Archive - May 6, 2015

The last time Mizuho's Chief Economist Steve Ricchiuto was on CNBC, we suspected he would never be invited back. However, today, he dared to unleash the truthiness of the US economy, debating 'facts' with none other than Deutsche Bank's meteoroconomist Joe Lavorgna... enjoy.

The consequences and patterns of war, whether by one nation against another or by a government against the citizenry, rarely change. However, the methods of war have evolved vastly in modern times. Wars by elites against populations are often so subtle that many people might not even recognize that they are under attack until it is too late. Any defense the American people might muster against elitist dismantling of constitutional liberties would inevitably turn to "insurgency". So using CFR member Boot’s views on counterinsurgency as a guideline, here is how the elites will most likely wage open war on those within the American population who have the will to fight back.

"China conducted trial runs for the planned launch of a yuan-denominated gold fix last month, in a sign the world's second-biggest bullion consumer was moving closer to creating a benchmark price," Reuters says, in yet another example of Beijing's rapidly expanding global influence.

A new study from Harvard economists Raj Chetty and Nathaniel Hendren seeks to quantify the financial impact of where America's children are brought up. More specifically, Chetty and Hendren measure "the percentage earnings gain from growing up in each county [in America] relative to an average place for children in low-income families." Spoiler alert: Baltimore is not a good place to spend your childhood if you are poor...

The UK General Election will be held tomorrow. The polls close at 10 pm. We should have a pretty clear picture of the overall seat count by 5 to 6 am on Friday morning. The result, as SocGen notes, is almost certain to be a hung parliament. Then the fun will really start. However, at the macro level the implications of the election may be less pronounced than many anticipate. Monetary policy has been de-politicised through the BoE’s independence, the formation of a coalition government is likely to involve convergence towards centrist positions, and a minority administration that pursues policies outside the mainstream would be unlikely to survive given its fragile parliamentary basis. In either case, the political system is unlikely to deliver radically different macroeconomic outcomes.

Having put off the decision to devalue the Vietnamese currency in March, the Dong has pressured the weaker limit (1% trading band) of the reference rate ever since. This has led to Vietnam's central bank devaluing the dong reference rate to 21,673 (from 21,458) for the 2nd time this year. This is the softest the dong has ever been relative to king dollar, pushing them deeper into the currency wars.

The good news is that there will be no 25-year recession. Nor will there be a depression that will last the rest of our lifetimes.

The bad news: It will be much worse than that.

In the eight years that the Fed has issued GDP forecasts in the prior Fall, only once, in 2010, did the actual economic performance come in the range of its expectations. A more sinister possibility is that the Fed is not really forecasting at all but cheerleading. By forecasting strong growth, the Fed may be hoping to engender optimism, with more spending and hiring hopefully to follow. Kind of like a field of dreams recovery -- if the Fed forecasts it; it will come. Based on what we have seen thus far in the year, fantasies about a 2015 recovery should be evaporating.

66% of working age people surveyed by HSBC indicated they plan to depend at least partially on an inheritance they may or may not receive to fund their retirement. Ironically, a quarter of respondents in the same survey said they planned to spend all of their money before they die, leaving the next generation to fend for itself.

As Japanese markets re-open after Golden Week, the bond market is extremely active (which in itself is unusual given its total lack of liquidity). Playing catch up to the rest of the world's igniting bond markets, 10Y JGB yields are up over 6bps (and even the 20Y is trading). The last few days have seen yields spike from 28bps to 43bps - a colossal move only seen before in May 2013 (after the initial euphoria of QQE).

"If you want to hear the details of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal the Obama administration is hoping to pass, you’ve got to be a member of Congress, and you’ve got to go to classified briefings and leave your staff and cellphone at the door. If you’re a member who wants to read the text, you’ve got to go to a room in the basement of the Capitol Visitor Center and be handed it one section at a time, watched over as you read, and forced to hand over any notes you make before leaving. And no matter what, you can’t discuss the details of what you’ve read."

As a result of constant jawboning that the PBOC may not only cut rates even more but proceed to launch QE (which it will ultimately, just not for a while), both the Shanghai Composite has been trading at multi-year highs and oil has found a bid strong enough that in the past two months it has surged by some 50% on hopes that Chinese demand will finally come back once the local economy is so weak it leaves the PBOC no other choice. However, two things suggest that the great "reflation" trade is ending.

Since 2012, there’s been an unprecedented call from foreign nations to repatriate their gold from Federal Reserve vaults in the U.S. This is an incredible development given many countries’ 71-year reliance on the Fed as a custodian for their bullion. Something huge must of happened in the last few years to prompt such action. That something may be a break in foreign gold holders’ trust in the Fed as a custodian of their precious metals.

The FBI provided "aerial support" to the Baltimore Police Department during last month's riots, The Washington Post reports. The operation, uncovered accidentally by a man sitting in his backyard and one of his Twitter followers, involved two small planes flying "precise formations" over West Baltimore over the course of three nights. Did Ohio-based Persistent Surveillance Systems provide the 'eye in the sky'?

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced the filing of a civil enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Heet Khara and Nasim Salim, residents of the United Arab Emirates.  According to the CFTC’s Complaint, Defendants engaged in unlawful disruptive trading practices known as “spoofing” in the gold and silver futures markets by placing bids and offers with the intent to cancel them before execution.