Archive - Dec 7, 2011 - Story

Most of human history conforms to established patterns, forming the basis of modern statistical analysis. Random walk extrapolation from any data series seems to hold up in the face of reality because the data series is extracted from the pattern itself, a sort of logical fallacy. Models constructed in this way “behave” rather well until the pattern and paradigm shifts. At that point, models should be recalibrated to the new pattern in order to maintain any kind of usefulness (or simply scrapped). This is especially true if the model failed to see the paradigm shift coming, a predictive capacity that is almost built-in since inflection points are not really points at all; they are an eventual slide into the new pattern. During the inflection “period”, models conditioned by the old pattern will increasingly look out of sync and render confusing results to their practitioners. But, due to human nature intruding into this “scientific” process, all too often these human practitioners look to rationalize and fit the wider world into their models, rather than see the paradigm shift for what it is. Combining this willful blindness with the simplifications that models have to incorporate just to function, the fact that they rarely see inflections is not at all surprising.

Proving once again that when it comes to fudging numbers, Japan (which previously was best known for changing the minimum legal radiation absorption dose on a daily basis following the Fukushima disaster, anyone remember that?) is leaps and bounds ahead of even China and the US, the Nikkei reports that the Japanese government will change the method it uses to calculate GDP, and the result will be an "increase" in the country's economic output by JPY 5-10 trillion. As a reminder, Japanese GDP is currently JPY 540 trillion, so in essence the math fudge could add about 2% to Japanese "growth." Accordingly, the main difference is inclusion of interest rate spread earned by financial institutions: we were wondering how long until blowing out CDS spreads would add to sovereign GDP. We now know. The new method will be applied to figures to be announced Friday. At least Japan has not yet adjusted its GDP pro forma for foreign currency gains vis-a-vis the dollar (there is time). And that's how things are done in a Keynesian world in which everything is now fraud, lies and relentless number fudging. Furthermore, we are 100% certain no analyst will look at the number on an apples to apples basis, and the result will be a miraculous Japanese golden age. Expect this experiment in excel spreadsheet modelling to come to a developed banana republic near you very soon.

There was a pop in risk minutes ago after a headline hit that margins on Italian bonds had been cut by CC&G. Enthusiasm will likely be muted however, upon the realization that CC&G is an Italian clearing house, is not LCH Clearnet in any of its two variants, and is tantamount to (French) Fitch upgrading France in terms of relevance, especially when considering that the bulk of Italian bonds clear elsewhere. That said, this will likely be taken by the market as a hint that LCH may go ahead and lower margins next, although with Italian bonds trading back above 6%, the case may be a problematic one. Of particular note in the CC&G announcement is that the margin for bonds between 7 and 10 years was lowered from 11.65% as of November 9, to 8.15%. As for whether this is a harbinger for more margin cuts, we will likely find out soon.

Some late-day covering as traders flattened out added a little lipstick to a pig-like day for European equities and sovereign credit as non-sovereign credit outperformed (but hides a few under-currents). Markets opened gap-up with credit notably ahead of equities - another ugly jump tighter in everything for all those option traders - but that was the best of the day as XOver (high-yield European corporate debt) and senior & subordinated financial credit tumbled all day. Main (investment grade credit in Europe) outperformed as investors sought the safety of this up-in-quality trade but most notably we suspect was the decompression trades in XOver-Main (i.e. traders positioning for a bearish spread widening between investment grade and high yield spreads). Financials ended wider, following their sovereign's very notable deterioration today, as the banks swung very notably from high to low. Liquidity measures improved but that seems very clearly driven by the Fed swap lines as opposed to improved conditions and we note that as Europe closed, ES managed to scramble back up to VWAP - and is trading a little ahead of broad risk assets.

