole length should be about 140 minus 5 minus the length of your profile. So at that point, that gives you enough room so that you have space, and voila you've got a retweetable tweet and you have your social referral data.

Okay. Last thing, document and track. I have a worksheet, and this was actually we're doing a Whiteboard Friday as part of MozCon, and I will be speaking about this tomorrow, on Friday. By the time you see this, it will be after the fact. You'll be able to download a worksheet, and that will be in the information below on the post that you will actually in that worksheet be able to enter in there will be a field for each of this information. You'll put in your campaign variables. It will automatically create your URL for you. All you have to do is cut and paste so that when you cut and paste your information into Google and Facebook, all you have to do is you could paste in your URL, and what Google and Facebook will do is they will parse the page and they'll look for those directives. You'll end up with a structured shared snippet.

I think that's about it for today, and thank you very much. It's been nice."

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

brightonSEO: Live Blog

Posted: 14 Sep 2012 01:50 AM PDT

Live from Brighton, and we’re really looking forward to hearing their insights and thoughts; all 19 of them! Doors opened at 9:00am and the first speaker is scheduled to speak at 10:00 am. Stay tuned.

We don’t have fancy auto-refreshes so you’ll need to refresh your browser to see the updates :-)

10:01 am: The first speaker is on stage, Dave Trott – Executive Creative Director at CSTTG will be talking about “Predatory Thinking”. Sounds intriguing. Must be similar to “Guerilla Marketing”. Dave’s using an analogy of pure maths and applied math with pure creativity and applied creativity.

Pure = theory, like the art you see in galleries, or poetry. Applied = practical, like advertising

Dave suggests that, when it comes to creativity, we follow the essential Bauhaus principle – form follows function.

In other words, everything we do needs to have a reason and try to solve a problem.

Practical creativity is to ensure what we do is remembered. Everything we do sits, naturally, within the context of our industry. What you need to do is distinguish yourself and what you’re doing. Don’t blend into the background; you need to stand out.

Predatory thinking is about getting ahead.

Dave talked about three stages of advertising:

Impact
Communication and
Persuasion.

Most marketers focus far more on Persuasion than on anything else. However, it would be far more useful for them to focus on Impact. This is because most advertising, 90% in fact, isn’t remembered at all. It fails at the Impact stage.

The key point here is that it doesn’t matter how persuasive you are if no-one remembers what you do.

The problem is that people are over-exposed to advertising. This means that the have very selective perception when it comes to what they see.

In fact, we are very binary. Ideas either stand out to us or they don’t. And if they don’t stand out then we simply forget about them.

So, in order to have Impact, you have to stand out. You have to be different in order to be remembered and so have any chance of success.

People are either opinion formers or opinion followers. There are, of course, far more opinion followers than opinion formers. You want to really engage with the opinion formers rather than opinion followers (particularly if you can't throw lots of money at your advertising and simply buy numbers) because they will disseminate the information and it will travel downwards to everyone else. This doesn’t happen if you’re only attracting opinion followers.

To get opinion formers interested you have to stand out and be different. That's what they’re looking for.

Dave’s now talking about how to solve problems you can’t solve.

He’s used several examples to show how to go about it. Here’s one:

People used to have a lot of chip pan fires. No matter how much information people saw about the dangers of leaving chip pans unattended and how bad chip pan fires were, it didn’t change their behaviour.

They looked at the effect this was having, and it was causing a huge number of fire brigade call-outs. So they changed the problem. They decided to try to minimise the number of fire brigade call-outs.

So they started a campaign to teach people how to put out chip pan fires. This resulted in a drop in chip pan fires of 40%.

What predatory thinking is about it changing problems you can’t solve into ones you can.

You’ve got to go upstream and work on a problem higher up.

It’s all about getting ahead!

Another great example is the iPod. When Steve Jobs created it, he’d invented what was, at the time, the best way to listen to music on the go. And, it was picked up by the coolest people.

