Just as anticipated by LEAP/E2020 in issues N°40 (December 2009) and N°42 (February 2010), spring 2010 really marks a tipping point of the global systemic crisis, characterized by a sudden expansion due to the intolerable size of public deficits (see issue N° 39, November 2009) and the inexistence of the recovery, so often announced (see issue N°37, September 2009). Besides, the dramatic social and political consequences of this development clearly reflect the beginning of the process of global geopolitical dislocation as anticipated in issue N°32 (February 2009). Finally, the Eurozone leaders’ recent decisions confirm LEAP/E2020’s anticipations, contrary to the dominant chatter of these last few months, of the fact that not only will the Euro not « explode » because of the Greek problem but, on the contrary, a strengthened Eurozone will emerge from this stage of the crisis (1). One could even consider that, since the Eurozone decision, a kind of « Eurozone coup d’Etat » supported by Sweden and Poland, to create a huge apparatus to protect the interests of the 26 EU member states (2), the geopolitical deal in Europe has changed radically. Because it runs contrary to the prejudices which fashion their vision of the world, several months will be needed by the majority of the media and players to accept that, behind the appearance of a purely European budgetary-financial decision, lies a geopolitical split with worldwide impact.
Current increases in national debt for the USA, United Kingdom, Euroland and Japan (in green: % of debt to GDP / in red: forecast debt increase for 2009 and 2010 / in yellow: comparative figures for Germany) - Source: European Commission, 2010
Eurozone coup d’Etat in Brussels: The EU founding states regain control
In this issue N°45, we analyse in detail the numerous consequences for Europeans and for the world from what could be called the Eurozone « coup d’Etat » within the EU. In the face of the worsening crisis, the sixteen have indeed taken control of the EU reins of power, creating new tools and instruments which leave no other choice for the other members but to follow or find themselves isolated. Ten out of the eleven other member states have decided to follow, such as the two most important of them, Sweden and Poland, who have chosen to actively participate in the apparatus put into place by the Eurozone (the other eight are currently either in the course of negotiating their Eurozone entry, like Estonia from 2011 (3), or receiving direct help from the Eurozone, like Lithuania, Hungary, Romania, for example…). It is a (r)evolution that our team has clearly anticipated for over three years and we had even stated recently that events would rapidly unfold in the Eurozone once the German regional elections and the British general election had taken place. However, we would never have thought that it would happen in just a few hours, neither with such boldness as to the amount (750 billion Euros, or one trillion USD) and the character (EU control taken by the Eurozone (4) and a leap ahead in terms of economic and financial integration).
The fact remains that without knowing it, and without having asked their opinion, 440 million Europeans have just joined a new country, Euroland, of which some already share the currency, the Euro, and of which all now share the indebtedness and the joint means to solve the serious problems posed in the context of the global systemic crisis. The budgetary and financial decisions taken during the Summit of the weekend of the 8th May in terms of a response to the European public debt crisis can be evaluated differently according to one’s analysis of the crisis and its causes. LEAP/E2020 will roll out its own analyses on the subject in this issue N°45 but, without doubt, a radical unraveling of European governance has just taken place: a collective continental governance has just brutally emerged, ironically 65 years after the end of the Second World War, moreover celebrated with a big display in Moscow the same day (5) as the holiday celebrating the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community, the common ancestor of the EU and Euroland. This simultaneity isn’t a coincidence (6) and marks an important step forward in global geopolitical dislocation and the reconstitution of new global balances. Under the pressure of events set off by the crisis, the Eurozone has thus undertaken to grasp its independence with regard to the Anglo-Saxon world still expressed via the financial markets. This 750 billion Euros and this new European governance (of the 26) constitutes, at the one and the same time, the putting in place of the fortifications against the next storms caused by draconian Western indebtedness, and which will affect the United Kingdom and then the United States (cf. issue N°44 causing disturbances of which the « Greek crisis » has only given a small preview.
The EMF will, in the long run, deprive the IMF of 50% of its major contributions: those of the Europeans
Concerning this, LEAP/E2020 reminds readers of a fact that the majority of the media has been oblivious of for many weeks. Contrary to the prevailing discussion, the IMF is first and foremost European money. In effect one out of three IMF Dollars is contributed by Europeans, compared to only one in six by the USA (their share has been cut in half in 50 years) and one of the consequences of the European decisions of these last few days is that it will not be the case for very much longer. Our team is convinced that, within three years at the latest, when it is time to formalize the integration of the intervention fund created on the 8th and 9th May 2010 into the European Monetary Fund, the EU will reduce its contribution to the IMF by a similar proportion. One could guess already that this reduction in the European contribution (UK excluded) will be in the order of 50% at least. That will allow the IMF to become more globally representative by automatically rebalancing the BRIC share and, in the same breath, requiring the USA to abandon its right of veto (7). But that will equally contribute to it becoming heavily marginalized since Asia has already created its own emergency intervention fund. It is an example which illustrates just how many of the European decisions of the beginning of May 2010 are full of wide sweeping geopolitical changes which will scale out in all of the coming years. In fact, it is unlikely that the majority of the decision makers involved in the « Eurozone coup d’Etat » have clearly understood the implications of their decisions. But no-one has ever said that history was largely made by those people who knew what they were doing.
Countries’ and markets’ IMF contributions (1948-2001) - Source: IMF / Danmarks National Bank - 2001
The United Kingdom: isolated in the face of an historic crisis
One of the simultaneous causes and consequences of this development is the complete marginalization of the United Kingdom. Its increasing weakness since the beginning of the crisis, along with that of its US sponsor, has created the possibility of a complete takeover, without concessions, of the march forward of the European project by the continental countries. This loss of influence reinforces, in return, Great Britain’s marginalization because British leaders are trapped in a denial of reality which they have made their people share as well. None of the British political parties, not even at this point the Liberal Democrats, even though showing greater clarity than the other political parties of the country, could consider reconsidering the decades of diatribe accusing Europe for all the ills and dressing-up the Euro for all the losses. Indeed, even if their leaders were aware of the folly of a strategy consisting of isolating Great Britain a little more day-by-day, even when the world crisis has moved up a gear, they will collide with this public Euroscepticism which they have fostered over the course of the past years. The irony of history was, once again, clearly shown during this historic weekend of the 8th/9th May 2010: in refusing to participate in the Eurozone’s joint defensive and protective measures, the British leaders have, de facto, refused to catch the last lifeline within their grasp (8). The European continent will now content itself with watching them try to find the 200 billion Euros which their country needs to balance this year’s budget (9). And if the leaders in London think that City speculators will have any qualms breaking the Pound sterling and selling Gilts, it is because they haven’t understood the basics of global finance (10), nor checked the nationalities of these same players (11). Between Wall Street, which will do anything to attract the world’s capital (one only needs to ask the Swiss market what it thinks of the war that world markets are currently delivering one another), Washington, which is knocking itself out to hover up all the world’s available savings, and a European continent which has, from now on, placed itself under the protection of a common currency and debt, the dice have been cast. At this stage, we are still in the drama, because the major English players have not yet realised that they are caught in a trap; a few weeks from now, we will move on to the British tragedy because, this summer, the whole country will have discovered the historic trap into which the country, on its own, has fallen.
So, at the moment when Euroland emerges in Brussels, the United Kingdom struggles with a hung parliament, compelling it to move on to the first coalition government since 1945 and which will take the country to a further election between now and the end of the year.
