<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="REUTERS/Stefanos Rapines" title_caption="A man gestures as he casts his ballot at a polling station at the village of Anogeia in the island of Crete, Greece July 5, 2015. Greeks voted on Sunday whether to accept or reject the tough terms of an aid offer to stave off financial collapse, in a referendum that may determine their future in Europe's common currency." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5599b446dd0895ac738b4593-960/rtx1j2yg.jpg"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>There is another key fact that the Greeks are keenly aware of (but which everyone else has forgotten). This debt was initially <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/greek-debt-crisis-how-goldman-sachs-helped-greece-to-mask-its-true-debt-a-676634.html">owed to private investment banks, like Goldman Sachs</a>. But the IMF and the ECB made the suicidal decision to let those private banks transfer that debt to EU insitutions and the IMF to "rescue" Greece. As Business Insider reported back in April, <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/cigi-paper-says-ecb-president-trichet-blocked-imf-debt-relief-to-greece-2015-4">former ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet insisted that the debt transfer take place</a>:</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">The ECB president "blew up," according to one attendee. "Trichet said, 'We are an economic and monetary union, and there must be no debt restructuring!'" this person recalled. "He was shouting."</p><p>The result was that <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/cigi-paper-says-ecb-president-trichet-blocked-imf-debt-relief-to-greece-2015-4">the ECB made this catastrophically stupid deal with Greece</a>, according to our April report:</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">And so there was no restructuring agreed for Greece. The country paid off its immediate debts to the private financial sector - investment banks, basically - and replacement debt was laid onto European taxpayers. The government agreed to a package of harsh government spending cuts and structural reforms in exchange for loans totalling €110 billion over three years.</p><p>Trichet made a colossal, elementary mistake. The right place for risky debt<em> by definition</em> is in the private markets, like Goldman. The entire point of private debt investment is that those creditors are prepared for a haircut. The risk absolutely should <em>not</em> be borne by central banks who rely on taxpayer money for bailouts.</p><p>In fact, had Trichet made the opposite decision - and left the Greek debt with Goldman <em>et al</em> - then today's vote would be a footnote rather than a headline in history. "Goldman Sachs takes a bath on Greek debt." Who cares? Goldman shareholders and clients, surely. But it would not have triggered a crisis at the heart of the EU.</p><p>Now Italy, Spain and Portugal are watching Greece closely, and thinking, hey, maybe we can get out of this mess too.</p><p>Now, before we all start singing "The Red Flag" and breaking <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmvaZEz2GgU">out old videos of "The Young Ones"</a> in celebration, let's inject a note of realism. Greece isn't actually a country full of crazy socialists who don't understand how the FX markets work. In fact, a huge chunk of its tax collection problems stem from the fact that there are <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/greeces-former-tax-collection-chief-harry-theoharis-explains-tax-evasion-problem-2015-7">two and a half times more self-employed and small business people in Greece</a> than there are in the average country. And small businesses are expert at avoiding tax, <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/greeces-former-tax-collection-chief-harry-theoharis-explains-tax-evasion-problem-2015-7">Greece's former tax collector told Business Insider's Mike Bird recently</a>.</p><p>Conservatives who hate paying taxes and who urge small businesses to pursue tax avoidance strategies take note: Your dream just came true in Greece.</p><p>If Greece was more socialist - more like Germany, with its giant corporations that have massive unionised workforces paying taxes off their payrolls - then tax collection would be a lot higher in Greece.</p><p>Greece is now likely an international pariah on the debt markets. It may have to start printing its own devalued drachma currency. It will have no access to credit. Sure, olive oil, feta and raki will suddenly become incredibly cheap commodities on the export markets. Tourism in Greece is about to become awesome. But mostly it will be awful. Unemployment will increase as Greece's economy implodes.</p><p>But the awfulness will be Greece's alone. Greece is now on its own path. It is deciding its own fate.</p><p>There is something admirable about that.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/interesting-facts-about-north-korea-2015-5">11 mindblowing facts about North Korea</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="U5cm1rbzr6xsyLAnNsj2Bl5wIClmUX-Q" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

