Name:   MartiniMan - Subject:   More bad economic news Date:   2/3/2016 12:28:35 PM

China calling their debt would be tantamount to cutting off their noses to spite their faces.  I think they much prefer the leverage they have and would be loathe to give it up, especially since their economy relies so much on our buying their products.  Like it or hate it, our economies are intertwined and as the U.S. economy goes, so goes theirs.  The political leadership in China has no desire having a populace up in arms.  

But your anectodal information is not encouraging for the economy.  That is the byproduct of having had such a weak recovery.  We have very little cushion to absorb another recession.  And the Fed has very few arrows left in their quiver to soften the landing.  For the first time in a long time I am seeing a number of articles discussing the potential for negative interest rates.  That is like crack cocaine, once you have that cheap money in the system it is very hard to extract yourself from that morasse.  Just ask the Japanese how that worked out for them.