The British and their leaders in trouble, who are going to have to « think the unthinkable »
Whatever the supporters of the coalition now running the country may tell, LEAP/E2020 thinks it highly unlikely that this alliance will last more than a few months. The very different structure of the two parties involved (Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are divided on a number of issues), combined with unpopular decisions, is leading this team straight to internal crises for each party and, then, to a government collapse. The Conservatives will play this card because, unlike the Liberal Democrats, they have sufficient funds to « finance » a new electoral campaign between now and the end of the year (12). But the most dangerous underlying stumbling-block is intellectual: to avoid the tragedy which portends, the United Kingdom is going to have to « think the unthinkable », i.e. reconsider its basic beliefs on its insular outlook, its transatlantic « relationship », its relationship with a continent now on the road to complete integration, while, for centuries, it has thought of the continent as a disunion. However the problem set is simple: if the United Kingdom has always thought that its power depended on a divided European continent, then logically, considering current events, it must now admit that it is heading to a state of impotence... and draw the necessary conclusions, i.e. that it too should make a « quantum leap ». If Nick Clegg seems intellectually equipped to make such a leap, neither David Cameron’s Conservatives, nor the British leaders altogether, seem mature enough yet. In such a case, Great Britain, sadly, must take the « tragic » path (13).
In any case, this weekend of the 8th/9th May 2010 in Europe dips a number of its roots directly into the Second World War and its consequences (14). It is, besides, one of the features of the global systemic crisis as foretold by LEAP/E2020 in February 2006 in issue N°2: it brings to « an end the West as one has known it since 1945 ».
Another of these features is the take-off in the gold price (compared to the US Dollar especially), in the face of the growing distrust in all fiat currencies (see issue N°41, January 2010 (15)). Indeed, whilst all the world speak of the Euro/US Dollar exchange rate, the Dollar remains at its historically lowest levels compared to its major trade partners (see chart below), a sign of the US currency’s structural weakness. In the coming months, as GEAB anticipated, the Euro will climb back to its medium-term equilibrium level of above 1.45/€.
In this issue, before giving our recommendations on currencies, the stock exchange and gold, LEAP/E2020 will analyse in greater detail the US pseudo-recovery which internally is basically a vast focused news operation aimed at re-starting household spending (an impossible task now) and externally at avoiding panicking foreign investors (at best, several quarters can be gained). Thus the United States maintains that it will be able to escape brutal austerity treatment, like the other Western countries, whilst, in fact, the recovery is an « unrecovery » as Michael Panzner, with a touch of humour, called his excellent article of 04/27/2010, published in Seeking Alpha.investors (at best, several quarters can be gained). Thus the United States maintains that it will be able to escape brutal austerity treatment, like the other Western countries, whilst, in fact, the recovery is an « unrecovery » as Michael Panzner, with a touch of humour, called his excellent article of 04/27/2010, published in Seeking Alpha.
Charts and Data
Showing posts with label leverage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label leverage. Show all posts
17 May 2010
18 May 2009
Global systemic crisis: June 2009 - When the world steps out of a sixty-year old referential framework
Leap 2020 haven't always got the timing right but they have got the trends for certain. All the benefits of financialisation have been accrued to the US and to some extent to UK. Finance became rent seeking, well the winners of the boom must become the whingers and whiners of the bust, that hasn't happened yet......
On to Leap 2020 Geap 35.....
The financial surrealism which has been at the heart of stock market trends, financial indicators and political commentaries in the past two months, is in fact the swan song of the referential framework within which the world has lived since 1945.
Just as in January 2007, the 11th edition of the GEAB described that the turn of the year 2006/07 was wrapped in a « statistical fog » typical of an entry into recession and designed to raise doubts among passengers that the Titanic was really sinking (1), our team today believes that the end of Spring 2009is characterized by the world’s final stepping out of the referential framework used for sixty years by global economic, financial and political players in making their decisions, in particular of its “simplified” version massively used since the fall of the communist bloc in 1989 (when the referential framework became exclusively US-centric). In practical terms, this means that the indicators that everyone is accustomed to use for investment decisions, profitability, location, partnership, etc ... have become obsolete and that it is now necessary to find new relevant indicators to avoid making disastrous decisions.
This process of obsolescence has increased dramatically over the past few months under pressure from two trends:
. first, the desperate attempts to rescue the global financial system, particularly the American and British systems, have de facto "broken navigational instruments" as a result of all the manipulation exerted by financial institutions themselves and by concerned governments and central banks. Among those panic-stricken and panic-striking indicators, stock markets are a perfect case as we shall see in further detail in this issue of the GEAB. Meanwhile, the two charts below brilliantly illustrate how these desperate efforts failed to prevent the world’s bank ranking from experiencing a major seism (it is mostly in 2007 that the end of the American-British domination in this ranking was triggered).
. secondly, astronomical amounts of liquidity injected in one year into the global financial system, particularly in the U.S. financial system, led all financial and political players to a total loss of touch with reality. Indeed, at this stage, they all seem to suffer from a syndrome of diver’s nitrogen narcosis – impairing those affected and leading them to dive deeper instead of surfacing. Financial nitrogen narcosis has the same effects than its aquatic counterpart.
Destroyed or perverted sensors, loss of orientation among political and financial leaders, these are the two key factors that accelerate the international system’s stepping out of the referential framework of the past few decades.
Top 20 financial institutions by market capitalization in 1999 (USD billions) - Source: Financial Times, 05/2009
Top 20 financial institutions by market capitalization in 2009 (USD billions) - Source: Financial Times, 05/2009
Of course, it is a feature of any systemic crisis and easy to establish that, in the international system we are used to, a growing number of events or trends have started popping out of this century-old framework, demonstrating how this crisis is of a kind unique in modern history. The only way to measure the magnitude of the changes under way is to step back several centuries. Examining statistical data gathered over the last few decades only enables one to see the details of this global systemic crisis; not the overall view.
Here are three examples showing that we live in a time of change that occurs only once every two or three centuries:
1. In 2009, the Bank of England official interest rate has reached its lowest level (0.5 percent) since the creation of this venerable institution, i.e. since 1694 (in 315 years).
Bank of England official interest rate since its creation in 1694 - Source: Bank of England, 05/2009
2. In 2008, the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, the French government’s financial arm since 1816 under all France’s successive regimes (kingdom, empire, republic…), experienced its first yearly loss ever (in 193 years) (2).
3. In April 2009, China became Brazil’s leading trade partner, an event which has always announced major changes in global leadership. This is only the second time that this has happened since the UK put an end to three centuries of Portuguese hegemony two hundred years ago. The US then supplanted UK as Brazil’s leading trade partner at the beginning of the 1930s (3).
It is not worth reviewing the many specifically US trends popping out of the national referential framework compared to the past century (there is no relevant referential framework older than that in the US): loss in value of the Dollar, public deficits, cumulated public debt, cumulated trade deficits, real estate market collapse, losses of financial institutions… (4)
But of course, in the country at the heart of the global systemic crisis, examples of this kind are numerous and they have already been widely discussed in the various issues of the GEAB since 2006. In fact, it is the number of countries and areas concerned, which is symptomatic of the world’s stepping out of the current referential framework. If there was only one country or one sector affected, it would simply indicate that this country/sector is going through an unusual time; but today, many countries, at the heart of the international system, and a multitude of economic and financial sectors are being simultaneously affected by this move away from a “century-old road”.
Stock market trends – adjusted for inflation – during the last four major economic crises (grey: 1929, red: 1973, green: 2000, and blue: current crisis) - Source: Dshort/Commerzbank, 17/04/2009
Thus, to conclude this historical perspective, we want to emphasize that the stepping out of the century-old reference system is graphically visible in the form of a curve simply popping out of the frame which allowed ongoing trends and values to be represented for centuries. This popping out of traditional referential frameworks is speeding up, affecting increasing numbers of sectors and countries, enhancing the loss of meaning of indicators used daily or monthly by stock markets, governments, or official sources of statistics, and accelerating the widespread awareness that "the usual indicators" can no longer give any insight, or even represent the current world developments. The world will thus reach summer 2009 without any reliable references available.
