Archive - Mar 2013

Curious how in the New Normal a nation is brought to its untimely end without a single shot being fired? Dimos Dimosthenous, who has worked at the Bank of Cyprus for over 30 years, explains:

"That will be the end. Our jobs, our rights, our welfare funds will be lost and Cyprus will be destroyed."

In short: not with a bang, but a bailout.

Barclays index of high yield bond total returns is now 63% higher that its pre-crisis peak. This compares to an equivalent total return index for the S&P 500 was only 12% (and it has yet to break the October 2007 highs). These numbers are astronomical in the face of micro- and macro-fundamentals and while equity markets remain the policy tool du jour for the central planning elite, it appears they are perhaps starting to become a little concerned that driving all the retiring boomers 'safe' money into risky bets may not end so well. Just as Alan Greenspan stepped on the throat of equity markets with his now infamous 'irrational exuberance' speech, we wonder, as Bloomberg notes, if last night's speech to the Economic Club of New York by Bill Dudley is the new normal equivalent, as he noted, "some areas of fixed income - notably high-yield and leveraged loans - do seem somewhat frothy," just as we warned here. With the high-yield index trading at 5.56% yield - the lowest in over 25 years and loans bid at 98.27 (the highest since July 2007), perhaps he is right to note, "we will need to keep a close eye on financial asset prices."

The sad truth in the USA, as we explained in great detail here, incentives to 'work' are increasingly non-existent. Thanks to a never-ending stream of benefits from the great and powerful Oz, as CNBC's Rick Santelli notes, Disability payments (of which there are 14 million people covered in the US - none of which count towards the unemployment rate) pay around $13,000 per year (versus $15,000 for minimum wage work). However, Santelli exclaims, the people on disability get healthcare; and this program costs the US $300 billion per year. Is it any wonder that only 1% of those who were on disability in Q1 2011 have left? Santelli comments, "I'm not saying there aren't people that are on disability that shouldn't be, but much of it is illnesses like back pain... it's a judgment call," adding that, "without incentives, large issues go ...totally unfixed."

It is clear now that we must have been wrong about the economy. No more proof is needed than the fact the Dow has gone up 1,500 points. Everyone knows the stock market reflects the true health of the nation – multi-millionaire Jim Cramer and his millionaire CNBC talking head cohorts tell us so. Ignore the fact that the bottom 80% only own 5% of the financial assets in this country and are not benefitted by the stock market in any way. It is time to open your eyes and arise from your stupor. Observe what is happening around you. Look closely. Does the storyline match what you see in your ever day reality? It is them versus us. Whether you call them the invisible government, ruling class, financial overlords, oligarchs, the powers that be, ruling elite, or owners; there are powerful wealthy men who call the shots in this global criminal enterprise. No amount of propaganda can cover up the physical, economic, social, and psychological descent afflicting our world. There’s a bad moon rising and trouble is on the way.

The growing debacle that is the US student loan bubble - nearly the same size and severity as the Subprime crisis at its peak- has been painfully dissected on these pages in the past, so at this point the only thing remaining is to keep track of the bubble growing exponentially in real time as it hits all time records, and eventually pops. Helping us to track the realtime growth is the latest data from Equifax, via Reuters, which confirms what everyone knows: things in student bubble land are getting worse by the minute. Much worse, because in just the first two months of 2013, banks wrote off $3 billion of student loan debt, up more than 36 percent from the year-ago period, as many graduates remain jobless, underemployed or cash-strapped in a slow U.S. economic recover.

Wealth levies and a European banking system collapsing; dismal capital goods new orders; a miss for new home sales and Richmond Fed; almost the lowest volume of the year in stocks, and Treasury bonds trading at their lowest yield since the Cyprus debacle started - a perfect recipe to try a run to all-time closing highs in the S&P 500. The previous high close (not intraday) was 1565.17 on 10/09/07 and we missed it by less than 2 points today. What has taken us to these new post-Cyprus highs, safety - Staples, Healthcare, and Utilities (up 1-3% since 3/15 Cyprus). Banks remain battered with C, GS, and MS all down 5-6%. Treasuries and corporate bonds reflected a considerably different perspective on risk-appetite to stocks today. While the USD largely flatlined, with JPY weakening, EURJPY (and WTI it seems) led stocks higher on dismal volume. Gold, silver, and copper flatlined (following the USD's lead) but the disconnect between VIX/Stocks and Bonds/Credit was extreme by the close. VIX remains 1.5 vols higher than it was when stocks were last here and the protection bid in credit markets (and low volume in stocks) suggests equity algos simply forgot that Europe opens again in 8 hours.

