Archive - Aug 12, 2011 - Story

I am beginning to feel a bit like one of the French unfortunates stumbling through the fog in the Ardennes, circa 1914. Except that, instead of Germans full of deadly intent coming at me in the gloomy forest, it is a flock of black swans. As it was for the French in the Ardennes, the number of problems – then Germans, now black swans – is becoming overwhelming. Consider just a little of what we as investors, and as individuals looking forward to retirement in accommodations more commodious than a shipping box, must contend with...

Remember how two months ago Greece came up with a bulletized list of austerity measures it would immediately if not sooner engage in to demonstrate its responsible adult behavior, funded by over €200 billion in European and American taxpayers funds and two bailouts? Well, since then we have learned that Greek GDP has plunged below even the worst case scenarios, even as the country has missed all deficit cut targets. Today, it is Italy's turn, which however apparently was confused and presented the list of austerity before it got a Greek-style rescue. Which is bad. Because within a few weeks we expect the strike (and riot)-cam to be planted firmly in the Piazza Navona and across the streets ot the Trastevere in capturing the latest round of European indignation, oddly enough not caused by local filming of The Jersey Shore. And now that the strawman is out there, when Italy actually needs the money, which will be soon, and is found to be in compliance with precisely zero of its Reps and Warranties (or kinda like a Bank of America RMBS prospectus) it just may make defrauding the middle that much more difficult.

“Welcome to The Final Stretch, broadcasting live from beautiful Financial Park; home to the exuberant commentary. You join us now as we to go in today’s financial Gymkhana……And They’re Off!!!

There were some who speculated that the east China July 23 bullet train crash was indicative of bigger problems with China's breakneck spree to build infrastructure for the sake of building infrastructure. Sure enough, Xinhua reports that not one, not two, but 54 high speed trains have been recalled over safety concerns. What next: someone inquires into China's GDP numbers and discovers that everything is a complete and utter fabrication? Oh wait, China is the BRIC that will pull the world out of the next recession. We keep forgetting.

RANsquawk Weekly Wrap - Stocks, Bonds, FX -- 12/08/11

America's WTF (certainly not to be confused with Winning The Future) economy summarized in one easy chart.

Now that Ben Bernanke has made it clear that monetary intervention is on hold (supposedly...at least according to the FOMC minutes; what happens at Jackson Hole is not so clear), that monetary stimulus is on hiatus (if one can call a 2 year ZIRP extension and duration cut hiatus), the economic renaissance ball is deep in the court of fiscal policy. But unlike the Fed, where events by now are so finely and quantitatively nuanced courtesy of the the If=>Then logic of the Fed (no matter how troubled or failed), with the economy now in the hands of politicians, this more than anything could be a reason for everyone to really panic. That said, below is a blueprint of what Congress is "supposed" to doto not throw the economy into a tailspin, and also what it has to do to avoid a repeat of the debt ceiling fiasco once again (which as everyone knows by now buys $2.4 trillion in deficit funding in exchange for $22 billion in deficit cuts).

Another constitutional slap in the face for the constitutional scholar. Just out from Reuters: the 11th Circuit Court of "Appeals court rules that Obama's healthcare law's individual mandate to own health insurance unconstitutional." It has thus found in favor of the 26 states that challeneged a requirement that Americans should purchase health insurance. What next: Obama takes Obamacare to the Supreme Court? And just when the summer seemed like it may finally get boring for a change...

Earlier, we noted a release that the probability of what can soon be the largest US municipal bankruptcy in history, that of Jefferson County, Alabama, is 80%. On this painfully slow day (and in the aftermath of four 400+ DJIA point swings anything would be a snooze), those who wish to follow the hearing in real time can do so here courtesy of Birmingham News. While we have described the nuances in the past, the bottom line revolves around whether the proposed debtor plan which sees a 66 cents on the dollar recovery to the creditor committee led by JPM. If indeed there is only 20% chance of default avoidance, this will likely be the catalyst event that unleashes many other comparable muni Chapter 9 filings, which would now have a case study that not only it can be done, but how it should be done.

Sprott's Eric Sprott and Scott Colbourne will conduct a market outlook call at 12:30pm EDT the topic of which is "Navigating Volatile Markets." Readers who wish to participate on what promises to be a quite an informative call which discusses the best performing asset class to date among many other topics, can do so by registering here.