However, the problem was that everyone who had one walked round with it in their pocket, so no-one knew they had it.

So Steve thought outside the box. He went upstream and thought “How can we make everyone who has an iPod noticeable?”

And what did he think up? Headphones. Everyone has to wear headphones and at the time everyone had identical, black ones.

So he made iPod headphones white.

Immediately, everyone who had an iPod became a walking advert for the product. Genius!

DO YOU SPEAK BRAND? Antony Mayfield

SEOs like to be diva's where there's always talk about when search is going to be dead.

There are adversarial dialogues between the different disciplines such as social vs SEO or Paid search vs. SEO etc. But people miss the opportunity of bringing all these elements together in order to create real value and real impact.

The most powerful thing about search is that it's a database of insight in to consumer's intent.

Lucky seven. Anthony explained how a woman used to be really fed up of searching for things like holidays or furniture and always getting the same, bland shops and results. So what she started doing was, when she'd done a search, go to page seven of the results and start looking there. She'd bypass all the optimised results and start with more random offbeat ones.

Apologies for the infrequent updates folks. The wifi at the dome is pretty horrendous. I’m actually stood outside updating this post via 3G at the minute. It’s the first coffee break. So we’ll probably freshen up a bit and come back for more updates.

Seth's Blog : If you want to get paid for your freelance work

If you want to get paid for your freelance work

...then access to tools is no longer sufficient. Everyone you compete with has access to a camera, a keyboard, a guitar. Just because you know how to use a piece of software or a device doesn't mean that there isn't an amateur who's willing to do it for free, or an up and comer who's willing to do it for less.

...then saying "how dare you" is no longer a useful way to cajole the bride away from asking her friend to take pictures at the wedding, or the local non-profit to have a supporter typeset the gala's flyer or to keep a rock star from inviting volunteers on stage.

...then you ought to find and lead a tribe, build a base of people who want you, and only you, and are willing to pay for it.

...then you need to develop both skills and a reputation for those skills that make it clear to (enough) people that an amateur solution isn't nearly good enough, because you're that much better and worth that much more.

...then you should pick yourself and book yourself and publish yourself and stand up and do your work, and do it in a way for which there are no substitutes.

It's true, if someone wants professional work, then he will need to hire professionals. But it's also true that as amateurs are happy to do the work that professionals used to charge for, the best (and only) path to getting paid is to redefine the very nature of professional work.

Scarcity is a great thing for those that possess something that's scarce. But when scarcity goes away, you'll need more than that.

• Email to a friend •

joi, 13 septembrie 2012

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Panic!
Desperation Bazooka Tactics; Gold Soars Following Huge Headfake
China's Shadow Banking System Collapses Exposing Numerous Ponzi Schemes; Implosion Reaches Critical Mass

Panic!

Posted: 13 Sep 2012 01:02 PM PDT

In my previous post Desperation Bazooka Tactics; Gold Soars Following Huge Headfake, I mentioned "This seems like desperation bazooka tactics. Specifically, the Fed is in a panic state over jobs."

I am not the only one to come to that conclusion. Saxo Bank economist Steen Jakobsen sent out a post moments ago, FED Did Panic......

They are now doing 'open ended' bond buying - no finite time or amount...hence this will go down as QE Extreme.

I remain of the view this is final phase...

I'm long stocks, gold, short us dollars next 24-48 hours but ..on the anniversary for LEHMAN... tonight could be the day where FED did too much.

Low yield and monetary policy stopped having an impact two years ago, tonight could be the night where after the rally low rates no longer impact stock and risky asset - the only cheap asset right now is: money ...every time this has been the case in history it has ended in bubble and tears.

Congratulations to Steen for predicting this outcome today. On a podcast with Chris Martenson yesterday, both of us stated the Fed would not do much this month but would at some point panic.

Well, panic the Fed did, and sooner rather than later.