GREECE JUST TAUGHT CAPITALISTS A LESSON ABOUT WHAT CAPITALISM REALLY MEANS

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="David McNew/Getty" title_caption="Virgin Group chair Sir Richard Branson." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54404891eab8ea565d195059-960/richard-branson-150.jpg"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span>David McNew/Getty</span></p><p class="caption">Virgin Group chair Sir Richard Branson.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Whether he's showing up to a press event dressed as revolutionary Che Guevara or kite surfing across the English Channel, Virgin Group chairman Richard Branson seems to really enjoy his life.</p>
<p>And it's translated into an eclectic empire of companies under the Virgin name, including airlines, a bank, and an upcoming hotel chain. He's a self-made billionaire who dropped out of high school and has never stopped doing things differently in his 40-year-plus career.</p>
<p>In his new book "The Virgin Way: Everything I Know About Leadership," Branson breaks down the top 10 rules that have motivated him every step of the way. We've explained them below:</p>
<h3>1. Follow your passions.</h3>
<p>Branson has never been someone to back down from an idea because others criticized him for it and admires those who take the risk on something extraordinary.</p>
<p>That said, Branson never jumps into a project that will ruin him if it fails. It's a lesson he learned from his father, who allowed him to drop out of school to start a magazine as long as he sold enough advertising to cover the cost of printing.</p>
<p>He uses the investing term "protecting the downside" to describe this limiting of risk, and it's how he convinced his business partners to join him in making the huge leap into the airline industry in 1984. They could trust him to pursue this seemingly ridiculous idea since he got Boeing to agree to take back Virgin's one 747 jet after a year if the business wasn't operating as planned.</p>
<h3>2. Do some good.</h3>
<p>Branson's a firm believer in philanthropy and has signed Bill Gates' and Warren Buffett's <a href="http://givingpledge.org/">Giving Pledge</a>, a promise to donate at least half of his fortune to charity.</p>
<p>He recommends charitable works as <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-importance-of-charity-from-thrive-2014-4">a great way to unite employees</a>, and it's why he gets large groups of Virgin employees to run the New York and London marathons to raise money for their favorite charities.</p>
<h3>3. Believe in your business.</h3>
<p>"A passionate belief in your business and personal objectives can make all the difference between success and failure. If you aren't proud of what you're doing, why should anybody else be?" Branson writes.</p>
<h3><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right click-to-enlarge"><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Christopher Lee/Getty" title_caption="Dressing up to run the London Marathon takes care of rules 2 and 4." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5441507a6bb3f71a36f1b8bb-960/richard-branson-153.jpg"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span>Christopher Lee/Getty</span></p><p class="caption">Dressing up to run the London Marathon takes care of rules 2 and 4.</p></div><p></p></div></h3>
<h3>4. Have fun.</h3>
<p>Branson says that the heart that unites all of the disparate companies under the Virgin name is a dedication to fun. "Fun is one of the most important - and underrated - ingredients in any successful venture. If you're not having fun, then it's probably time to call it quits and try something else," he writes.</p>
<p>Sometimes he's taken the fun too far, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/richard-branson-arrested-for-prank-2014-10">as when he was arrested in the '90s for a prank</a> against his business partner gone wrong. But he has no regrets.</p>
<p>He recommends breaking down barriers in your business' corporate hierarchy through parties and other events to keep employees comfortable and open to sharing ideas.</p>
<h3>5. Don't give up.</h3>
<p>Whether he's developing a commercial space flight line or <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/richard-branson-on-hot-air-ballooning-2014-10">breaking a world record in a hot air balloon</a>, Branson is always in pursuit of a difficult challenge to overcome.</p>
<p><span>Like any other entrepreneur, h</span>e's failed at times - like when he tried to take on Coca-Cola with Virgin Cola or had to close the Virgin Megastore - but he's always moved on to another venture, all the wiser.</p>
<p>Not all bets can result in a huge success, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't make them.</p>
<h3>6. Listen more and talk less.</h3>
<p>While growing up with dyslexia, Branson developed a habit of writing things down so that he could remember them. It's a practice he says he has maintained since childhood, and so <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/richard-branson-productivity-hack-2014-9">he never goes anywhere without a physical notebook</a>.</p>
<p>He says it has become his secret weapon as a businessman, since he is constantly making note of what others say, in addition to jotting down ideas as soon as they come to him.</p>
<h3>7. Make room for personal time through delegation.</h3>
<p>"The art of delegation is one of the key skills any entrepreneur must master," Branson writes. The most successful leaders know that they do not have the time or learning capacity to excel at every aspect of their company and thus hire people to take care of things they're either not good at or should not be wasting time on.</p>
<p>"It also gives you time to spend with your family, which is really the most important thing of all," he says.</p>
<h3><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_left click-to-enlarge"><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Courtesy of Portfolio" title_caption="Richard Branson's new book." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/540f3654ecad04bd3cdc85f2-960/the_virgin_way%20-%20jacket%20image%20resized.jpg"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Virgin-Way-Everything-Leadership/dp/1591847370/">Courtesy of Portfolio</a></span></p><p class="caption">Richard Branson's new book.</p></div><p></p></div></h3>
<h3>8. Go out and meet people.</h3>
<p>Don't be someone who gets stuck in front of a computer all day. Push yourself to get lunch with coworkers; grab coffee with someone in your industry.</p>
<p>You'll have no chance of rising through the ranks or getting your own company recognition if you don't actively build relationships in person.</p>
<h3>9. Communicate among all levels of your company.</h3>
<p>Branson doesn't believe in barriers between levels of employees, and thinks that a CEO should never forget that they are defined by their team.</p>
<p>He points to <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/adambvary/inside-steve-jobs-mindblowing-pixar-campus#ln1p9">the Pixar campus</a>, which is designed to make it easier for employees from different parts of the company to run into each other, allowing for the chance of an exciting new collaboration to arise.</p>
<h3>10. Be happy.</h3>
<p>To Branson, his $5 billion wouldn't mean anything if he didn't actually enjoy what he was doing. He sees success as a constant pursuit and indulgence of happiness. It's why he has his own private island.</p>
<p>But, he writes, "as long as you are surrounded by the people you love and doing what you love, it really doesn't matter where you are."</p>