In yet another confirmation of just who is driving policy in Europe, Handelsblatt has broken news that 3 years after Hank Paulson "forced" US banks to take cash, Germany will follow suit next, and "bailout" the German banking sector by stuffing it to the gills with cash soon to be made even more worthless courtesy of persistent and relentless devaluation as it is used for no productive purposes but merely stave off the inevitable collapse of a financial system so broken it now requires not monthly but weekly bailouts. From the German publication: "the German bank rescue fund Soffin will force ailing banks to recapitalize next year. That's at least out of the draft bill, to be released by the Handelsblatt (Thursday edition), and the Cabinet is to decide the next week. Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) is following the U.S. example: The US distressed banks were temporarily distressed during the 2008 financial crisis. The banks have since there is significantly more stable than the euro-zone in which the institutions were saved only at their own request the European Banking Eba by the banks of the euro-zone by mid-2012 its core capital to nine percent increase. Institutions that make this not your own to get guarantees from the Soffin." Simply said, because it worked (courtesy of an additional $1.6 trillion in excess reserves used fungibly by banks to plug capitalization holes) in the US, the forced bailout will work in Germany, where unlike the US, the top banks account for about 200% of German GDP. In other words, Germany is about to proceed with an implicit nationalization of its banking sector. Which means that while we thought yesterday that the German AAA-rating is the safest of all in the Eurozone, following this development we will certainly reevaluate.

Our framework centers on the idea that humanity is facing a set of predicaments quite unlike anything else in the history books. Because this time there are no borders to cross in search of safety; the entire world is involved. On a global basis, we've never experienced collective debt loads of this magnitude. Never before has an entire set of intertwined currency systems -- all debt-based money -- collectively been backed by nothing more than the hope of a larger future, and never before have this many people had to figure out how to move from more-concentrated to less-concentrated energy sources (from fossil fuels to sun- and wind-based alternatives). The convergence of exponential trends in population, energy depletion, debt accumulation, and an economic model that is hooked on growth will combine to produce quite an interesting, if not challenging and disruptive, future. The funny thing about complex systems is that they are unpredictable, and therefore preparing for what may come is a non-trivial (yet absolutely essential) task. The immediate question for most people is What should I do?  We break down the intelligent responses into three big buckets: financial, physical, and emotional. In this report, I detail the financial steps that everyone should undertake right now to manage future risks using the framework that I use to assess and understand the financial world and markets. My approach is founded as faithfully as possible on facts and data. But my views on how the markets operate are formed from personal experience, observation, and connecting a few dots that rely on opinions and sometimes beliefs. Therefore, this financial and investing framework is something that you should only accept if it works for you -- and reject if it does not.

It seems everywhere we look, talking heads are arguing that they expect a positive resolution to the EU debacle and yet market positioning does not suggest this is the case at all. Of course we have seen snap-back rallies and sell-offs but the dissonance between the seeming consensus of unbridled optimism that European policy-makers 'get it' and the market's anxiety should be very worrisome - especially for the 'money-where-your-mouth-is' crowd. Morgan Stanley put it best recently as they noted their sense that most investors assume there will be some solution found (or put another way, very few assume that the alternative - a catastrophe of disorderly banking and sovereign defaults - is a base case) but few investors seem willing now to position for that benign outcome (most evidently seen in European Sovereign debt markets currently).

Deutsche's Jim Reid, like us, is less optimistic and notes the same disconnect as he argues that at this point: "Who can honestly say they know exactly what rescue plans the EU governments are still discussing...". Investors are rightly confused and we agree with Reid that we don't think there is any chance of a quick fix to all of this. Furthermore, we fear that any belief in a reversion to pre-crisis levels of sovereign risk on the back of a solution is a pipe-dream as it is clear that risk premia are embedded now (like skews in options prices post 1987) and it is far more likely that Europe stabilizes at much wider levels - more like other leveraged regions.

The stock and bond markets are gearing up to celebrate the EU's approval this Friday of "fiscal union," the necessary surrender of sovereignty that's needed to seal the bondage of the EU's hapless citizenry to the banks and the lapdog bureaucrats slavishly devoted to their dominance. "Fiscal union" is the code-phrase for the EU nation agreeing to automatic sanctions (penalties) should their borrowing exceed what is deemed prudent. In this sense, it's little different from the 3% deficit limit that the member states agreed to via the initial treaty but conveniently ignored. The "teeth" of automatic sanctions is supposed to force nations to "tighten up" their fiscal and tax policies (including collection)--"austerity" at the fundamental economic and governmental levels. In other words, "Oops, we borrowed too much, default looms, let's paper over the insolvency by really really really promising to borrow less from now on." The mechanisms of the overborrowing--overleveraged, politically dominant banks and the euro--are left untouched. Why? For the "obvious" reasons the mechanisms of EU governance has been captured by the banks and their apparatchiks, and as a result of the quasi-religious devotion of the Eurocrats to the single currency, a catastrophically wrong-headed fantasy that they cannot give up without losing face.

