The Fed has its pause. The ECB is going to conduct another T-LTRO. But of all the central bank responses to the “unexpected” global weakness of late 2018, the Chinese’s was supposed to be the leader. The most forceful pushback against a worldwide downturn was reported to have been the PBOC’s “powerful” RRR cuts. China’s central bank conducted two of them in January alone. China’s economic data in 2019, however, is putting to rest more than just the myth of RRR “stimulus.” There’s rebalancing. Green shoots. All of them up in flames now one-third of the way through this year. Weakness not only persists, it grows worse ... (full story)