Richard Branson's 10 Rules For Being A Great Leader

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Petar Kujundzic</span></p><p class="caption">An honour guard stand in formation in front of a great wall painting during an official welcoming ceremony for South Sudan's President Salva Kiir Mayardit at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing</p></div><p></p></div></div>China is using cash to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/china-wont-influence-stock-market-2015-8">prop up its stock market</a>. It is injecting funds into the economy to try and spur growth. It is trying to manage the<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/china-just-devalued-its-currency-2015-8"> devaluation of the yuan</a>. </p><p>Despite all of that chaos, observers take comfort from the knowledge that the country has $3.6 trillion in foreign-exchange currency reserves to pay for all of it. </p><p>But what if it doesn't actually have access to all that money?</p><p>That is something that Charlene Chu of Autonomous Research, the most sought-after China analyst in the world, posited in a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/charlene-chu-doomsday-scenario-2015-8">research note last month</a>.</p><p>Her basic premise is very simple. There's a difference between the foreign-exchange reserves China has (yes, $3.6 trillion) and the foreign-exchange reserves it can use.</p><p>That latter number is harder to understand, but what we do know is that it's a not a simple $3.6 trillion in cash-on-hand. In fact it could be far less.</p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">And if it is, then China may have less time to plug the holes in its economic ship than everyone thinks.</span></p><h3>An era of outflows</h3><p>Before we get into that, though, you've got to understand what has been happening to China's foreign-exchange reserves for the past year or so.</p><p>China's reserves have been dropping at a rapid rate since 2013. Since then it has lost about $750 billion to capital flight as investors have grown wary of China's growth model. Goldman Sachs said in a July note "that capital outflows have become very sizable and now eclipse anything we've seen in the recent past."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>It's clear from Chu's note that she does not believe this trend will end anytime soon. <strong>In fact she calculates that by 2018 all of China's excess reserves - cash that it has on hand to use immediately - could be gone.</strong></p><p>Now the situation is likely more dramatic. Chu's note was written before the country devalued the yuan - a measure which is sure to spur capital flight as investors convert their cash into a currency that isn't losing value.</p><p>When she wrote the note last month, Chu posited that the government only has around $667 billion in excess foreign-exchange reserves to toss around out of $3.6 trillion.</p><p>She calculated that by factoring in precautionary cash requirements the government needs to keep on hand, as well as <span>almost $900 billion in illiquid assets that it can't access immediately. </span></p><p>Those illiquid assets mostly consist of investments in things like natural resources and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. </p><h3>To the rescue</h3><p>The rest of China's foreign-exchange reserves can be put to work, which is exactly what the government has been doing.</p><p>On Tuesday <a href="https://twitter.com/george_chen/status/633673852380299264">it injected</a> $48 billion into the China Development Bank and $45 billion into the Export-Import Bank of China.</p><p>And given the crisis at hand there will be more work to do. Analysts polled by Bloomberg think it will take an additional $40 billion a month to keep the yuan where the PBOC wants it through 2015. So add that to the pile.</p><p>Also, we don't know exactly how much money the government is using the prop up the stock market, but it's probably a pretty penny. Rallies like the one we saw on Wednesday - when the Shanghai Composite started the day down 5% only to rally gloriously, ending the day up 1.24% - don't come cheap.