Markets are currently rallying in reaction to the short-sale bans enacted in Europe. Time will tell if these bans ultimately prove effective seeing as how when the US banned the short-selling of financials in 2008, they proceed to collapse over the next few months. Investors are usually correct in estimating that a trading ban is nothing more than formal confirmation that there is indeed a problem. With banks borrowing more from the ECB in recent days and less from each other, we have yet another sign that European banks are getting nervous of each other’s risk. But at least for today, equities are solidly in the green.

The entire "story" of the Bull market is stocks rests on one reed: permanently rising corporate profits. Too bad those profits are set to fall. Like everything else about the "recovery," the "rising corporate profits" story is founded on financial flim-flam, starting with the boost provided by a sinking dollar. To truly grasp the monumental scope of this smoke-and-mirrors game of "profits" rising from currency arbitrage, we have to recall that most of the big U.S. global corporations earn between 50% and 65% of their profits overseas. Since the dollar has weakened about 30% in the Fed's free-money campaign (quantitative easing), then we can guesstimate that fully 15% of all profits from global corporations is phantom: if half their profits are earned overseas, and the dollar declined 30%, then their overseas profits rose by 30%. Since that is half of all profit, then that 30% rise boosts total profits by 15%...The easy money's been made from slashing costs and dollar arbitrage; all four supports of corporate profits are at risk. With these props gone, how are corporate profits going to keep rising? If the "rising corporate profits" story dissipates, so does the Bull market.

Back in May, Zero Hedge penned "With China Forecast To Reach Wage Parity With The US In Five Years, Is A New Manufacturing Golden Age Coming To The US?" in which we predicted that rising labor costs courtesy of the Fed's ongoing exporting of inflation could easily backfire, and force large, profitable multinationals, for whom dollar weakness goes straight to the bottom line, to reorganize and pull offshore workers back to the US. It appears the theory is slowly shifting to practice. As Reuters reports, Conglomerates ranging from Emerson Electric to Honeywell International feel pressure on margins from double-digit wage increases in China. So have toymaker Mattel, fast-food chain Yum! Brands and computer maker Dell, analysts and investors say..."Input cost increases have been a steady headwind to margins for some time now," Fairchild Semiconductor International Chief Financial Officer Mark Frey said last month. "I do believe that labor inflation will continue high for quite a while," Yum CFO Rick Carucci said on the company's earnings conference call. He called commodity prices another "wild card" for the company." Curiously, China is proving far more adept at pushing labor price increases than America's sad, and largely ineffectively unionized labor force: ""A lot of the wage increase is to keep civil unrest at a minimum," said William Blair analyst Nick Heymann, who said suicides at an Apple supplier and the "Arab Spring" protests have alarmed Beijing. "These guys have watched North Africa and the Middle East with a lot of trepidation."" And as we speculated, the perverse outcome of Bernanke's policy to reward only companies at the expense of US Laborers (i.e., middle class) will soon backfire, as more and more companies end seeing their margins cut, in the process being forced to hire ever more people. "Wages are getting large enough that you start to feel the difference," said Hal Sirkin, a BCG senior partner, who said U.S. companies are looking at alternative manufacturing sites. "One of the answers is to start moving back to the U.S." And when they do, they may, just may, start hiring Americans once again.

And that my friends is the nail in the economic "recovery." August consumer sentiment was just reported at 54.9 from 63.7 in July. This is the lowest level since May 1980. The chart below shows the correlation with sentiment and the consumer component of GDP which is about 70% of the economy and why I say the "recovery" is over. In Q2 the consumer component of GDP was 0.07% from 1.46% in Q1. Based on historical correlations and today's sentiment data the Q3 consumer component will contract much further in the (2%) range. This will bleed into the fixed investment and inventory components of GDP causing further contraction.

The Fed just announced that going forward it will proceed with reverse repo series every two months. The reason? "The operations have been designed to have no material impact on the availability of reserves or on market rates. Specifically, the aggregate amount of outstanding reverse repo transactions will be very small relative to the level of excess reserves, and the transactions will be conducted at current market rates." With liquidity already being very scarce courtesy of the FDIC assessment, of Europe wreaking havoc with money markets, of repos pulling out of the market at a record pace, of O/N General Collateral trading with the same volatility as the S&P, this will surely have no impact at all on anything, just like all other centrally planned, and carefully thought through actions.