Archive - Feb 2014

How many times in the last few days have we been told that Turkey - or Ukraine or Venezuela or Argentina - are too small to matter? How many comparisons of Emerging Market GDP to world GDP to instill confidence that a little crisis there can't possible mean problems here. Putting aside this entirely disingenuous perspective, historical examples such as LTCM, and ignoring the massive leverage in the system, there is a simple reason why Emerging Markets matter. As Reuters reports, European banks have loaned in excess of $3 trillion to emerging markets, more than four times US lenders - especially when average NPLs for historical EM shocks is over 40%.

There are two major concerns that everyone should be concerned about that we see taking this sell-off further and faster than anyone else expects...

When the "impartial" Congressional Budget Office first attempted to predict the impact on the US labor force as a result of the administration healthcare ponzi scheme, also known affectionately as Obamacare and less affectionately by other names, it estimated that 800,000 Americans would drop out of the labor force by 2021. Moments ago it just revised that projection, admitting that it was off by the usual 100% or so: the hit to the US labor force due to Obamacare is now estimated to so0ar to 2.3 million through 2021, and furthermore the CBO just admitted that the enrollment rate will be dramatically below the White House's baseline estimates, with 2 million fewer people signing up this year than previously estimated.

UDPATE: At today's Treasury auction - 4-week bills yield 13bps, 52-week bills yield 11.5bps... 1.5bps inverted!

Whether Treasury Secretary Lew's words were meant to calm and chaosify the markets yesterday, his comments on the debt ceiling have sparked a notable sell-off in ultra-short-dated Treasury Bills. As we noted previously the 2/28 ish date appears to be the market's bogey for now with the yield more than tripling from 3bps to 11bps in the last 2 days. CDS on the USA has also risen notably in the last few days with the 5Y now trading inverted to the 1Y cost of protection once again.

The 10Y yield closed below its 200-day moving average and should test down to 2.47% in the short-term; and Citi's FX Technicals believes the Dow will test its 55-week moving average at 15,214, S&P 500 at 1,707; and Gold's consolidation/correction is over - the uptrend has resumed.

Redefining "hands on" since the second coming of the USSR.

Factory Orders dropped 1.5% in December - their biggest fall since July - but modestly beat weak expectations. This drop despite the fact that inventories of manufactured durable goods in December, up eight of the last nine months, increased $3.2 billion or 0.8 percent to $387.9 billion to the highest level since the series was first published. This is the fastest year-over-year inventory build in 6 months - and fastest month-over-month build in 15 months.

Who says the only thing bankers are good at is relying on (then blaming) S&P and Moody's research reports to justify their investments in worthless toxic subprime, then levering up beyond all known limits and putting on unbelievably risky trades in hopes of striking it rich or blowing up and getting bailed out by taxpayers. According to Bloomberg "these young bankers are trying to save the world."

The potential for transformation can be expressed in one simple phrase: it doesn't have to be this way. The structures that benefit from dominating the current system maintain their dominance by convincing us that "the way it is" is inevitable and impervious to systemic change. That is the primary mythology that generates and maintains their dominance..."Induce people all to want the same thing, hate the same things, feel the same threat, then their behavior is already captive--you have acquired your consumers or your cannon-fodder."

Unlike the other Fed presidents who are all too happy to lie in order to instill some confidence not realizing that by doing so they hurt their own credibility, non-voting member Jeffrey Lacker and president of the Richmond Fed has a different approach - telling the truth. Which is why we read his just released speech this morning with interest since once again, it contains far more truth and honesty than anything else the FOMC releases. Sure enough, it has enough fire and brimstone to put even fringe bloggers to shame.

Introducing our new CEO, Satya Nadella: http://t.co/u5IGl1N78G pic.twitter.com/akgNY5euEJ

— Microsoft (@Microsoft) February 4, 2014

In this part, we look at the question: Is gold a currency? Professor Tom Fischer answers, “Yes, gold is a currency with the symbol XAU”.

Nikkei Geisha...

While Greece may be the most corrupt nation in Europe, there appears another problematic issue for finance minister Yannis Stournaras when he discusses the way forward with his Swiss counterpart this week. As Bloomberg's Niraj Shah reports, Greece's difficulties with tax evasion are the worst in Europe. Accprding to a study from Johannes Kepler University, the size of the Greek shadow economy is a stunning 24% of GDP. One can only wonder what lesson this unintended consequence has for a US (or French) President besotted with extraction - especially as 74% cite "taxes are too high" as a reason for 'informal labor'.

There is one main reason why complacency is bad: selloffs. Because as Bank of America explains, in an environment in which there are "too few bears", and where investors are "not prepared for a downside correction", when you do finally get a sell off for whatever reason, with nobody hedged and otherwise prepared for such an outcome, the only logical continuation is piling on until one gets selling exhaustion. And in a world in which hedge fund leverage is about 500%, by the time exhaustion comes, there will be very few left standing.