</p><h3><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Investing.com</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Murky stuff</h3><p>Business Insider reached out to another expert to see if there might be more to consider in terms of how much of China's reserves can used in the event of an emergency, and we got a complicated answer - one that only reinforce that the scariest, most mysterious factor in the world of money is always time.</p><p>Professor Christopher Balding, a political economist at Peking University, pointed out that <span>the China Investment Corporation actually borrowed most of its capital from the PBOC in the form of USD bonds.</span></p><p><span>"<span>I don't know the specific amount, but it is probably fair to say that that compromises almost 20-25% of the PBOC reserves," he said.</span></span></p><p>Of course, if you're the Chinese government you might already be working as quickly as possible (remember, time is everything) to convert illiquid assets into cash you can hold. But even with assets as liquid as US Treasuries, that work is not as easy as you might think.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>China Photos/Getty Images</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Balding put it to us like this: "<span>If you believe that US Treasuries are less than completely liquid, you are probably almost at 50% of the PBOC reserves being less than completely liquid," he wrote in an e-mail to Business Insider.  </span></p><p><span>"What I mean by the Chinese [US] Treasury holdings is this: a) if China is just going to sell USD cash to prevent RMB from falling, they can sell USD cash really anywhere in the world. However, b) if they want to sell their US Treasuries in any significant amount, they have to sell the Treasuries to obtain the USD cash and then sell USD cash to maintain [the yuan]."</span></p><p><span>That kind of movement in the market would be detected by traders around the world the same way sharks smell blood in the water. </span></p><p>"If China really moved to dump large amounts of Treasuries rapidly," Balding continued, "that would really cause problems and be detected. They are probably liquidity constrained."</p><p>But they're also obviously time constrained.</p><h3><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">A customer stands in front of a wall bearing a framed image of Cuban revolutionist Che Guevara and a clock with a picture of deceased Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong at the neo-Maoist </p></div><p></p></div></div>Don't say it...</h3><p>So the real danger here is in an emergency - a stock slide, a property market bust, a surge in capital flight.</p><p>One thing that will contribute to capital flight is a weakening yuan. If people think the Chinese currency is going to keep losing value, they're going to want to convert it into something else, like dollars or euros.</p><p>"<span>The risk is that depreciation triggers capital flight, dealing a blow to the stability of China's financial system. Our calculation is that a 1 percent yuan depreciation against the dollar triggers about $40 billion in capital flight," Bloomberg economist Tom Orlik wrote in a recent note.</span></p><p><span>Another measure that could encourage capital flight is a rate cut. China has done four since last fall and Wall Street fully expects another one. In fact rumors that a cut could be coming as early as this weekend helped fuel China's stock market rally on Wednesday.</span></p><p><span>A rate cut means that money in China will yield less for investors - another reason for them to take their money out of the system.</span></p><p>If capital flight kicks up dramatically, that's when China might have to enact some capital controls.</p><p>But you know the first rule of capital controls.</p><p>Never talk about capital controls.</p><p>That only scares people.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/aerial-video-explosion-blast-site-tianjin-china-2015-8">New aerial footage shows aftermath of explosion in China</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="tkdzUxdzqidr5j3bDhTKNZS1v2q3Z4nZ" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

