Archive - Sep 25, 2012

Health Tip for Paper Money Users

Ahmadinejad may well be playing the same long game as Osama bin Laden:

We are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy.

Osama bin Laden

And they may succeed (although those who believe that war is a stimulus that can end a depression will surely disagree — as Antal Fekete has noted, Western governments may look to a new hot war in the middle east as an opportunity to exit an economic depression that they cannot control).  But for Ahmadinejad and Iran, it may come at a huge, huge cost — a long painful invasion, ending in death in the street or on the gallows. Neoconservatism — and Obama and Romney are both to lesser and greater degrees neoconservatives — is a violent utopian ideology that seeks to force the entire world — by whatever means and at any cost — to conform to American foreign policy imperatives. As America should have learned a long time ago — and as Ahmadinejad may well soon learn — needlessly pissing off violent utopian ideologues creates blowback.

Forget foreign policy debacles; never mind the gridlock and polarization that is dominating a looming 'fiscal cliff'; ignore Super-PAC-dominated propaganda - it seems the well-educated American citizen is fully cognizant of what each Presidential candidate (and his party) truly stands for. As the chart below shows, priorities on Sunday night were extremely clear...

Confused why contrary to all public lies otherwise, Spain is Greece? Here's why

• TAX RECEIPTS THROUGH AUGUST FELL 4.6% ON YR, SPAIN DATA SHOW: perhaps their tax collectors were also on strike?
• SPAIN GOVT SPENDING THROUGH AUGUST ROSE 8.9%, BUDGET DATA SHOWS: missed the austerity by just thiiiiiiis much
• SPAIN JAN-AUG CENTRAL BUDGET DEFICIT 4.77% GDP VS 3.81% YR AGO

Luckily, there is always hope that the magic money tree will bloom eventually

• SPAIN EXPECTS HIGHER TAX REVENUE IN COMING MONTHS

So, to summarize: revenues down, spending up, budget deficit naturally higher than last year. Oh, stop calculating... and just buy their bonds. The Central Planners will make sure the math is irrelevant always and forever.

Somewhat under-the-radar amid the US media's attention to housing data is the growing chaos in Europe. UBS' Art Cashin ensures we do not forget that Europe still drives the bus as he reminds us of the rise of the 'Occupy Congress' movement in Spain and the protests later today. With youth unemployment over 50%, it is sure that Rajoy will be keeping a close eye on this demonstration and other European leaders (and Greek demonstrators) will also be paying close attention. As Art says "let's hope the streets don't explode," especially given the NY Times noting that the number of 'hungry' Spaniards rose to nearly one million this year, and even previously well-to-do middle-class citizens are now dumpster-diving for food.

The NY Fed is not the only place where Hopium grows anew. Moments ago the conference board reported its September confidence print, which soared by nearly 10 points to 70.3, from 60.6 in August, and expectations of a 63.1 print: this was the highest print since February when hopes that the European LTRO may work (it didn't), and the largest beat in seven months. Ironically, the February beat was driven by 6 month forward hope as well, hope which have been dashed by today's current conditions number as the spread between hope and reality once again collapses. Naturally, the driver for today's miraculous pre-election beat: 6 month outlook soared from 71.1 to 83.7. In other words, if the present did not quite work out as had been hoped, one can just defer hope one more time - surely this time the future will certainly be different. Finally, and as was to be expected, the "confidence" when broken down by income buckets: those with $50k and more in income feel better, those with $35k and less in income feel better. Who is worse off? Why the middle class of course, or those with incomes between $35-$50k.

Investors remain convinced, it would seem, that the fiscal cliff will not happen because our great-and-good politicians in Washington know full-well that the economic repercussions will be too great. Even though Ben's foot is to the floor, he has stated that monetary policy will be unable to offset the negative economic impact of the tax hikes and spending cuts. The prospect of agreement among a deeply polarized politik and just as Goldman expects, we worry that the S&P 500 will fall sharply following the election once investors finally recognize the serious possibility that the 'fiscal-cliff-problem' will not be solved in a smooth manner. In order to clarify that thinking, Bloomberg Brief has provided 12 charts on the timelines, impact, uncertainty, and possibilities surrounding this most obvious of risk events.

As the media distorts the truth and the facts, I fight back with the Anti RDFun (Reality Distortion Field Ultimate Nullifier). Apple is outgunned in the data space, its maps product is simply the first in a long string of mishaps as it tries to transform from hardware to data, like Google.