To anyone paying attention, reality is now painfully obvious. These bankrupt, insolvent governments have just about run out of fingers to plug the dikes. And history shows that, once this happens, governments fall back on a very limited playbook...

Events in Cyprus stem from precisely the same source as the surge in US home prices, namely monetary expansion by the Fed.  

Following Nomura's Bob Janjuah's 'wine into water... are we there yet?' note in February, the market has followed his script almost perfectly with a continued push to new highs and a small sell-off that was bought excitedly. While he remains convinced that "in terms of positioning and sentiment, we are 'not there yet'," for his 50% S&P 500 plunge; he does believe Q2 will see a 5-10% dip to 1450 as the shambolic policy responses to Cyprus and the 'cat' that #DieselBoom 'let out the bag' add to increasingly weak global growth data. While this dip will also likely be bought, the bearded bear expects the market's comeuppance to arrive late 2013.

While France's Hollande and Spain's Rajoy are double-teaming the 'unique, exceptional' nature of Cyprus, the non-template nature of the 'deal', the need for Europe-wide guarantees, and that the ESM should be used to recap banks and not depositors, none other than Dutch FinMin Dijsselbloem is at it again as he admits what many have suspected:

• *DIJSSELBLOEM SAYS LEVY ON WEALTH IS DEFENDABLE IN PRINCIPLE

and, as if responding to the desperate French and Spanish leaders:

• *DIJSSELBLOEM SAYS DEPOSIT GUARANTEE SYSTEMS ARE NATIONAL

It would appear our views are increasing appearing true - that a wealth tax is coming in much more systemic a manner than many expect currently.

There is a reason we think of youth unemployment as the 'scariest' thing in Europe as we have discussed here and here. After a few months of relative calm, it appears the youth are once again finding their hopes dashed and are protesting. As Reuters reports, thousands of students and bank workers protested in the Cypriot capital Nicosia today. "They've just gotten rid of all our dreams, everything we've worked for, everything we've achieved up until now, what our parents have achieved," is how one young protester exclaimed his feelings, as a bank worker added, "we are scared." It appears President Anastasiades comment that, "the agreement we reached is difficult but, under the circumstances, the best that we could achieve," is not reassuring an increasingly volatile people.

It would appear, all else being equal, that the algos have found a new leverage asset to save stocks. Given the uncertainty in Europe, EURUSD and EURJPY have lost their effectiveness; Treasuries won't play along due to the safety bid and Fed footprint; high-yield won't budge as fundamentals are making people nervous; and even VIX won't shift as protection is sought. So it seems, given the entire lack of any fundamental reasoning for today's move, that WTI crude is the asset of choice to ramp correlations with stocks higher. This last 3-day push is the biggest move in WTI since August of last year as it pushes back towards the year's highs (and RBOB is following suit) - not exactly boding well for the price at the pump shortly.

In this past weekend's missive we  showed, in rather excruciating detail in multiple charts, that complacency in the financial markets is at extremely elevated levels. Investors behave much the same way as individuals who addicted to gambling. When they are winning they believe that their success is based on their skill. However, when they began to lose, they keep gambling thinking the next “hand” will be the one that gets them back on track.  Eventually - they leave the table broke. It is true that bull markets are more fun than bear markets. Bull markets elicit euphoria and feelings of psychological superiority. Bear markets bring fear, panic and depression. What is interesting is that no matter how many times we continually repeat these “cycles” – as emotional human beings we always “hope” that somehow this “time will be different.” Unfortunately, it never is, and this time won’t be either.

UK's deVere advisory group reports, "more and more expats in Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece are now not unreasonably worried for their deposits in these countries," and are seeing a "surge" in the number of British expats seeking advice about moving funds out of eurozone's most troubled economies. As EUBusiness reports, "Whether the institutions like it and accept it or not, there is a real risk of a major deposit flight from these countries as people feel their accounts could be plundered next." It is hardly surprising obviously (as we noted earlier the bid in German bunds) but we fear this escalation in cash exodus from the periphery will increase the need for a broader EU capital control scheme sooner rather than later.

There are some good features of the Cyprus deal and, of course, some bad aspects. However, its repercussions for the Eurozone as a whole are exceptionally ugly and will, we submit, mark a turning point for Europe; a point at which Europe took a nasty turn toward a set of mutually disagreeable outcomes.