The force field protecting China's economy isn't as strong as you think

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Gu Boming, who rears flies, displays flies at his farm in Tongxiang of Jiaxing, Zhejiang province December 29, 2010.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Chinese markets on Friday led the world in a hair-raising sell off that continues to this moment.</p><p>The Shanghai Composite, after already taking a beating during July's sell off, has now erased its gains for 2015.</p><p>The government's measures to stop the bleeding didn't stop it earlier this summer, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/china-wont-influence-stock-market-2015-8">and they don't seem to be stopping it now</a>.</p><p>But that doesn't mean the government has stopped trying to use its $3.6 trillion in foreign-exchange reserves to calm the chaos. And that huge number has been a comfort to observers around the world.</p><p>But the true picture of China's fortress foreign-exchange reserve pile is actually far more complicated than that. China's reserves have been taking a hit from massive capital outflows for months now. Over the last seven weeks alone, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11817185/Record-capital-flight-from-China-as-industrial-slump-drags-on.html">$190 billion</a> has left the country.</p><p>This is the number to watch. With every month, that reserve pile dwindles at an accelerated rate. Panic only makes that rate accelerate even more. C<span>apital flight for the first three weeks of August has already reached about $100 billion.</span></p><p>And while China has a $3.6 trillion on paper, that's very likely not the real number the People's Bank of China is working with in cash. To put it simply, it is one thing to have the money, and it is another thing to have the money on hand, especially when the country is in emergency mode with no end in sight.</p><p>In a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/charlene-chu-doomsday-scenario-2015-8">recent research note</a>, star China analyst Charlene Chu of Autonomous Research posited that a lot of China's foreign-exchange reserves are tied up in illiquid assets. As such, it's unclear how much money China will have to make the grand gesture the market seems desperate for.</p><p>What is clear is that it isn't $3.6 trillion. It could be far less.</p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">And if it is, then China may have less time to plug the holes in its economic ship - which include an overall economic slow down and a currency devaluation -  than everyone thinks.</span></p><h2>An era of outflows</h2><p>Before we get into that, though, you've got to understand what has been happening to China's foreign-exchange reserves for the past year or so.</p><p>China's reserves have been dropping at a rapid rate since 2013. Since then it has lost about $750 billion to capital flight as investors have grown wary of China's growth model.</p><p>Goldman Sachs said in a July note "that capital outflows have become very sizable and now eclipse anything we've seen in the recent past."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Reuters" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55d4aa1f371d22ce178c0f56-960/screen shot 2015-08-19 at 12.08.15 pm.png"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>It's clear from Chu's note that she does not believe this trend will end anytime soon. <strong>In fact, she calculates that by 2018 all of China's excess reserves - cash that it has on hand to use immediately - could be gone.</strong></p><p>Now the situation is likely more dramatic. Chu's note was written before the country devalued the yuan - a measure that is sure to spur capital flight as investors convert their cash into a currency that isn't losing value.</p><p>When she wrote the note last month, Chu posited that the government only has around $667 billion in excess foreign-exchange reserves to toss around, out of $3.6 trillion.</p><p>She calculated that by factoring in precautionary cash requirements the government needs to keep on hand, as well as <span>almost $900 billion in illiquid assets, that it can't access immediately. </span></p><p>Those illiquid assets mostly consist of investments in things like natural resources and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. </p><h2>To the rescue</h2><p>The rest of China's foreign-exchange reserves can be put to work, which is exactly what the government has been doing.</p><p>On Tuesday, <a href="https://twitter.com/george_chen/status/633673852380299264">it injected</a> $48 billion into the China Development Bank and $45 billion into the Export-Import Bank of China.