NY Times: An Exploding Pension Crisis Feeds Brazil’s Political Turmoil

„An exploding pension crisis here in Brazil, Latin America’s biggest country, is wreaking havoc on its public finances, intensifying a political struggle over the economy that already has the president fighting for survival. Brazilians retire at an average age of 54, and some public servants, military officials and politicians manage to collect multiple pensions totaling…

The US economy is at risk, and the warning is coming from ‚the lowest of the low‘

„If our analysis is correct, today’s elevated level of US investment-grade and high-yield credit spreads will persist, and default rates may rise materially through 2016,“ UBS’s Stephen Caprio said on Wednesday. „The implication for the US economy is that wide credit spreads and ascending downgrade and default risks will increase borrowing costs for US corporates.…

$3 trillion corporate credit crunch looms as debtors face day of reckoning, says IMF

„Emerging market companies have „over-borrowed“ by $3 trillion in the last decade, reflecting a quadrupling of private sector debt between 2004 and 2014, found the IMF’s Global Financial Stability Report. This dangerous over-leveraging now threatens to unleash a wave of defaults that will imperil an already weak global economy, said stark findings from the IMF’s…

ZH: The Unwind Of QE Means The „S&P Should Be Trading At Half Of Its Value“, Deutsche Bank Warns

„Since 2013, stocks rallied while disinflationary pressures were reinforced by a strong USD, low commodity prices and a decline in global demand. If pre-2013 coordination between the two is taken as a reference, then based on current stock prices breakevens should trade about 1.5% wider. This means the Fed should be hiking because inflation is…