In this week's Off the Cuff with Mish & Chris podcast, Mish and Chris discuss:
- Asian saber-rattling
- How serious is it?
- From here to QE-ternity
- And wither the dollar from here?
- Leading indicators lose steam
- The economy is slowing further.
- Intervention in oil prices?
- Recent trades look fishy.
Where to start this week?
From seemingly out of nowhere, a dispute over a few obscure rocky islands ignites jingoist fervor – and suddenly there are riots in the streets and diplomats fearing for their lives. How serious could this get? Surprisingly serious, if the governments allow it to, think Chris and Mish. The Chinese government may have ulterior motives here besides simple national pride and could be secretly fanning the flames of public indignation. But as the Japanese are in no position to have trade with such an important partner disrupted right now, hopefully a diplomatic accord can be reached that diffuses things.
Chris and Mish see the major nations of the world now engaged in a full-out game of "beggar thy neighbor," where they race to devalue their currencies in attempt to achieve an export market advantage. Such games cannot be played forever, but as long as they are, what will the implications be? When all countries print, can (hyper)inflation occur? 'No' and 'yes' are the answers. Since the dollar is priced vs. a basket of other currencies (namely the euro and the yen), it could actually strengthen despite the announcement of QE 3 if competing currencies are devalued at
by cmartenson 