Mish Interview With Eric King

Last evening, I had the pleasure of chatting with Eric King for about an hour regarding the state of the global economy and how central bankers would react.

The results are on King World News in a post released today before the FOMC announcement: Global Economic Plunge, Money Creation & Soaring Gold

Today Mish warned King World News that investors should prepare, "... for a big plunge in economic growth worldwide." Mish also said that despite the plunge in the global economy, "I expect to see gold breakout to the upside and I think we are starting to see that right now. The same thing is true for silver."

But first, here is what Mish, who runs the Global Economic Analysis site, had to say regarding the plunge in economic activity: "We are seeing a decline in the global economy. China has slowed down dramatically, so any commodity exporters which export to China are slowing down as well. We're already seeing this happen in countries like Australia. We are also starting to see the Australian housing market begin to crash."

Mish had this to say regarding gold: "I think that gold is about ready to blast higher. Now, the Fed has managed to stoke the stock market as well as inflate the corporate bond market.

But they [corporations] are not doing any more hiring, and Bernanke is puzzled over this. Well, he's puzzled over pushing on a string because people are still saddled with debt. Students are graduating with debt, but they are still unable to get jobs, so they are simply moving back home.

But Bernanke has ignited a rally in gold from around $800, to over $1,700 now. And we've seen the same thing in silver. We've also seen this in energy and food. But other commodities such as steel have plunged. This will impact the economies of exporting nations such as Australia and Canada very badly.

The bottom line is the monetary printing is out there, and gold is going to be the big beneficiary, and possibly silver as well. The chart of gold is beautiful. We have seen a perfect consolidation wedge forming for about a little over a year now.

I expect to see gold breakout to the upside and I think we are starting to see that right now. The same thing is true for silver. This big lift in gold recently has been because of what they are doing in the ECB.

God only knows what we are going to see from China. I expect all of the central banks to push on the string once more, but I don't expect to see any job creation as a result of that. Investors don't realize that we are in a global recession, but they will shortly.

Panic Over Jobs

So what is Bernanke panicked about? One word: "jobs". If you want a second word it's "recession".

I covered both aspects last Friday in "Yes Virginia, It's a Recession".

Recession Numbers Second Consecutive Month

Yesterday I was asked if the services ISM changed my view about the US being in recession. I responded that I wanted to see today's job report first.

Well I have seen it and the report is nothing short of a certified disaster.

Yes, Virginia, based on the household survey, and manufacturing reports, the regional Fed surveys the US is in recession.

The one survey that is different is the ISM services report. The question is why? This is speculation, but I believe ISM has too few companies in the survey, and perhaps large companies are still growing while medium and small-sized firms are not. The other possibility is the ISM report is an outlier for another reason.

Regardless, last month the the household survey had a decline of 195,000 jobs and this month the decline is 119,000. Thus, in the last two months, there are 314,000 fewer employed.

At turns, the household survey leads. I strongly suggest the economy has turned.

US Unemployment Rate -.2 to 8.1%

This month the number of people employed fell by 119,000.

In the last two months, the number of people employed fell by 314,000!

In the last year, the civilian population rose by 3,695,000. Yet the labor force only rose by 971,000.

This month the Civilian Labor Force fell by 368,000.

Last month, those "not" in the labor force increased by 348,000 to 88,340,000, another record high.

This month we set another record high with a whopping 581,000 dropping out of the labor force. If you are not in the labor force, you are not counted as unemployed.

In the last year, those "not" in the labor force rose by 2,723,000

Over the course of the last year, the number of people employed rose by 2,347,000.

Participation Rate fell .02 to 63.5%;

There are 8,031,000 workers who are working part-time but want full-time work, a decrease of 215,00. This one the only bright spot in the report.

Long-Term unemployment (27 weeks and over) was 5.033 million a decline of 152,000 (likely an artifact of the decline in the labor force).

Were it not for people dropping out of the labor force, the unemployment rate would be well over 11%.