Presented with little comment, except to say reality is returning as credit markets are starting to price in some disappointment. Italy 5Y is underperforming as the basis trades we mentioned yesterday are unwound and Italy 10Y has broken back over 6% as their curve remains inverted. Spanish 10Y spreads are up over 35bps today and 50bps from yesterday's tight print as Belgium and Italy follow suit. The swing in Spanish 10Y spreads, on a percentage basis, is massive, empirically, from a 4.5 standard deviation compression on Monday to a 2.5 standard deviation decompression today as today's widening in the biggest relative jump since July 11th - more small doors and large crowds?

As usual some highly pragmatic observations on the roller coaster stock market from the Fermentation Committee chairman.

More excellent independent research was released yesterday confirming gold's unique role as a diversifier and foundation asset in the portfolios of investors, especially at a time of heightened currency and investment risk. The independent research from highly respected New Frontier Advisors (NFA) confirms the importance of gold as a portfolio diversifier to investors in Europe and to investors exposed to the euro. During a period of extraordinarily serious economic uncertainty in the Eurozone, continued concerns about economic growth in the US heading into an election year, and the possibility of an economic slowdown in China, the World Gold Council (WGC) wanted to examine the relevance of gold as a strategic asset for euro-based investors to protect their portfolios and to mitigate the systemic risks being faced. The report, ‘Gold as a strategic asset for European investors’, commissioned by the World Gold Council, explores gold as a strategic asset across five sets of asset allocation studies, including four using historical data spanning 1986 to 2010, and one using the 1999 to 2010 time frame. The third party research builds on the now considerable research and academic literature showing that gold adds significant diversifying power due to its low or negative correlation with most other assets in an investment portfolio. Gold’s relevance as a strategic asset is continuing to grow. This will continue in a world facing the real risk of a global recession and even a Depression, poor investment returns, currency devaluations and wars and very high monetary and systemic risk. Put simply, when used as a foundation asset, gold has preserved wealth throughout history and again today. 

Mr President,

To overcome the current crisis, all necessary measures to stabilize the euro area as a whole will have to be taken. We are confident that we will succeed.
We are convinced that we need to reinforce the architecture of Economic and Monetary Union going beyond the indispensable measures which are urgently needed to cope with immediate crisis resolution. Those steps need to be taken now without further delay. We consider this as a matter of necessity, credibility and confidence in the future of Economic and Monetary Union.

Misquoting Shakespeare before the market open may seem like blasphemy but in a follow-up confirmation of a thesis we proposed back in July, Luxor Capital expands on the idea that something rotten is ahead for the state of Denmark. As with many of these crises, the heart of the Danish problems lie in a commercial and residential real estate boom and looming bust and with the capital/equity remaining so low in the Danish banking system (and a pitiful funding profile), it seems increasingly evident that public balance sheet support will become necessary (and perhaps not sufficient). How ironic that we pointed out, back in July, the probability that Germany will need two insolvency funds, a South-facing and now a North-facing one. Having traded in the mid 20s during H1 2011, CDS now stands at 106bps (off its September peak of 158bps) and given the interest we are seeing from hedge funds in this relatively lower cost short, we suspect this week's modest decompression will accelerate.

Yesterday we reported that the freeze in the Europe repo, asset backed paper and money markets is a broad indication that the shadow banking system - the primary conduit to broader disintermediated financial stability or in this case distress - on the continent has now locked up, which means that the three traditional bank transformations of risk, maturity and liquidity now have to be undertaken by the very non-shadow banks whose existence relies day to day on the ECB and the Fed, without any 3rd party market intermediaries (incidentally we are looking forward to tomorrow's quarterly update of the US shadow banking system and will post promptly). Today, the ECB has just confirmed our worst fears, in that the shadow situation is likely worse than expected.