Of course, everyone is free to think that a few points’ monthly variation of a particular economic or financial indicator, itself largely affected by the multiple interventions of public authorities and banks, carries much more value on the evolution of the current crisis than those stepping out of century-old referential frameworks. Everyone is also free to believe that those who anticipated neither the crisis nor its intensity are now in a position to know the precise date when it will end.
Our team advises them to go see (or see again) the movie Matrix (5) and to think about the consequences of manipulating the sensors and indicators of one’s perception of given environment. Indeed, as we will examine in detail in our special summer 2009 GEAB (N°36), the coming months could be entitled « Crisis Reloaded » (6).
In this 35th issue of the GEAB, we also express our advice on which indicators, in this period of transition between two referential frameworks, are able to provide dependable information on the evolution of the crisis and the economic and financial environment.
The two other major themes addressed in this May 2009 issue of the GEAB are, first, the programmed failure of the two major economic stimulus plans: namely the Chinese and American plans, and, secondly, the United Kingdom’s appeal to the IMF for financial assistance by the end of summer 2009.
In terms of recommendations, in this issue, our team anticipates the evolution of the worlds’ largest real estate and treasuries markets.
-----------
Notes:
(1) At that time, our team added « Just like always when change occurs, the passage by zero is characterized by a «fog of statistics» where indicators point in opposite directions and measurements provide contradictory results, with margins of error sometimes wider than the measurement itself. Regarding our planet in 2007, the on-going wreck is that of the US, that LEAP/E2020 has decided to call the « Very Great Depression », firstly because the « Great Depression » already refers to the 1929 crisis and the years after; and secondly because, according to our researchers, the nature and scope of the upcoming events are very different ». Source: GEAB N°11, 01/15/2007
(2) Source: France24, 04/16/2009
(3) Source: TheLatinAmericanist, 05/06/2009
(4) Political leaders and experts insist on comparing the current crisis to the 1929 crisis, as if the latter were a binding reference. However, in the US in particular, current trends in many fields have moved beyond the events which characterized the « Great Depression ». LEAP/E2020 already reminded in GEAB N°31 that relevant references were to be found in the 1873-1896 global crisis, i.e. more than a century back.
(5) In the Matrix series of movies, reality perceived by humans is created by computers. They think they live a comfortable life when in fact they live in squalor, but all their senses (sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell) are manipulated.
(6)The title of the second in this series of movies: « Matrix reloaded ».
link
On to Leap 2020 Geap 35.....
The financial surrealism which has been at the heart of stock market trends, financial indicators and political commentaries in the past two months, is in fact the swan song of the referential framework within which the world has lived since 1945.
Just as in January 2007, the 11th edition of the GEAB described that the turn of the year 2006/07 was wrapped in a « statistical fog » typical of an entry into recession and designed to raise doubts among passengers that the Titanic was really sinking (1), our team today believes that the end of Spring 2009is characterized by the world’s final stepping out of the referential framework used for sixty years by global economic, financial and political players in making their decisions, in particular of its “simplified” version massively used since the fall of the communist bloc in 1989 (when the referential framework became exclusively US-centric). In practical terms, this means that the indicators that everyone is accustomed to use for investment decisions, profitability, location, partnership, etc ... have become obsolete and that it is now necessary to find new relevant indicators to avoid making disastrous decisions.
This process of obsolescence has increased dramatically over the past few months under pressure from two trends:
. first, the desperate attempts to rescue the global financial system, particularly the American and British systems, have de facto "broken navigational instruments" as a result of all the manipulation exerted by financial institutions themselves and by concerned governments and central banks. Among those panic-stricken and panic-striking indicators, stock markets are a perfect case as we shall see in further detail in this issue of the GEAB. Meanwhile, the two charts below brilliantly illustrate how these desperate efforts failed to prevent the world’s bank ranking from experiencing a major seism (it is mostly in 2007 that the end of the American-British domination in this ranking was triggered).
. secondly, astronomical amounts of liquidity injected in one year into the global financial system, particularly in the U.S. financial system, led all financial and political players to a total loss of touch with reality. Indeed, at this stage, they all seem to suffer from a syndrome of diver’s nitrogen narcosis – impairing those affected and leading them to dive deeper instead of surfacing. Financial nitrogen narcosis has the same effects than its aquatic counterpart.
Destroyed or perverted sensors, loss of orientation among political and financial leaders, these are the two key factors that accelerate the international system’s stepping out of the referential framework of the past few decades.
Top 20 financial institutions by market capitalization in 1999 (USD billions) - Source: Financial Times, 05/2009
Top 20 financial institutions by market capitalization in 2009 (USD billions) - Source: Financial Times, 05/2009
Of course, it is a feature of any systemic crisis and easy to establish that, in the international system we are used to, a growing number of events or trends have started popping out of this century-old framework, demonstrating how this crisis is of a kind unique in modern history. The only way to measure the magnitude of the changes under way is to step back several centuries. Examining statistical data gathered over the last few decades only enables one to see the details of this global systemic crisis; not the overall view.
Here are three examples showing that we live in a time of change that occurs only once every two or three centuries:
1. In 2009, the Bank of England official interest rate has reached its lowest level (0.5 percent) since the creation of this venerable institution, i.e. since 1694 (in 315 years).
Bank of England official interest rate since its creation in 1694 - Source: Bank of England, 05/2009
2. In 2008, the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, the French government’s financial arm since 1816 under all France’s successive regimes (kingdom, empire, republic…), experienced its first yearly loss ever (in 193 years) (2).
3. In April 2009, China became Brazil’s leading trade partner, an event which has always announced major changes in global leadership. This is only the second time that this has happened since the UK put an end to three centuries of Portuguese hegemony two hundred years ago. The US then supplanted UK as Brazil’s leading trade partner at the beginning of the 1930s (3).
It is not worth reviewing the many specifically US trends popping out of the national referential framework compared to the past century (there is no relevant referential framework older than that in the US): loss in value of the Dollar, public deficits, cumulated public debt, cumulated trade deficits, real estate market collapse, losses of financial institutions… (4)
But of course, in the country at the heart of the global systemic crisis, examples of this kind are numerous and they have already been widely discussed in the various issues of the GEAB since 2006. In fact, it is the number of countries and areas concerned, which is symptomatic of the world’s stepping out of the current referential framework. If there was only one country or one sector affected, it would simply indicate that this country/sector is going through an unusual time; but today, many countries, at the heart of the international system, and a multitude of economic and financial sectors are being simultaneously affected by this move away from a “century-old road”.
Stock market trends – adjusted for inflation – during the last four major economic crises (grey: 1929, red: 1973, green: 2000, and blue: current crisis) - Source: Dshort/Commerzbank, 17/04/2009
Thus, to conclude this historical perspective, we want to emphasize that the stepping out of the century-old reference system is graphically visible in the form of a curve simply popping out of the frame which allowed ongoing trends and values to be represented for centuries. This popping out of traditional referential frameworks is speeding up, affecting increasing numbers of sectors and countries, enhancing the loss of meaning of indicators used daily or monthly by stock markets, governments, or official sources of statistics, and accelerating the widespread awareness that "the usual indicators" can no longer give any insight, or even represent the current world developments. The world will thus reach summer 2009 without any reliable references available.
Of course, everyone is free to think that a few points’ monthly variation of a particular economic or financial indicator, itself largely affected by the multiple interventions of public authorities and banks, carries much more value on the evolution of the current crisis than those stepping out of century-old referential frameworks. Everyone is also free to believe that those who anticipated neither the crisis nor its intensity are now in a position to know the precise date when it will end.