</p><p>And, given the crisis at hand, there will be more work to do. Analysts polled by Bloomberg think it will take an additional $40 billion a month to keep the yuan where the PBOC wants it through 2015. So add that to the pile.</p><p>Also, we don't know exactly how much money the government is using the prop up the stock market, but it's probably a pretty penny. Rallies like the one we saw on Wednesday - when the Shanghai Composite started the day down 5% only to rally gloriously, ending the day up 1.24% - don't come cheap.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Investing.com</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>Murky stuff</h2><p>Business Insider reached out to another expert to see if there might be more to consider in terms of how much of China's reserves can used in the event of an emergency, and we got a complicated answer - one that only reinforces that the scariest, most mysterious factor in the world of money is always time.</p><p>Professor Christopher Balding, a political economist at Peking University, pointed out that <span>the China Investment Corporation actually borrowed most of its capital from the PBOC in the form of USD bonds.</span></p><p><span>"<span>I don't know the specific amount, but it is probably fair to say that that compromises almost 20-25% of the PBOC reserves," he said.</span></span></p><p>Of course, if you're the Chinese government you might already be working as quickly as possible (remember, time is everything) to convert illiquid assets into cash you can hold. But even with assets as liquid as US Treasuries, that work is not as easy as you might think.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>China Photos/Getty Images</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Balding put it to us like this: "<span>If you believe that US Treasuries are less than completely liquid, you are probably almost at 50% of the PBOC reserves being less than completely liquid," he wrote in an email to Business Insider.  </span></p><p><span>"What I mean by the Chinese [US] Treasury holdings is this: a) If China is just going to sell USD cash to prevent RMB from falling, they can sell USD cash really anywhere in the world. However, b) if they want to sell their US Treasuries in any significant amount, they have to sell the Treasuries to obtain the USD cash and then sell USD cash to maintain [the yuan]."</span></p><p><span>That kind of movement in the market would be detected by traders around the world the same way sharks smell blood in the water. </span></p><p>"If China really moved to dump large amounts of Treasuries rapidly," Balding continued, "that would really cause problems and be detected. They are probably liquidity constrained."</p><p>But they're also obviously time constrained.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">A customer in front of a wall bearing a framed image of Cuban revolutionist Che Guevara and a clock with a picture of deceased Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>Don't say it ...</h2><p>So the real danger here is in an emergency - a stock slide, a property-market bust, or a surge in capital flight.</p><p>One thing that will contribute to capital flight is a weakening yuan. If people think the Chinese currency is going to keep losing value, they're going to want to convert it into something else such as dollars or euros.</p><p>"<span>The risk is that depreciation triggers capital flight, dealing a blow to the stability of China's financial system. Our calculation is that a 1% yuan depreciation against the dollar triggers about $40 billion in capital flight," Bloomberg economist Tom Orlik wrote in a recent note.</span></p><p><span>Another measure that could encourage capital flight is a rate cut. China has done four since last fall, and Wall Street fully expects another one. In fact, rumors that a cut could be coming as early as this weekend helped fuel China's stock market rally on Wednesday.</span></p><p><span>A rate cut means that money in China will yield less for investors - another reason for them to take their money out of the system.</span></p><p>If capital flight kicks up dramatically, that's when China might have to enact some capital controls.</p><p>But you know the first rule of capital controls.</p><p>Never talk about capital controls.</p><p>That only scares people.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/aerial-video-explosion-blast-site-tianjin-china-2015-8">New aerial footage shows aftermath of explosion in China</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="tkdzUxdzqidr5j3bDhTKNZS1v2q3Z4nZ" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

