Archive - Sep 2011 - Story

After a brief push back above Friday's lows, ES is back down to the early overnight lows (-17) just in time for the opening of Europe. Early runs on ITRX Main show +10bps at 198/200bps, XOver breaking 800bps (+35bps), and SovX +23bps to 333bps - not pretty (and worse than simply catch up to late Friday's demise). Financials continue to bear the brunt but non-financials are getting dragged out now more and more.

Let us speak in praise of flexibility, and avoid the siren songs of false precision and certitude. Let us confess that the situation globally and in Europe is unprecedented and thus intrinsically unpredictable; predictions based on the past or models plucked from the ether may prove to be not just inaccurate, but disastrously misleading to all those who put store in them. A flexible outlook avoids the temptations of zealotry, which in these times often takes the form of stating what is "impossible" (i.e. near-zero probability) and what cannot possibly happen--even if it has already happened. The only realistic prediction that can be made about the next few months is that events will be unpredictable. What we see, think and believe as near-certainties now may be undermined by events and new data. The greatest assets going forward may well prove to be flexibility, adaptability, humility and openness to low probability events suddenly transpiring despite previous estimates of their relative impossibility.

Looking at the weekly chart on Gold (vs. USD), the sell-off from two weeks ago at the rejection of $1900 was impressive not so much in how much it dropped in a single week, but on how well it recovered.  The following act in the next week was a solid weekly gain of 3.4% from an opening price of $1822 - 1864 closing towards the highs suggesting buyers were holding into the weekend and thus not taking profits.  The following week was a sell-off but very mild in nature and a third week of price rejecting off the weekly lows.  Three weeks of selling and three weeks of strong rejections off the lows clearly communicating to us anytime the shiny metal is sold off, buyers are eager to come back in.  And each time, they are doing so with more confidence because every time, they are buying at a higher price suggesting they are happy to take any dips as an opportunity to buy (or invest/hold) more gold. 

Like a Swiss watch, Goldman's Jim O'Neill, who refuses to acknowledge that decoupling between the US and the BRICs not only never existed, but was always a flawed premise to begin with, has released his latest dose of Kool-Aid, in which he bets the horse track on, you guessed it, Chinese decoupling.... Sigh. Then again what can one expect: just like Bernanke will keep trying QE until QE succeeds (it won't) or the market breaks; and just like the Krugmanites will keep pushing for an ever bigger fiscal stimulus (because the last one is never big enough, regardless of how big it is), why should one expect the latest addition to Goldman's biggest loss leader (GSAM) be any different. And what makes this particular episode not only tragic but very much comic, is that the former "Red Knight" now sees the Chinese launch of a fully convertible and floating Yuan by 2015 as the panacea to the US stock market, and Goldman bonus doldrums (because when one cuts to the chase, that's really what it's all about). Little does it bother the BRICer that the advent of a new reserve currency would have a devastating impact not only on existing risk markets, but on so-called risk free ones as well. Remember that 0.000% yield on last week's 4 week bond auction? Yeah... that would not come back. Ever. Anyway, with the upcoming week sure to provide significant tears, especially to European readers, here is at least some comic relief (yes, O'Neill does in fact "applauds" the move by the pegging move by the SNB - apparently loading up the asset side of your balance sheet with toxic paper which may or may not exist post the Greek expulsion is considered prudent when one is a Goldman partner) to start it off with.

The Maginot Line failed because it was inflexible and was largely designed to fight the last war. As Europe braces for a potential default from Greece it has to be strong, yet flexible enough to adapt to this particular situation. We learned a lot from Bear and Lehman about what can be done to contain financial panic, but not all the tools will be equally applicable here. Ironically, for all the talk about how bad it was to let Lehman fail, the U.S. banks seem in far better shape than European banks. Maybe as Europe prepares to ring fence its banks, it should remember that letting Lehman fail may be the reason US banks are in better shape now than in 2008. Citi and BAC, which required the most government support – and got it – are our weakest. Europe can use this time to reshape their banking industry and if they are willing to deal with enough short term pain, the ultimate outcome will be a banking system that can prosper and provide true long term growth opportunities for the Euro Zone – whatever that may ultimately look like.

...Down 15. It will be a very long night. We expect an emergency announcement from the G-7 before Asia opens.

A few months ago, when Zero Hedge first broke the news that the Drachma is trading at several major banks on a "when issued" basis at the client's request, it was promptly dismissed. Alas, it may be time to dismiss the dismissal, after Spiegel reports that as one of the scenarios considered for a Greek default, Germany anticipates the reintroduction of the drachma by the pathological liars at the Greek parliament. Yes: the currency that Greece was so happy to jettison 10 years ago when after the assistance of Goldman to hide its bloated debt, to much pomp and circumstance it entered the soon to be defunct Eurozone, is coming baaaaack.

