Archive - Jan 2010

We are of the view that the gold market will likely be dominated mainly by the demand side of the equation in 2010. We believe that the likely decline in investment demand for ETFs, year on year, will play a pre-eminent role as a swing factor in our supply-and-demand balance in 2010. Jewellery, industrial and dental demand will likely strengthen marginally year on year. The secondary supply of scrap will depend on the gold price but will likely remain above 50% of mine supply. Central banks will likely become net purchasers while de-hedging will reduce significantly as the major players in this arena accelerate their 2009 de-hedging activities. Our calculations show a large oversupply of around 420 tonnes in our supply-and-demand equation for 2010." - Credit Suisse

Greg Mankiw provides a useful primer on runaway inflation done right... and done Ben. Yet his warnings that inflation may be stealthily approaching, sure to risk the ire of deflationists everywhere, may be very much irrelevant: the Fed, which is entering the bottom ninth on the great failed Keynesian experiment realizes it is running out of cards. The one thing that is certain, is that no matter what the true final outcome, the Federal Reserve will certainly miss the Goldilocks landing strip by a mile. And the political and economic ramifications of the Fed's outright failure will be tremendous.

Two of UK's largest hedge funds, Bluecrest and Brevan Howard, are making or considering moves out of London to Geneva. London's mayor, Boris Johnson, is worried that thousands of the City's bankers will flee to escape higher taxes and more regulations. Will the rush to Geneva spell trouble for global regulators?

• Must read: Did foreigners cause America's financial crisis? Or what happens when all your debt and equities are belong to us (Newsweek)
• Ben Bernanke's term running out as Senate democrats try to set a vote (The Hill)
• Banks set for record pay, and you thought Goldman was bad - Morgan Stanley prepares to fork over a stunning 63.8% of revenue as compensation (WSJ)
• Dark pools may face pricing disclosure rules, EU watchdog says (Bloomberg)
• In defense of the case against HiFTers (Cassandra)
• Senate to vote on PAYGO legislation to clear way for debate over debt ceiling (The Hill)
• Dubai flare up 2.0? Abu Dhabi's Dubai aid shrinks to $5 billion (Reuters)

RANsquawk 18th January Morning Briefing - Stocks, Bonds, FX etc.

From the MSM I was getting a sense that the Census hiring might be a factor in the employment story. I don't think it adds up to a hill of beans.

An extended analysis of TIC, FMS, DTS and TreasuryDirect data confirms that while Indirect bidders (aka Foreign Investors) continue to bid up US Government securities, their interest in the short end of the curve has not only declined, but accelerated redemptions have left Indirects with a heavily weighted long bond exposure. This raises the following questions: are inflation expectations once again vastly premature, who keeps buying the short-end at record low yields, and what kind of event will be responsible for the unwind of the groupthink idea of the day: the curve steepener?

What will happen when the 26-mile long tanker convoy carrying 127 million barrels starts offloading since the oil storage trade is no longer as profitable?

I am so tired of the absolute nonsensical and foolish approach in regards to Banker Bonuses taken by both the Obama administration as well as the bankers themselves. Here's what is really going on and what should should be going on if we lived in a world that was dependent on telling the truth, prudent financial management, reduction of systemic risk, and if a cure to our banking system malady is genuinely being sought.

Again, if you’re hung-up on the markets and making money, and think we’re profiting from such little plugs, don’t click here. Read-on if you think you’re cooler than the next guy (in a James Dean kind of way), like to spend money, like cars and hope to re-kindle the magic of a true, open air roadster in the purest, more expensive sense.

While banks would be the last entities to reveal disclosure on bonuses during the current time filled with populist agita and froth (it certainly would "destabilize" the financial system if Joe Sixpack was aware that XYZ's main bond trader made $50 million simply by buying short and lending long), none other than Tim Geithner's treasury department provides a convenient way to track aggregate bonus dissemination data in the form of daily tax withholding data from the Financial Management Service. A historical analysis indicates that December and January are traditionally the high outlier months when it comes to tax withholdings, for the simple reason that these two months is when the majority of bonuses payments are disbursed, and being defined as "supplemental income" and taxed at a flat Federal rate per IRS publication 15, they provide the double whammy of increased income tax withholdings and a higher withholding rate. Zero Hedge has compiled daily data from the past three years' bonus seasons to determine whether there is any secular shift to bonus outlays, not just on Wall Street but Main Street as well (surprisingly for the Obama administration, the bulk of withholdings does not come from Wall Street). Our observations were somewhat unexpected.

1) Data Stream Waves, from Jim Sogi ~ 2) How Music 'Moves' Us: Listeners' Brains Second-Guess the Composer ~ 3) Scientists Map Brain Pathway for Vocal Learning ~ 4) New Computer Vision System for the Analysis of Human Behavior ~ 5) Neural Thermostat Keeps Brain Running Efficiently

President Obama used his bully pulpit on Thursday to chastise banks and bankers while announcing a punitive tax on them to assuage an angry populace. Is his rage valid? Should we be angry at banks for making lots of money and then paying out big bonuses?

Crude oil futures fell for five straight sessions as warmer weather in the U.S. dispelled forecasts of unusually low temperatures and allowed concerns about demand to come to the fore. The price for Nymex’s West Texas crude fell about 6% during the week, starting at nearly $83 and finishing at $78.

"An interesting article by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard came my way the other day. It’s worth a read, if for no other reason than that he paints an appropriately dark picture of the current state of the U.S. economy. You can read it here. While I very much share Mr. Evans-Pritchard’s view that the global economy is far from out of the woods, our views diverge in that he sees devastating deflation speeding our way down the tunnel. Casey Research readers of any duration know that we see devastating inflation.
While we could both be right, with deflation first and inflation later, I’m not so convinced." David Galland, Casey Report