Archive - Mar 2015

The top 5% of San Francisco households (the highest 'high income' city in a recent study on income inequality) earns over 47 times the income of the bottom 20% in Detroit (the lowest 'low income' city). As WSJ reports, a recent Brookings Institution study finds Atlanta, GA has the widest gap between rich and poor in the nation (followed by San Francisco, Boston, and Miami) and Virginia Beach, CA has the least income inequality. As Brookings concludes, these findings confirm that income inequality remains a salient issue in many big cities today.

For all the talk about rate hikes, the bond market seems to be completely oblivious to any threats of an imminent start of tightening by the Fed, and in the just concluded 2 Year auction, the Treasury moments ago sold $26 billion in 2 Year paper at a high yield of 0.598%, pricing through the When Issued of 0.601% and tight of last month's 0.603%. While the yield dipped following the recent relapse of the US economy into a growth rate just above contraction, the Bid to Cover rose from 3.45% to 3.46%, perhaps driven by a jump in Direct take down, which allotted Direct dealers 18.3% of the final paper, Indirects holding 45.7% and Dealers left with just 36% of the auction, the lowest Direct takedown since October 2012.

“Right now we are at the cusp," billionaire George Soros tells Bloomberg TV in this brief clip, the chances of Greece leaving the euro area are now 50-50 and the country could go "down the drain." The 84-year-old fears that talks between Greece and 'the institutions' could "break down," adding that  "Greece is a long-festering problem that was mishandled from the beginning by all parties," concluding that the chances of Greece leaving the euro area are now 50-50 and the country could go "down the drain." Finally, Soros notes, what worries him the most is Ukraine.

Where things get really scary is not only when looking at global trade volume, which is sliding, but the actual value of trade calculated in USD. It is here that the real devastation for a world whose global reserve currency is still the USD, does the recent collapse in global trade, as a result of the soaring value of the US dollar (for all the wrong reasons) become truly apparent.

It’s time for the Japanese to get seriously scared now. Like many other countries, Japan – and its political class – creates a false image of enduring prosperity by letting its central bank increasingly buy up ever more of its sovereign bonds. It’s a total sleight of hand, there is nothing left that’s real. There’s no there there. This is of course the same as what happens in Europe. And it’s precisely because central banks buy up all these bonds, that their yields scrape the gutter. It’s a blueprint for killing off the last bit of actual functionality in an economy.

Former Fed governor who warned of overheating credit markets is headed to the hedge fund world as a consultant. 

Orwell and Kafka have come to America - a nation that once was a democracy and could once claim to live under rule of law. Wake up and smell the stench of a gilded gulag, America; we're living in one whether you care to admit it or not. Due process and rule of law have been replaced with "legalized" looting by government in America.

Greek FinMin Yanis Varoufakis has an island villa he would like to rent to you...

Banks and insolvent governments desperate for cash likely also dislike safety deposit boxes as they are a means for people to protect and grow wealth and protect themselves from bail-ins and deposit confiscation. A percentage of box holders also store cash and bullion.

Despite Markit's PMI exuberance, it appears the awesomeness did not reach Richmond. Printing at a disastrous -8, against expectations of +3, Richmond Fed is the lowest since January 2013. The last 5 months have seen the index drop at its fastest rate since Lehman.

Markit just issued the results of their Manufacturing PMI survey... and it shows everything is awesome again. Printing at 55.3 - the highest since October 2014 - it is utterly incredulous that this represents any reality as US macro data has completely collapsed in the last 2 months. Exports are down for the first time since November, but Markit is very excited, pitching deflation as good and careful to not be too sanguine about the rise for fear of sparking some Fed action...

For those curious what the biggest threat to the S&P's making new daily all time highs is, here is the explanation from Goldman: "The majority of companies just entered the buyback blackout period leading into the 1Q earnings season, and high valuations in the absence of corporate demand may weigh on stock prices."

Moments ago, a Lufthansa Germanwings Airbus A320, flight 4U9525, on a Barcelona to Dusseldorf route, was reported to have crashed in the area of Digne, in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence in southern France, an area which French president Hollande said is "very difficult to access." According to Plane Finder, the Germanwings plane, callsign D-AIPX, was a 24 year old A320 and part of the Germanwings fleet.  According to Plane Finder, the Germanwings plane, callsign D-AIPX, was a 24 year old A320 and part of the Germanwings fleet. According to initial press reports the plane had 142 passengers on board, with another 6 in the flight crew.

Following the first YoY deflation since 2009 in January, February's CPI YoY data managed to scrape its way back to unchanged (very modestly better than the 0.1% drop expected). Consumer prices rose 0.2% MoM - the most since May 2014 with gas prices up MoM for the first time since June. So what is the narrative now: if tumbling gas prices didn't get consumers to spend, rising gas costs will? Ex food and energy, prices rose 0.2% MoM (slightly hotter than the 0.1% rise expected) led by the shelter index (which increased 0.2 percent) accounting for about two-thirds of the monthly increase. The rent continues to be too damn high for most, and finally the BLS is starting to realize this.

Last December, traditionally permabullish energy trader Andy Hall shocked the world when he became the first casualty of the oil crash after Phibro, his 113 year old employer then owned by Occidental Petroleum after its sale by Citigroup, would liquidate in the US after it failed to buy a buyer. He wouldn't be the last. Overnight, Nexen Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary of China's CNOOC Ltd, reported it too would close its crude oil trading division following a round of job cuts announced last week, four market sources said on Monday.