Our team advises them to go see (or see again) the movie Matrix (5) and to think about the consequences of manipulating the sensors and indicators of one’s perception of given environment. Indeed, as we will examine in detail in our special summer 2009 GEAB (N°36), the coming months could be entitled « Crisis Reloaded » (6).
In this 35th issue of the GEAB, we also express our advice on which indicators, in this period of transition between two referential frameworks, are able to provide dependable information on the evolution of the crisis and the economic and financial environment.
The two other major themes addressed in this May 2009 issue of the GEAB are, first, the programmed failure of the two major economic stimulus plans: namely the Chinese and American plans, and, secondly, the United Kingdom’s appeal to the IMF for financial assistance by the end of summer 2009.
In terms of recommendations, in this issue, our team anticipates the evolution of the worlds’ largest real estate and treasuries markets.
-----------
Notes:
(1) At that time, our team added « Just like always when change occurs, the passage by zero is characterized by a «fog of statistics» where indicators point in opposite directions and measurements provide contradictory results, with margins of error sometimes wider than the measurement itself. Regarding our planet in 2007, the on-going wreck is that of the US, that LEAP/E2020 has decided to call the « Very Great Depression », firstly because the « Great Depression » already refers to the 1929 crisis and the years after; and secondly because, according to our researchers, the nature and scope of the upcoming events are very different ». Source: GEAB N°11, 01/15/2007
(2) Source: France24, 04/16/2009
(3) Source: TheLatinAmericanist, 05/06/2009
(4) Political leaders and experts insist on comparing the current crisis to the 1929 crisis, as if the latter were a binding reference. However, in the US in particular, current trends in many fields have moved beyond the events which characterized the « Great Depression ». LEAP/E2020 already reminded in GEAB N°31 that relevant references were to be found in the 1873-1896 global crisis, i.e. more than a century back.
(5) In the Matrix series of movies, reality perceived by humans is created by computers. They think they live a comfortable life when in fact they live in squalor, but all their senses (sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell) are manipulated.
(6)The title of the second in this series of movies: « Matrix reloaded ».
link
21 April 2009
Gold price could hit $1,500
Charles Gibson, a gold expert at Edison Investment Research, argues in a new report that negative real interest rates (below inflation) in the US and beyond has upset the "leasing" machinery in the gold industry and led to a sustained market squeeze.
This is what occurred in the late 1970s, driving gold prices to $850 and ounce – roughly $1,560 in today's terms. Gold finished last week at $870.
Mr Gibson said the powerful dynamic could lead to a second leg of this gold bull market, even though the metal has already enjoyed a torrid run over the last eight years.
In normal times, gold mining companies sell – or "hedge" – a chunk of their output in advance through bullion banks. These banks cover their positions by leasing gold from central banks. This bread-and-butter trade created excess supply of 500 tonnes each year until the start of this decade.
Low real interest rates have caused the process to reverse, creating a shortfall of about 500 tonnes. The process accelerates as rates turn negative, leading to a scramble by market players to find physical gold.
There are already reports that gold bars are becoming scarce, partly due to fears that futures contracts and other forms of paper gold may not prove reliable if there is a serious break-down in the global financial system. Pure metal -- whether Krugerrands, Maple Leaf coins, or the "five tael biscuit" favoured by the Chinese – entail no counterparty risk.
Mr Gibson says the Fed's monetary blitz will end in another burst of inflation akin to the late 1970s. That is a disputed claim as deflationary forces tighten on the global economy. Some of the big global banks are already calling the start of a bear market. Rarely has the gold fraternity been so schizophrenic.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/5184036/Gold-price-could-hit-1500.html
This is what occurred in the late 1970s, driving gold prices to $850 and ounce – roughly $1,560 in today's terms. Gold finished last week at $870.
Mr Gibson said the powerful dynamic could lead to a second leg of this gold bull market, even though the metal has already enjoyed a torrid run over the last eight years.
In normal times, gold mining companies sell – or "hedge" – a chunk of their output in advance through bullion banks. These banks cover their positions by leasing gold from central banks. This bread-and-butter trade created excess supply of 500 tonnes each year until the start of this decade.
Low real interest rates have caused the process to reverse, creating a shortfall of about 500 tonnes. The process accelerates as rates turn negative, leading to a scramble by market players to find physical gold.
There are already reports that gold bars are becoming scarce, partly due to fears that futures contracts and other forms of paper gold may not prove reliable if there is a serious break-down in the global financial system. Pure metal -- whether Krugerrands, Maple Leaf coins, or the "five tael biscuit" favoured by the Chinese – entail no counterparty risk.
Mr Gibson says the Fed's monetary blitz will end in another burst of inflation akin to the late 1970s. That is a disputed claim as deflationary forces tighten on the global economy. Some of the big global banks are already calling the start of a bear market. Rarely has the gold fraternity been so schizophrenic.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/5184036/Gold-price-could-hit-1500.html
16 October 2008
The Countdown of a Manipulated Gold Price Is Running Out
So what’s wrong with gold? Why has the price not skyrocketed? Do you remember the day when Bear Stearns failed? Do you remember what happened on that day with gold? It spiked up to $1032 per ounce and marked its highest intraday price ever (in nominal price terms – remember, the inflation adjusted high would be in the $2300 per ounce range). Now in retrospect, doesn’t the Bear Stearns event look like some kindergarten party? Yes, the financial system has been under much more stress recently. What we have experienced in the last days was the biggest effort ever made to rescue the global financial system and it is still not clear if we are out of the storm. But nevertheless gold has even retreated to the $850 range. Does it looks strange or not?
In times where the entire financial system is on the edge, you would expect gold to soar because of its safe haven attributes. Obviously something is seriously wrong. Right now, we are experiencing two forces to fight with each other: the physical market and the paper market. To understand what’s going on you have to know that the paper market is the short term market and the physical market is the long term market.
The place of most attention for the paper gold market is the COMEX. The price you see in the newspaper is the price of the gold future traded on the COMEX. Unfortunately, it is a paper market which is very vulnerable for manipulation and it does not reflect the real market which takes place in physical supply and demand.
In the past, commodity producers used futures to hedge prices and in many cases physical delivery took place. Today, futures are by the majority just markets for speculators trading paper and not asking for physical delivery. Just remember what happened with oil some months ago – oil was trading at roughly $ 150/bbl and even official sources claimed that the reasons were demand and supply based – they neglected the effect from speculators and deep pocket institutional investors. Well, the high was set in July. Do you really think that demand has fallen that sharply or supply has caught up that fast since then? Maybe you remember the intraday spike in July which was responsible for the all-time-high? This was triggered by short-covering from a Texas based energy trading firm. Do you think this has something to do with demand and supply or do you think this is just a paper market movement? Yes, this is a paper market movement and for gold the price has been depressed.
Also remember, banks are not lending money to each other and they have to do whatever is possible to stay liquid. Have you ever heard of the gold carry trades? They are real and they are most likely at least responsible for a part of the paper selling pressure on gold. Central banks have loaned a portion of their gold holdings over the past years. GFMS and Virtual Metals have estimated that gold on loan position amounts to between 4000 and 5000 tons. GoldMoney believes the gold loan position is more likely to be 8000 tons to 15,000 tons, whereas Cheuvreux’s estimates central banks have lent as much as 10,000 tons to 15,000 tons of gold, which it suggests is between a third and half of the reported total of their reserves.
