The China Money Report

China is demanding North Korea release a Chinese fisherman
captured in Chinese Waters. These cases are happening more and
more often. Can North Korea even control its own borders anymore?
Is the threat of a NATO attack on the hermit kingdom nothing
more than a last ditch effort to keep control of the country?

Chinese fisherman captured
Yu Xuejun, who wasn’t aboard the boat, first publicized the seizure on
his microblog late Saturday saying that North Koreans seized his boat
on May 5 in Chinese waters and that they demanded a 600,000 yuan
($100,000) ransom. Yu, posting on a verified Tencent Weibo account,
said he was asking for help from Internet users and China’s Foreign
Ministry. His post was reposted and commented on more than 12,000 times.
In another plea for help on Monday, Yu wrote on his blog that he
received another call from “the North Korean side” on Sunday night,
still demanding money.

North Korean Missile test
North Korea fired another short-range missile into the sea off its
eastern coast on Monday, extending its series of launches to five
missiles over the last three days, South Korea’s defense ministry said

“The North Korean armed forces’ exercises to suppress nuclear war
threats from the U.S. and the South Korean puppets are an uncontestable
legal right of a sovereign country. Despite that, the U.S. and the
puppets are running wild on using the rocket launch exercises on the
18th and 19th against the Republic (of North Korea),” the Korean Central
News Agency said in a dispatch attributed to a body that handles inter-
Korean affairs.

So much for the Chinese property bubble.

CNBC
China’s property investment rose 21.2 percent in the January-April
period from the year earlier, government data showed on Monday.

Many areas of the world are still called developing..meanwhile the U.S.
is held up as the most powerful, productive economy on the planet.
For anyone who has actually spent time outside of the U.S. in the last
2 decades this just doesn’t make sense anymore. The American GDP continues
to rise as cities continue to crumble. Stock markets hit new highs as food
stamp usage also hits records.

The American illusion that debt,credit,and money printing policies of
the government have created prosperity is only seen in Wall Street and D.C.
For the rest of us…well, you be the judge.

Pics:
Detriot, Cleveland, American Train System, Beijing, Chengdu, Chinese Trains)

Things here are not bright, but they are not collapsing either.
In fact, considering you need to pay $12,000 for a license plate and
the country is still selling 20 million cars a year, I would consider
things quite strong. And home transaction and sales are up despite
a new 20% capital gains tax and a total lock-down on the real estate
market.

Notice how Reuters forecast is a full 40% below actual data. The media
powers in the west will continue to try ad sing a “China is crashing song”.
Anything to distract attention away from the real story. The real real story
being A crumbling Western civilization being eaten alive by paper printing
oligarchs and their paid minions in government. An economy built on a war
machine and handouts.

CNBC
China posted strong trade numbers on Wednesday that helped ease some of
the fears about a slowdown in the Asian giant. Exports jumped by 14.7
percent in April from a year earlier, government data showed on Wednesday,
higher than the 10.3 percent growth forecast by a Reuters poll.
Imports for the month grew 16.8 percent, also surpassing expectations of
a 13.9 percent rise. The country registered a trade balance of $18.16
billion, versus forecast of $15.1 billon.

U.S. Federal Student loan rates going up to 6.8%! So ……
0% rates for Wall Street Gambling houses, and nearly 7% for students.

Rates for student loans to double July 1
By Steve Rosen
Kansas City Star
14 Comments
Now would be a good time to watch interest rates — and Congress —
if you’re planning on tapping into the federal student loan program
to send your incoming freshman to college. That’s because rates on new
subsidized Stafford loans are scheduled to double July 1, from a fixed
3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. Stafford loans, which don’t require
repayment until six months after leaving school, account for more
than a third of federal student aid.

The U.S. Public Interest Research Group, a consumer advocacy
organization, estimates a doubling of interest rates could add $1,000
more to the cost of the loan per year per borrower. There’s some confusion
surrounding the potential impact of a rate increase. It would only hit
students taking out new subsidized Stafford loans from midyear on.
Students with existing subsidized Stafford loans would not to see a
rate increase.

If this sounds familiar, it’s because the same warning over a possible
doubling of rates came last year until Congress — in the midst of an
election year — granted a one-year reprieve on the rate increase.
Make no mistake; 3.4 percent is a great rate. On the other hand, 6.8 percent
is not so good when most interest rates are at historic lows. But Congress
has estimated that the double-down would generate an additional $6 billion
in income to federal coffers.

