Law-firm Loans Show Cracks

It's well known that Kyle Bass is ultra-bearish on Japan, as he's been calling for the country to undergo a catastrophic sovereign debt crisis for years, ever since the US financial crisis ended, really. In a new interview with the FT, he reiterates all of his points, namely that the government can't sustain its debt much longer, and that Japan can't count on domestic savers to keep the country afloat forever. He even commissioned a poll: Mr Bass says he commissioned a poll of 1,009 Japanese investors that asked: were your country to have a bond crisis and appeal to you to buy more JGBs, would you be likely to buy more or not? He says 8 per cent would buy, while 83 per cent responded that they would “run, not walk.” That choice is likely within two years, he says, though adds that “it’s naive for anyone to say that they can predict with any kind of accuracy the end of a 70-year debt supercycle.” Read the whole thing > Please follow Clusterstock on Twitter and Facebook.Join the conversation about this story »    

Let's just pause for a moment and reflect what a crazy week it's already been for gold and silver, and note that it's still early Tuesday. Both metals dropped hard the instant markets opened in Asia on Sunday evening (silver was especially hard hit). Then the metals strengthened a a bit after the initial drop, rallied a bit mid day, and then went parabolic. And then last night they rallied some more, jutted up sharply, before ultimately cooling down a bit. Just wild action that stands sharply apart from the rest of the market. Please follow Money Game on Twitter and Facebook.Join the conversation about this story »    

Two separate pieces of news bring some relief for battered plane-builder Boeing.

The chief executive of security firm G4S is to retire after a tumultuous year that saw the company fail to fulfill its Olympic contract.