Banks were desperate to get cash and therefore were selling gold futures into the market – the futures were most likely covered by gold lent from central banks. I also assume that central banks were assisting in this procedure since it was another way to support the credit system. Actually, it was a very agreeable way since it was done without any public knowledge (and particularly without any media coverage) and without any immediate consequences on the monetary aggregates (at least for the short term). I can’t prove this action but there are many indications that this happened:
Soaring gold lease rates as an indication that gold has been lent heavily and as an indication that central banks started at some point to tighten. The rising gold lease rates are also an indication that central banks weren’t willing to lend their gold at low interests any more.
Very strong selling on the COMEX gold future particularly when risk aversion was strongest and when banks were struggling for liquidity. Last Friday, gold crashed over 7% in a day of pure panic. Would you really sell gold on such a day? Interestingly, the selling pressure started very late in the day when volume was drying-out.
Confirmation from gold trading desks that central banks started to tighten gold lending. Obviously, they were not willing to lend their gold to a potentially insolvent counterparty at a low interest rate. Nevertheless gold lending still happened but at higher interest rates and this gold was sold into the market.
What about the long term implications of the bailout packages on gold? The possible threats are severe and will very likely lead to higher inflation. The sum of the overall bailout packages has now reached more than $4600 billion, huge isn’t it? The extremely aggressive fiscal and monetary policies now in place are ticking time bombs for inflation in the future. Right now, the world fears about deflation and inflation are not a threat. That’s true, but what happens if the official agencies now in charge are too late to tighten the monetary flood once economies are recovering? Yes, this will lead to a major inflationary backlog of potentially giant proportions.
I believe if very experienced and smart investors such as Mr Jim Rogers see inflation as a very real threat in the future, you should listen to them. You might want to watch this interview “Inflationary Holocaust” by Jim Rogers. Another interesting interview regarding the same issue and with further implications on currencies such as the dollar, euro and sterling is “Will bailouts risk hyperinflation?”
I picked up the topic of a global currency crisis in previous articles and I’m sure this will happen in the not too distant future. Remember, the value of a currency is in the long term determined by its fundamentals (and not short covering or pure safe haven buying as it happens right now in the US dollar). I expect the old economy currencies will devaluate against the currencies of the emerging countries, particularly Asian countries. They have huge amounts of money, economies with excellent long term growth potential and no hidden financial time bombs. Do you really think the US dollar is stronger or is it more likely that other currencies got weaker against the US dollar? That’s a very important difference.
The US dollar got stronger because of a giant flood of money pouring into the US treasury market. This was safe haven buying at its best. But when the storm calms, do you really think these investors feel comfortable? I don’t think so. In the mid to long term, the US dollar and the rest of the highly inflated global currencies will devalue. It’s also interesting that according to the World Gold Council, CBGA 2 signatories sold only 357 tons gold in year 4 of the agreement, well below the 500 tons ceiling. Are they running out of ammunition or did they finally understand that they'd better hold on to their gold since this is the backbone of their paper money?
So what’s going on in the gold market? Right now, we have a huge wave of paper gold coming into the market and therefore depressing the price of gold. I’m speaking about gold futures that have been sold by large unwinding transactions mainly from hedge funds which have to reduce their exposure or which are liquidated entirely. Lots of margin calls for private and institutional investors also played their part in this game.
A pretty new invention are the so called ETNs (Exchange Traded Notes) and virtually thousands of other paper products (called certificates, baskets, structured products, etc.). Do you remember the word ‘counterparty risk’? Does this ring a bell? Yes, it should. Even if you have bought an ETN or another paper based product on gold, it is not necessarily backed by physical gold, it is actually nothing else than a debenture with a payment guaranty of the issuer – a great product if the issuer is Lehman Brothers or Bear Stearns, etc. After Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, many investors found out that even their capital protected products were worthless. I strongly believe the current sell-off in commodities and also gold is a substantial part triggered by huge selling of paper products. So here we are again, the paper market vs the physical market.
The physical market is virtually exploding! Demand is so strong that you have to wait several days or even weeks before you get your physical gold (coins or bars). So how can you explain that physical demand is so incredible strong that you can’t get your coins and bars and the price of gold (remember COMEX paper market) is still falling? I can’t and this makes me think that something is seriously wrong and will eventually lead to a huge spike in the price of gold!
It is not only the physical demand that is very strong, it is also the gold ETFs which are adding up gold and just reached new record levels, but still the price of gold is falling.
There is one thing I don’t like about some of the gold ETFs. Did you know that some allow short selling? This looks like a minor issue but could have a major effect for investors who think they own a fund which is fully backed by physical gold. Maybe this is not the case: The ETF’s administrator only knows the net long position and backs this amount with physical gold.
Imagine, we have 100 long positions (from investors who want to have a fully backed gold ETF) and we have 50 short positions. Overall this means a net long position of 50 (and I guess the fund administrator only covers the net long position with physical gold). So what happens if the investors with the 100 long positions are asking for physical gold delivery? Well, there is only enough gold for 50 long positions in the ETF’s vaults. But the fund administrator has to deliver the physical gold for 100 long positions. Maybe this triggers a short squeeze in the physical gold market? I don’t like this idea and therefore I prefer holding physical gold in a vault or in an ETF which does not allow any short selling. Unfortunately, the world’s biggest gold ETF “SPDR Gold Shares” (GLD) allows short selling. I like the instrument as a vehicle to track the price of gold but I don’t like the short selling possibility.
Overall, the bull market in gold is far from over. Even though most investors don’t really understand what is going on with the price of gold. It’s like an elastic spring, the more you depress it, the higher it jumps once released. Right now, inflation is not a problem, but it might get one in the future again and this time probably even bigger than before. Besides of course other fundamental reasons to buy gold (e.g. growing jewelery demand from emerging countries, asset hedge, currency protection, etc.).
Investors should preferably buy gold stocks such as Goldcorp (GG), Barrick Gold (ABX), Newmont Mining (NEM), AngloGold Ashanti (AU) or Harmony Gold (HMY) to gain direct exposure and leverage to a rising gold price. But nevertheless, physical gold in fully backed gold ETFs or in gold coins/bars remains a core asset besides some gold equity holdings.
Disclosure: The author is fund manager for a mining & metals fund. The opinions expressed in this article are those solely of the author.
In times where the entire financial system is on the edge, you would expect gold to soar because of its safe haven attributes. Obviously something is seriously wrong. Right now, we are experiencing two forces to fight with each other: the physical market and the paper market. To understand what’s going on you have to know that the paper market is the short term market and the physical market is the long term market.
The place of most attention for the paper gold market is the COMEX. The price you see in the newspaper is the price of the gold future traded on the COMEX. Unfortunately, it is a paper market which is very vulnerable for manipulation and it does not reflect the real market which takes place in physical supply and demand.
In the past, commodity producers used futures to hedge prices and in many cases physical delivery took place. Today, futures are by the majority just markets for speculators trading paper and not asking for physical delivery. Just remember what happened with oil some months ago – oil was trading at roughly $ 150/bbl and even official sources claimed that the reasons were demand and supply based – they neglected the effect from speculators and deep pocket institutional investors. Well, the high was set in July. Do you really think that demand has fallen that sharply or supply has caught up that fast since then? Maybe you remember the intraday spike in July which was responsible for the all-time-high? This was triggered by short-covering from a Texas based energy trading firm. Do you think this has something to do with demand and supply or do you think this is just a paper market movement? Yes, this is a paper market movement and for gold the price has been depressed.