The Republicans went along with the 2011 payroll tax cut of 2%. They will go along with the 3.1% payroll tax cut. You see, this is how politics works. Since the payroll tax was “temporarily” cut, whoever lets the payroll tax cut expire will be declared a tax hiker. Therefore, the “temporary” payroll tax cut will be extended indefinitely, further impoverishing future generations. Meanwhile, how many jobs did the first payroll tax cut create? How many will the extended and increased payroll tax cut create? None! Obama is using the George Bush tax rebate check method of destroying the country. Both decided to address a government spending problem by reducing revenues. This is par for the course and explains why the economy is teetering on the verge of collapse. The Obama plan consists of $225 billion to screw future generations so we can spend today. It also includes $62 billion to pay people who aren’t employed for 99 more weeks, even though Federal Reserve studies have proven that extending unemployment keeps the unemployment rate 1% higher. Paying people for almost two years while they are not employed is somehow supposed to “create” jobs. Then we have the traditional $70 billion transfer from our Chinese lenders to Timmy Geithner and then into the pockets of state government union workers across the land. Obama needs those votes in 2012. Why should states be required to adapt their budgets to reality when their sugar daddy can keep supplying the candy?

Everything you always wanted to know about the future of gold stocks and much more is now answered in this 79 page monster of a report just released by Morgan Stanley, which finally joins the crowd and goes megabullish on gold stocks, by estimating that "currently c.$1500/oz of value is accounted for in reserves in the ground – so, at a $1800-1900/oz gold price, this leaves $400-500/oz for stakeholders, of which shareholders come last (after debt servicing and tax/royalties). While this is a blunt tool, we do believe it provides a good illustration how the sector has historically discounted the spot gold price, but currently does not seem to believe that the current $1800/oz gold price will hold. Thus, we believe an opportunity exists to invest in reserves in the ground rather than bullion (ETF)." So for those who do not wish to chase bullion at record prices (although with currency collapse increasingly imminent, that is probably not a lot), here is MS' conclusion: "Broadly, on stock performance we would make the case for:  i) primarily, operating delivery; hence, which stocks look to offer value in their reserves through volume growth and cost reduction. ii) secondly, in the extremes of gold price movement, operating gearing can, but generally does not, supersede operating delivery; theoretically, higher operating gearing generally implies lower quality assets associated with difficult cost/volume control, hence our caution in looking at operating gearing in isolation from operating delivery and track record. iii) thirdly, valuation (but need to adjust for regional risk factors, by-product discount to rating, track-record and risk of delivery). Apparent valuation anomalies can rapidly be erased by big movements in the gold price or failure to deliver to operational expectations. Stocks screening favourably  on a balanced gold price outcome (and rated OW by Morgan Stanley analysts) include ABG, ABX, BVN, PMTL. While several of the growth stocks (RRS, KGC, GG) screen less well, delivery on the operating expectations would likely be positive stock drivers." Of course, as much as we like gold and its derivatives, Morgan Stanley's outright push is nothing short of an attempt to get investors to move away from physical into a stock certificate deliverable (and hence, "confiscatable") which is ultimately in the hands of the DTC: something, which, with the world on the edge of complete insolvency, we would hardly advocate.

If there is one currency which can move almost 1000 pips lower in 10 days, the EUR it is. After Chinabot gave up on supporting the broken currency, whose viability is only better to the even more doomed US Dollar, but not before an epic run to safety sends the USD into a Volkswagen-like historic short squeeze, and after Goldman openly called for QE from the ECB (and not just the EFSF monetization foreplay which now looks like it may not even pass) the currency has taken out pretty much all support levels, and at the current rate may tumble to sub 1.30 in the next 72 hours. Gold opens in less than 2 hours: the latest response to the flight from fiat should be amusing.

Two years ago we first covered the flip side of the Chinese real estate "boom" story by presenting the ghost city of Ordos. Today, on the two year anniversary of China's Keynesian miracle being exposed for the whole world to see, Al Jazeera goes back to Ordos to see if anything has changed. And while Paul Krugman may be shocked, shocked, that the Keynesian approach of building for the sake of building does not work not only in the US but pretty much everywhere, it will be no surprise to anyone, that as Al Jazeera concludes, "it's still pretty quiet, but here's the remarkable thing - the building has't stopped, somehow people are convinced that if you keep building, people will come. If not in a few years, then... eventually." And somehow we keep bashing the Fed as the only source of Einsteinian insanity, when it is the same cretins from the Princeton economics department in both the monetary and fiscal arena, who know one thing and one thing only - do whatever ultimately fails, just keep on doing it.

It is a messy situation Trichet will be handing over to Draghi on October 31st. After the unnecessary rate hike in spring, what do you do: i) Cut rates in one of the remaining 3 meetings (see table), presenting Draghi with (almost) no room left to cut? ii) Leave rates unchanged and risk being seen as a lame duck as the Euro debt crisis escalates? iii) Agree to be removed early so Draghi can announce “his” first interest rate cut?

Greece may not file for bankruptcy this weekend... But its time is coming - it is a 100% certainty. And throwing just that little more fuel into the fire is Germany's Economy Minister Philipp Roesler who in an op-ed posted in Die Welt, is once again planting the seeds for the inevitable day when that perpetual transgressor Greece (which just announced yet more tax hikes, and as a result can now shut down its economy as the tsunami of 24 hour strike will be unprecedented) is finally kicked out of the union. The question then, as now, will be: what next?