One number means everything in China right now

<p dir="ltr"><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>At 88 and in failing health, Fidel Castro has been the subject of numerous death rumors of late. </span></p>
<p dir="ltr">Rumblings on social media last week suggested, once again, that the former Cuban dictator had died, but they were debunked again. The actual dead man is <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2015/01/son-kenya-opposition-leader-found-dead-201514125745843583.html">Fidel Castro Odinga</a> - a Kenyan opposition leader from Nairobi. </p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Whether or not you agreed with Fidel Castro's <keyword id="6358883" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Politics">politics</keyword>, he had an impressive rise to power.</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> Castro was responsible for establishing the first Communist state in the western hemisphere, beginning what would become a nearly five-decade reign as leader of Cuba, less than 500 miles from US shores.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Castro was born Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz on August 13, 1926 in the small eastern village of Biran. His father was a wealthy sugarcane farmer; his mother worked as a maid to his father's first wife.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr">Fidel's father reportedly would not recognize him as his own son until Fidel turned 17, when his father ditched his first wife and married the maid.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Castro received a Roman Catholic education through high school. He later excelled as an athlete and went on to law school at the University of Havana, where he would find an interest in politics.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>A more radical bent would soon emerge, when Castro joined an anti-corruption Orthodox Party movement </span><a href="http://www.biography.com/people/fidel-castro-9241487#early-life"><span>in 1947</span></a><span> that tried and failed to overthrow Dominican Republic dictator, Rafael Trujillo.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Castro graduated college in 1950, and opened a law office. Two years later, he launched a bid for Cuba's House of Representatives, but the election never happened. Cuban dictator, Fulgencio Batista squashed it after staging a coup and seizing power in March 1952.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>From there, Castro would discard any further attempts at legitimate party politics, </span><a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/castro/peopleevents/e_moncada.html"><span>launching his own offensive</span></a><span> with more than 100 men who stormed the Moncada army barracks in 1953. "</span><span>From that moment on, I had a clear idea of the struggle ahead,</span><span>" Castro said in a 2006 book, My Life: A Spoken Autobiography.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>That attack failed, many of the men died, and Castro was sentenced to 15 years in prison.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Batista ordered Castro released from prison in 1955, after which, Castro ended up in Mexico, where he would plan another coup attempt. The next year, Castro, plus 81 men including  Ernesto "Che" Guevara, and Fidel's brother, Raul sailed to the eastern coast of Cuba. They were ambushed. The Castro brothers and Guevara fled into the countries southeastern mountains.</span></p>
<h4 dir="ltr"><span> <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></span></h4>
<h3 dir="ltr">COUP d'ÉTAT</h3>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Following a series of offensives between 1957 and 1959, Castro would seize control from Batista in January that year, and solidify his power grab in July.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Early on, Castro gained the support of many Cuban citizens with promises to restore political and civil liberties. But later, Castro began to take a more radical tone, nationalizing American businesses on the island, and further angering the US with an increasingly anti-American rhetoric, and aligning with the Soviet Union in a 1960 trade deal.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>The US officially cut all diplomatic ties with Cuba in January 1961.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>By April that year, the US government armed about 1,500 Cuban exiles to try and overthrow the regime at the Bay of Pigs. It failed. Cuba and the Soviet Union later strengthened their partnership.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>In 1962, the Soviet Union began secretly placing ballistic missiles in Cuba that were capable of firing nuclear weapons into American cities. That ushered in the Cuban missile crisis. Both the US and Soviet Union later stood down when the former agreed to remove its missiles stationed in Turkey and the Soviet Union removed its weapons from Cuba.