Also remember, banks are not lending money to each other and they have to do whatever is possible to stay liquid. Have you ever heard of the gold carry trades? They are real and they are most likely at least responsible for a part of the paper selling pressure on gold. Central banks have loaned a portion of their gold holdings over the past years. GFMS and Virtual Metals have estimated that gold on loan position amounts to between 4000 and 5000 tons. GoldMoney believes the gold loan position is more likely to be 8000 tons to 15,000 tons, whereas Cheuvreux’s estimates central banks have lent as much as 10,000 tons to 15,000 tons of gold, which it suggests is between a third and half of the reported total of their reserves.
Banks were desperate to get cash and therefore were selling gold futures into the market – the futures were most likely covered by gold lent from central banks. I also assume that central banks were assisting in this procedure since it was another way to support the credit system. Actually, it was a very agreeable way since it was done without any public knowledge (and particularly without any media coverage) and without any immediate consequences on the monetary aggregates (at least for the short term). I can’t prove this action but there are many indications that this happened:
Soaring gold lease rates as an indication that gold has been lent heavily and as an indication that central banks started at some point to tighten. The rising gold lease rates are also an indication that central banks weren’t willing to lend their gold at low interests any more.
Very strong selling on the COMEX gold future particularly when risk aversion was strongest and when banks were struggling for liquidity. Last Friday, gold crashed over 7% in a day of pure panic. Would you really sell gold on such a day? Interestingly, the selling pressure started very late in the day when volume was drying-out.
Confirmation from gold trading desks that central banks started to tighten gold lending. Obviously, they were not willing to lend their gold to a potentially insolvent counterparty at a low interest rate. Nevertheless gold lending still happened but at higher interest rates and this gold was sold into the market.
What about the long term implications of the bailout packages on gold? The possible threats are severe and will very likely lead to higher inflation. The sum of the overall bailout packages has now reached more than $4600 billion, huge isn’t it? The extremely aggressive fiscal and monetary policies now in place are ticking time bombs for inflation in the future. Right now, the world fears about deflation and inflation are not a threat. That’s true, but what happens if the official agencies now in charge are too late to tighten the monetary flood once economies are recovering? Yes, this will lead to a major inflationary backlog of potentially giant proportions.
I believe if very experienced and smart investors such as Mr Jim Rogers see inflation as a very real threat in the future, you should listen to them. You might want to watch this interview “Inflationary Holocaust” by Jim Rogers. Another interesting interview regarding the same issue and with further implications on currencies such as the dollar, euro and sterling is “Will bailouts risk hyperinflation?”
I picked up the topic of a global currency crisis in previous articles and I’m sure this will happen in the not too distant future. Remember, the value of a currency is in the long term determined by its fundamentals (and not short covering or pure safe haven buying as it happens right now in the US dollar). I expect the old economy currencies will devaluate against the currencies of the emerging countries, particularly Asian countries. They have huge amounts of money, economies with excellent long term growth potential and no hidden financial time bombs. Do you really think the US dollar is stronger or is it more likely that other currencies got weaker against the US dollar? That’s a very important difference.
The US dollar got stronger because of a giant flood of money pouring into the US treasury market. This was safe haven buying at its best. But when the storm calms, do you really think these investors feel comfortable? I don’t think so. In the mid to long term, the US dollar and the rest of the highly inflated global currencies will devalue. It’s also interesting that according to the World Gold Council, CBGA 2 signatories sold only 357 tons gold in year 4 of the agreement, well below the 500 tons ceiling. Are they running out of ammunition or did they finally understand that they'd better hold on to their gold since this is the backbone of their paper money?
So what’s going on in the gold market? Right now, we have a huge wave of paper gold coming into the market and therefore depressing the price of gold. I’m speaking about gold futures that have been sold by large unwinding transactions mainly from hedge funds which have to reduce their exposure or which are liquidated entirely. Lots of margin calls for private and institutional investors also played their part in this game.
A pretty new invention are the so called ETNs (Exchange Traded Notes) and virtually thousands of other paper products (called certificates, baskets, structured products, etc.). Do you remember the word ‘counterparty risk’? Does this ring a bell? Yes, it should. Even if you have bought an ETN or another paper based product on gold, it is not necessarily backed by physical gold, it is actually nothing else than a debenture with a payment guaranty of the issuer – a great product if the issuer is Lehman Brothers or Bear Stearns, etc. After Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, many investors found out that even their capital protected products were worthless. I strongly believe the current sell-off in commodities and also gold is a substantial part triggered by huge selling of paper products. So here we are again, the paper market vs the physical market.
The physical market is virtually exploding! Demand is so strong that you have to wait several days or even weeks before you get your physical gold (coins or bars). So how can you explain that physical demand is so incredible strong that you can’t get your coins and bars and the price of gold (remember COMEX paper market) is still falling? I can’t and this makes me think that something is seriously wrong and will eventually lead to a huge spike in the price of gold!
It is not only the physical demand that is very strong, it is also the gold ETFs which are adding up gold and just reached new record levels, but still the price of gold is falling.
There is one thing I don’t like about some of the gold ETFs. Did you know that some allow short selling? This looks like a minor issue but could have a major effect for investors who think they own a fund which is fully backed by physical gold. Maybe this is not the case: The ETF’s administrator only knows the net long position and backs this amount with physical gold.
Imagine, we have 100 long positions (from investors who want to have a fully backed gold ETF) and we have 50 short positions. Overall this means a net long position of 50 (and I guess the fund administrator only covers the net long position with physical gold). So what happens if the investors with the 100 long positions are asking for physical gold delivery? Well, there is only enough gold for 50 long positions in the ETF’s vaults. But the fund administrator has to deliver the physical gold for 100 long positions. Maybe this triggers a short squeeze in the physical gold market? I don’t like this idea and therefore I prefer holding physical gold in a vault or in an ETF which does not allow any short selling. Unfortunately, the world’s biggest gold ETF “SPDR Gold Shares” (GLD) allows short selling. I like the instrument as a vehicle to track the price of gold but I don’t like the short selling possibility.
Overall, the bull market in gold is far from over. Even though most investors don’t really understand what is going on with the price of gold. It’s like an elastic spring, the more you depress it, the higher it jumps once released. Right now, inflation is not a problem, but it might get one in the future again and this time probably even bigger than before. Besides of course other fundamental reasons to buy gold (e.g. growing jewelery demand from emerging countries, asset hedge, currency protection, etc.).
Investors should preferably buy gold stocks such as Goldcorp (GG), Barrick Gold (ABX), Newmont Mining (NEM), AngloGold Ashanti (AU) or Harmony Gold (HMY) to gain direct exposure and leverage to a rising gold price. But nevertheless, physical gold in fully backed gold ETFs or in gold coins/bars remains a core asset besides some gold equity holdings.
Disclosure: The author is fund manager for a mining & metals fund. The opinions expressed in this article are those solely of the author.
13 October 2008
Gold: The Last Carry Trade
Today’s commentary concerns the last carry trade left in the markets, i.e. gold. Gold peaked at $1032 in March this year; however, since then it has fallen steadily, trading as low as $734. While this fall has been in line with a rising USD dollar, it has also been orchestrated.
Gold has been falling in an environment of rising inflation and rising uncertainty, and I've spoken in the past about gold de-coupling from the USD correlation one day.
At this point in time we need to distinguish between different types of gold, i.e. physical gold and paper gold.
Central banks hold a lot of physical gold and it just sits there earning nothing. As we know, central banks have been pumping money into the markets for 13 months now; what has not been reported is that they have also made their holdings of gold available for lease for about 0.25% for a month.
A short seller in gold can sell spot and lease the gold from the central banks at a nominal interest rate of 0.25%. If you sell gold, you receive USD; the cost of borrowing USD is therefore 0.25% (the gold lease rate) - so as long as gold doesn’t go up it is a cheap source of funding.