There may be yet another 11th-hour rescue this spring. President Barack
Obama’s budget plan included a proposal to shift to a variable interest
rate on the Stafford loan program. The variable rate would be pegged to
the government’s cost of borrowing, and it would be reset every year.
I wouldn’t count on anything more than another short-term, midsummer fix
coming out of Congress. Given that college admissions letters and financial
aid packages are starting to land, there’s not much that families in the
graduating class of 2013 can do

From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130506/BIZ01/305060313#ixzz2SZJJ6s5r

Australian Expats Take Note – Inactive Australian Bank Accounts-
Action Required Before the 31st of May 2013

The Government has introduced laws allowing the Australian Securities
and Investments Commission (ASIC) to transfer money from bank accounts
that have had no activity for three years. Banks and other authorised
deposit taking institutions are required to submit to ASIC details of
any bank accounts that have had no activity for the past three years
by 31 May 2013. Under the new laws, ASIC are able to shift the account
balances of inactive accounts to the Government. Some reports estimate
this measure will net the Federal Government over $100 Million this year.

Account holders will be able to reclaim monies from the Government, but
this will no doubt be a time consuming process and small account balance
holders may just ignore it. We expect this may affect a variety of clients
including Australian expats that have funds sitting in Australian bank
accounts. To prevent this from occurring, bank account holders should
review their accounts and ensure some activity takes place before 31 May
2013. For accounts that need to remain open, a small deposit or withdrawal
should be sufficient activity to prevent the Government from transferring
your money. We understand that bank fees and interest are not counted as
activities on the accounts, so some positive action is required by the
account holder. Account holders must take action before 31 May 2013 to
prevent the Government from transferring these balances.

The cost of renting a house in Beijing is predicted to rise by 10% a
year, the state-run China News Service reports on its website.

Citing statistics compiled by local real estate company Home Link,
CNS reported that the average rental price in Beijing is 55.7 yuan
(US$9) per square meter. Renting a 60-square-meter flat will cost
3,300 yuan (US$530) per month, yet the monthly price for a downtown
flat will be 4,500 yuan (US$725). High-end apartments will cost around
167 yuan (US$27) per square meter, and for serviced flats with
facilities similar to those of luxury hotel rooms, the price will be
236 yuan (US$38) per square meter. That equals out to approximately
14,000 yuan (US$2,250) per month for a 60-square-meter space.

The prices are far beyond the means of most of the city’s residents,
but for landlords the monthly returns they currently maker are
insignificant compared to the prices they paid to buy the houses.
One landlord bought an 80-square-meter apartment for 3 million yuan
(US$483,000), and rents it out for 5,500 yuan (US$900) per month.
He makes roughly 50,000 yuan US$8,000) from his apartment per year,
with the remaining money going to a housing agency which finds tenants,
and on taxes and utilities.

“That return is only 1.7% of my total investment in the house and less
than the interest rates paid by banks on deposits. It would take me
60 years to get real returns on my investment,” said the landlord.

As a result rents have risen by 13%, 19% and 11.1% over the past
three years, from 2010 to 2012, and it is predicted that rents will
continue to increase 10% annually in the near future, far more than
the rate at which wages are expected to rise.

Want China Times
Diaoyutai warplane escort was a message to US: Duowei

China demonstrated its resolve to assert its sovereignty claim to the
disputed Diaoyutai (Diaoyu or Senkaku) islands against the challenge of
Japan and the United States when it sent a fighter escort of 40 fighters
to accompany eight naval vessels to ward off a landing by Japanese
nationalists on Apr. 23, says Duowei News, an outlet operated by overseas
Chinese.

As the incident took place during the visit to Beijing by General Martin
Dempsey, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, the deployment of
advanced fighters such as the Su-27, Su-30 and J-10 was a message to the
United States that China will not make any concessions on what it sees as
a core issue of territorial integrity. Dempsey was invited by China’s
Central Military Committee to visit between Apr. 21 and 25 to discuss
tensions on the Korean peninsula. Beijing also took the chance however
to bring the issue of the disputed islands in the East China Sea to the
table.

While Dempsey reasserted that the United States takes no position
regarding the sovereignty of the islands, he reiterated that the US is
bound by the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security with Japan to
defend Japanese-held territory. Chinese officials said the heightened
tensions with Japan were initiated by Tokyo when it nationalized the
islands last September.

Duowei News believes the new US secretary of state, John Kerry, will
take a different approach to his predecessor Hillary Clinton, a firm
supporter of Japanese control over the islands. Kerry on a recent visit
to Tokyo maintained that the United States recognizes that the islands
are currently under Japanese control but blamed both Tokyo and Beijing
for the recent conflict. The US opposes any unilateral or coercive action
that aims to change the status quo on the Senkaku islands, Kerry said.

With his use of the word “unilateral,” Kerry was criticizing the Japanese
government for upsetting the balance of power in the region through
nationalizing the islands, Duowei said, while the use of the term “coercive”
meanwhile was a warning to the Chinese government not to attempt to reclaim
the islands by force. Kerry’s attitude shows that the United States will
no longer show undue favor to Japan, according to Duowei