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Meanwhile, Castro instituted a one-party government, gaining control over all aspects of Cuban life. While that drove away many of Cuba's upper and middle class citizens, Castro expanded the country's social and educational services, free of charge, to all economic classes.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Castro's economic power was further concentrated, but that didn't bode well for the Cuban economy, which failed to gain momentum. The country became increasingly dependent on Soviet policies while, at the same time, enduring the squeeze of a United States trade embargo.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>1976 -- Cuba created the National Assembly, Castro became president of that body's State Council.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>1980s -- Castro was recognized as one of the prime rulers of unaligned nations. And while the country still had strong ties to the Soviet Union, Castro regularly hinted his willingness to restore diplomatic ties with the US if the US ended the trade embargo.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>The Castro regime released some 125,000 immigrants to the US, which overwhelmed America's immigration officials.</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> </span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<h3 dir="ltr">STANDING BY THE SOVIET UNION</h3>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Later in the 1980s, Castro held his ground on the strict tenets of Communism, even as Mikhail Gorbachev began employing democratic reforms that allowed some countries to break ties with the Soviet bloc.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>1991 -- in response to the Soviet Union's collapse, and the loss of subsidies from the regime, Castro tried to stem his country's subsequent economic decline by implementing some free-market policies. It was a tempered move; Castro still maintained tight control over life in Cuba.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>1993 -- the tide began to shift when Castro's daughter, Alina Fernandez Revuelta, went to the US to seek asylum. She then </span><a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1993-12-23/news/mn-4825_1_cuban-dictator-fidel-castro-s-daughter"><span>publicly denounced</span></a><span> her father and his regime's policies.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr">The next year, Cuba saw its largest anti-Castro uprising in 35 years, leading to another large release of people - more than 30,000 - <a href="http://www.hrw.org/reports/1994/10/02/cuba-repression-exodus-august-1994-and-us-response">sent to the US</a> on makeshift boats and rafts. It's been called Cuba's largest exodus since the "freedom flotilla" of 1980.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<h3 dir="ltr">DIMINISHING DICTATORSHIP</h3>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Cuba's insular policies began to thaw a bit in 1998, when <span>Pope John Paul II became the first pontiff to visit the nation. Pope Benedict would follow more than a decade later.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">2003 -- Castro was confirmed as president for another 5-year term. Now in the waning years of his rule, Castro oversaw several initiatives that led to a major crackdown on independent journalists, dissidents and activists, and a strengthening of ties with Venezuela. The Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas was birthed from that, in which Cuba sent health professionals to Venezuela in return for discounted oil.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>2006 -- Castro handed provisional control of Cuba to his brother, Raul, while Fidel reportedly recovered from a major intestinal surgery. That was the first time he surrendered control of his power in 47 years.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>He would not return.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>In 2008, when the National Assembly prepared to reconfirm Fidel as Cuba's leader, </span><a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19157999"><span>he declined in a letter</span></a><span>. At that point, he hadn't been seen publicly for nearly two years. The letter was posted to the Communist Party's website, </span><span>Granma</span><span>, in which Castro said, "I do not bid you farewell. My only wish is to fight as a soldier of ideas."</span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Castro would make several more public appearances in 2010, but officially stepped down from the Communist Party of Cuba in 2011, leaving the younger Raul Castro to introduce possibly the most significant change in Cuba since the 1960s, reaching a deal with the Obama administration to reinstate diplomatic ties with the US.</span></p>

You Searched For "Che Guevara" and got 6 results

GREECE JUST TAUGHT CAPITALISTS A LESSON ABOUT WHAT CAPITALISM REALLY MEANS

Jim Edwards

Richard Branson's 10 Rules For Being A Great Leader

Richard Feloni

The force field protecting China's economy isn't as strong as you think

Linette Lopez

One number means everything in China right now

Linette Lopez

How Fidel Castro Rose To Power And Ruled Cuba For 5 Decades

Bryan Logan

41. The Red (M&M) Scare

Sarah Wyman,Charlie Herman,Ju…