Some time ago, before China's hard landing was virtually assured (see Iron Ore prices), there was a period when its data was a veritable cornucopia of Schrodingerian ambivalence, with various economic indicators representing either growth or contraction at the same time. It appears that the modified wave-particle duality has just shifted to the US, whose housing segment is the latest patient of wave function collapse as the July Case Shiller index printed both a beat and a miss at the same time. The Top 20 composite index beat in the NSA Year over Year price change, which was +1.2%, on expectations of +1.05%, and up from a revised 0.59. However, it missed in the sequential Top 20 Composite price change, which printed at 0.44%, below expectations and half off the June price increase of 0.91%. In fact, as the chart below shows, the July increase was now the slowest sequential increase in the past 5 months, and at this rate, the August, or September data at the latest, will show a sequential decline in prices, as the euphoria from the Rent-to-REO fades, and as the massively pent up foreclosure inventory is finally forced to come to market and drag prices far below where the currently artificially propped up market "clears" (read Foreclosure Stuffing).

"Dollars spent on entitlements dwarf those spent on discretionary items such as education, and tower over net fixed business investment, which is partially responsible for greater productivity, business expansion and rising living standards. Periods with greater investment as a share of GDP are highly correlated with both faster economic growth and rising living standards. One risk to the U.S. economy is that rising entitlement spending will require the government to borrow from the finite amount of capital held by private savers, thus squeezing out private firms that need the capital to expand businesses and increase productivity."

The final quarter of 2012 is going to prove increasingly challenging. All the issues the EU Elites were able to bury, smooth and bluster through the summer are coming back to the fore. The immediate challenges are Spain, contagion, and banks, and who knows how many sucker punches wait in the wings? It’s no wonder banks are de-leveraging by cutting lending (and accelaterating recession) instead of raising new capital. Well at least the Euro Elites understand it.. This morning we have Bank of Italy chief Visco saying “Italian Banks lowering Leverage Reduces Risk…”

Risk-averse sentiment was prevalent throughout the session, after both Spain and Italy sold bonds/T-bills, which attracted weak bidding and hence saw lower than exp. b/c. In addition to that, yields on 3m and 6m Spanish T-bills were higher, with some pointing to the fact that the Treasury has been forced to step up its T-bill issuance to meet its zero net funding target (higher supply). As a result, peripheral bond yield spreads are wider by around 9bps, with Italian bonds underperforming given the supply later on in the week. This underperformance was also evident in the equity space, where the domestic stock exchange is seen lower by over 1%, compared to DAX which is only lower by 0.4%. In the FX space, firmer USD weighed on both EUR/USD and GBP/USD, both trading in close proximity to intraday option expiry levels.

Two weeks ago we showed the human aspect of the absolute economic collapse in Greece (because depression is too light a word to describe what is happening in this globalist vassal collony) when charting Greek unemployment surging by 1% in one month to 24.4%, and which as of September is likely nearly 30%. What this means in practical tax revenue terms (if the tax collectors were actually doing their job collecting taxes, instead of striking) is that there is nobody generating any economic products and services, and thus no state revenues. Today, Kathimerini confirms this, in a report that almost a third of all business in Athens have now shuttered: "The number of shuttered shops on the capital's busiest commercial streets, Panepistimiou and Stadiou, also hit a record high in August, reaching 34.7 percent on Panepistimiou and 42 percent on Akadimias, up 14 percent in the last six months." And so the close loop continues as fewer businesses are around to hire less people, generating less state revenue, encouraging less businesses to open and so on, until the entire country collapses in a heap of worthless debt.

• China carrier a show of force as Japan tension festers (Reuters)
• Draghi Rally Lets Skeptics Dump Spain for Bunds (Bloomberg)
• China’s Central Bank Injects Record Funds to Ease Cash Crunch (Bloomberg)
• Obama warns Iran on nuclear bid, containment 'no option' (Reuters)
• When Would Bernanke’s Successor Raise Rates? (WSJ) that's easy - never
• Italy's Monti Downplays Sovereignty Risk (WSJ)
• Portugal swaps pay cuts for tax rises (FT)
• Madrid faces regional funding backlash (FT)
• Berlin Seeks to Push Back New Euro-Crisis Aid Requests (WSJ)
• Race Focuses on Foreign Policy (WSJ)
• China Speeds Up Approvals of Foreigners’ Stock Investment (Bloomberg)

Hitting the tape are leaked detailes obtained by Bloomberg detailing what the ESM will focus on as it is unleashed on the world. From Bloomberg: Europe’s permanent rescue fund will invest the core of its assets in AA or higher-rated debt issued by governments, central banks, euro-area agencies and international institutions, with the power to diversify into bank debt as it grows, its draft investment guidelines say, Bloomberg’s Brian Parkin, Rebecca Christie and James G. Neuger report. The ESM will keep at least 15% of its maximum lending volume, or EU75b out of an ultimate EU500b, in “assets of the highest creditworthiness” as per guidelines obtained by Bloomberg News. Does that mean all countries rated AA or below are ineligible? Because that pretty much invalidates Spain and Italy? Or is the draft going to be releaked with the AA revised to A, then to B then to CCC until finally the EURUSD sustains an upward move for at least 10 pips? But the funniest headline of all:

• ESM PLANS `PLAIN VANILLA' BORROWING STRATEGY TO LURE INVESTORS 

Lure is truly such a great word here. After all nobody will ever get their money back.