Over the past several years people have dropped out of the labor force at an astounding, almost unbelievable rate, holding the unemployment rate artificially low. Some of this was due to major revisions last month on account of the 2010 census finally factored in. However, most of it is simply economic weakness.

I am going to reiterate my belief that the household survey tends to lead and today's panic suggests the Fed believes that as well. Here are two key Household Survey figures.

In the last two months employment dropped by 314,000.
In the last two months the labor force fell by 518,000 while those not in the labor force rose by an amazing 929,000!

Household Survey Data

click on chart for sharper image

In the last year, the civilian population rose by 3,695,000. Yet the labor force only rose by 971,000.

Those not in the labor force rose by 2,723,000 to yet another record high 88,921,000.

That is an amazing "achievement" to say the least, and one that has the Fed in panic mode.

Addendum:

Note to All Facebook Users: If you have not yet voted for your favorite charity (it costs nothing to vote), please do so. Chase is giving away $5 million to charity, and I have a cause that I support.

Please click on this this link: Facebook Users, I Have a Favor to Ask, then follow the instructions.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

Desperation Bazooka Tactics; Gold Soars Following Huge Headfake

Posted: 13 Sep 2012 10:23 AM PDT

The Fed came out blazing today with desperation bazooka tactics, not that it will matter one iota to jobs or housing (because it won't).

Specifically, the Fed announced it would ...

Increase Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS) at Pace of $40 Billion Per Month
Extend Operation Twist
Increase Longer-Term Securities by Total of $85 Billion Per Month Through December
Keep the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent
Anticipate that exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate are likely to be warranted at least through mid-2015.

Please consider a few snips from the FOMC Official Press Release.

To support a stronger economic recovery and to help ensure that inflation, over time, is at the rate most consistent with its dual mandate, the Committee agreed today to increase policy accommodation by purchasing additional agency mortgage-backed securities at a pace of $40 billion per month. The Committee also will continue through the end of the year its program to extend the average maturity of its holdings of securities as announced in June, and it is maintaining its existing policy of reinvesting principal payments from its holdings of agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities in agency mortgage-backed securities. These actions, which together will increase the Committee's holdings of longer-term securities by about $85 billion each month through the end of the year, should put downward pressure on longer-term interest rates, support mortgage markets, and help to make broader financial conditions more accommodative.

The Committee will closely monitor incoming information on economic and financial developments in coming months. If the outlook for the labor market does not improve substantially, the Committee will continue its purchases of agency mortgage-backed securities, undertake additional asset purchases, and employ its other policy tools as appropriate until such improvement is achieved in a context of price stability. In determining the size, pace, and composition of its asset purchases, the Committee will, as always, take appropriate account of the likely efficacy and costs of such purchases.

To support continued progress toward maximum employment and price stability, the Committee expects that a highly accommodative stance of monetary policy will remain appropriate for a considerable time after the economic recovery strengthens. In particular, the Committee also decided today to keep the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent and currently anticipates that exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate are likely to be warranted at least through mid-2015.

Desperation Bazooka Tactics

This seems like desperation bazooka tactics. Specifically, the Fed is in a panic state over jobs.

It also leaves me wondering, if this does not work (and it won't), what else can the Fed do?

Promise to hold rates low forever? Buy every treasury and agency?

Gold's Response

After the market makers cleared every stop to the downside, gold blasted higher.

That is one hell of a downside headfake, to the tune of $40, after which gold moved $75 in the other direction.

US Dollar's Response

Curiously, the US dollar barely budged in comparison, but is heading lower after initial wild gyrations in both directions.

In contrast, gold never looked back following the initial and certainly unwarranted $40 drop.

Addendum:

Note to All Facebook Users: If you have not yet voted for your favorite charity (it costs nothing to vote), please do so. Chase is giving away $5 million to charity, and I have a cause that I support.