The central banks don’t mind this, especially when they want the USD up and as a rule they always want gold to fall. A falling gold price is a sign that everything is ok.
However, as you can imagine this is a time bomb because they are leasing physical gold to a paper gold market. At some point in time paper gold will not trade the same way as physical gold.
The demand for physical gold is the highest it has been for years, and this is the problem. Without the paper gold carry trade, you could argue that gold would be a few thousand dollars higher right now.
All is not well in the paper gold market. And this is a sign of an impending big rally in gold.
Lease rates have been skyrocketing over the past month. For the past six years, the 1 Month Gold Forward Lease Rate has chopped about at levels below 0.25 percent. Higher volatility over the past year has seen the rate move as high as 0.5 percent, but only in recent weeks have we seen rates greater than 2.5 percent (see chart below).
click to enlarge
On a global scale, the gold market is unregulated and opaque. No one really knows the size of the worldwide short position in gold, but it exists and it is large (at least 10,000 tonnes). Unlike financial markets, there are few rules and regulations on selling gold short. For years, a dark pool of short sales is believed to have been suppressing the natural ascent of gold prices.
The current spike in gold lease rates indicates that demand for physical gold is extremely high and growing quickly. We may well be witnessing the first seeds of the gold price breaking free from the short sellers and the end (death) of the gold carry trade, which so many bullion banks made such large profits on in the 1990's.
The lease rates (available on TheBullionDesk.com) will be the key indicator to watch. If the short sellers in the gold market cannot afford to roll over their positions, they will be forced to close out their trades by buying gold. This could be one potential catalyst (there are many others) that sparks a major gold rally in the months ahead
24 August 2008
"Leveraged Beyond Comprehension"
The world financial system is leveraged beyond comprehension. It's estimated that $500-700 TRILLION of derivatives are outstanding. Compare this with total economic activity (GDP) of the world, which is around $50 Trillion, and you can see that even a 5% drop in value of the derivatives is beyond the rescue capability of the world's central banks. --- Bert Dohmen (of Wellington Letter, and author of Prelude to Meltdown)
Two very interesting discussions are featured in this week's audio reports, one from Don Coxe , the other Don McAlvany. Incidentally, Coxe's site now carries the following warning: Links to Don Coxe's conference call webcasts are for the exclusive use of BMO Financial Group clients and are not to be distributed or posted for public access. What it means, I don't know. However, this is the last time I will publicly link to his site.
Coxe's discussion isn't very long. Aside from some his usual interesting tidbits, it was the Q&A that mostly caught my attention. First time I had ever heard mention of "synthetic money". This was Coxe's term to address that all money metrics, M1, 2,3, etc, not very helpful in determining what's going on today. Instead, Coxe thinks real interest rates are the key factors to look at.
Clearly, on the basis of this discussion, and the McAlvany interview with Bert Dohmen, the question about the current environment being deflationary becomes absurd. In fact, Dohmen's argument is so convincing that, well, you'll just have to hear it for yourself.
The key, of course is that the Fed, et al are waging an all out fight aimed at countering the collapse, which is so devastating that, well, again, you just have to hear it for yourself. The current recession is SO DEEP, SO PERVASIVE, that the world is on the verge of going down. No place to hide, 'cept maybe in "real money", meaning metal. Such is what the market is saying.
Highlights from both discussions: (sorry, not in any particular order)
Synthetic, or Neomoney: Negative real rates are being sustained, which leads to inflation. Printing or not printing" money, based on the Ms, is not the real focus, though argued back and forth practically everywhere. What should be matter of interest is that, so long as negative real rates prevail, bad lending will continue to be stimulated and savers will keep losing money as bad allocations of capital continue to be subsidized at savers expense. So long as savers continue to lose money central bank policy should be understood as supporting mal-investment. Implications should be obvious. Inflationary pressures remain in short term. As for the Dollar, trend will remain downward until BKX has risen 80%.
Dohmen sees a 30-yr inflationary cycle (which began in early 2000) underway. What it means is that we're now in secular bear market. Way too early to go bargain hunting. Government fudging numbers, big time. GDP is negative, at least to the tune of 4-5%, which means we're in midst of sharp contraction. Japan, Europe, US - all in recession, and bound to go much deeper. All currencies of the world are destined to decline relative to gold. Be clear, this is the strongest bear market since the 1930s. And it's at the end of a recession when you get deflation. All this is totally contrary to what you hear from the media, especially CNBC, specialists in bringing on analysts who chatter about US not being in bear market. It is a gross deception.
The kitty is empty, banks have run out of capital. Banking system is in dire straits. Key focus, going forward, is liquidity and credit. When credit contracts the market must go down. Rates will have to move in direction of zero. Tens of trillions of dollars are just going up in smoke and CBs can't accommodate enough. The problem is not that Fed is creating too much money.
We've not yet arrived at the recognition stage. Unemployment hasn't surged yet, primarily because so much labor had been outsourced. Emerging economies, therefore, will get hit. No place to hide. The world is in the process of going down. Civil unrest will become the biggest problem in emerging economies, and this is one of China's biggest fears. There could be 200 million unemployed Chinese, having moved from countryside into cities and fully out of work. China is NOT BLOOMING. Their market is already down 58%, which means they're signaling awareness of the problem.
Best investment over next several years will be shorting the emerging markets. It's a worldwide recession that we're in, emphasis being placed on global downturn. Three hundred point rallies never occur in bull markets, check history an you won't find it. Such rallies are the hallmark of a recession.
Scary thought
Are we safe, knowing at the helm of our federal reserve is an academic specialist on depressions? Consider the case of Robert Mugabe. Mugabe, according to Dohmen and McAlvany, has 3 PhDs and other multiple degrees, some coming from Oxford no less. I checked around the Net and did find records showing a master's degree in economics, a bachelor's degree in administration, and two law degrees — to go with the three bachelor's degrees he already possessed, in economics, education, and history and literature. Guess certificates don't necessarily mean dip. Fade 'em.
Dohmen Capital Research - excellent bookmark candidate.
Excerpt from the WELLINGTON LETTER, August 5, 2008
.....................Bridgewater Associates' recent estimate of losses from mortgage-related securities in the financial institutions is $1.6 trillion. If you look at the leverage ratios of these firms, they seem to average around 25 to 1. That means each dollar of capital supports $25 of assets. If $1.6 trillion has gone up in smoke, than we multiply that times 25, and get a reduction in lending capacity of $40 trillion.
The world's economic product (similar to a country's GDP) is around $55 trillion. So we can see that the reduction in lending capacity is 80% of what the world produces each year. However, we also have to consider how many institutions, banks or financial firms, have severely cut their lending voluntarily just to be more cautious.
And then we have Wall Street's incredible money machine, which pooled loans of all types and resold them via certificates, coming to a screeching halt. In fact, that was one of the largest contributors to worldwide liquidity creation. European banks also participated in such techniques. This involved trillions of dollars.
The result is that money will be very tough to borrow over the next many years. The bad stuff has to be liquidated first before new credit can be created. And when money creation flips from creating tens of trillions of dollars to liquidating similar amounts, you have a drastic change in liquidity. And that can only result in a serious, long-term recession, globally.
People ask me, why haven't we seen the U.S. economy plunge into a deep recession? There are several reasons...
Excerpt from the WELLINGTON LETTER, July 16, 2008.
Banks and finance firms worldwide have so far reported losses of about $410 billion in writedowns and losses. There is much more to come, but they can't do it all at once, as they have to raise new capital every time they take more writedowns. Ray Dalio, founder of the huge hedge fund, Bridgewater, estimates losses of $1.6 TRILLION. My estimate for the next 10 years is much higher.
