A Quick Run Around the Web -- August 30, 2015

• "Citigroup braces for world recession, calls for Corbynomics QE in China"--The Telegraph.

China has bungled its attempt to slow the economy gently and is sliding into “imminent recession”, threatening to take the world with it over coming months, Citigroup has warned.

Willem Buiter, the bank’s chief economist, said the country needs a major blast of fiscal spending financed by outright "helicopter" money from the bank to avert a deepening crisis. 

Speaking on a panel at the Council of Foreign Relations in New York, Mr Buiter said the dollar will “go through the roof” if the US Federal Reserve lifts interest rates this year, compounding the crisis for emerging markets.
Professor Zhiwu Chen from Yale University told the same event that China will be doing well if it can contain its slow-motion crisis to mere stagnation for the next 10 years, given the dangerous levels of debt in the system. 

“If the Chinese government is able to manage a Lost Decade with very low growth - or no growth - without an economic crisis, it will be a policy achievement,” he said. 

Prof Chen said a Western-style financial collapse in China is “highly unlikely” since the banks are largely government-owned and losses will be absorbed by the state. 

There is a loose parallel with Japan, where the economy slid into a deflationary quagmire and lost its economic dynamism but never suffered a full-blown financial crash. In Japan’s case the denouement was averted by keeping "zombie banks" on life-support. 

The colourful Mr Buiter - a former UK rate-setter - said China has bungled both fiscal and monetary policy, and is now “sliding into recession”. This would be fall in growth to less than 4pc on the “mendacious” figures published by Beijing, but in reality lower. 

 “They will respond too late to avoid a recession, which is likely to drag the global economy with it down to a global growth rate below 2pc, which is in my definition a global recession,” he said.

• An estimated 347 million firearms in the United States in 2012--Gun Watch. "The numbers do not account for reduction of the gun stock due to wear and tear, loss, destruction or illegal exportation; or increases of the stock from illegal importation, individual or illegal manufacture, or acquisition from military sources," nor those produced for the military. Probably one of the reasons that the U.S. is well below Europe and the U.K. when it comes to rates of violent crime.
• "Spy found dead in a bag 'had infuriated his MI6 bosses by illegally hacking into secret US data on Bill Clinton'"--The Daily Mail. I'm always amazed at the number of people associated with the Clintons that have conveniently ended up dead. 
• "Katrina: What the Media Missed"--Real Clear Politics. What the media missed, according to this story, is that the National Guard (which operated out of the Super Dome) and Coast Guard saved tens of thousands of lives, and did an excellent job. On the other hand, pretty much everything from the MSM was distorted if not completely fabricated.
• "Thoughts from the Ammo Line"--Powerline Blog. How the government controls us like a pimp controls his prostitutes. Plus this: "I believe one of the reasons that the super-rich, especially of inherited wealth, are so often leftist is because they REALIZE that they have not earned their wealth. That it is just a result of the “lottery” Dear Leader speaks of. And he should know."
• "Confirmed, LMT to supply NZDF with CQB16"--The Firearm Blog. Basically, New Zealand is replacing its AUG bullpup rifles with ARs. Just a few days ago, I was discussing with a friend how its seems that the bullpup combat rifle, in any iteration, has not fared very well. And the number of countries to be using a bullpup drops again.
• "Gear Review: Primary Arms 6X ACSS .22 LR Scope"--The Truth About Guns. A very favorable review of Primary Arms .22 rifle scope employing PA's Advanced Combat Sighting System (ACSS) reticle/range estimation system.
• "Hiker, 62, who went missing for NINE days in the Sierra Nevadas is found alive and reveals she crawled for days on broken bones in search of water"--The Daily Mail. She'd been hiking with a group from the Sierra Club. The article does not explain whether or how she became separated from the group, or why they had left her.
• "Improving The Deadliest Rifle In The World: The M1E Series (Light Rifle, Part III)"--The Firearms Blog. Describing attempts during WWII to improve the M1 Garand and transform it per the "light rifle" concept.
• "How to Build a Space Elevator From Scratch"--IEEE Spectrum. "Such a system, ISEC researchers believe, could eventually slash the cost of raising a kilogram of payload into geosynchronous orbit from roughly US $25,000 to $300 or less."