Please click on this this link: Facebook Users, I Have a Favor to Ask, then follow the instructions.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

China's Shadow Banking System Collapses Exposing Numerous Ponzi Schemes; Implosion Reaches Critical Mass

Posted: 13 Sep 2012 01:07 AM PDT

A collapse of property schemes, commodity schemes, and other investments schemes in China is well underway. The Ponzi schemes all had one thing in common: they needed an ever-growing pool of suckers to pay the returns promised to investors.

Well, the pool of greater fools finally ran out, and Shadow Bankers Vanished Leaving China Victims Seeing Scams

China's slowest economic growth in three years and a slumping property market, where many so-called shadow-banking investments are parked, are squeezing millions of Chinese who have invested the money of friends and acquaintances chasing higher yields to honor those payments. The slowdown also is putting pressure on the government to rein in private lending to avoid a spate of defaults that could increase the number of victims and lead to social unrest.

Suicide, Bankruptcy

The shadow bankers are now disappearing, committing suicide or reneging on agreements, leaving thousands of victims in their wake. In the first half of the year, more than 58,000 lawsuits involving disputes over 28.4 billion yuan in private lending were filed in Zhejiang province, where Wenzhou is located, up 27 percent from the same period in 2011 and the most in five years, according to the provincial supreme court. One-fifth of the cases were in Wenzhou, where authorities have set up a special court to handle the surge.

Private-lending victims nationwide filed more than 600,000 lawsuits valued at 110 billion yuan in 2011, an increase of 38 percent from the previous year. In the first half of 2012, the number of filings rose 25 percent to 376,000, according to People's Court, a newspaper run by China's Supreme Court.

In Wenzhou, an export hub where almost 90 percent of families have taken part in underground lending, more than 100 people have fled, committed suicide or declared bankruptcy since August 2011, and at least 800 lending brokers have gone bankrupt, Xinhua News Agency reported in May. Home prices there declined 16 percent in July compared with a year earlier, the fifth consecutive monthly decline, according to the National Bureau of Statistics of China.

Banks also are feeling the pinch. The industry's nonperforming loans increased for three consecutive quarters through June to 456.4 billion yuan, the longest streak of deterioration in eight years, according to the China Banking Regulatory Commission.

Loans overdue more than one day jumped 27 percent in the first half at the nation's five largest lenders, including Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., the country's biggest, and Bank of Communications Co., according to data compiled by Bloomberg based on semi-annual earnings statements.

Implosion Reaches Critical Mass

China's shadow banking is not a new topic, and the implosion now appears to have reached critical mass. Here are a few more Bloomberg articles.

China Shadow Bankers Go Online as Peer-to-Peer Sites Boom

China Slowdown Stymies Plan to Curb Shadow-Banking Risks

China's Top Court Suspends Death Sentence for 'Rich Sister' Wu

Shadow Banks on Trial as China's Rich Sister Faces Death

China Credit Squeeze Prompts Suicides

China to 'Strictly Control' Shadow Banking Risks, Liu Says

Addendum:

Note to All Facebook Users: If you have not yet voted for your favorite charity (it costs nothing to vote), please do so. Chase is giving away $5 million to charity, and I have a cause that I support.

Please click on this this link: Facebook Users, I Have a Favor to Ask, then follow the instructions.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

vineri, 14 septembrie 2012

West Wing Week: 09/14/12 or "Eleven"

Structured Social Sharing Formula - Whiteboard Friday

Structured Social Sharing Formula - Whiteboard Friday

Video Transcription

brightonSEO: Live Blog

brightonSEO: Live Blog

Seth's Blog : If you want to get paid for your freelance work

If you want to get paid for your freelance work

More Recent Articles

joi, 13 septembrie 2012

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Pagini

Persoane interesate

Arhivă blog

vineri, 14 septembrie 2012

Video Transcription

More Recent Articles

joi, 13 septembrie 2012

Pagini

Persoane interesate

Arhivă blog

Subscribe to