Think of the implications: Where will these financial firms find the capital to compensate for these losses? Are there any investment firms or Sovereign Wealth funds willing to provide such capital, especially those who were too early at the end of last year, and now are sitting on multi-billion dollar losses on these investments? Bankruptcies, or "shotgun weddings," are inevitable. In fact, last year I predicted that some of the major U.S. financial institutions would eventually be controlled by foreign entities. Guess what: now legislation is being considered which would give a blessing to foreign firms wanting to own more than 25% of such institutions. The groundwork for the inevitable is being laid.
from Prelude to Meltdown (excerpt)
"While everyone on Wall Street talked about the huge amount of "liquidity," Bert pointed out that genuine liquidity is cash, and that Wall Street confused liquidity with "credit" which could disappear overnight. And that's exactly what has happened.
It's estimated that $500-700 TRILLION of derivatives are outstanding. Compare this with total economic activity (GDP) of the world, which is around $50 Trillion, and you can see that even a 5% drop in value of the derivatives is beyond the rescue capability of the world's central banks."
Two very interesting discussions are featured in this week's audio reports, one from Don Coxe , the other Don McAlvany. Incidentally, Coxe's site now carries the following warning: Links to Don Coxe's conference call webcasts are for the exclusive use of BMO Financial Group clients and are not to be distributed or posted for public access. What it means, I don't know. However, this is the last time I will publicly link to his site.
Coxe's discussion isn't very long. Aside from some his usual interesting tidbits, it was the Q&A that mostly caught my attention. First time I had ever heard mention of "synthetic money". This was Coxe's term to address that all money metrics, M1, 2,3, etc, not very helpful in determining what's going on today. Instead, Coxe thinks real interest rates are the key factors to look at.
Clearly, on the basis of this discussion, and the McAlvany interview with Bert Dohmen, the question about the current environment being deflationary becomes absurd. In fact, Dohmen's argument is so convincing that, well, you'll just have to hear it for yourself.
The key, of course is that the Fed, et al are waging an all out fight aimed at countering the collapse, which is so devastating that, well, again, you just have to hear it for yourself. The current recession is SO DEEP, SO PERVASIVE, that the world is on the verge of going down. No place to hide, 'cept maybe in "real money", meaning metal. Such is what the market is saying.
Highlights from both discussions: (sorry, not in any particular order)
Synthetic, or Neomoney: Negative real rates are being sustained, which leads to inflation. Printing or not printing" money, based on the Ms, is not the real focus, though argued back and forth practically everywhere. What should be matter of interest is that, so long as negative real rates prevail, bad lending will continue to be stimulated and savers will keep losing money as bad allocations of capital continue to be subsidized at savers expense. So long as savers continue to lose money central bank policy should be understood as supporting mal-investment. Implications should be obvious. Inflationary pressures remain in short term. As for the Dollar, trend will remain downward until BKX has risen 80%.
Dohmen sees a 30-yr inflationary cycle (which began in early 2000) underway. What it means is that we're now in secular bear market. Way too early to go bargain hunting. Government fudging numbers, big time. GDP is negative, at least to the tune of 4-5%, which means we're in midst of sharp contraction. Japan, Europe, US - all in recession, and bound to go much deeper. All currencies of the world are destined to decline relative to gold. Be clear, this is the strongest bear market since the 1930s. And it's at the end of a recession when you get deflation. All this is totally contrary to what you hear from the media, especially CNBC, specialists in bringing on analysts who chatter about US not being in bear market. It is a gross deception.
The kitty is empty, banks have run out of capital. Banking system is in dire straits. Key focus, going forward, is liquidity and credit. When credit contracts the market must go down. Rates will have to move in direction of zero. Tens of trillions of dollars are just going up in smoke and CBs can't accommodate enough. The problem is not that Fed is creating too much money.
We've not yet arrived at the recognition stage. Unemployment hasn't surged yet, primarily because so much labor had been outsourced. Emerging economies, therefore, will get hit. No place to hide. The world is in the process of going down. Civil unrest will become the biggest problem in emerging economies, and this is one of China's biggest fears. There could be 200 million unemployed Chinese, having moved from countryside into cities and fully out of work. China is NOT BLOOMING. Their market is already down 58%, which means they're signaling awareness of the problem.
Best investment over next several years will be shorting the emerging markets. It's a worldwide recession that we're in, emphasis being placed on global downturn. Three hundred point rallies never occur in bull markets, check history an you won't find it. Such rallies are the hallmark of a recession.
Scary thought
Are we safe, knowing at the helm of our federal reserve is an academic specialist on depressions? Consider the case of Robert Mugabe. Mugabe, according to Dohmen and McAlvany, has 3 PhDs and other multiple degrees, some coming from Oxford no less. I checked around the Net and did find records showing a master's degree in economics, a bachelor's degree in administration, and two law degrees — to go with the three bachelor's degrees he already possessed, in economics, education, and history and literature. Guess certificates don't necessarily mean dip. Fade 'em.
Dohmen Capital Research - excellent bookmark candidate.
Excerpt from the WELLINGTON LETTER, August 5, 2008
.....................Bridgewater Associates' recent estimate of losses from mortgage-related securities in the financial institutions is $1.6 trillion. If you look at the leverage ratios of these firms, they seem to average around 25 to 1. That means each dollar of capital supports $25 of assets. If $1.6 trillion has gone up in smoke, than we multiply that times 25, and get a reduction in lending capacity of $40 trillion.
The world's economic product (similar to a country's GDP) is around $55 trillion. So we can see that the reduction in lending capacity is 80% of what the world produces each year. However, we also have to consider how many institutions, banks or financial firms, have severely cut their lending voluntarily just to be more cautious.
And then we have Wall Street's incredible money machine, which pooled loans of all types and resold them via certificates, coming to a screeching halt. In fact, that was one of the largest contributors to worldwide liquidity creation. European banks also participated in such techniques. This involved trillions of dollars.
The result is that money will be very tough to borrow over the next many years. The bad stuff has to be liquidated first before new credit can be created. And when money creation flips from creating tens of trillions of dollars to liquidating similar amounts, you have a drastic change in liquidity. And that can only result in a serious, long-term recession, globally.
People ask me, why haven't we seen the U.S. economy plunge into a deep recession? There are several reasons...
Excerpt from the WELLINGTON LETTER, July 16, 2008.
Banks and finance firms worldwide have so far reported losses of about $410 billion in writedowns and losses. There is much more to come, but they can't do it all at once, as they have to raise new capital every time they take more writedowns. Ray Dalio, founder of the huge hedge fund, Bridgewater, estimates losses of $1.6 TRILLION. My estimate for the next 10 years is much higher.
Think of the implications: Where will these financial firms find the capital to compensate for these losses? Are there any investment firms or Sovereign Wealth funds willing to provide such capital, especially those who were too early at the end of last year, and now are sitting on multi-billion dollar losses on these investments? Bankruptcies, or "shotgun weddings," are inevitable. In fact, last year I predicted that some of the major U.S. financial institutions would eventually be controlled by foreign entities. Guess what: now legislation is being considered which would give a blessing to foreign firms wanting to own more than 25% of such institutions. The groundwork for the inevitable is being laid.
from Prelude to Meltdown (excerpt)
"While everyone on Wall Street talked about the huge amount of "liquidity," Bert pointed out that genuine liquidity is cash, and that Wall Street confused liquidity with "credit" which could disappear overnight. And that's exactly what has happened.
It's estimated that $500-700 TRILLION of derivatives are outstanding. Compare this with total economic activity (GDP) of the world, which is around $50 Trillion, and you can see that even a 5% drop in value of the derivatives is beyond the rescue capability of the world's central banks."
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